Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

respectable.
    â€œTony?” said Gabriel, obviously stunned.
    â€œI’ve been working undercover at Kennewick High right under his nose,” Tony told me. “He never even noticed. I told you most people can’t recognize me.”
    â€œI’ve never argued with that,” I said. “I think you’re a good undercover cop.”
    Tony shook his head. “Hey, Gabriel, would you give us a minute alone? I have some questions for Mercy.”
    â€œSure.” Gabriel shook his head and started off. He turned around once on his way out to the shop, as if to make sure that Tony was still sitting there.
    â€œI’ve been giving him a really hard time at school,” Tony said, once we were alone. “But he can take care of himself.”
    â€œI really do need to get home,” I told him. “What did you need?”
    He lifted up one hip and pulled a folded piece of paper out of his back pocket. “That kid you had helping you,” he said. “I’ve got some more information on him.”
    I took the paper and unfolded it. It was a grainy black-and-white picture of Mac with ‘MISSING’ written across the top in capital letters. It gave his vital statistics—he had been sixteen—but gave no more information.
    â€œAlan MacKenzie Frazier,” I read.
    â€œThey traced him here from a phone call he made to his family last week.”
    I nodded, handing the paper back and continued to lie to Tony with the truth. “He asked if he could make a long-distance call the last day he was here—a week ago today. He worked all that day, but I haven’t seen him since.”
    I’d talked to Bran about Mac. He said he’d see to it that a hiker would find Mac’s remains in the spring so that his parents wouldn’t have to wait by the phone forever. It wasn’t much, but it was the best I could do.
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    It took some scrambling and a fair bit of help, but I managed to be dressed, clean, and beautiful for dinner with Adam and Jesse. Which turned out to be dinner with just Adam because Jesse told him she wasn’t feeling well. He left her home watching a movie with Darryl and Auriele because Warren was out on a date with Kyle.
    Under the mellowing influence of good food and good music, Adam relaxed, and I discovered that underneath that overbearing, hot-tempered Alpha disguise he usually wore was a charming, overbearing, hot-tempered man. He seemed to enjoy finding out that I was as stubborn and disrespectful of authority as he’d always suspected.
    He ordered dessert without consulting me. I’d have been angrier, but it was something I could never have ordered for myself: chocolate, caramel, nuts, ice cream, real whipped cream, and cake so rich it might as well have been a brownie.
    â€œSo,” he said, as I finished the last bit, “I’m forgiven?”
    â€œYou are arrogant and overstep your bounds,” I told him, pointing my cleaned fork at him.
    â€œI try,” he said with false modesty. Then his eyesdarkened and he reached across the little table and ran his thumb over my bottom lip. He watched me as he licked the caramel from his skin.
    I thumped my hands down on the table and leaned forward. “That is not fair. I’ll eat your dessert and like it—but you can’t use sex to keep me from getting mad.”
    He laughed, one of those soft laughs that start in the belly and rise up through the chest: a relaxed, happy sort of laugh.
    To change the subject, because matters were heating up faster than I was comfortable with, I said, “So, Bran tells me that he ordered you to keep an eye out for me.”
    He stopped laughing and raised both his eyebrows. “Yes. Now ask me if I was watching you for Bran.”
    It was a trick question. I could see the amusement in his eyes. I hesitated, but decided I wanted to know anyway. “Okay, I’ll bite. Were you watching me for Bran?”
    â€œHoney,” he drawled, pulling on his Southern roots. “When a wolf watches a lamb, he’s not thinking about the lamb’s mommy.”
    I grinned. I couldn’t help it. The idea of Bran as a lamb’s mommy was too funny. “I’m not much of a lamb,” I said.
    He just smiled.
    Time to change the subject again, I thought, taking a quick sip of ice water. “Warren tells me you’ve accepted our favorite serial rapist as a permanent member of the