Page 54 of To the Moon
"He was outraged when he couldn't find you a few months ago," the reporter pushed back.
"All an act." I sniffled and dabbed at the corner of my eye for the cameras. "He knew where we were the entire time." It was close enough to the truth. "No more questions, please."
We waited for a whistleblower to come forward, but no one dared. If anyone knew my father had held us captive in our wolf forms for months, they let it die with him. The truth would have endangered our friends in the Chernobyl pack and risked exposing the existence of shifters.
We were happy when the rumors died down and society accepted Gunnar and me as newlyweds with gorgeous twins adopted from our surrogate, a Swiss woman named Bettina Bertholf. Auntie Bettina, as she wanted the girls to call her, happily encouraged the ruse.
In the early autumn, we returned to Switzerland for a fundraiser. Nosy European donors wanted to know more about my father's disappearance, and I wanted their money to complete the renovation and open the ski resort in the new year.
After my speech, Bettina and the children played in a corner of the room. Gunnar and I took to the dance floor. I would need to field their questions eventually, but I had more important matters to discuss with my mate.
"It's almost my birthday," I whispered in Gunnar's ear.
"We've known each other a year," he said as we swayed. "I still remember wishing you would get so drunk on your birthday, you'd be too sick for the shuttle launch."
"I bet you feel silly now." I sucked his earlobe into my mouth, and he hissed out a breath. "Wolves don't get hangovers."
"If only I'd been a wolf on my twenty-first birthday."We'd talked about his disastrous trip to the Las Vegas strip to drink and gamble. His college roommate had stolen his wallet and his car keys while he was passed out drunk. He'd ridden back to Colorado Springs with a sweet older couple who hadn't wanted him to hitchhike. If only he could remember their names. They deserved a nice vacation home to live out their retirement years in comfort.
While not quite ready to retire, Gunnar and I needed a vacation, and I knew just the place. "Want to go back to Vegas for my birthday? If anyone tries to roofie you, they'll have to answer to me and a full security detail."
"Vegas?" He frowned at me. "I hate that place."
"You have bad memories, and rightfully so. Let's make new ones."
He leaned his head against my shoulder. "Only because it's your birthday. Who will watch the girls?"
"We'll leave them with Amber and Lonnie in Hawaii until Lonnie's birthday. Then, we'll come back here before we hit up the night life in Munich. We'll stay with Bettina for the holidays, soft open the resort in January, and join the Chernobyl pack's spring run."
"You think of everything." He heaved an exasperated sigh, and then he laughed. "You really think we can replace the bad memories with good ones?"
"Have you thought about being kidnapped once since we've been here?"
"Yes. Every time I see someone in a tactical suit walk by the windows." He pointed as one walked past.
"I told them to dress up." As the new head of security for Paskal Worldwide, my family's assetsrecombined under one global entity, Lonnie had refused my request.
I was known for being a pushover with Dad's old guard. Lonnie was still working through résumés after asking everyone from the warehouses' night shifts to personal bodyguards to reapply for their jobs. I trusted him to choose the right people to keep our secrets and guard my children with their lives, but that took time. For now, he wanted a visible show of force, if anyone tried to kidnap us again.
"The girls will be safe wherever they are, now that Lonnie, Amber, and Bettina can shift to protect them." Sergei had all kinds of tricks up his sleeve, ones we needed to research in the new year.
Gunnar met my gaze. "We'll celebrate your birthday with a week in Vegas, but then we'll come right back here to help with the final renovations. No vacation in Hawaii until the resort is finished."
He drove a hard bargain, but, "Agreed." I leaned down and kissed him, not caring that we were at a formal event where some of the donors might not appreciate public displays of affection. If they were that pious, or homophobic, I didn't want their money, anyway.
It wasn't like we needed it, but I refused to liquidate any of my new assets before I knew how deep my dad's defense contracts went. So far, I hadn't found any evidence that world governments knew about shifters, but we were still sifting through encrypted folders and secret labs.
Our trip to Vegas would give my employees time to work without their new boss hovering over their shouldersand asking a million questions. Instead, I would be in an air-conditioned hotel room, relearning every inch of my mate's body.
"Amber's birth control shot works," I said as we swayed. "I'm shooting blanks."
"For how long?" Gunnar gazed up at me with glassy eyes.
"It lasted ten days, but it's safe enough to take weekly."
"If you think I'm letting you out of bed while we're in Vegas …"
"Not a chance." I dipped him low, almost knocking into another couple on the dance floor, and kissed him again.
