Something is on Carlo’s mind. It’s been weighing heavily on him for days. He doesn’t seem inclined to talk about it. I’m equal parts hurt that he doesn’t want to share and actually proud that he’s really trying hard to keep control of his life in any way he can.

He’s working and helping defray the cost of living with me, which indicates that whoever he was before he got mixed up with those people is the real him. It’s now shining through since he no longer has the baggage of memories all turned around by hateful assholes intent on destroying lives because of some misguided sense of entitlement.

All the guys have mentioned how quickly he’s willing to work and help and how he doesn’t try to dodge any task given to him, no matter how gross.

Let’s face it, six guys sharing a bathroom? Get real.

I hang up the phone and cross the name off the list under Varos’ appointments. No surprise there it was the guy who showed up the other day. Ronnie and Austin did a search for the name he gave and obviously no one existed by that name.

Fuckers.

Annika pushes in the shop and punches me in the arm playfully. She doesn’t slow down as she heads for the back of the shop. “Taran here?”

“Come on in, Annika,” I say cheerfully to her back as I follow her.

She waves her middle finger at me behind her head. I laugh.

“Taran!” she shouts toward his office, then drags up a chair to watch Bronaz as he works on another tattoo for Nyve. This one is a design Nyve came up with to commemorate the birth of his son.

Austin is sitting on a stool to watch, one foot resting on the baby carrier to make it rock slowly as the baby sleeps.

Maybe I’ll design a tattoo to get done when I start to have kids. My conversation with Carlo natters in my mind. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a family.

Especially if I get cool ink to show it off.

Taran comes out of the storeroom with Carlo. “You know, there is this really neat invention called a phooone,” he drones out. “You could just call before coming over to let me know you need to see me.”

She nods to Carlo as he heads to the front counter to watch it while we talk. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Annika rolls up a stool and perches on it. The heights of our stools accommodate our long legs, so her shorter stature has her feet swinging free since she can’t reach the ground.

She sees me watching her feet and she kicks out at me. “Shut it,” she teases.

“I was not going to say anything about your short legs.”

“Jerk.”

Taran leans on Nyve’s chair. “What’s up, Annika?”

Annika swivels to face him. “Just had a weird thing happen. After talking with Bronaz yesterday, I’m not really sure if it’s anything to be worried about, although leaving anything out is probably not a good idea.”

“Probably not,” Taran says.

“So, there I was, in my shop this morning when in strolls this guy. He’s completely out of place, in that ‘I’m trying not to look out of place but I am anyway’ sort of way. He’s got this lady in tow with him. They’re looking around at my art and asking me all kinds of questions about my rates, what kind of commission work I do, is that my stuff in Nosko’s gallery, how long I’ve been open, how well do I know you guys…all that jazz. Rayne and Goldie are there and the woman with this guy keeps looking over at Rayne. Looking like…really scrutinizing her, you know. Got this ‘I should know you’ look on her face. She keeps lifting her nose, like she’s sniffing or something. Rayne was really weirded out about it.”

Annika pulls her feet up to cross her legs. “Anyway, so then they start asking about if we’ve seen a guy hanging around in the area. They describe him and I’m sure it’s just a coincidence,” she says sarcastically, “that he sounds just like Carlo. This guy says that his friend has been missing class and the dean was asking about him, to make sure he’s okay.”

I lean to see Carlo peeking around the partition. He steps around and approaches us. “Me?”

“I didn’t know you were a student,” Varos says, suddenly very interested.

Carlo looks perplexed. “I didn’t know I was either.”

No, that can’t be right. “That doesn’t make any sense. When we were at your apartment I didn’t see anything that even looked like a textbook or a book bag or anything. You didn’t even have a computer.”

Taran shifts to sit down. “What has Ronnie found on that thumb drive, Varos?”

“He says it’s heavily encrypted and that he wants to proceed carefully to make sure doesn’t trigger an apocalypse code that will wipe everything out.”

Bronaz lifts an eyebrow. “That sounds unpleasant.”

Carlo lifts a hand to his head and blinks rapidly. I notice it and hold out a steadying hand. “What?”

“I…” Carlo looks behind him. Austin is there to guide him back to sit on a stool. “I just had this weird flash. Like images. That seems really familiar.” He squints, reaching through the fog to try to latch on to it. Everyone is turned to keep an eye on Carlo as he fights to remember.

Austin rubs a hand soothingly up and down Carlo’s back. “Close your eyes, Carlo, and just breathe. Don’t try to force it. Just let the image play out in your head.”

With a breath, Carlo closes his eyes and sits quietly. His brow furrows and he shakes his head roughly.

“Stop. Don’t fight it,” Austin is still rubbing Carlo’s back and talking in soft tones. “Class? Dean? College? Student?” Those were all words said or implied by Annika’s story.

“Wait,” Carlo says, his hand held out. “Sako, remember the other day, when I had that image flash and then it was gone.”

“Yeah.” Of course I remember. I teased him for days after about thinking about other guys when he was with me.

“It’s him. I see him now. He’s tall, built like a square building, right? Broad shoulders but his chest is big, too. It doesn’t taper like Sako’s to a narrow waist. It’s like, straight down, like a brick.”

Annika shoots me this wicked grin that tells me I am not going to live that one down. I roll my eyes and keep my focus on Carlo. “Anything else?”

“He’s hairy.”

Hairy?

With a sad sigh, Carlo shakes his head and opens his eyes. “Sorry guys. It’s gone.”

“No,” Austin says gently. He squeezes Carlo’s shoulder before he moves to stand next to Nyve. “That was good.”

When Carlo looks pitifully at Austin, Taran agrees. “No, it is good, Carlo. If you can keep doing that, just remembering anything and calling it up, it helps. It’ll get better.”

Nyve tilts his head. “Annika, something you said bugs me. You said the woman that came with that man, she was staring at Rayne? Like…sniffing at her?”

“Yeah, it was really weird.”

“Taran, maybe this is just spitballing in the wind here but—”

Taran nods in agreement with Nyve. “If you’re thinking wolf shifter, I’m right there with you.”

“Wolf shifter?” Varos sits back and crosses his arms. “You lost me.”

“It makes sense,” Taran says. “We know Carlo is a wolf shifter. And there is a wolf pack that works in Stell. They’re like this…de facto police force for shifters. Or regular shifters, not mythicals, since no one can agree if we exist or now. No offense, Carlo.”

Carlo holds up his hands and waves. “No offense taken. I’m sure I was one of those who didn’t believe the rumors at first.”

“So…” Taran starts to pace. We can all see his thoughts going a mile a minute as he starts to put something together. “What if this pack has put together that something weird is going on in Stell. I mean, maybe we can assume that the wolves are a part of this. We have Austin’s dad and Carlo to point to as reference on that. But would all wolves be in on it? Varos?”

“They’re normally so wound up in their own business,” Varos says, pulling out his phone to search for something, “that they usually don’t take notice of anyone outside their own pack. It stands to reason that maybe all of them aren’t in on it. I’ll see what I can find.”

“So they may be looking for you, Carlo but not to take you back to this organization. They may be looking for you for a different reason,” Taran finishes his thought. “If we can reach out to them, provided we don’t find any ties between them and this organization, we might get some more answers.”

Annika leaps to her feet and slaps Taran on the shoulder. “Since you have this under control, I have to head back to my shop and earn my property tax payment. If you find anything—”

“We’ll let you know.” Taran claps his hands together. “We may finally have a way forward.”

The group breaks up but Carlo doesn’t move from where he’s sitting. I walk up to him and kick his feet apart so I can stand between his knees. His hands limply come up to brace on my hips and I cup his chin to get him to look up at me. “Thank you for working so hard.”

The look on Carlo’s face is pure misery. “I just feel like I’m this drain on everyone.”

“Seriously? Carlo,” I stroke my thumb along his jaw, curving up to push his hair behind one ear. “You had a flash and even though it was hard for you, you didn’t back down. We all know what’s at stake with this organization, but Carlo? You have just as much, too. This is your life that we’re tearing down and you’re facing it without backing down. That takes a spine of steel. And it’s appreciated. By all of us.”

Carlo lets out a strained breath. “If you say so.”

“I do. I’m rarely wrong.”

“I think you’re wrong in this case. I need to tell you something—”

He’s cut off when a customer comes in the door. I turn and see it’s my two o’clock.

“It’ll wait.”

“No!” I laugh loudly. “You can’t leave me hanging like that!”

Carlo chuckles at my dramatics. He stands and tips on his toes to kiss me on my chin. “It’ll keep.”

Something tells me he’s hoping I’ll forget. He hasn’t been paying attention if he thinks that’s going to work on me. “Fine, keep your secret for now. I’ll get it out of you eventually.”

“Mmmhmmm. Go get your client. She looks like she’s about to pass out in fear.”

I glance over my shoulder again to see her starting to back up to the door, shaking her head. Her friends are trying to keep her from panicking. “Great,” I say with a sigh.

“Another tiny teddy bear coming up.”