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The journey back to the resort was much slower than Alice’s breakneck drive had been, and the mood was lighter. Most of the staff packed back into the groaning van.
Alice, Graham, Breck, and Darla took the Jeep.
Graham gritted his teeth at every bump and pretended he wasn’t hurting, but Alice knew better. She let Breck drive on the way back, content to curl in the back seat next to Graham, trying not to fall into him at the tight curves.
Scarlet was standing at the entrance of the resort, arms crossed, when they pulled in at last. She was frowning, to no one’s surprise, but she refrained from quizzing them as they tumbled out of the vehicles and gave her the story in piecemeal bits and vivid, rambling description.
She frowned at a new bullet hole in the van, but to Alice’s surprise, did not scold them for damage to resort property when she could have.
“That’ll buff right out,” Travis assured her with a grin.
Graham hung back, letting the others enthusiastically tell the tale of rescue and revenge with all the details they knew, and Alice stood with him. She felt like her bear was beginning to wake in her head and thought that she’d be able to shift soon. Her bond with Graham was a whisper in the back of her head and she was desperately relieved to feel it again.
“I’ll have the Civil Guard collect the trespassers in the morning,” Scarlet said dryly as the storytelling devolved into more and more colorful accounts of heroism. “I am sure you are all hungry and tired.”
The others all tramped for the buffet and their mates and their beds, leaving Scarlet, Graham, and Alice alone in the courtyard.
“I trust you concluded your business?” Scarlet asked pointedly, not prying for details.
Graham grunted and shrugged one shoulder, then added, “It shouldn’t be a problem again.”
“I’m glad to have you back in one piece,” she said mildly, with a glance at Alice. “Please don’t let me keep you from food and rest.”
Alice handed the Jeep keys back to her self-consciously. “Thank you,” she said awkwardly. “For trusting me.”
Scarlet only smiled her cool, distant smile, and accepted them without comment.
Alice and Graham, hand in hand, walked through the courtyard and stood at the top of the resort looking down over it for a long moment.
At night, it was subdued, but no less magic, a haven of soft light in the darkness. Alice understood why Graham loved this place.
“Graham,” she started to say.
But before she could speak, he was leading her away. Not to the buffet, as her stomach was hoping, nor to the Den, where her tired muscles longed to crawl into his bed again at last.
He led her past the hotel, still in its shroud, and up the path to his garden.
Alice had suspicions about what he had in mind as he opened the gate for her, but when she expected him to kiss her and pull her into his arms, he only sat on one of the ledges, and pulled her down next to him.
“Graham,” she started again.
“I want to tell you what Scarlet is,” he said unexpectedly.
Alice felt her empty stomach clench.
“I... can’t ask you to do that,” she said mournfully. It was something she hated thinking about; every option was ugly.
“You are my mate,” he told her simply. “And I don’t want secrets from you. I... can’t stand being so close to being able to help you and not doing it.”
Alice gazed at him, alarmed and overwhelmed by the depth of what he was offering.
And she wasn’t sure she wanted to know, because knowing meant she had to decide what to do with the information.
They were quiet a long time, Alice not sure if she wanted to beg him to tell her... or beg him not to tell her.
Finally Graham raised his gaze. “Scarlet’s not a shifter.”
He paused, to let that bomb sink in, and Alice stopped him before he could continue. “She’s not a shifter? She doesn’t have a shift form?”
Graham shook his head. “She’s—”
Alice put a finger up firmly. “Don’t tell me,” she said firmly. “I don’t want to know.”
Graham blinked. “But...”
“I don’t give a damn what Scarlet actually is.”
“You could save your brother, your parents...”
“The guy with the business card? He didn’t ask me what she was. He asked me what her shifted form was. If she doesn’t have one... that’s his answer. And it’s an answer I feel just fine giving him. I’m not giving away Scarlet’s real secrets, and I’m not asking them from you. I can give him the truth, and it doesn’t... it doesn’t feel like betraying Scarlet.”
“He going to accept that answer?” he asked suspiciously.
“I don’t know,” Alice said merrily. “Let’s find out! You have a phone in those gold lamé shorts somewhere? I still have his business card.” Cyrus’ men had frisked her, but hadn’t seen any significance to the card and it had been returned to her pocket. She had memorized the number anyway.
Graham groaned. “Cyrus probably got it. I bet the cost of that comes out of my bonus.”
“When was the last time you got a bonus anyway?” Alice scoffed.
They walked down to Alice’s cottage to find her phone and disconnect it from the charging cable.
“What time is it there?” Graham thought to ask her before she dialed. It was still dark out, but dawn was starting to color the horizon.
“I don’t know what time zone he’s in,” Alice said frankly. “And frankly, it serves him right to get a call in the middle of the night for being all scary and mysterious.”
They sat together on the colorful tropical quilt on her bed, fingers twined, while the call rang through.
This was it, Alice thought. This was her brother’s care and her parent’s house and her mate’s trust, all on the line with a stranger that she didn’t know the first thing about. She thought about Jenny’s ledger, creeping ever so slowly towards an impossible finish line, and what the money left over could mean to that.
She turned the card over in her hands. N. Padrikanth Moore was the most absurd name she’d ever heard, and she now counted a man named Wrench among her friends.
He picked up on the third ring. “Moore,” he said simply, sounding cross but not at all asleep.
“Alice Anders,” she said firmly. “You owe me fifty million dollars.”
She was expecting to surprise him, but could not tell if she actually had. “You found out what Scarlet’s shift form is,” he said approvingly.
“Yup,” Alice said.
There was a moment of silence. “And...?” the man prompted.
“And you owe me fifty million dollars,” Alice said firmly. “I’m sure you know my bank account numbers and probably my passwords.”
“What kind of shifter is she?”
“If I tell you, are you going to actually pay me?”
Alice couldn’t miss the rich humor in his answer and she thought that was a good sign. “If you tell me the shift form of Scarlet Stanson, I will wire you fifty million dollars this very day.”
“She doesn’t have one.”
Graham’s hand squeezed hers and there was silence on the line.
“What is she?” he finally asked.
“Noooooope,” Alice drawled. “That wasn’t what you asked. I was sent to find out her shift form. I did that. It’s not my fault the answer is ‘nothing.’”
There was another silence long enough that Alice actually checked the connection.
She exchanged an anxious look with Graham.
N. Padrikanth Moore began to laugh.
Alice chuckled nervously, but wasn’t actually relieved until he stopped laughing and, to her shock, said, “Very well, Alice Anders. You have technically kept your end of the bargain and I will keep mine. What do you want for the remainder of the information I’m seeking?”
“Don’t have it, don’t want it, won’t do it,” Alice blurted. “There’s no price you can offer me.”
“Everything has a price,” the mysterious Mr. Moore insisted.
Alice looked at Graham, at the relief she felt mirrored in his face. “I think you’re wrong,” she said thoughtfully.
Graham slowly smiled and Alice felt her world fall into all the right places.
“It’s been a pleasure doing business, Mr. Moore, I look forward to seeing your payment,” she said, over whatever the man was trying to say. She hung up the phone and tossed it back onto the bedside table.
Graham’s smile was like sunlight and strawberries.
“You want to make love to a millionaire?” Alice asked.