"Weldon, I don't think I ever want to see you trussed up like a sheep."
"I don't want you to see me trussed up like a sheep." He grinned at me. "Bad enough you've seen us all naked."
"Don't forget covered in blood. I'm not much for hunting but those ass**les had to have testicles the size of a small planet after they saw you take down that bear."
"Saw that, huh?" Weldon put his arm around me and pulled me against his side.
"Yeah. I can mist, you know."
"Yeah. Somebody told me. Somebody also told me you did what those ass**les told you just to keep the rest of us alive."
"I was prepared to do some shredding if somebody died," I said. I didn't tell him either him or Winkler. Kelvin I still didn't know about. "Did you know you were going to be thinning the herd when you started this trip?"
"Lissa, I usually do two or three confirmations a year. The most I ever had to do before was five. This time, there were more than thirty because of the attempted coup. I figured somebody would get out of line somewhere. I hope the rest will be peaceful."
"Me, too," I said.
Three days later, we were on the jet and headed for Dallas. I woke midflight; Winkler had already pulled me from the body bag and settled me into a seat on the jet. He still looked haggard after his ordeal and hadn't spoken much about it. I got the idea that he'd never been in a situation such as that, and he didn't appreciate it one bit. Kelvin had cooperated with the kidnappers completely, didn't mind talking about it and his bruises and swellings were the lightest as a result. And I still hadn't heard back from Gavin after I hung up on him. No telling how pissed he was now. I'd either be spending Christmas with Winkler or by myself.
Davis stood alongside a Winkler Security van, waiting to drive us to the house in Denton after we landed at the Dallas airport. At least the van held all the luggage. I asked to borrow a car as soon as we arrived at Winkler's home and went to do a little Christmas shopping, since I'd most likely be in Dallas for the holiday. Winkler loaned me the Cadillac so I got to drive in style. I bought Winkler a gift card for several massages. If he got one of the girls at the massage chain, he'd probably have them talked into an after-work drink or something. Davis got a gift card to a sporting goods store. His weight lifting outfit was getting a little worn; I'd washed it the last time I was there. Whitney and Sam got something from Williams-Sonoma. I hadn’t gotten them a wedding present yet so it did double duty. Then I went shopping for Franklin, Greg, Merrill and Gavin.
I went back to the store where Winkler bought my coats. They had men's styles too, so I bought two. Merrill's was a nice camel color; Gavin's was black. They'd look good in them, I knew. I had the shop wrap them for me. Greg and Franklin got nice gloves and scarves—New York is cold in the winter or so I've heard.
I called Franklin to get a mailing address for Merrill in New York; it was a post office box so I wrote that down. Somebody might have to go to a local post office for me if there wasn't another way to get things mailed. I bought packing boxes at Walmart along with tape, Christmas cards and a felt tip pen. Gavin would have to wait for his gifts since I didn't know where he was and I certainly didn't have his mailing address. Is that weird—that I was engaged to Gavin and I didn't even know where he lived? I bought jewelry for Lena, intending to mail it to the address we used in London. She'd pick that up anyway.
Winkler said he'd get the packages mailed off for me the next day; some of his crew were dropping by anyway. The bunch that Winkler brought in put up a tree for him while they were there. I woke the following night to a fir tree smell and winking lights.
* * *
"Here's what we got on Kelvin's contact at the lab," Davis handed a folder over to Winkler. "We've been tailing the woman. The others she's met up with are recorded in that folder too, along with photographs and background checks. We figure Kelvin's counterfeit medical degree came from one of those contacts; we saw her getting documents from one of them. I think we've traced most of them back to Albuquerque State University, where Tate Briggs was a student."
"Have you gotten into the school's records, yet?" Winkler flipped the folder open to read. "Looks like they were searching for something in Lissa's DNA. They ran tests on the stuff we substituted," Winkler flipped through more records inside the folder.
"We're working on the school records, now. I asked Glen to go in person; he's been in Albuquerque since noon today. Too bad the vampires didn't get information on the ones they killed in Great Britain."
"Maybe they did and didn't share," Winkler said. "In the meantime, this information stays with us. If Wlodek discovers we let them touch Lissa like that, we may not see her again."
Davis nodded. "So, it looks like Kelvin knew Tate pretty well. Possibly from college," Davis said softly as he watched Winkler go through the gathered records. "And since Kelvin is a werewolf, maybe he ran with Lester Briggs' Pack. We just don't have any records of Kelvin with Lester's bunch."
"It's an assumed name," Winkler said. "His medical degree is certainly assumed. He may have been in pre-med or the early stages of med school, but he's no doctor."
"He knew how to use that speculum," Davis muttered. "You think he's played around with that stuff before?"
"I want to kill him every time I think about it. Lissa certainly wouldn't waste any time if she knew."
"Well, Gavin would torture and then kill, if he knew," Davis said.
"Yeah. And that's why we're not handing that information over. Not only would Lissa be kept from us, but our asses could be on the line."
"Yeah. There's always that."
* * *
I spent the next couple of days emailing Charles, who agreed to get some Christmas presents parceled out to people that I didn't know how to reach otherwise. He had a generic post box address I could use. Russell's gift was the easiest; I sent him a framed print of dogs playing pool for his billiard room. Will got a print of dogs playing poker; Charles told me both Enforcers lived in the same house (in separate quarters, of course). Radomir was a little harder to buy for, but I found a pair of cufflinks—he always wore dress shirts with cufflinks, I'd noticed. Wlodek already had the painting, so I didn't do anything other than a holiday card for him. Who knew if he celebrated Christmas or not? Charles, on the other hand, was getting a computer game. It was something new that I thought he might smile over, called Evil Alien Bunny Invaders. The bunnies looked innocent until they decided to kill, and then they became huge and attacked. The game had several levels. I'd seen an icon on Charles' laptop for a popular auto theft game, so I hoped he'd like this one.