Page 32 (1/2)

"Telldown to look me in the eyes He nodded, satisfied hat he saw I opened my mouth "In as feords as possible," he added

Apparently, time was of the essence

"Palouy we needed to rescue Discreetly I kind of resemble her, so to leave her cover intact, I pretended to be her wearing this waitress outfit" I glared at Mustapha "That the casinos picked out," I added, to ave me a little shake to speed e and ere gonna drive off, when this group of four Weres comes up, and the leader, Van-whoht he was okay-Van tells us you sent theet me and I need to come with them, because they’ve found Warren’s body and they want me to verify that it’s really Warren"

Alcide turned his back and shook his head from side to side Mustapha looked down at the floor, his face a map of coe, and I got in the car with Van and theues because you wouldn’t have ’em That Van " And then I just didn’t want to talk about hi back to eye ht silence "He rape you?"

"Didn’t have tiet that out of the way "I don’t knohere they were taking ot me out of the car, and here I am So Thank you, Mustapha"

He bobbed his head, still involved in his own thoughts, his oorry for his friend

"Was there a woman with them, kind of quiet, about thirty?"

"Pixie haircut?"

Both the ht brown, tall woorously "Yes, that’s her! She okay?"

"Yeah She was sitting in the passenger front Who is she?"

"She’s ents?"

"Yeah, of course Her name’s Kandace Kandace Moffett"

"Can you please explain all this?" I hated to sound stupid Telepaths get used to knowing stuff, I guess

"I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version," he said, to my surprise "But come in the bathroom and wash yourself off while I fill you in Mustapha, man, I owe you"

"I know," Mustapha said "Just help me find Warren That’s all I need"

Alcide hustled ranite countertops and pure white towels, and I felt like the nastiest thing the cat had ever drug in Alcide didn’t necessarily -up, but I sure did I turned on the shower and stepped under it after shuckingWhen Alcide’s back was turned, I stepped out of the waitress outfit and let it fall to the floor of the shower I grabbed a washcloth, soaped it up, and began scrubbing Alcide resolutely kept his eyes turned away

"Start talking," I reminded hian to think about her pretty seriously," he said "The ht I should look deeper I figured out that Jannalynn was not telling s I wondered if " He shrugged "Sometimes when she was supposed to be around, she was out of touch I thoughtover the top, but when she’d tellabout it And Saured"

So he’d calledplans," at least in part to hear my reaction; of course, I’d been completely shocked

"I saw her one time when she didn’t see me She was at a bar way across town, instead of at the Hair And she ith the rogues I had turned down I knew she was planning sos at the house, talked to ’e was Kandace, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to be in a pack Didn’t like the power struggles I got to respect that, but I thought she’d be an asset"

I thought maybe he’d also liked Kandace’s assets, but that was his business

"So I called up Kandace, and I asked her toit up, she volunteered to tellon, because it troubled her"

Alcide clearly wanted ive Kandace a virtual pat on the back, so I said, "She ratified "Kandace said Jannalynn wanted to challenge ood toehold in the pack by socking away so soues was that they could co; then when she beat me, she’d let them have full benefits"

I wondered if that included health and dental, but I wasn’t going to go down a side path while he was still in a sharingup the washcloth and poured a dollop of shaan to scrub euy she didn’t know to follow Jannalynn He saw her ood reason for that"

I stopped rinsing the sha with Claude, of all people?"

"I have no idea," Alcide said

"So all we have to do is find Jannalynn and ask her a lot of questions," I said "And find Warren And hope that Claude coet Felipe and his vaet that Freyda out of here"

Alcide looked at me, wondered whether to speak, and decided on full disclosure "Is it true, Sookie? Paloed to a vampire from Oklahoet real upset, Alcide, and you just don’t want that tonight I owe Palouy, but she shouldn’t be telling vampire business around town"

"You owe her rabbed, and she calledhiet him to continue on his way and check back in later I promised him I’d keep you safe"

"So you called Mustapha? You’ve knohere he was all along?"

"No, but after I got your phone es, I called him As you’d advised, when Jannalynn wasn’t around He’d run down his last lead on Warren, and he had to talk to so"

"But it’s thanks to you that he found , too He knows those rogues He figured they’d head back to their house outside Fillmore Van does bad stuff to women, and he’d want to have some time with you before he handed you over to Jannalynn The follow-up car was his idea, too"