The Vegan and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (red white and royal blue hardcover txt) 📕

Gazing back, Audry was amazed this question kept coming up. She lifted the bullet and said, “I was at one of Deacon’s ski resorts and—” She saw him pale and stopped. “You know the wolf I am talking about.”

Stewart nodded.

“Wolf?” Ewan turned with a twitch, staring.

Stewart immediately whipped around, grabbing him and pulling him back. “No. Leave her.”

“What?” Vincent looked confused.

But Ewan glared back at his friend, growling through his teeth. “You and I full well know—”

“Not. Here.” Stewart seethed through his teeth, not letting Vincent go. “Leave it alone.”

With the dirtiest look, Ewan turned his eyes from his friend and then gazed sneeringly at Audry. “So, you like wolves?”

The guy was off-his-mind angry. A different kind of manic. No wonder Kim wished he didn’t come to their events.

“She’s an animal rights activist,” Vincent said with a ‘duh’ tone of voice, stepping closer to Audry’s side in case he had to protect her. Audry felt for the clasp to her handbag in case she needed to use the tazer.

Ewan shot him a look. “A what?”

“She has a Master’s in Zoology,” Stewart explained. He then turned to Audry, “You’re an animal rescue worker, right?”

Audry nodded, relaxing a little. “Yeah. I’m raising funds so I can begin my doctorate this year.”

“You’re going to be going to Africa again?” Vincent asked, wondering demonstratively.

She shrugged. “Partly. I want to study the indigenous animals of North America and find a balance between nature and human settlements.”

“See?” Stewart hissed at Ewan. “Let it go.”

Shaking him off, Ewan stepped back. “Fine.” He stalked around them to the other side of the buffet line. Yet with a filthy look first at Stewart, he said to Audry, “But I recommend not promoting wolf conservation. The only good wolf is a dead wolf.”

Her eyes narrowed back. This guy was scum.

He walked off.

“A total nutcase,” Kim murmured.

Vincent nodded.

But Stewart shook his head as if he wanted to strangle his old friend, his eyes saying he knew Ewan’s motivations and hated them. Of course, Audry added up some of Ewan’s reasoning. Rick Deacon, who was an open wolf conservationist, had gotten in his way and prevented him from getting the woman he wanted.

They found a table.

Setting her plate down, Audry still felt rattled. She realized that she should have taken Silvia’s advice and hidden that bullet. She had to hide it now.

“If you would excuse me, I need the powder room,” Kim said, rising from her seat.

“I’ll go too,” Audry said, taking that opportunity.

Vincent and Stewart nodded, waving them off with shared murmurs about women always going to the bathroom together. But honestly, Audry had no clue where the bathrooms in the Plaza were, and she was sure Kim did.

In a slight rush, Kim led her up to the balcony and into the mezzanine foyer, passing the elevators and going to what looked like a server’s entrance. But beyond those doors were the public bathrooms. Before going in, Kim touched her arm and said, “Excuse me while I throw up.”

At first Audry thought she was joking, using it as a figure of speech, but then Kim went into a stall and did exactly that.

Audry followed her. “Are you ok?”

Wiping her mouth with toilet paper, Kim paused then turned back to the bowl for another upheaval of stomach contents. When she came up for air, Kim said, “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to worry you. But I’m pregnant.”

“Oh…” Audry was immediately relieved. However, she sat down next to Kim. “How are you feeling now?”

Kim shook her head. “Ok, I suppose. The smell of the food was…”

Audry gazed at her, as she had not seen a baby bump. “How far along are you?”

Smiling, Kim gently rested a hand on her belly. “Only a couple months. I’m barely showing.”

Nodding, Audry sighed and just sat with her.

As she sat there, she started to fiddle with the chain to her necklace to undo the clasp.

“What are you doing?” Kim asked, her eyes widening.

Shrugging, Audry said, “Taking this off.”

“Don’t take it off,” Kim said, putting a hand on hers.

Audry’s hands hesitated on the clasp, surprised. “Why? Two people today warned me that wearing this might cause me trouble.”

Kim snorted. “Ewan is trouble.”

But Audry shook her head. “Not what I meant. They said if people knew the story behind this particular bullet, it might cause me trouble. I had no idea the controversy surrounding the Deacon family’s wolf conservation was this huge.”

Sighing, Kim gazed sadly at her. “Well, I still think you shouldn’t take it off. That bullet shows that you are a strong woman, and it does prove your point. Besides, people like Ewan Steed are trash. He treats people like objects, and you should not let him bully you into silence.”

Kim’s response had taken Audry aback. She didn’t dare contradict her that Ewan Steed had not bullied her into any form of silence. She just realized that a bullet on a necklace wasn’t exactly proper jewelry to go with a Plaza hotel dinner party dress.

She left it on though.

“We’d better head back before my husband gets worried,” Kim said, rising to her feet.

Nodding, Audry rose with her. They stepped out of the bathrooms and entered the mezzanine foyer again.

Right before them, creeping down the stairs on tip-toe with two kids behind him, was Rick. He was in a suit coat and dark pants—not exactly matching, but at first glance not noticeable. But the kids were in dark pants and shirts, looking like little ninjas if Audry squinted her eyes. The young brother and sister were shushing each other while they pushed Rick ahead to go out toward the Terrace room. Kim broke into a short laugh, and all three whipped eyes on her.

The two kids flattened against the wall. Rick, however, froze there for a second, then quickly straightened up.

“Kim Stoker!” He put on a faintly sheepish smile. “Well, hello!”

Kim propped her hands on her hips. “Rick Deacon, what are you doing?”

He shrugged, then glanced back at the kids with a fleeting look of puzzled recognition on Audry. He knew he knew her, but he could not dredge up a name—it was obvious in his gray eyes. Apparently her hair and makeup was too well done. But it was also typical of him to blank at her face.

“Um,” he glanced at the two children once more. “Babysitting.”

“I’m not a baby!” the little girl who had to be in kindergarten said.

“Kid sitting?” Rick asked, meeting his little half-sister’s eyes.

“Not goats either.” The little girl laughed. She looked so cute in her mock-ninja suit.

“We’re wolf-sitting,” the little boy declared.

Rick put a hand over the boy’s mouth, shushing them. But his eyes were wild with laughter. His gaze rested on Audry again for some reason. He looked to Kim. “We’re playing Mission Impossible.” He then pointed to the party in the Terrace room. “I need to liberate some food from that buffet table.”

“Why don’t you just call room service?” Audry said, cocking her head to the side.

Turning in a stare at her, Rick’s eyes widened. He pulled back. “Audry?” So… he knew her voice at least. His eyes raked up and down her as he tried to take her in. His face colored. “Are you following me?”

Moaning, Audry shook her head. “No. My cousin Vincent needed a date for this thing. You met him this afternoon right before he begged me to come.”

“Oh…” Though he did not look convinced.

“I need to get back to my husband,” Kim said with an amused nod to them both.

“You got married?” Rick turned with a stare at her. He was smiling.

“Didn’t you get the invitation?” Kim asked, genuinely puzzled and dismayed.

Rick shook his head. “But my dad has been screening all my mail for the past few years.”

Kim stared at him, and so did Audry. “What?”

He groaned. “Long story. Anyway, who’d you marry?”

Kim smiled. “Stewart McGivens.”

“Stewart?” Rick looked both surprised and pleased. “Really?”

Kim grinned, nodding.

“Lucky stiff,” he said, laughing.

She shrugged, blushing. Kim was pleased, though.

“I’ll have to send you a belated wedding present,” Rick said, laughing more, thinking about it. He looked honestly happy for her, but more amused that she had married Stewart. Audry wondered what had transpired between him and Stewart McGivens. Stewart was had been uncomfortable when Rick had come up.

The little kids behind Rick started hissing and tugging on his suit coat, pushing him towards the Terrace room to get after the food.

“I gotta go,” he said. He then turned to Audry. “Hey, will you make sure they don’t sneak into the actual party. I think my Mom would be able to handle one of us, but not all three.”

Audry chuckled, hanging back. She nodded.

Rick lent Kim an arm and they strolled slowly down the balcony toward an entrance to the terrace. Rick scanned the room for the quickest way in and out, murmuring his thoughts out loud. Audry and his kid brother and sister could all hear him.

“…not that way… Ugh. Is that Ewan? I’ll have to avoid him.”

“You most definitely do,” Kim whispered back. “He still hates you.”

“The feeling is mutual,” Rick muttered. “He nearly killed me once, you know.”

“I don’t think he was intending to poison you—”

“Yes, he was,” Rick retorted. “He knew that cough drop had honey and garlic in it—and I couldn’t read the ingredients.”

“He took you to the hospital,” Kim said.

“No, he didn’t.” Rick growled. “His ‘butler’ did.”

“I’m not going to argue this with you.”

“Good. Help me get across the room.”

“Fine.” Kim gestured for a roundabout route. “Direct is a bad idea. We go this way.”

The boy with Audry inched toward the balcony. Audry seized his shoulder and pulled him back, hissing, “Not yet. He doesn’t want you to follow.”

“We can crawl to the balcony,” the boy said.

Crawl? In her dress. Audry gazed down on it. There was no way. It was too long. It would get destroyed. The darn thing probably cost a fortune.

But the two kids crawled away before she could stop them. Luckily, they went to the balcony and stayed below so no one could see them. Audry walked behind them and stood next to them.

“Stay down,” she hissed. She was trying hard not to laugh. They were a lot like her niece and nephew, Skyler and Maris. They played the same.

She could still hear Rick as he and Kim continued along the wall to the end of the balcony. “If my grandparents spot us, we are going directly to your table. That way we’ll lose them.”

Kim snickered, nodding.

Yet they halted behind a pillar, not going in yet. And Audry could see why. Ewan had walked in that direction and was now talking with Mr. Farnsworth whom Audry had met earlier. They seemed to be in intense discussion.

“Back…” Rick hid behind Kim so Ewan could not see him. They headed in the other direction, eyeing Audry and his two siblings as they strode past them on the balcony, pretending not to know them—though Rick shot Audry a smirking look that chastened her for being weak with the pair.

“I thought you wrangled tigers,” he whispered.

“What?” Audry mouthed. “I’m in a dress.”

“Don’t you have a tranquilizer gun?” He snickered.

“Hey!” the little boy hissed at him. He then pointed to the party and made a slit-throat gesture with his finger. “Get the food!”

“Shht!” The little girl put a finger over her mouth.

“You don’t shoot tranquilizer darts at kids!” Audry hissed after him. But she was trying not to laugh.

Rick kept snickering, clearly enjoying this. Of course he was being facetious.

As they walked further, Audry heard Kim say, “Why don’t you and she hook up? You seem to get along pretty well.”

“Audry?” Rick sounded appalled at the idea, yet he peeked back, his cheeks still colored.

“She’s a Bruchenhaus.”

“I don’t care about that.”

Audry smirked.

“Your grandparents would approve.”

“No, they wouldn’t. She and they got into an argument back