I stayed where I was while the two men figured it out, easing our way into the slip in sudden bursts of engine and calls to go forward or reverse. Ivy stood on the dock and watched, as did a few people readying their boats for the water. Nervous, I slunk to the lowest part of the boat to hide. The island Weres and the Weres we stole the boat from would track us down, and a big red dog was memorable. We had to start putting distance between us and our borrowed boat.

Jenks cut the engine and levered himself out, landing lightly on the wooden dock to tie off the back end. Ivy rose from her crouch where she had tied the bow. “What in Tink’s contractual hell are you doing here?” Jenks said, then glanced at the people nearby sanding the bottom of their boat. “Didn’t think we could handle it?” he added, softer.

Ivy frowned. “Nice Band-Aid, Jenks,” she said sarcastically, and he reached to touch it. “You’re big enough to bite now, mosquito, so shut up.”

“You’d have to catch me first,” he said, flushing. “Give us some credit. It was only a snag and drag.”

I would have told him to lighten up but my thoughts were spiraling around the same question. Clearly angry, Ivy nudged the rope over the edge so no one would trip on it. “Hello, Nick,” she said, running her gaze over his blanket-draped, barefoot, hunched form. “Someone rocking your boat?”

Under her disapproving eye, Nick tried to pull to his full height, cutting the motion short with a grunt. He looked awful. His beard was nasty, his hair greasy, and his smell was pungent now that the wind wasn’t pulling it away. “Hi, Ivy,” he rasped. “Piscary send you out for some fudge?”

Stiffening, she turned. My pulse quickened at the reminder of the undead vamp. She shouldn’t have been here. There was going to be a price to pay, which made me think it had to be more than her checking on Jenks and me. She could have called if that was all it was.

I made a little woof to get Jenks’s attention, but it was obvious by his sudden concern that he’d come to the same conclusion. Hands on his hips, he took a breath as if to ask, glanced at Nick, then let it out. “Hey, uh, Ivy,” he said, a whole lot nicer. “We need to get out of here.”

Ivy followed his gaze to the smear the island made on the horizon. “Are you hot?” she asked, and when he nodded, she added, “Then let’s get him in the van.”

Finally, we were moving.

“You brought the van?” Jenks hopped back into the boat, the fiberglass under my feet barely trembling. “How did you know we were here?”

“I drove around until I found your motel,” she said, eyes on me. “The town’s not that big. I’ve got Kist’s Corvette parked at the restaurant across the street from your room.”