“Someone really needs to work on the air conditioning in this hole,” I said, trying to ignore the part where Gasket said the words ‘father’ and ‘dinner’ in the same sentence. I knew I was going to get a talking-to over my various indiscretions over the past few days. Thinly veiled threats were Marini’s way of showing his love, after all.
“He’s not going to do anything to you.” Gasket sat beside me, the sofa dipping under his weight.
“I was just trying to help her.”
“You made it worse, you know,” Gasket said. “And for you, too.”
“You’re saying I should’ve let him hit her?”
“Harley would’ve got his eventually, but not like this,” the wolf replied.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded. “Were you—”
Annoyingly, we were interrupted before the insults began to fly.
“Betty.”
“Don’t call me Betty,” I snarled as Rick appeared like a creeper, rubbing salt into one of my many open, festering wounds.
“Go with him, girl,” Gasket said. “It’ll be worse if you don’t.”
I followed Rick in sullen silence. It was hard for me to remember this place wasn’t a democracy.
Whatever happened in that room, I was going to hold my own. I had to tell myself I was more valuable to the pack alive than dead. While I drew breath, I had a chance of escape.
I’d gotten out of worse situations. With Chaser’s help, a little voice inside me taunted. You never got out of anything yourself. Even when you turned, you still got caught and got Chaser killed. It was all your fault.
Rick opened the door to Marini’s rooms and glared at me. He was styling himself as an alpha-in-training, and it rubbed me the wrong way.
I said a little prayer and stepped inside, hoping Marini had left his pretty mother-of-pearl revolver on the coffee table where I’d last seen it…unloaded.
But I was greeted with exactly what Gasket had said my father had wanted me for. Dinner.
The table was set, and two meals were waiting—steak, vegetables, and roasted potato. How…homely.
Marini was waiting, already seated at the table, with a bored expression on his face. Leaning back in his chair, he waved me into the room, exasperated at my obvious reluctance to be in his presence.
Rick slid out the chair opposite and glared at me. Apparently, he didn’t like being designated waiter for the evening.
I sat, my gaze raking over the table, taking in the splendour of werewolf-made food and canned beer before settling on Marini.
He sat at the end of the table, stroking his beard like a slimy predator, his wicked eyes watching me, watching him. Finally, he lifted a hand and dismissed Rick, who sneered and strode from the room.
I eyed the new recruit and rolled my eyes.
“He’s green,” Marini said. No hello, no how are you doing, just straight into it.
“I’m sure he didn’t expect to be your slave when he signed up,” I replied, not skipping a beat.
My father smirked, the action letting me know my passive-aggressive insult hadn’t flown over his head.
“What do you want, Betty?” he asked, reaching for his beer. “Other than making enemies everywhere you go. Harley had a good beating coming to him, and quite frankly, it was overdue, but not from you.”
“A woman can’t beat on a man who deserves it around here? I thought the strong prevailed, Daddy.”
“Sam is Harley’s property, not yours.”
“What?”
“Pack rules. I wouldn’t expect you to understand, being human and all.” He tilted his head to the side. “So, what is it, Betty? What do you want?”
“I made it clear what I wanted the first night I came in here,” I replied, my sneer matching his. “Crystal clear.” He sipped his beer, making a horrible slurping noise that made my stomach churn. Ugh. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were brewed with the tears of his victims’ families. “After what you put me through, I deserve it.”
Marini slammed the can down. Reaching over the table, he grabbed my hand and wrenched me close. The force jolted the table, knocking over the glass of water in front of me. The liquid spread, but I hardly noticed. My gaze was locked on my father’s face with laser point accuracy.
His smile had faded, and he’d taken on a demonic look. I remembered it well enough when his fist was raised in the air, ready to fly at Mum’s face. I imagined this was the look he got when he faced his enemies.
His eyes were wide and his lips thin with anger as he twisted my wrist. Pain shot up my arm, but I wouldn’t allow him the satisfaction of seeing me squirm—or the satisfaction of forcing me to reveal myself. I let him hold me, steeling myself for the threat that was about to slap me around the face. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
“Don’t think I can’t see what you’re doing, Betty,” he said, taking manic to a whole new level. “Taking women away from deserving men, interfering with their business, making friends. If I don’t kill you, one of them will, and I didn’t go and get you for nothing.”
“You went and got me?” I asked, sneering. “You sent your token vampire to do what you should’ve done years ago. You did nothing but sit on your putrid throne and bark orders.”
“You don’t need to fight anyone’s battles, Betty,” he said, pulling me closer. “No one takes aim at you. Stay out of Harley’s way and stay out of pack business.”
“Or what? You’ll beat them up like you did Ratchet? The wolf you ordered to tattoo me?”
“Is that what he told you?”
I snorted at the blatant lie and wrenched my wrist away.
He was just humouring me. Lulling me into a false sense of security so I would feel safe. Then, once he’d won me over with his psychotic threats, he wouldn’t blink when he had to sacrifice me for his own personal gain.
I couldn’t let him know I knew what he was up to. I couldn’t let him know I was more than human. I couldn’t let him know that I knew all about the Hollow Men and their blood sacrifice. I had to play along, no matter how sick it made me feel.
“What do you want with me?” I asked, turning down the anger in my voice. “Tell me. It’s obvious you don’t want me to be part of your family. Just don’t tell me the things I’ve done to get here have been for nothing.”
Marini leaned back, his face returning to its usual passive state.
“They had me,” I went on. “The Hollow Men had me until Chaser busted in and killed them all. I could be hanging from their king’s ceiling right now. I could be dead like—”
“Shut your mouth.”
What? So now he cared about what happened to Mum? Fat chance.
“What are you going to do about them?” I asked, sticking my finger right into the open wound. “How long am I going to be locked up here?”
“As long as it takes.” He rubbed his hand over his beard and snorted. “You’re a real pain in my arse. A real pain.”
I shrugged. “I’m a Marini. It’s in my blood.”
He snorted again and picked up his beer. Looking at the food in front of me, I realised I’d lost my appetite and wondered how well it would fly if I asked to be excused.
I stood and glared at him with all the hate I could muster.
“Sit. Down,” he said, the threat clear.
I swallowed hard as my backside hit the chair.
“Being my daughter is not a one-way ticket. People earn what they have around here through blood. You haven’t earned anything, Betty.”
I glanced at the steak, which was getting colder by the second like some kind of screwed-up metaphor.
“Then what do I do?” I asked. “Just sit around and twiddle my thumbs?”
“Gasket said you showed interest in the garage. Why, I don’t know, but if you must do something, help him. What I don’t need is a vigilante getting herself beaten up or worse. If you have to take your PMS out on something, take it out there, not on Harley’s face.”
My hea
rt took flight. Gasket was respected around here. If I fell in with him and the wolves in the garage, there was a good chance for a do-over. I’d come in guns blazing and cocky as hell. Obviously, that hadn’t gone so well with the enemies I’d already made, but getting myself a gig as a mechanic’s apprentice could be something. More people looked up to Gasket than Marini, and he’d said he was trying to help me.
Maybe I could trust Gasket, even though he wasn’t telling me the entire truth. Maybe…
“Eat your dinner, Betty,” Marini ordered. “Don’t let good food go to waste.”
Smirking, I picked up my knife and fork, the passive-aggressive insult hitting home. I’d been thrown a bone, but I knew the next time I overstepped the line, I wouldn’t get off so easy. No more beating up werewolves or next time, it would be me writhing in pain on the floor, no matter how valuable I was.
Message received, loud and clear.
Chapter 10
Chaser
It’s about time, don’t you think?
Staring at the photo of Loretta I kept in my wallet, I thumbed the bent corner.
It might’ve been a hallucination compounded by the bullet to the heart and the resulting desiccation, or her ghost had visited me. There was no way of knowing for sure.
She’d been real enough but letting go was hard…and developing feelings for another woman was even harder. My humanity was a tenuous thing to begin with.
Taking Fortitude was what Sloane wanted, but I had my doubts. I admitted the impossible after what happened on the train. That I cared about her. That I was ready to move on from what had been taken from me with Loretta. I knew what we were getting ourselves into by coming back to Fortitude, but the reality was different than what I was expecting.
Being apart from her… It was tough. It was tougher admitting it, too.
The lights of Melbourne spread out before me, the skyscrapers shining so bright they dulled all but the brightest stars in the sky. Below, I could hear the music and ruckus from the yard behind the compound. The scent of grilling meat wafted up in the sweltering air, calling out to my empty stomach. I was starving, but not for human food, and certainly not enough to leave my sanctuary on the roof. No one came up here, which made it the perfect place for me to separate myself from my sentence downstairs.
Leaning back against the air-conditioning stack—which didn’t work, and Marini was too cheap to pay to get fixed—I picked up the can of beer beside me and downed a mouthful. It was warm but better than nothing when my throat burned for blood.
The roof door screeched as it opened, and I slid the photo back into my pocket.
Glancing up, I saw Gasket had found his way to my hiding spot. The old man was a fixture of level-headed composure around these parts.
The only reason he was up here was that he had something he needed to hash out with me. We weren’t the best of friends. We didn’t hang out. We didn’t chat over a beer. We didn’t anything. Whatever he had to say was about pack business, meaning Marini must have a job for me.
“How’s the desiccation?” he asked, standing over me.
“Gone,” I replied. “I’m a fast healer.”
Gasket snorted and sat beside me, leaning against the air-conditioning stack. He screwed up his face as he settled. “I’m getting too old for this shit,” he muttered, rubbing his knee.
“What do you want, Gasket?” I asked, curling my lip.
“I’m worried about Sloane.” He shook his head. “She was always Betty, and now she calls herself Sloane.”
“And why do you think I care?” The words tasted like acid, but this was the game she wanted us to play. She promised me freedom, and I promised I would watch over her. The trick was getting the old man to talk without catching on to the fact I wanted to know about Sloane’s comings and goings. If only I could compel other supernaturals.
“That girl was always like a daughter to me,” he said. “After her mother was murdered, she latched onto me for better or worse. She had no one else. Broke my heart to send her away. Now… I don’t know who she is now.”
“Couldn’t say,” I replied blandly. “Two weeks on the road with her was enough for me.”
“Two weeks in a life-and-death situation?” He raised his eyebrows, waiting to see if I would take his bait. He really should know better by now.
“It’s my job.” I held up my hand so he could see the brand. “It’s not like I had a choice.”
“You took a wooden bullet to the heart for her.”
I glared at him. “So?”
He snorted and shook his head, turning to stare out at the Melbourne skyline. What a hole.
I was sure there were good people out there, but with the way the world was these days, it was every man for himself. Even for the people who actually paid their taxes and had perfect little houses with picket fences. Loretta always wanted to live in a little seaside cottage in Devon, back in England, and I would take her past the houses by the water so she could dream her dreams, but we’d never quite got there. I didn’t know what Sloane wanted, but maybe that was a good thing. No expectations.
“She’s gone and got herself tattooed,” Gasket went on. “Went and beat up Harley, too. Broke his nose. There’s a lot of strength in her arm… I wonder why?”
My face twitched. There was no way he missed it.
“I’m going to be straight up with you, Chaser.”
“Here we go,” I drawled.
“You care about her,” he declared. “You and her… More happened out there than you’ve admitted. More than she’s let on, too.”
I snorted and downed another mouthful of beer. Gasket liked to think he was observant, but he knew nothing. I didn’t care what his relationship with Sloane was, but what was between us was not for him to know. Not when she was locked up inside the compound, surrounded by an entire pack of werewolves.
“I think you told her about her blood. I think you told her about the pack. I think you told her about the vampires.” He narrowed his eyes. “And I think you let her turn.”
My hand tightened around the beer can, the pressure crinkling the flimsy aluminium. “You think a lot of nonsense, old man.”
“You might think you’ve fooled Marini, but it’s only a matter of time before he sees right through you.”
“The man isn’t capable of love, so even if it were true, he wouldn’t be able to work it out,” I shot back.
“You used to be such a good liar,” Gasket remarked, tilting his head towards the sky. “A real manipulator. After the Hollow Men killed your wife, the only thing I thought you cared about was revenge. A century is a long time waiting.”
“Don’t you dare talk about her,” I snarled. “You don’t get to. Understand?”
He brought his chin down and stared me right in the eye. “Is that what you told Sloane?”
I ground my teeth.
“Does she feel the same way?”
I said nothing.
“Your humanity is coming back, isn’t it?”
“Will you shut the hell up?” I barked.
“For now, she reeks of vampire, but it’s only a matter of time before the entire pack smells it on her,” he went on. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Chaser. Who do you think Marini will believe if it comes down to it?”
I narrowed my eyes. I wanted to say it was me, but Gasket was childhood friends with Marini. His family had been part of the pack for generations. I was a century into the game and brought information and skills the old man didn’t have, but blood ran thicker than power. Though lately, it was hard to say with the alpha. He lusted after a lot of things that weren’t loyal to his oldest brother-in-arms.
“Flip a coin. You’d have better luck working it out,” I retorted.
“Right now, she’s downstairs having dinner with him. After a week here, he finally wants to see her.” Gasket sighed. “And it’s not to catch up on fifteen lost years, either.”
I glanced at him, my stomach feeling unsettled. It was to
o soon. Way too soon. She’d stepped over the line with Harley, even though he deserved everything she gave him and then some.
“Why did she attack Harley?” I asked. “Did he try to jump her?”
Gasket shook his head. “No. She walked in on him beating on Sam.”
I cursed under my breath. There were so many things wrong with how Harley treated Sam, but interfering was the worst thing Sloane could’ve done. No one could break a cycle of abuse that deep with one broken nose. Now she was in a room with Marini, getting one of his stock standard talking-tos. There would be no happy family reunion between those two.
“She better watch her back, then,” I muttered, crushing the empty beer can in my hand. “Harley won’t let this slide. Being Marini’s daughter won’t stop him.”
“I can’t watch over her all the time,” Gasket said. “This is where I hope I’m right, and you’re already looking out for our girl.”
“Our girl?” I snorted. I used to be so good at reading people, but this old wolf was impossible. If I misjudged, I was as good as strung up. The brand kept me from dying, so I’d suffer a long time being tortured. If he was telling the truth, then the game had turned in our favour. We couldn’t afford mistakes.
“For once in your life, drop the tough guy act, Chaser.” Gasket’s shoulders tensed, and he lowered his chin. “I wasn’t able to save her mother, but I was the one who helped her get out…and the one who stopped him from going after her.” He sighed. “Until now, anyway. Who do you think convinced him to send you?”
It was my turn to tense up. Gasket had just handed me enough information to get him a one-way ticket six feet under.
“Out there, I can’t help her…not with this,” he went on. “On her own, she was done for. They would’ve gotten to her, and I would be sitting by a grave rather than on this stinking roof with you. In here, I can do something. There is no one else.” He eyed me with a look I wasn’t sure I could explain. Did Gasket actually trust me with Sloane? The vampire slave? Stranger things had happened.
“Does she know?” I asked, tossing the beer can aside.
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