I smiled. “Want to tell me what your plan is here?”
“I think you’ve figured it out,” he said with a little wink. Then he got out of the SUV and came around to open my door for me, offering his hand with a courtly flourish that made me giggle. He led me up the stairs and waited for me to change.
In the apartment’s bathroom, I pulled everything out of the bag. Maggie’s gown was a one-shoulder, lightly boned bodice dress with a flowy chiffon skirt. I didn’t know where she would’ve worn it, maybe a dance a long time ago because it had a hint of dry cleaner smell and the faintest edge of cedar closet. On me, it was a little loose and I wished I had Cinderella’s mouse with the needle and thread, or at least a safety pin or two. But I had to admit the color was perfect—it made the blue of my eyes edge toward teal, like a glacier-fed lake.
I twisted my dark brown hair into a bun and secured it with a hair band from my purse. I pinched my cheeks as I gazed at myself in the mirror, wishing I’d brought more makeup in my bag.
“Okay, here I come,” I said, shyly opening the door.
Morgan let out a low whistle, his gaze drifting from my face to my bare shoulder, to the cinch of the bodice waist. “You look positively regal.” He ran a hand through his longish hair, then tightened the green bow tie he’d added to his button-down shirt. The corners of his mouth lifted. His smile seemed to say he hoped I thought he looked all right. And of course I did. I stepped forward and kissed him, feeling so warm and loved at the moment.
“Shall we?” he asked, holding out his elbow and walking me back downstairs. I thought we were returning to the Subaru, but he led me to Maggie’s door and produced a key.
“Wait—what?”
The door swung open, and I caught the scent of a hot skillet and sizzling meat. Dinner seemed to be in the works, somehow. In the quaint dining room, a linen-covered table was set for two with white china. A dish of cheese and crackers sat next to a bottle of sparkling water chilling in a silver holder.
“What is all this?” I said, squeezing Morgan’s hand. “Does Maggie know you’ve invaded her house?”
“Yes. She’s my co-conspirator. Had to ensure you were fed a proper dinner before your dance,” he said. “Let me check on the chef.”
I followed Morgan into the kitchen. There, Fawn placed a cast iron pan of seared steaks into the oven. She looked up with a guilty look on her face, like she’d been caught. “Shoot! You’re back too soon,” she called to Morgan.
“You see, I hired the best caterer in town,” he explained as Fawn curtsied.
“What about the game? Shouldn’t you be cheering?” I gaped at her, my heart swelling with pride. I couldn’t believe Fawn would sacrifice her fun for mine.
“This is your night. There’ll be other homecoming games for me.” She gestured at me with the spatula. “You know, you really do look gorgeous. When I saw this in Maggie’s closet, I knew the green was perfect.” The image of her digging through Maggie’s closet made me laugh. Finally, Fawn using her superpower of having no boundaries for good.
I wiped away happy tears. “You’re amazing.”
“You’re welcome,” Fawn said, setting down her spatula and then giving me a hug. “And you can thank Maggie for the ingredients,” she added. “Morgan, salad’s in the fridge. The twice-baked potatoes and meat need about five more minutes. I’ve got to get home and change.” She took off her apron and gave us a wave.
When she’d gone, I shook my head at Morgan. “You didn’t have to do this.”
“On the contrary, I did. And, incidentally, I wasn’t the only one who thought so.”
“Maggie, Fawn, and Rose…”
He nodded. “And your father. He knows you’ll be out late tonight.” Morgan escorted me into the dining room.
“Wait, Dad?” I hardly knew what to say. “Are you sure he’s okay with this?”
“He is. I promise.”
I lowered myself into a chair, still so surprised. Maybe Dad had really listened to me the other night. Maybe he finally understood how much Morgan meant to me. How much I was going to miss him when he left town.
“Oh, I almost forgot.” Morgan returned to the kitchen and brought me a small homemade corsage. “Courtesy of Rose,” he said, sliding it on my left wrist.
I held it up, loving the baby’s breath and white sweetheart roses.
Morgan kissed my bare shoulder and then scooted my chair in closer to the table. Then he poured two glasses of sparkling water and handed one to me. “Regardless of the past between our families, we belong together. Even your father can’t ignore that.” He lifted his glass in a kind of toast.
“Thank you so much for all of this,” I said, returning the toast and taking a sip. “So you’re okay with going to a dumb high school dance?”
“It’s not dumb.” His gaze was warm, intense as he smiled. “I wouldn’t miss the chance to walk into any room with you on my arm.”
***
Hours later, Morgan pulled up in front of our house. I was still on a high from being with him at the dance. He’d met my friends and they’d loved him. We’d twirled under the lights, and with the exception of being the most handsome guy in the room, Morgan fit right in. He hadn’t made me feel like it was silly to have him there in our cafeteria awkwardly swaying to radio hits and slow ballads. It was almost like he was a regular boyfriend—a guy I dated from school, not a werewolf from the other side of the world. And that I was no different from any other girl there, instead of the supernatural being I was. Normal. It’d felt normal. The first time in weeks I’d felt like that.
“Thanks,” I said, accepting a kiss from him after he helped me out of the SUV. “That was magical.”
“My pleasure.” Morgan’s hint of a brogue rippled through the syllables.
As we walked down the sidewalk, I heard the noise of wheels scraping on the pavement behind us. Alex Bowman. He hadn’t been at the dance. Kicking his board to his hands, he paused in front of our gate. He was dressed in regular street clothes—a hoodie, jeans, a rain jacket. “I don’t want any trouble,” he said, an uneasy smile on his lips.
“Then you shouldn’t be here.” Morgan stepped protectively in front of me.
“I know.” Alex slipped his hand into his jacket pocket. “But I have something for you. Actually, it’s for Rose.”
I moved around Morgan and saw Alex was holding a plastic box. I took it from him and held it up to the streetlight. Inside was a corsage. My heart melted. “Oh, man. Rose is going to cry when she sees that.”
“I don’t want her to cry,” he said, his voice low, serious. “I want her to smile. I mean, I should’ve been her homecoming date. I would’ve been…”
“If we weren’t vermin,” Morgan supplied.
Alex crossed his arms. “Lily, that’s not what I think about your family. You were my only friend in town. Do you have any idea how lame it is here with nobody to hang out with?” His tone grew more intense. “Rose is the only girl I’ve ever really liked. It seemed like she might be into me, too.”
“Alex—”
“Don’t tell me she’s different. I don’t care. I’m different, too. From everyone in this lame town.” He glanced up at the second-floor windows. I turned to follow his gaze and saw movement, someone in the window in the upstairs hall. The curtain dropped back into place.
“You know it’s not the same,” I said in a quiet voice as I turned back to Alex.
Morgan stepped forward and put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “You should go, mate.”
Alex shrugged off his grasp. “I’m not supposed to have anything to do with you guys. My dad’s made that clear. But it doesn’t stop how I feel about Rose.” Alex’s eyes were fierce.
“Calm down. I’ll give the corsage to her.”
Alex gave me a grateful nod and then rode off into the dark.
“He’s dangerous,” Morgan said, taking my hand.
My sequins glittered as we moved up the walkway. My feet wobbled a little, the worn boar
ds slick under my heels as I climbed the steps. “Alex is a good guy. He definitely wouldn’t hurt Rose, or any of us.”
Morgan paused at the door. “His love for her might cause him to do something careless. He could be an unwitting accomplice to the hunters, even if he’s not one himself.”
I held the corsage box to my nose. The rose scent was light, sweet. Morgan took it from me and opened it, turning the flowers over and looking at them under the porch light. “It looks innocuous. No obvious listening devices or anything.”
I frowned. “Seriously?”
“In London, we sweep our offices regularly for bugs and cameras. You never know.”
“Alex wouldn’t do that.”
“But his father might. Learn your plans for a nightly run. Lay in wait to ambush you. That’s why you need to be on guard.”
“Maybe we have to do something about the hunter before he does something about us,” I replied. “Maybe that’s the only thing we can do.”
Morgan glanced back toward the street. “I’ll make sure Alex is heading home right now. Try not to think about the hunters. You can’t live in fear. Not every moment, anyway.”
***
After we said good night, I went inside and shut the door, still feeling the sensation of Morgan’s lips on mine. The house was quiet. Fawn wasn’t back from the dance with Lewis. I put Rose’s corsage on a table in the hall and hung up my coat.
“Lily?” Dad called from the living room where he was waiting up.
“Yeah, it’s me.” I found him on the couch, a pile of papers spread out in front of him on the coffee table. A half-filled bowl of popcorn rested nearby, probably Rose’s. Dad grabbed the remote and switched off the car chase scene that was playing on the TV.
Still in his uniform, he didn’t seem like he’d had any chance to relax that evening. He was holding his still-healing arm close to his body. “Don’t you look nice,” he said, looking up with a smile. “I like the sequins. Did you have fun?”
I took a seat in the armchair. “We had the best time. Thanks for letting me go.”
“Morgan made a good case,” he said, a smile flitting across his lips. “As did you the other night.” He scratched at scruffy cheek. “I’ve been thinking about Mrs. Gillingham and that phone. I pulled the complete file on Ivan’s case, just to review it so you’d have some peace of mind.”
I leaned forward, clapping my hands together. “You did?”
“The medical examiner does mention some internal damage consistent with an impact. If what your sources are saying is true, that there were some visitors at the compound…a hit-and-run or some other trauma does seem like a possibility. Maybe Ivan ran from the house and was hit on the road before he made it to the woods.”
“Or before he was dumped in the woods,” I said. “He was found miles from his house, right? That’s why they originally thought it might be you. We didn’t even know Ivan was missing for a couple of days.” I slipped off my high heels and drew my feet up underneath my legs.
“So if he was found in the woods, why was his phone back at the house?” Dad said.
“That bothered me too. The last text he supposedly sent was strange, right? All abbreviated like normal people, not like Ivan’s other awkward texts. Someone else wrote it.”
“So the murderer kills Ivan at an unknown location, dumps him in the woods, returns his phone to the house and texts Mrs. Gillingham, then busts up the house,” Dad said, scratching at his sideburns. “Screwing up the timeline. Making it seem like he’d been attacked at home and dragged out to the woods.”
“So who would benefit from Ivan’s death? I mean, that’s what we should look at, right, follow the money? That’s what all the investigative journalists say to do.”
Dad gave me a side-eyed glanced, as if to say this was his turf, not mine. “Cooper inherited the homestead. He’s got an estranged sister who was left a tiny sum of money. There were some real estate holdings on Main Street that I’m following up on… Let’s see, the hunters benefit from us not having a Protector, though we’re not sure if they knew what Ivan was up to, but they probably suspected it.”
“So it could have been Bowman,” I said, thinking about the corsage on the hallway table.
“Or it still could be Ezra’s pack. I was already gone. You girls would be more vulnerable without Ivan. They could have brought back the phone, sent the text.”
I sighed. “I know you hate them, but for the millionth time, they didn’t do it.”
“We don’t know that.”
“All Nathaniel admits to is stealing Ivan’s TV.” I stifled a yawn, the evening catching up with me. “He did say he saw a dark SUV. That could’ve been Bowman.”
“Nathaniel? As in Ezra’s Nathaniel?” Dad’s eyes darkened.
I froze, suddenly wide awake and realizing I’d screwed up. “I saw him when I helped deliver a bread order from Maggie earlier tonight.”
Dad got up from his desk and began pacing on the threadbare carpet. “That bowling alley,” he growled. “All the wolves concentrated in one area on opening night? Sounds like a hunter’s dream scenario.”
“It’s a public place, though.” I picked at a loose sequin on the hem of the dress.
“Bowman wouldn’t have a hard time luring them outside. He’d have a perfect alibi if he’s seen bowling with the rest of the town. And we don’t know who else is working with him. There could be other hunters gathering.” He glanced at his watch and started putting the papers back in a manila folder. “Bottom line—stay away from the bowling alley tomorrow night. Actually, every night.”
“I’m not staying away. Morgan and I have to go. If something happens—”
“Lily.” He looked up, his eyes flashing with concern.
“But if Bowman does try anything at the bowling alley, then we have to try to save the pack. It’s the right thing to do.”
A few seconds passed. “What’s bad for one wolf is bad for all wolves,” Dad said finally. “I’ll be on patrol duty tomorrow night. If you do go to the bowling alley, I won’t be far.”
“Well, right now I’m going to bed.” I ran the empty popcorn bowl into the kitchen, while my dad headed toward the den with his papers.
“Lily!” Dad grunted from the hallway. I found him sniffing at the plastic corsage box. “Alex gave you this?” A worried look traveled across his face.
“Yeah. I told him I’d make sure Rose got it,” I admitted, hoping he wouldn’t make me throw it away.
“You better put in the fridge,” he said, handing it to me. “I don’t want her seeing Alex, but this seems…”
“Heartbreaking,” I said.
“Harmless. I was going to say harmless.” He gave me a sad smile, then wished me good night.
After I’d stowed the corsage in the fridge, I went up to my room, awash in a mixture of feelings—euphoria from the evening with Morgan, worry for Nathaniel’s safety, empathy for Rose’s situation. At least it seemed like Dad was starting to get how complicated it was to be girls like us in this town. Wolves like us, anyway.
We’d be there at the bowling alley opening because we had to be. Even if they didn’t deserve it, protecting our secret was entwined with protecting Ezra’s. And I had a feeling things were about to get worse for all the werewolves in Pioneer Falls.
Chapter Eleven
A small crowd gathered near the entrance of Frontier Lanes on Saturday night as Gladys cut the big ceremonial ribbon. Local business owners like Maggie and Mrs. Gillingham were there, along with a few people from the town council, the mayor and her husband, and some teachers from school. Lots of families. Nearly everyone in Pioneer Falls seemed to be there to check things out. Including Rick and Alex Bowman, who hung near the back of the crowd. Alicia had a camera out, snapping some shots for the next issue of the paper. Jeanie stood beside her, taking a video with her phone. Both of them saw me and Morgan and waved.
“Thanks for coming out tonight. We aim to be your favorite bowling center in the c
ounty,” Ezra said, leaning on his crutch and shouting into the megaphone that Gladys held up to his mouth. “You’re all welcome to come on in to see the newly restored Frontier Lanes!”
Next to him, Jonah, Nathaniel, and Gladys stood posing for photographs. They all had on matching red and black bowling shirts, with embroidered name patches and everything. I was struck by how normal they looked. Amazing how easy it is to blend in if a wolf really tries.
As the crowd surged forward, some of them to shake hands with Ezra and Gladys and others, Alex and Rick edged past us and through the entryway. Alex turned to give me an apologetic nod for the rudeness.
“Come on,” I said, pulling on Morgan’s arm. I wanted to follow them.
Morgan leaned close and whispered, “Relax, Lily.”
The lanes gleamed with fresh wax. New dark blue carpet replaced the ugly orange and red one. Everything seemed clean, bright. As we ventured further inside, I could see Jonah waiting on the customers lined up at the counter, assigning lanes and renting footwear. Maybe he’d been kidding about offering me a part-time job, but he was definitely in the weeds, as Maggie would say–– he couldn’t keep up with the line and was getting frustrated. His snarly smile accompanied each pair of shoes he handed over. I didn’t see Gladys or Nathaniel, but Ezra sat in the center booth of the concession area, overlooking the operation, a proud smile on his face.
“What now, lass. Ready to bowl?” Morgan asked, somewhat ironically, since I was scanning the place like it was going to blow up at any moment.
“Let’s get a table near the kitchen,” I said, slipping off my coat and folding it over my arm. “Make sure we can see the exits.”
“An excellent idea,” Morgan said, leading me toward the empty tables.
From our seats in a vinyl booth a few tables from Ezra, we could see the Bowmans in a nearby bowling lane. Alex sat behind the tiny table, punching in their names into the electronic system. Meanwhile, Rick chose a ball from the rack. Morgan watched, seemingly fascinated by the process as Rick stepped to the floor and then made a loud pin-smacking strike on his first roll. Rick pumped his fist in the air.
A Forest So Deadly (Pioneer Falls Book 2) Page 13