by Christa Wick
It was the first waitress who had waited on us. She had also dashed over to the register when she saw me coming up to pay while Clover escaped down the hall to the restroom. She had brushed up against me on her way to the other side of the counter, her breast rubbing at my arm as she apologized for the contact without pulling away.
I just hoped the blatant, boring attempt at seduction hadn’t cost the woman her life.
Hex looked up from cooking and shrugged. “All of us been into the place, of course. But I met all the members’ old ladies and side squeezes. She aint one of them.”
The kid looked like he wanted to say something more so I gave him a poke.
“Spit it out.”
“Are you thinking this is something we could do outreach on for the club—you know, search party or something?”
“Not proactively,” I answered as the reporter started to interview the kid I had lifted off his feet behind the restaurant. A rough swallow choked its way down my throat as he gave a description that more or less matched me.
“So, uh…what’s that mean?”
A smile ghosted my lips. The Buckley pledge was eager but not bright.
“I mean, if the sheriff puts out a call for boots on the ground, then I’ll leave that up to Reggie to decide.”
I didn’t want the local chapter involved. Their presence could focus attention on Night Falls. With other shifters involved, the humans could walk into a blood bath and not walk out. On the other hand, I also didn’t want to arouse their suspicions, especially with my description floating around and the fact that Clover and I had arrived under mysterious circumstances with my clothes and boots all torn up.
“Pretty wild, huh?” Hex asked, his expression a little too animated for my taste.
“Wild like you wouldn’t believe,” I answered as he slid a plate full of food in my direction. Pulling out my phone, I gestured at the bacon and eggs still cooking on the grill. “Take Miss Hughes a plate. Make sure you knock and announce.”
A grin broke out across his face that he was too stupid or too reckless to control. Head bobbing as he accepted the task, he piled the plate high—so high it would probably piss Clover off.
“Hex?”
“Yeah,” he answered, the plate in one hand and a tall glass of orange juice in the other.
“Don’t tell her about the waitress.”
One brow shot up. I knew telling him not to say anything was dangerous, but I figured it was less dangerous than what Clover might blurt out if he opened his yap. As eager as he was to serve her, he probably wanted to strike up a conversation.
Even if she tried to ignore the fact most of the time with her quirky outfits, she was a very beautiful woman. She didn’t need to be in heat for me or any other man to see that.
“It doesn’t always come across, but she’s a tender soul,” I explained. “Her brother will have our asses if she heads off trying to find the woman.”
“Seriously?”
I nodded, not sure which part he was questioning me on. Braeden would have my ass, that was certain. And if anyone, human or shifter, had gone missing in Night Falls, Clover would have been among the first out the door to search. But I didn’t think Clover’s first thought when it came to the waitress would be rescuing the woman.
“I promise—my mouth is a steel trap, boss!”
I watched him skip off, eager to be of service and a part of even a small conspiracy. When he was out of view, I split my attention between the news coverage of the most likely deceased Sherilee Winn and my phone, where I was tapping out a message to Braeden. I hit send, tapped in more details, sent that and started tapping in a bit more when the phone buzzed with his incoming call.
“Hey,” I answered, my tongue thickening with worry.
“I’m pulling her out,” Braeden growled.
“I figured.” I had known bringing his baby sister straight home would be his first reaction. I wasn’t sure it was the best plan. Buckley didn’t have a large police force, but every man they had would be on the streets patrolling. I had paid at the restaurant in cash as was my habit.
Hiding out was still the best plan.
“How do you want it done?”
“Fuck if I know,” he barked. “I texted Craw to come over.”
“Good starting point,” I acknowledge. Mallory was a veteran of the old pack wars. He had the most experience in fighting other shifters while surrounded by a human population.
“I want that place locked down.”
“Absolutely.”
I walked past the pantry and barred the back door as Braeden worked his way through a series of growls that were supposed to be words.
“Come again?” I prompted, heading toward the front door to slide its security bar in place.
“No one in or out,” he huffed. “You wait for my next message and don’t leave her for anything.”
“Never,” I answered and ended the call.
Chapter 17
Clover
Ten minutes after Joshua left the room, some guy about my age dropped off a breakfast of bacon and eggs. His knock left me scurrying to get the rest of my clothes on and I opened the door with murder on my mind. Then I smelled the delicious aroma of dead pig and smiled.
“Veep figured you were hungry,” he said and pushed the food and a glass of orange juice in my direction. “I’m Hex, by the way.”
“Thank you, Hex.” I took the plate from him with a second, more grateful smile. The bacon and eggs were piled high. Normally, that would have earned him my patented thousand-daggers-of-death stare except I hadn’t eaten since the restaurant.
I put the plate and glass on the dresser and turned around just as he pulled a fork from someplace I hoped was his back pocket. Seeing that he wasn’t going to enter the room, I returned to the door and accepted the piece of silverware, thanking him again.
“I’m not really supposed to talk to you.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he turned dark red.
“About anything.”
His head dipped in answer. “Seeing as I got a big mouth, yeah.”
He was a bit of a lug, cute in the way big lugs can be. I laughed and tucked my hands in my pockets so I wouldn’t reach out and touch his shoulder. Joshua may have left me cold again, but I didn’t want to risk putting my scent on Hex. No telling if Reeves would begin to blow warm again and I didn’t want the big kid in front of me harmed for smelling like I had rubbed on him
At least, I hoped Reeves would blow warm again. But he better do it before the tension between us made me curl into myself again.
Hex jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Need to get back to the grill. I was thinking fish for lunch.”
“Fish sounds great,” I answered, still smiling. “It was nice to meet you, Hex.”
“You, too, Miss Hughes.”
Leaving, he bumped into the wall, his cheeks turning a deeper shade of red.
“Huh,” he laughed. “When did they put that in?”
I laughed with him as he retreated, each step clumsier than the one before. Halfway into turning a corner, he glanced back. I waved, my gut clenching in anticipation as he walked straight into the wall.
Out of sight, he whispered too softly for human ears, but I could hear him anyway.
Way to go, dumbass!
Taking breakfast over to the couch, I proceeded to devour every last scrap and drain the glass of juice. With a standing order not to leave the room, I rinsed the dishes in the bathroom sink and placed them on top of the dresser with a dry hand towel beneath them. Back at the couch, I pulled my hair into a pony tail then searched for my phone. It had been on the nightstand before, but Joshua had messed with it. I patted around the cushions then under the couch. Next I leaned over and opened the drawer on the nightstand.
#FoundIt
I switched the device on to find no new messages. That included the new messages from the day before that Joshua had admitted to deleting. I still didn’t want
to talk to Braeden, but I typed a quick message to Paisley and hit send.
You mad?
The little dots signaling she was replying appeared a heartbeat later.
No. I love you, silly. What the hell is going on? Braeden just called Mallory over to “rescue” you.
Shit. I forgot to breathe for a few seconds as a chill brushed against my spine. Had something changed? Was big brother freaking out because I hadn’t replied to his messages and he was only getting information from Joshua?
My fingers flew over my display in quick reply.
No idea beyond yesterday. Joshua deleted my texts before I could read them.
I grimaced at the last sentence. I was pushing all the blame over to the cat with a half truth. The whole truth was that I had intentionally ignored everyone’s messages for hours.
Paisley’s reply popped up on screen.
Well, I told you how much I love you about twenty times. In between that, I told you that Joshua showed up talking about “claiming” you as his mate and how I’ve known for a while he’s crazy about you. How archaic is that? Like he has a ticket and you’re his coat or something.
I shook my head at the phone. I wasn’t ready to believe what she was saying. The claiming part, yeah, but not the crazy about me part and certainly not how it was some kind of longstanding emotion for him.
Pics or it didn’t happen, I typed back, willing to let her convince me.
The bubbles popped up and then some words that left me slightly reeling.
If you were here, you could look at all the texts he sent me while I was at college. I saved them all.
I huffed. That Joshua had texted Paisley at college only reinforced my idea that she was the one he’d been interested in before she became Braeden’s mate and my body sucker punched me with a second heat. I replied to her message with a single tap before hitting send.
?
Bubbles…more bubbles…more. She was apparently typing a freaking tome! I bounced around the couch, head bobbing, eyes rolling, waiting and waiting, seconds dragging by. I glanced from the bubbles to my signal strength then back to the bubbles.
The door opened and Joshua walked in. Seeing my hand wrapped around my phone, he took the device from me just as Paisley’s answer appeared. I had about a nanosecond to read what she had typed.
Well, every single time—
“Give me back my phone,” I growled, raising onto my knees and grabbing at my cell.
His free hand fisted the front of my shirt, his arm extended so that he held me well out of reach of my phone as he read our conversation. I watched, furious and horrified as he thumbed up to the start of the message then all the way to the end before clearing them. He tabbed around some more, his body angling so I couldn’t see what he was doing.
“You don’t need the distraction, wolfling. Mallory will be here in two hours to collect you.”
His tone was final, his expression more so, the normally brilliant blue gaze dull and lifeless.
Shoving my phone in his back pocket, he stretched out on the bed and closed his eyes.
Chapter 18
Clover
With nothing to do but watch Joshua pretending to sleep, I dozed off, my body curled in a ball on the couch. I woke with an arm and a leg hanging off the edge as Joshua’s phone signaled an incoming call.
“Mallory,” he said with a glance at his display. He hit the accept button and started talking to the old wolf.
The conversation was simple. Mallory was a few blocks away in a black sedan with darkly tinted windows. He would pull up behind the clubhouse. Joshua would hustle my butt into the back seat.
But the cat wouldn’t be coming with us.
“Why are you staying behind?” I asked as soon as he hung up.
“Someone has to deal with the hyenas.”
There were at least three of them and even the betas healed faster than most shifters. Did he have a machine gun shoved up his overly tight ass?
“I’m not leaving you to deal with them on your own,” I growled and jabbed him in the chest with the pointiest fingernail on my hand. “I don’t care if this dumb idea is yours or Braeden’s, I’m not going to be whisked away—”
Joshua wrapped his hands around my shoulders then planted a chaste kiss on my forehead, just like he had done seconds before he had walked out of the room the last time. He had probably been calling Braeden while I was eating breakfast.
He slid one hand down to cup my elbow while the other circled my wrist, his grip controlling as he pointed me in the direction of the door and started walking.
His thumb rubbed lightly at my skin. “I won’t be alone, I promise. More Woodsmen are on the way. Braeden wants you out before they get here.”
“Why?” I didn’t understand the need for such complicated logistics. “I thought we were safe here? That we just needed to wait a few days…”
I trailed off as we reached the main gathering room of the clubhouse. It was empty except for Hex shooting pool by himself. Looking up, he smiled, the expression collapsing as he took in Joshua’s possessive hold on me.
“Mallory will explain,” he whispered in my ear. “Your very important task—”
“Don’t feed me that line of bullshit,” I growled as we walked through the kitchen. “You have zero respect for me if you shovel that line of crap in my direction.”
He stopped, his hands releasing my elbow and wrist to mold along the sides of my face. Gaze locked on mine, Joshua tugged me closer. “Knowing you’re save is critical for my piece of mind…and your brother’s. It makes everyone safer all down the line.”
The way he was holding me, the contours of our body fitting together like the pieces of a particularly challenging puzzle, blurred my protests.
“You can’t hunt them alone,” I whispered, fingers fisting his shirt as Mallory pulled up outside and honked his horn.
“I promised you I wouldn’t,” he answered, a second kiss landing at the corner of my mouth, his lips retreating all too soon.
“No you didn’t,” I argued.
He managed a small smile, that pouty bottom lip of his trembling lightly. “Then I’m promising you now.”
Releasing me, Joshua threw back the interior bolt on the door. I had totally blanked on my gun, not even thinking about it as we left the bedroom or noticing that it was tucked into the back of his belt. He pulled it out and thumbed the safety off, his hand settled firmly around the grip as he opened the door and checked the space around the sedan.
Waving the gun, he motioned me over then stepped outside, opened the back door on the sedan and made sure it was Mallory behind the wheel. As I stepped outside, he thumbed the safety on and pressed the gun into my hand.
I crawled into the rear, my mind still trying to catch up with everything that was happening. Joshua leaned in, my phone in his hand. He placed it in the cup holder and pulled back.
“See you in Night Falls, wolfling.”
Stomach churning, I twisted in the seat and looked out the rear window as Mallory pulled away from the building. Worry chewed at my insides that I was seeing Joshua for the last time, and that the very last thing he would ever say or call me was “wolfling.”
Not Clover.
Not catnip.
Just wolfling, my place in his world pushed back to when I greeted him with hostility and he greeted me with indifference, if he greeted me at all.
Facing front, I caught Mallory watching in the rearview mirror.
“What the hell is going on?” I barked.
When he hesitated, my lip lifted in a snarl. “So help me, if you say someone else is going to tell me, I will make you turn this vehicle around just so I can kick Reeves’ ass.”
The old wolf’s eyes danced at the challenge.
“Seriously, he said you would fill me in. Unless you’ve got some roll up window that is sound proof, I have plenty of ways to make the next two hours miserable for you.”
#CarpoolKaraoke
Mallo
ry made a show of looking around for the kind of button or control that went with the window I had described. Finding nothing, he sighed and returned his full attention to the road ahead of us.
“The cat didn’t tell you about the waitress that was kidnapped?”
I felt my heart stop beating and drop into my stomach. Wrapping my hands around my middle, I shook my head. “From the Rolling Pin?”
“Yep. Take it you were there yesterday?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “Why aren’t we thinking this is some kind of crazy coincidence?”
“Cat saw one of those hyenas shift to human.”
“We both did. Is there footage of the kidnapper?”
“Kidnappers,” the old wolf corrected. “But only a description. Reeves says it matches up. Plus the cat got a bit rough with a busboy out back of the restaurant. Kid gave a fair description of your lover boy.”
I met Mallory’s speculative gaze in the mirror with a hostile glance of my own.
“Seems to me like Reeves didn’t give your big brother the whole story yesterday. Was that for his benefit or yours?”
I blinked, my culpability flashing hot across my cheeks. Jaws tightening, I turned to look out the side window. We were already coming up on the highway, the Rolling Pin in view. There were two cop cars in the parking lot and twice as many news vans.
“Looks like they got the state boys out,” Mallory said, his chin gesturing at the dark brown travel trailer emblazoned with the emblem for the Wisconsin Crime Lab Bureau. “Hope those hyenas didn’t leave any DNA at the scene.”
Struggling to breathe, I didn’t reply. Reaching across the seat, I grabbed my phone and held it to my chest, my brain too weighed down with worry to reach out to Paisley or Braeden.
Catching Mallory’s frequent glances at me, I tensed up. My grip on the phone tightening.
“Don’t worry, little wolf,” he chuckled. “Your heat doesn’t affect me.”
I said nothing, my incredulous gaze doing all the talking. As far as I knew, Mallory wasn’t like Clark. In fact, he was a bit of a dick towards Clark—like the young bear didn’t have a valid opinion on anything because of where his tastes ran.