by Paige Tyler
“Did you recognize anyone else who’d been at the bar that night, someone who might know who this guy is?” Kim asked.
The question seemed to catch Dominic off guard, but after a moment, he nodded. “Yeah, actually I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some of those guys around before. They’re a group of us regulars who live in the bars of this town.”
Triana tried to keep herself from getting too excited—and failed. “Do you think you could talk to some of those other guys, see if they might know the name of this big man?”
Dominic looked concerned. “I don’t know about that. I understand you wanting to find this guy if he was the one who killed your father, but I wasn’t intending to get involved like that.”
“I can pay you,” Triana said quickly.
At the mention of money, Dominic’s whole demeanor changed. “How much?”
She pulled out her purse, digging through it under the table until she came up with eighty-seven dollars. She shoved it across the table at him. “This is all I have on me, but if you find this guy, I’ll give you five hundred more.”
That must have convinced him because he nodded, quickly scooping up the money. “If you give me your number, I’ll call as soon as I find out something.”
Triana wasn’t thrilled to be handing out her number to a random stranger, but if this worked, she’d happily get a new phone number.
Five minutes later, she and Kim left the bar and were walking down the street, glad that the on-again, off-again rain had decided to stop for a while. As she turned toward her mother’s shop, Triana quickened her pace until she was practically running. This was going to work; she could just feel it. She was going to finally find the guy who murdered her father.
She was still thinking about that possibility when Kim brought her crashing back down to earth a few minutes later.
“Okay, I came with you to see that creepy guy, and I really hope something good comes of it, but right now I want to hear about you and Remy,” her friend said. “Why do you think you guys don’t have a future?”
Triana sighed. Even though she didn’t want to talk about it, the words came tumbling out on their own and she told Kim everything, starting with the night she and Remy had first slept together and finishing with what had happened last night. She hadn’t intended to get emotional about the whole thing, but all her worries and doubts came rushing back to the surface, and before she knew it, she was crying. Not just for what she might have already lost, but for what now might never be at all.
* * *
Remy glanced over at Triana, where she sat in the booth across from him scanning the menu. He couldn’t miss the fact that she seemed more subdued than usual. Her heart was beating a little faster than it usually did and she was putting off a weird vibe.
Then again, maybe it was the weather. It was making everything seem off. He looked out the big windows that overlooked Lake Pontchartrain. The rain and wind had gotten stronger throughout the day, making him think it had probably been stupid to drive all the way out to the far side of the lake for dinner. But he’d wanted to take Triana someplace quiet and private so they could talk. On the other hand, coming to a restaurant that was a thirty-minute drive from her mother’s shop might not have been the best idea, considering the topic he planned to bring up tonight.
He hated to do it, but after the conversation he’d had today with Max, it was obvious that he needed to be honest with Triana and tell her where things were—or rather weren’t—heading. The mere thought of telling her he wanted to stop seeing her was enough to make him want to throw up. He prayed she’d handle the breakup well. If not, he didn’t know what he would do.
If he was lucky, Triana would be the one to suggest she wasn’t interested in seeing him after they got back to Texas, so he wouldn’t have to handle the chore.
What a completely gutless piece of crap he was.
Since he wasn’t very hungry, Remy didn’t really pay too much attention to the menu. His stomach was feeling a little tender anyway. A side effect of those burgers he’d eaten today at lunch, he supposed. He’d probably just get whatever Triana ordered. That turned out to be a seafood plate with shrimp, crabmeat, and steamed vegetables. It wasn’t something he would have normally ordered, but it would do for tonight.
After the waitress left, an uncomfortable silence descended over the table. Remy searched for something to say, wondering where the easy connection that had existed between them the past few days had gone.
“Have you missed working with your team in Dallas this week?” Triana finally asked.
Remy’s mouth edged up as he thought of his pack mates. Now that she mentioned it, he actually did miss them despite the fact that they could be irritating as hell sometimes.
“Yeah, I guess I do,” he admitted. “I thought I’d enjoy some time away from the insanity that’s our lives on the Dallas SWAT team, but now that I’m here, I kind of feel like I’m missing a part of myself, you know?”
She smiled. “Not really. I mean, I love my job at the crime lab, but outside of a few close friends, the only time I see most of them is during the annual Christmas party. I can’t imagine being so close with my coworkers that I’d think of them as family. It must be pretty awesome.”
He chuckled, feeling a weight dropping off his shoulders as the tension that had been filling the space between them melted away, reawakening their vibrant connection. Maybe he could put off the serious part of the conversation until he dropped Triana off at her mother’s shop.
“It is.” He couldn’t count how many times his pack mates had covered his ass on the job, even taking bullets for him when necessary. “There’s something special about knowing people will always have your back but will still call you out when you’re screwing up.”
She laughed. “I can’t imagine you ever screwing up.”
“We all screw up,” he said. “The thing that’s important is having people around that you trust enough to get you out of trouble when it happens.”
She considered that for a moment. “If the rest of your team is like Max, Brooks, and Zane, they must be pretty incredible. You must have a million stories about them.”
That was an understatement. But if he told her any, he’d have to censor some of the best parts. He couldn’t have her figuring out the whole Dallas SWAT team was made up of werewolves.
Remy rested his forearms on the table and grinned. “Well, if you want to hear a funny story, I should probably tell you about Cooper first. He met his future wife in line at the bank right before the place got held up.”
“No way!” Triana’s eyes widened. “What happened?”
“He arranged a date, then kicked the crap out of the bank robbers.”
“Whoa.” Triana smiled. “How’d their date go?”
“Exceptionally well,” Remy told her. “They met in June and got married two weeks ago.”
“You’re full of it,” she said, smacking his arm. “You’re making that part up.”
As the waitress set down their plates, Remy promised her he wasn’t joking. To prove it, over dinner, he went into greater detail about Cooper’s whirlwind romance with his wife, Everly.
Triana laughed and asked lots of questions, saying it sounded insane but that she believed Remy. Before long, he found himself telling her about all the guys meeting their significant others, while leaving out all the werewolf stuff, of course.
A little while ago, he had wondered why he’d even brought Triana all the way out here in such crappy weather, and now he was beginning to think the tension he’d felt was all just a figment of his imagination. Hell, even his appetite was back. He’d absolutely demolished the plate of seafood in front of him.
“Wait a minute,” Triana said with a laugh. “I think I’m picking up a theme with all these stories you’re telling me. Is it me, or do most of them revolve around your teammates getting
themselves into crazy situations with women they just met?”
Remy shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Relationships do seem to be the central theme of most of the insanity that’s been going on lately.”
She sipped her wine thoughtfully. “Speaking of relationships, do you mind if I ask you something personal?”
Remy’s gut clenched as he wondered where she was going with the question. Nowhere good that he could think of. But it wasn’t like he could say no, not without coming off weird.
So he nodded—and prayed.
“How is it possible that a guy as good-looking, sweet, and single as you hasn’t gotten seriously involved with anyone yet?” Triana asked.
Remy felt his fingertips start to tingle, as if another shift was coming on. He forced himself to calm down as he tried to laugh off the question, not sure how to even begin to answer it.
“I guess I just haven’t met the right person yet,” he said.
Triana’s gaze darted to him. Suddenly, he realized he’d left a lot of room for interpretation with that lame-ass answer. Shit. What if she assumed he was implying she was the right person? Which he supposed she was…just at the wrong time.
But Triana didn’t bite one way or the other. “I think you’re avoiding the question,” she said. “Are you honestly telling me that with all of your teammates finding love in the most unusual of circumstances, you’ve never found anyone you thought might be the right person for you?”
Remy swallowed hard. He couldn’t help thinking about what he’d had with Jess, but that wasn’t anything he wanted to get into. He had wanted to talk to Triana about their relationship, though—or at least the relationship they couldn’t have. Now was as good a time as any to do it.
“There was someone,” he finally admitted quietly. “But that was a long time ago.”
Triana looked stunned. “Did you love her?”
He nodded, unable to say the words.
On the other side of the table, Triana looked ashen. “What happened? Why didn’t it work out?”
Damn, he didn’t want to get into this. “It’s something I’d really rather not talk about.”
“Why not?”
Remy gripped the edge of the table, afraid if he didn’t, he might shift at any moment. On the other side of the table, Triana regarded him curiously, and he knew he couldn’t leave her hanging. He’d wanted her to understand there couldn’t be anything between them, hadn’t he? It was time to man up and say what needed to be said.
“It didn’t work out, okay?” he said, his voice sharper than he intended. “It ended badly, and since then, I haven’t been able to find anyone who could convince me to try again.”
He cringed as he realized how harsh his words had been. That was nothing compared to how shitty he felt when he saw the pain in Triana’s eyes. But what else could he have said? It was the truth. He didn’t have it in him to open his heart up again, to get hurt again. Wasn’t it better for Triana to know that now, instead of waiting until later when it would be even harder for her to take?
“So, there’s no…” Voice trailing off, she looked down at her half-empty plate, blinking her eyes rapidly.
“No,” he said softly. “There isn’t.”
Triana shook her head, then pushed back her chair and made a beeline for the door. Remy hastily tossed money on the table, running out of the restaurant to catch up to her. By the time he did, she was halfway to his car, oblivious to the rain soaking her pretty dress. He got the umbrella up and over her, but she didn’t seem to notice that either. At least he could lie and tell himself the wetness he saw on her face was the rain.
As he got her in the car and walked around to the driver’s side, he thought he might actually throw up.
The drive back into the city was long and painfully quiet, except for the constant thump-thump of the windshield wipers and the splash of the tires on the wet road. Remy tried to convince himself he’d done the right thing, but damn, if that was the case, why the hell did it hurt so much to see Triana simply shut down like she had? It was like someone had turned off a light bulb, leaving everything in darkness.
Chapter 12
Triana was reeling.
Remy might not have said the words, but in every way that mattered, he’d broken up with her. The fears that had been building in her heart since the night before had turned out to be true, and now it felt like something inside her was dying.
She didn’t remember the drive back across the lake bridge, barely even noticed the rain drumming on the roof of Remy’s car as they headed into the city. Heck, she didn’t even realize they’d made it back to her mother’s shop until Remy came around to help her out of the car and walk her to the door. At least it wasn’t raining by then.
She looked down in confusion and saw that Remy was holding her hand. If they were over, she didn’t need him walking her to the door or holding her hand. She started to pull her hand away when Remy stopped suddenly, his posture rigid and tense.
“Stay here,” he said.
She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong, but he was already running the last dozen feet toward the door of the shop so fast he was practically a blur. She was going to tell him the door would be locked, but she didn’t get a chance as he jerked it open and disappeared inside. A moment later, she heard the sound of glass breaking.
Triana’s heart lurched.
“Mom!”
Heedless of Remy’s order to stay where she was, Triana raced for the door. She had no idea what the hell was going on, but her mother was in there. She’d be damned if she was going to stand there and do nothing.
She ran into the shop, absently wondering why it wasn’t locked like it usually was. The interior was illuminated only by the glow of the lone streetlamp outside and the neon in the windows, and she skidded to a halt, trying to make sense of the blurs of movement she saw in the near darkness as well as the grunts, growls, and curses she heard. The only thing she knew for sure was that Remy was in there, and he was fighting with someone.
Triana took out her cell phone to call the police when the lights suddenly came on, making her vision sparkle with stars. When it cleared, the image that met her eyes was enough to almost make her want to turn off the lights again as she saw her mother coming out from behind the counter with her baseball bat at the ready and Remy facing off against the three big goons from the other day. Well, actually there were only two of them now, since the third was rolling around on the floor, groaning and cradling a cast-wrapped hand against his chest. The cast looked like it had been crushed in a trash compactor. The other two men were still coming at Remy hard though, and this time they were armed. Triana’s heart almost stopped as she saw that one of the men held a gun, while the other held a long, wicked knife.
She hadn’t realized her feet were moving in that direction until her mother yelled at her to stop. Every pair of eyes turned her way, immediately followed by the barrel of the gun.
All Triana could do was stare. Why was everything moving so fast, but she was moving so slowly?
There was a deep growl, then the sound of her mother screaming, followed by a blur of movement as Remy smashed into the guy with the gun so hard the man bounced off the wall behind him and the gun went skittering across the floor. But going after that guy left Remy with his back to the man with the knife, who used the opportunity to take a savage swing at him.
“Remy, behind you!” Triana yelled.
Remy ducked and swung around, bringing an arm up to block the knife. She watched in horror as the sharp edge of the blade sliced through his upraised forearm, slinging blood across the room.
Triana expected Remy to gasp in pain and drop to the floor, but instead, he stepped back and kicked the guy in the chest hard enough to send him rolling across the floor…and straight into her. She went down in a heap of arms and legs, punching and kicking at the m
an, terrified he might still have the knife.
Everything went crazy after that. There was shouting and swearing; then she was being pulled to her feet by someone really strong. She almost took a swing at the person until she realized it was Remy.
“Are you okay?” he asked urgently, his eyes full of terror as he gently ran his hands over her, apparently looking for injuries.
Triana couldn’t answer him because all she could see and comprehend was the blood running down his arm.
He must have decided she was okay, because he turned to go after the men now fleeing the shop. Like hell, Triana thought. There was no way she was going to let him go anywhere with his arm bleeding like that. Slapping one hand over the wound, she buried the other in the fabric of his T-shirt and refused to let go.
Remy let out one of those growls like her father used to, then tugged at her hands. “Triana, they’re getting away!”
Triana held him tight, digging in her heels and refusing to let go. “You’re bleeding!”
Remy opened his mouth to argue, but closed it again as her mom came over to put her hand on his shoulder. “Let them go, Remy. We know how to find them.”
He clenched his jaw but nodded. Triana sagged with relief, only to tense again when she saw blood seeping out from between the fingers she had wrapped around Remy’s forearm.
“We need to call an ambulance,” she said, hearing a voice rising high in panic and realizing that it was hers.
Her mother gently peeled Triana’s hand away from Remy’s T-shirt, then did the same to the one clutching his forearm. “We don’t need an ambulance, Triana. I have a first-aid kit in the back room. I can patch him up just fine here.”
Triana released his arm, swaying a little on her feet, suddenly queasy. She’d seen a lot of blood in the crime lab, but none of it had come from someone she knew, much less a man she was falling in…
“Remy needs to go to a hospital, Mom. He needs stitches,” she said.
Triana had taken enough first-aid courses in college to know that.