“How’s my dad?”
“Go see him at County. Then get your butt to the station in the morning.”
“And Skyler? The kid you thought set all these fires?”
“Obviously, I was wrong,” the sheriff said, then motioned Cooper to follow her on the trail to the woods.
“You think the guys torched Ezra’s body?” I asked.
“What state was he in?”
“Ghastly, and I’ve never used that word before.” I told him about how the spirit had descended and sucked the life from him.
“So his body was shrunken or disfigured and his skull was cracked,” Morgan said. “I’ve never heard of death by soul-sucking, but it does sound like that would’ve finished him off.”
“I killed him,” I said, tears collecting at the corner of my eyes.
“No, the ghost did. A good thing too, because otherwise you’d inherit his pack. You kill a leader, you take responsibility for his offspring.” Morgan took my hand and pulled me toward him.
“The ghost. I thought she wanted justice, but she wanted vengeance.”
“Not always the same thing,” Morgan said, placing a kiss on my brow. “Let’s go.”
I didn’t want to move. I kept my head on his strong chest, my face buried in his wool sweater beneath his coat. I closed my eyes, trying to purge the image of Ezra’s beady eyes, his bony, callused fingers around my neck. The scent of my own fear, perspiration, mixing with old-wolf smell, the terror of knowing Jonah and Nathaniel were close and could rip my throat out. My eyes started to water again.
Morgan held me tighter. “You did it. You made it through. If they’d harmed you, I’d have killed them all.”
“I thought I could prevent more death…but I was probably the next one.”
Morgan reached a hand under my chin and tilted it up. “You’re a little brash, lass, but you’re a smart wolf.”
“Smart wolves don’t go into dark forests alone with bad dudes chasing them.”
“Never stopped you before,” he said with a little smirk.
“I thought I could reason with them, change their minds. But then they trapped me and—”
“Stop,” Morgan said. “It’s not your fault. Ezra was pure evil. You have to accept that. As much as you want to see the good in people. In wolves. Some are bad.”
I blinked back tears. It was frustration, exhaustion, maybe a combo. Morgan was right about Ezra. Maybe about other wolves, too. “Can we go now?”
He kissed me lightly, and then thumbed away a stray tear from my cheek. “As you wish.”
***
The hallway of the hospital smelled like pine disinfectant and faint puke. In a line of chairs stationed outside Dad’s room, Rose slept with her head on Skyler’s shoulder. He looked only mildly irritated by her encroachment. Fawn’s attention was on her phone’s screen, her fingers flying in a text.
“Hey,” I said as Morgan and I walked up.
“About time,” Fawn said, stuffing her phone in her pocket.
“Glad to see you, too.” I gestured toward the door. “He’s sleeping?”
“Only one visitor at a time allowed,” Skyler offered, talking softly.
“Nice to see you, mate. Good job watching over the girls,” Morgan said.
“Mostly they watched over me.” Skyler showed a half-smile.
I opened the door a crack and heard a voice—Maggie’s. “You know I care about them like family,” she said. A curtain was drawn, separating Dad’s bed from the empty one nearest the door. I could smell hospital food, maybe tomato soup on his tray.
“I care about all of you, actually,” Maggie added.
“That’s sweet,” Dad said, his voice thick, sounding a bit drugged.
I hesitated a couple of seconds, trying to decide if I should just back out, but I was also intrigued by what was happening. I heard rustling, maybe Maggie reaching for Dad’s hand.
“We can handle ourselves. Lily’s old enough to look after things,” Dad said.
“Right, George, but…” Maggie’s voice softened. “Who’s going to look after you?”
He laughed nervously. “You know I don’t need that.”
I held my breath. I didn’t want Dad to hear me, not when it sounded like Maggie was on the edge of something.
“You know… You’re not very good at letting a girl sweep you off your feet,” Maggie replied good-naturedly, but still managing to sound disappointed.
Dad sighed, but there was a smile in his tone as he said, “You don’t want this old loner. You wouldn’t if you knew—”
“That you’re some kind of shape-shifter? A werewolf?” Maggie whispered.
My eyes widened and I sucked in a breath. I heard Dad sit up in bed. He’d sensed me, either heard me or smelled me by now.
“Don’t move so quickly,” Maggie said. “Here, let me get your pillows situated.” There was the sound of the hospital bed being elevated a bit, too. “You don’t want to rip out any stitches.”
“These are scratches,” he murmured. The curtain rippled a bit, probably Dad trying to pull it back. “He cold-cocked me before I could draw my gun.”
“No changing the subject. I don’t care what you are,” Maggie said. “I won’t tell anyone, no matter what happens between us.”
“I’ve done bad things. I haven’t always been a good man, or a good wolf,” Dad said, his voice humble, small.
“And you own that. And you try to do better. That’s part of what I like about you.”
“Maggie.” Dad said her name slowly, reverently, and I felt a shiver down my back.
I was pretty sure some serious making out was about to go down. I stepped back out of the room, shutting the door carefully behind me.
As I returned to the line of chairs, Morgan met my gaze with a smile, raised eyebrows. “Everything sorted in there?”
I nodded. “Dad’s gonna be just fine.”
Chapter Twenty-One
When we got home from the hospital, I led Morgan upstairs to my room. Rose and Skyler heated up some leftover pizza in the kitchen. Fawn had gone to bed.
“You think he’ll mind me staying over?” Morgan asked.
“I’ll mind if you don’t,” I said, shutting the door to my room and handing him a pair of Dad’s PJ pants and a tee. “Nathaniel and Jonah are still out there, doing who knows what.”
“Gladys’s bullet wound was superficial, but Doc Burrows gave her a few stitches.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Where did you take her after?”
“I didn’t. Wasn’t time. You know, racing to get to the woods and all.”
“Doc Burrows. Did you get the impression that he…”
“No. He remarked on Gladys’s large size, for a wolf. Good thing she was unconscious. She might’ve snapped at him.” Morgan settled in against the headboard, swinging his legs up onto the bed.
“But someone must have gone to pick up Gladys,” I said.
“Well, you can bet one of them did. It’s not hard to imagine that Jonah set the fire in the woods and sent Nathaniel to collect their stepmum. Nathaniel had a lot more to lose in leaving town. He loves that bowling alley.”
I nodded and took a seat next to him. “Well, I’m glad you’re here. With or without creeper wolves hanging around.” I scooted in closer to him and rested my head against his chest.
“Do you know how worried I was?” he whispered, easing his fingers into my hair and smoothing it. “But at the same time, I had to trust that you knew what to do, that you could be strong.”
“I know. You can’t always be there to fight off the bad wolves for me. Neither you nor Dad. I have to be able to do it myself.”
“So strong,” Morgan said.
“In retrospect,” I said, lifting my head, “if I’d realized what they’d been trying to do in corralling me, or that Millicent was using me to draw Ezra near, maybe I wouldn’t have gone charging into a dark wood.”
Morgan drew me up, so that we were face to face, lips to l
ips. “I don’t think one ever expects to be doing a spirit’s bidding,” he said, kissing me.
I had a retort on my tongue, something snappy about ghost hunting, but it vanished as soon as I felt Morgan’s lips against mine. That warm, confident kiss of his pulled me deeper. The taste of him, the smell of forest and musk and the hint of his cologne, surrounded my senses. His hand moved from my hair to the middle of my back. The press of his body against mine made my heart race, my breath quicken.
I rolled onto my side, and gazed across at him on the other pillow. I didn’t know what might happen if we let things get farther, or if we would, but it made sense to go borrow Rose’s necklace, at least for the night.
***
“If they need to bring you in again, I’m as close as a phone call,” Spencer Jones whispered, coming out of the sheriff’s office the next morning. I rubbed at my tired eyes. The day and night before seemed like a blur.
“I think we have what we need,” Sheriff Polson said, following us down the hallway. “You go home and get some rest, Lily.”
When we entered the lobby, we found Alicia waiting. “Thank goodness you’re okay,” she said, springing up from the chairs to give me a hug. “I didn’t see you after that wolf shooting and then I heard what happened in the woods.”
“Yeah, I survived.”
“I mean, hitting that old creep on the head with a rock? Horrible.”
Spencer shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe his daughter somehow knew some of the grisly details, but that was the deal living in a small town.
“Didn’t have much choice since he was trying to kill me,” I said, shrugging.
“Like I said, call me before you answer any other questions. Give my best to your dad.” Spencer put his legal pad into his attache case and motioned for Alicia to follow him.
I told the sheriff and Deputy Mac good-bye and zipped up my jacket. Outside, I found Tom Lindstrom leaning against our truck.
“Damn it, what happened last night? And don’t go making up crap,” he said, moving from against the hood to stand in front of me. He looked alarmed.
“Fair enough.” I popped the locks and motioned for him to get in. A lot had happened the night before, most of which I couldn’t talk about. Especially not in the parking lot of the sheriff’s station.
Tom climbed in and shut the door. He crossed his arms and glanced uncomfortably at the entrance of the station. “My dad didn’t come home last night. Ms. Murphy called the house looking for her husband, too. I’m guessing you know where they are. I mean, before I go in and raise a stink with the police. C’mon, Lily…”
“They’re in the woods somewhere.” I turned the engine on, so we’d have some heat in the truck. I held my hands to the blower, willing it to work faster.
“What? Dumped in the woods like Ivan North?”
“Not like that. They were dropped off in the woods so they’d be away from town, at least for the night.”
“Sorry, I don’t get it.”
“It was for their own protection. They were in the group trying to shoot wolves. They were mixed up in that ridiculous live feed where those wolves almost got shot last night.”
“You mean where the guy burned to death in the garage?” Tom’s eyes narrowed. “My dad didn’t do that.”
“I know he didn’t. He was in the woods during the fire. Go find him.”
“Go into the woods alone?” Tom’s voice warbled a little. “I don’t know the roads up there. Where would I start looking?”
“Find someone to go with you. Your friends.”
“But it might be dangerous, right?”
I let out a slow breath and said, “Dangerous because…?”
Tom lowered his voice. “Before Dad left the shop yesterday, I asked him to level with me about everything and he told me a lot of weird stuff. He told me there are strange creatures out there. Have been for years in Pioneer Falls. Our grandfather and great-grandfather worked hard to keep them at bay.”
I girded myself for what was to come next. “Them…?”
“Werewolves,” Tom said in a low voice. “And obviously Ezra Smith was trying to protect those two wolves on the live stream—maybe they were his sons. What if they’re out there, hunting my dad and Mr. Murphy right now?”
I bit the inside of my lip. “Ezra Smith was a bad man. He murdered those people in 1957 when he was young. He tried to kill me last night, in the woods by the cemetery. When he set that fire he was trying to burn evidence that might’ve been in that house and garage. That’s all.”
“But those two wolves—”
“Wolves. Not men. Plain old wolves,” I said. “Baited and captured. Now what kind of hunting is that? That’s trapping. Cowardly. When your dad comes back from the hills, the best thing he could do is to sell all his guns and forget this fantasy about wolves.”
Tom ran a hand through his hair, nodding, like he was trying to think. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. I mean, it’s crazy. Isn’t it?”
“We go looking for too much in the past and it screws up the future,” I said. “I should’ve listened to Ms. Wilson on that front.”
“Ms. Wilson, well, she’s no more, I bet.” Tom shook his head. “She packed up Butch in her car and split. I went around to her neighbors’ houses this morning and no one’s seen her.”
“What about the TV people?”
“Still here, staying at the inn. Well, the one guy is. He can’t leave town. The cops still have to interview him, I guess, about the death of his friend.”
“I think the next issue of our paper’s going to have plenty of material,” I said, giving him a half-smile. I turned to go.
“Hey, wait— I’m sorry about what happened to you, about Ezra Smith attacking you.”
I pointed to my neck, where the imprints of the old man’s fingers could still be seen. “A few bruises, but I’m fine.”
Tom zipped up his jacket and prepared to hop out. “You stopped a murderer. That’s more than the police could do. Maybe we should make the next issue about you.”
“No way,” I said, shooing Tom out of the truck.
Then I headed over to the coffee shop for my morning shift. I had lattes to make, college funds to save.
***
Maggie met me at the front of the coffee shop with a big hug. Skyler and the twins waved from one of the couches near the window. I was kind of surprised to see them there, but happy they were together. They’d all been sleeping in when I’d left the house that morning.
“We didn’t expect you. I called in Emma to take your morning shift,” Maggie said, her scent of patchouli and lavender lotion lingering as she released me. “You must be exhausted.”
“Oh, thanks. The thing at the station took longer than I thought.”
Maggie’s eyebrows dipped together. “And how’d that go?”
“Mr. Jones said I did fine. They photographed the fingermark bruises on my neck to show the attack happened. When they find Ezra’s remains, they might see a skull fracture where I hit him. The sheriff knows I didn’t set the fire in the woods. I was talking with her when it started. I guess they’ll be looking to question Nathaniel and Jonah about that.”
Maggie’s eyes looked glassy. “I’m just glad you’re all right. You don’t have to stay and work.”
I laughed weakly. “You know me. I have to stay busy, I can’t sit around.”
“Well, your dad’s getting released around eleven. I thought I might go pick him up.” Maggie looked about to say more, but her cousin, who’d finished the drink she’d been making, came over to give me a hug, too.
Emma, blonde and petite, had Maggie’s rounded cheeks and curls, but her style was nothing like her cousin’s. Today, her leggings were tucked into high-tops and her fitted fleece top was a splash of lime green. As she hugged me, I got a hint of tropical body wash and fresh-air dryer sheet fragrance.
The door chimed behind us and Cooper came into the shop. He looked tired, dark circles under his bright blue e
yes, scruff on his jawline. I could smell soap, though, and a hint of cologne, his hair just on the edge of damp.
He brightened when he saw me, giving me a quick embrace. “Gonna need some strong tea this morning,” he murmured.
“Maybe you should switch to coffee,” I joked.
A timer dinged in the back room, sending Maggie scurrying toward some cranberry-orange scones. Emma jumped back around the counter to make Cooper’s tea and whip me up a mocha.
I wandered over to the couches and let the girls know it’d gone okay at the station. They seemed relieved. Fawn went back to texting, and Rose took a sip from her cocoa.
As I took a seat in the armchair, Skyler held up his phone, showing me a text. “My pack’ll be coming back through next month. So I guess I’ll stay for Thanksgiving, maybe.”
“Perfect, I’m cooking the whole thing this year,” Fawn said, looking up from her screen. “You like turkey, don’t you?”
Skyler smiled. “Sure. Show me a wolf that doesn’t.”
“Why are they coming back? For you? That’s a good sign.”
Skyler shrugged. “Doubt it. Not that I’ll feel like going back with them. Nah, they’re coming back for business reasons. The pack holds the deed on the bowling alley, so they’ll be coming back to sell it or shut it down.”
I gaped at Skyler. “Wasn’t it Ezra’s?”
“He borrowed the money from our pack. He’d missed his first two payments. Total deadbeat. You don’t even want to know what kind of interest he was wracking up.”
“And when wolves don’t pay the pack?”
Skyler shook his head. “Fatal mistake, usually.”
“I guess that’s why they were desperate to expand into the pizza business,” Fawn said. “Oh, and the laundry place.”
“Wait—you didn’t think to tell my dad this earlier?” I said, barely hiding my irritation.
“Pack business is pack business. You don’t air it to outsiders.” He stirred his coffee. “But…maybe I feel more like I belong with you guys now.”
A Light So Cruel (Pioneer Falls Book 3) Page 22