“What is it?” he asked, unable to stand not knowing.
Sierra pulled his hands into her lap and held them there, her fingers running over each wrinkle and scar as if they were the most interesting things in the world.
“I want to leave West Valley,” she said softly. “I really, really, want you to come with me. And I know it’s unfair of me to ask you to, but I can’t stay in this town anymore,” she shook her head. Tears started to well in Sierra’s eyes, and Anthony quickly wiped them away, kissing her again.
“Sierra,” he said gently, almost laughing. “I’m going with you. Of course, I’m going with you,” he said, shaking his head. “Unless you don’t want me to,” he added.
“You want to?” she said, perking up immediately.
“Yes. God, yes. I’d go with you anywhere,” Anthony said, stealing a kiss from her swollen lips.
“I’m so relieved,” she sighed out. A few more tears escaped.
“I’m so glad you told me this. I was trying to figure out some way to have the pack just deal with me living out here,” he laughed. “They hate my guts. They would have made life miserable for us,” he said.
“How soon do you want to leave?” Sierra asked. Her eyes had a hunger in them that he wanted to see more of.
“How soon can you be ready?”
“Today I had to sign my mother over to a facility. I can go any time you want,” Sierra answered quickly.
“In the morning?” he asked. “Or do you want to pack everything from the apartment you had with your mother?”
“Tomorrow morning’s fine,” Sierra said quickly. “I can pack what I need. I have a neighbor that I can leave the rest to. I’m sure she’d love to sell all of it,” she laughed.
It felt natural and relaxing to talk like this.
They were talking about picking up their lives as they were and running away together, but Anthony felt the calmest he had in years.
Sierra leaned against him and stole another kiss. Anthony returned the kiss. Holding her tight, he pulled her against himself. The kisses were slow, passionate, and he was dying of thirst for more.
“I have to go if I’m going to be ready by morning,” Sierra said softly, pulling back from him.
“Do you need any help?” he asked, trying to gain some composure.
“No, I’ll be fine.” Sierra hugged him, leaning all of her weight against Anthony.
He loved her.
Everything about her.
He couldn’t believe how lucky he was that she chose him.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Packing for him was easier.
Somehow, it felt like every time he changed cities he walked away with less than he arrived with. A couple pairs of pants, a few shirts, his jacket, underwear, and a book.
That’s all he owned, save for his car.
Anthony stared at his packed bag and couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be enough for Sierra.
She’d never moved from West Valley.
She undoubtedly owned things that meant more than just utility. He wouldn’t be able to tell her to leave it, to start from the ashes. It wouldn’t be fair. She wasn’t like him. They’d lead entirely different lives where he was concerned. He couldn’t be responsible for taking more of that from her than he had. She was leaving with him, and that was enough.
Anthony’s knee jittered up and down.
He turned on the television, tried to watch anything, but nothing held his attention. He considered going out to get one last West Valley meal, but he didn’t want to start a fight with the pack on his last day in town.
His last day.
He’d been like Sierra in that he’d never moved before his pack died.
Since then, though, he’d been constantly on the road. Constantly getting attached to random towns and cities, all before finding out he wasn’t wanted there. He’d be taking his home with him now, though. He was sure that wherever they ended up, he’d be happy with her at his side.
Anthony couldn’t sit still with his thoughts much longer.
Grabbing his bag, he got up to head to the car. They weren’t leaving until morning, but having the car loaded would be helpful. As he opened the door, he caught himself wondering which car they’d take, if not both.
His thoughts were cut short by a handgun pointed at his face.
It sat there firmly as if it had been waiting for him since the beginning of time.
In a way, it had been.
“Ivy,” he acknowledged. Opening the door further, he backed away so that she could walk into his hotel room. Anthony sat his luggage on the ground and closed the door most of the way, leaving it just slightly ajar.
“I’m tired of waiting to catch you shifting,” she said simply, crossing her legs as she settled into one of the chairs at the small table next to his bed.
“I shifted just yesterday,” he said plainly. Walking to the sink, he turned the faucet. “Water?”
“No, thanks. Do you know what tomorrow is?” Ivy asked, leaning back in the chair. She looked more bored than anything.
“No, what is it?” he asked, pouring a glass for himself.
“My brother’s birthday,” Ivy’s voice was like knives.
“Oh, that’s right,” Anthony answered. The past couple months had slipped through his fingers and attention in a blur. He’d completely lost track of the date.
“If y’all were best friends, why didn’t you remember?” Ivy said smugly.
“I was too distracted by his death to remember,” he tried to be honest.
Ivy laughed, still keeping her gun trained on his face. “I guess murdering someone would do that to you,” she shrugged.
“You know I didn’t kill them,” Anthony said flatly.
“Yes, you did. Cut the shit already,” Ivy sighed. “We had no pack rivalries, no invaders, nobody in the pack besides us missed the meeting. It had to be you,” Ivy explained.
“There has been a string of Alpha murders,” he explained. “You of all people should know that.”
“And they decided to pop out in bumfuck nowhere to take down a pack?”
“We were an easy target.”
“You’ll cling to any lie you can, won’t you?” she scoffed, sighing. “I know it was you. You can stop being so full of shit.
“I’m done trying to make my case to you,” Anthony shook his head. “The law believes me, and that’s what matters.”
Ivy raised the gun in her hands.
“When the law fails, you take it in your own hands,” she explained.
“Don’t do this,” Anthony said, his hand tightening around the plastic cup of tepid water. “You’re graduating next semester. We could work together and find the actual killer,” he said, letting go of the cup. Anthony slowly raised his palms. “I’m not going to fight back or hurt you. I’m innocent here.”
“The only thing you are is full of shit,” Ivy spat at him, narrowing her eyes. “I’m not going to just let you get away with this. I’m not as stupid as those non-shifter cops. You did it, and you’re not going to talk me out of shooting you.”
She cocked the gun.
Anthony sucked in his breath, and stared her down.
“I’m so sick of waiting. I’ll be able to move on after this,” she explained.
“You’ll go to prison.”
“It’ll still be a hell of a lot better than where you end up.” She looked less determined now that the gun was cocked. Anthony watched her carefully. Ivy’s hand was just barely shaking, and there were tears starting to well in her eyes.
She didn’t want to do this.
She still felt like she had to, and he felt bad for her.
Ivy would be done with college soon. She would be able to go start a career, get her own pack, and move on from all of this like Anthony was wanting to, but killing him would kill those dreams, too.
“Look, lower the gun.”
“Don�
�t tell me what to do, you bastard.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
It can be hard to pack when you’ve only moved once before in your life.
Sierra loaded all of the clothing she could fit into her two suitcases.
Would she need dishes?
She just bought that television in the last year for her mother, but the home she was going to had its own TVs in the rooms. She didn’t need it.
Sierra sat down in the middle of her apartment, in the midst of everything she’d known for her entire life, and realized she didn’t know what she was doing. She wanted to move.
Needed to move.
She’d never considered what she’d do with everything she owned.
It wasn’t like she could just leave an apartment full of it and expect everything to be all right. Her landlady, when she spoke to her just an hour before, had made her pay two month's rent out since she was ending her lease early.
She didn’t have time to call a moving company.
She didn’t have time to pack everything.
Didn’t have time to move her mother’s things herself.
Yet, she had no question in her mind that she was moving the next morning. She was getting out of dodge, leaving this shitty tiny town behind.
Sierra packed everything she knew she needed – clothes, toiletries, her laptop and CDs, her water bottle – and then stared at the thousands of other things still in the apartment.
She had one option.
Pulling on her shoes, she dragged her bags down to her car and made a short trip before returning.
Walking up the stairs for what she was sure was the final time, Sierra took a deep breath and stopped at her neighbor’s door.
“Hello?” Miss Jeanie was in a bathrobe and her pajamas, and answered the door with a look that said she wasn’t happy to be bothered.
“Hi, I was wondering if I could offer you a job?” Sierra asked, tucking her hands into her pockets awkwardly.
“What kind of job?”
“If I pay you a thousand dollars for your troubles, would you help clear out the rest of my apartment? You can keep the money from anything you sell except…wait,” Sierra paused to pull a sheet out of her purse. “I have a list of things that I want to go with my mother to her new home, but besides that, you can keep anything you want or the money off anything you sell,” Sierra explained.
“Are you running from the law?” Jeanie asked, wrinkling her face at the conversation.
“No, I’m just finally getting out of this town,” Sierra said, grinning.
“Mm, well,” Jeanie said, leaning against the door frame, “keep your cash. Your deposit is over a thousand, right?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Yes.”
“I’ll keep that and take care of the apartment. Is there a due date?”
“June 1st.”
“Fair enough. I’ll do it. I just need the keys and for you to give the landlady a call,” Jeanie shrugged.
“Oh, my god, you’re amazing. Thank you,” Sierra could cry.
It didn’t matter how much she was giving up.
It didn’t matter how much money she was basically handing away. Miss Jeanie had helped take care of her mother for over a year now, it was deserved.
She got to be free.
After she handed over the keys, Sierra stared over at the apartment she’d worked so hard on keeping. The one she was so easily giving up.
It was worth it to be free.
It didn’t matter how flighty she felt doing this, how sudden it was, how her mother would have reacted when she was more aware. All that mattered was that she’d finally get a chance at a life outside of West Valley.
A life where she wasn’t just stuck in this fishbowl of a town.
Sierra took her time walking down to her car. She stared back over the apartment complex one last time, not entirely sure why she was feeling sad. It was like she could see her life there through rose-tinted glasses then.
No matter how rosy she painted it, she still wanted out.
Loading into her car, she left that complex for the first time.
She needed to move on to start her life.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The parking lot was pitch black when she arrived.
She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, fleeing her job and her life, but she didn’t expect everything to look and feel exactly the same. If she didn’t think about it too hard, she could trick herself into thinking she was just getting ready for another shift. She wasn’t, she knew that, but it was all still too surreal.
The car was a lease. She’d call them in the morning to come and pick it up. It was a junker anyway. She didn’t need to worry anymore about it. Sierra pulled out her luggage and then swept through the car to make sure nothing else was in it. She didn’t need them to try to charge her any more than they would for her ending her lease a month early.
She wanted to leave.
Even though a week or two of staying, of planning, might have saved her from having to cut and run, she didn’t want to waste it. She didn’t think she could waste it, not after how Anthony had looked when she found him beaten and bruised. It didn't matter that he could heal from it. What if they didn’t stop next time? What if he wound up dead?
Sierra had to stop these thoughts in their tracks.
Reminding herself that he was going to be free of this place, too, cheered her up as she made her way across the parking lot to his room. There was someone yelling.
Sierra set her bags down and quietly peeked between the blinds of the window.
There was a woman in there – the woman from the bar – just laying into Anthony and screaming at him. Sierra’s blood ran cold. She watched for a moment more, and the woman pulled out a gun.
No.
She’d just set up her life to leave with him.
She sacrificed so much.
She wasn’t going to let him die.
Sierra dialed 911 and waited for them to answer.
“There’s a woman with a gun in one of the Casino’s hotel rooms. She looks like she’s about to shoot a man,” Sierra whispered anxiously. “Room 233. Please, please, hurry,” Sierra added, before she set her phone on top of her suit case.
She could hear the operator asking for her to stay on the line, and then pausing and asking if she was there.
Sierra watched closely, not wanting to say anything else in case the woman could hear.
Anthony and the woman went quiet, and she raised the gun.
The cops weren’t going to get there in time.
Sierra didn’t think and didn’t wait. She rushed to the handle of the room and found it unlocked. Within moments, she was bursting into the room and throwing herself at the woman’s arm to push it out of the direction of Anthony.
There was a bang.
He fell down.
Sierra felt her heart stop.
“Anthony,” she cried out. The woman under her started swinging at her to get her off, and Sierra struggled to keep her down. In this light, the girl looked different from the bar. She didn’t look more than twenty. What the hell was she doing?
“He’s killed people,” the woman gasped out at Sierra.
“I don’t believe you,” Sierra answered stubbornly.
“Please don’t say he’s gotten in your mind,” the woman complained, sitting away from Sierra as she pulled herself free.
“He hasn’t gotten in mine. You’ve just lost yours,” Sierra said angrily.
The woman reached for the gun again, and in a blur, something attacked her.
Anthony.
He was bleeding from his shoulder, and as she watched, he pushed the woman into the wall and held her there. He wasn’t choking her, didn’t hurt her, just held her there.
There was a banging on the door, and Sierra looked up to see a couple guards from the Casino standing there. Sierra scrambled to open the door and let t
hem in.
“What’s going on? The police were called,” one asked, as the other rushed and pulled Anthony away from the woman.
“She came in here with that gun,” Sierra answered, rushing to Anthony’s side. “He’s been shot,” she added, rushing to his side.
“He’ll be fine. Do you want to press charges?” the security guard asked Anthony, un-phased.
“What do you…?”
Anthony shifted in front of them.
In front of a room of strangers.
It was just for a moment. There were cop sirens, and then he shifted back.
Sierra’s heart dropped.
The guards, too, looked un-phased.
Shifters.
How could he tell?
“I don’t,” Anthony said, looking at the other woman with an expression of such total disappointment that it made Sierra feel sick. “The bullet is in the wall, though,” he added, pointing up at it.
“Go ahead and get rid of the shirt before the cops get in here,” one of the security guards said quickly. Anthony shoved it in his open luggage.
The cops were treated completely differently.
They didn’t seem to know what was going on. None of them looked or acted familiar to any of those in the room. It took a moment for Sierra to realize they were state patrol sheriffs. Not local.
They talked a lot to her and Anthony. They shoved the woman that Sierra learned was named ‘Ivy’ into the back of a car.
They’d have to stay at least a few days for questioning.
So much for running off into the night.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Can’t believe you were just going to leave your car in the parking lot,” Anthony laughed, leaning back into his seat after he filled his car with gasoline. The back seat and trunk were full of luggage and clothing. The sun was bright and hot through the glass of the windows, and Sierra could feel the energy of the day ahead of them flood her.
“I was desperate to leave,” Sierra said, embarrassed. “I thought we had to get out and go,” she explained.
“We did; we do,” Anthony answered. He looked over at her with a smile. “It means a lot to me that you were so ready to just go, though. That you care so much you’d really give up all of that for me.”
Searching for Home (Wolves of West Valley Book 2) Page 11