by Holley Trent
She was also barefooted and gripping the heels of her stilettos in one hand.
“What’s going on?” he asked her.
“Anyone else in there?” She looked to each corner, nostrils flaring as she assessed the scents in the room.
“Just me.”
“Stay right there.” She turned, stopped. Faced him again. “No, actually—go lock that door.”
“What’s happening?”
“We’re canceling a wedding,” she said with a frustrated roll of her eyes. “Duh.” She disappeared from the gap.
Confused but motivated, Blue jogged to the door and carefully locked it. If anyone outside really wanted to get in, they had strength and guns and could easily get entrance, but at least he could buy himself some time. He just didn’t know for what.
Lance appeared at the gap where Diana had been standing, looking no worse for wear, but as uncomfortable as Blue felt. His monkey suit was ill fitted in the shoulder and elbow areas, and his slacks too tight at the thighs. There was a reason Blue only wore custom suits, and he was looking at it.
“You’re gonna find yourself in some deep shit if my father notices you’re not out there,” Blue said.
“To hell with your father,” Lance said, widening the pathway opening. “Make this fast. We’re getting out of here as soon as Lily backs the van up. Tough getting through the chaos out there.”
“Lily who?” Blue was only familiar with one Lily, and she was a Foye relative. Couldn’t have been her. Perhaps it was some sympathetic employee of the country club. He wasn’t going to waste mental energy figuring it out. “And what am I making fast?”
“Reuniting,” came a shy whisper that wasn’t from Lance.
Blue thought he must have been hearing things. That voice shouldn’t have been there. He’d been ordered to stay far away from that voice and the woman who owned it, and he’d feared the consequences of defying the order so much that he’d followed it.
That couldn’t have been his Willa.
But there she was, peeking into the room from behind Lance, looking small and tired, but smiling ever so slightly and looking like a mirage in a hot desert.
She wasn’t real, but he moved toward her anyway. A dream was better than nothing.
He stood feet away, peering at her, waiting for the image to dissolve. It didn’t shimmer or flicker. She seemed solid. Seemed real.
“I wish you could have been at the concert last night,” she said, wringing her hands. “It was the funniest thing, all those Cougars and Coyotes in the audience wearing foam ear plugs. Hank made them go.” She chuckled. “Made them open their wallets. The kids were thrilled.”
The mirage was apparently talking about band stuff.
Hell of a mirage.
Lance moved aside and nudged her forward. “Willa told her she could keep the ring.”
Willa looked over her shoulder at him, grimacing. “I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t my place, but I didn’t know what else to tell her.”
“Ring?” Blue murmured. He was evidently missing some context. Still wasn’t sure what was happening, only that the mirage was blushing. He didn’t think mirages were capable of shame.
“The engagement ring,” Lance said. “I was guarding Sheena’s suite when Willa walked in. No one was paying her any attention.”
“Most people don’t,” she whispered.
“Truth is,” Lance said, “all Sheena needed was a good enough reason to bounce. You know what really did it for her?”
“What?” Blue asked.
Lance pointed to Willa. “She could smell you on her.”
“I had a hunch,” Willa said in that same barely audible voice. “I figured if Diana could smell it, maybe another woman could, too.”
“Oh, and she certainly did,” Lance said. “I guess Sheena’s not as practical as Bruno, because she doesn’t want to be married to a Coyote who already has a mate. She wants no part of the arrangement, and her mother is going to back her up on that. Bruno will have no choice but to call off the deal if he cares about household peace at all.”
“Sheena turned out to be a smart lady,” came Diana’s voice immediately before someone at the other end of the tunnel tapped a vehicle horn.
Willa jolted forward with a gasp at the loud noise, and something in Blue woke up then. He scooped her against him and buried his face in her hair.
“Why are you here? Even if I’m off the hook here, you know I can’t keep you. Didn’t you read my note?”
Slowly, her fingers curled into the fabric of his coat, and her breath came out in one long, relieved stream. “No. I couldn’t finish.”
“So, you didn’t find the check I left for the kids’ band camp, then.”
She made a face. “The what?”
“Never mind,” he mumbled, pinching himself to convince he wasn’t dreaming.
He was glad she hadn’t finished, because she’d come to him, but . . . there she was. Either Apollo was going to shit bricks, or OG would.
“Your father’s not going to stand for this,” he told her, but when she looked up, gaze clear and focused on him, Blue didn’t care. She’d come all that way for him, knowing she shouldn’t, but maybe she’d had to. Maybe there was a chance she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her. If so, they’d figure something out. There had to be something he could offer Apollo that had equal value to Blue’s misery. Whatever it was, he’d find it.
“Let’s go!” Diana shouted into the library. “Before OG decides to trap us here out of malice. Got a clear path out of here, and we might be able to grab Kenny if we make good time. He called Willa from a pay phone in Carson City. Thank the gods he bothers to memorize phone numbers.”
“Reciting phone numbers is a dying skill,” Willa said in a muffled voice as Blue jogged down the corridor, jostling her all the way. He could have let her move of her own volition, but he wanted to hang on to her until he was sure the nightmare was over.
The tunnel narrowed at the end so they all had to crouch as they scrambled toward the light, coughing through the van exhaust.
The van’s rear doors were wide open to reveal several large, ornate floral arrangements that happened to match the scheme of Blue’s aborted wedding.
“What the hell?”
Lance leapt into the back and pulled Willa in. “Bought them off the actual florist before they quit. Needed something to shade the windows in here. There’s no tinting.”
“Smells like a funeral home.” Diana climbed up next after tossing her shoes in over the seats.
“We’ll ditch them as soon as we get out of Sparks,” Lance assured her. “Allergic.”
After glancing over his shoulder to check for pursuers, Blue climbed in last, slammed the door, climbed over the back seat, and slid down low next to Willa.
Whoever was driving that perfumed heap of metal hit the gas and took off with a lurch.
Blue managed to catch an arrangement of roses before they fell on Willa’s head.
“Oops!” the driver said. “Sorry.”
“Gods, let me drive, Lily,” Lance returned.
“No, you just stay down. I’ve got this. It’s just . . . the pedal is sticky and my boots have heels. Uh. Which way are we going, again?”
“South,” Lance and Diana said in unison.
“I’ve got GPS going,” Willa called up. “Kenny said he’d try to stay put, but if he thinks anyone might remember his face, he might have to keep moving.”
“As long as your phone has a good charge, we’ll be okay.” Diana sighed in the seat just ahead of them. “I can’t believe they took my stinking phone. I had to call the service and have them wipe the device remotely.”
“At least you thought to,” Blue said.
Gods knew what kind of information his father or one of his flunkies had managed to wrench out of Blue’s phone. That little piece of tech was his business lifeline.
Willa squeezed his hand. “Kenny did yours.” She grimaced. “I mean, I think that’s what
he was referring to. He was talking a mile a minute, and I’m not sure I caught everything. He ordered you a replacement. They’re delivering it to my house, I guess.”
“Your house, hmm?” Because her house was his house. He’d already decided.
She shrugged and stole a peek out the window. “Probably won’t fit through the mail slot, so you don’t have to worry about King eating it.”
Blue traced his thumb along the edge of her hairline. He’d worried he’d forget her textures. He never wanted to forget what she felt like and vowed to commit every bit of her to memory as soon as he was able. “I’m sure I’ll be there to personally sign for it,” he said into her ear.
“Oh?”
“Count on it.”
“Uh-oh,” Lily murmured.
“I don’t like that uh-oh,” Lance said. “What’s the uh-oh for?”
“There’s a car following us,” Lily said. “I didn’t think it was suspicious until I started changing lanes. They’re moving every time I do.”
“What’s the car look like?” Blue asked.
“Black SUV with tinted windows.”
“Expedition?”
“Yes.”
“Of course it is.” Blue should have known their escape wouldn’t be scot-free, but he’d hoped for just a few minutes of peace while he got his head screwed back on straight.
“Is there a guy with sunglasses driving it?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Blue pinched the bridge of his nose.
That had to be one of his father’s minions. OG might even have been in the car himself.
“Pull over,” Blue said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Pull over. That guy’s not above aggressive driving. He’ll make you wreck and will make it look like an accident. Lance, Diana, and I will be fine if we rolled over or collided with something, but you and Willa wouldn’t be.” Even with all the damn flowers to cushion them.
Willa clenched his wrist as he sat up and turned to look out the back window. “What are you doing?” she snapped. “We could have kept going.”
“Prey runs away, sweetheart. I’m not prey.”
“But—”
He grabbed her pretty face and kissed her until she squeaked. “Don’t worry.”
“You’re forgetting who you’re talking to,” she muttered breathlessly. “Worrying is my thing.”
“Okay. Well. As soon as we get back to Maria, we’re going to have to get you other things.” He groaned, and added in a mutter, “Assuming your father doesn’t shoot a sun flare at me or turn me into some new kind of flower or something.”
She giggled. “My aunt wouldn’t let him do that.”
“Your aunt? What do you mean?”
She nodded. “Mm-hmm. The one who saved me from the fire. Artemis. She’s in our corner, apparently.”
“Not that I’m not glad, but why?”
“I think . . . ” Willa’s eyes took on a faraway look as she fidgeted the button of his tuxedo coat. “She’s tired of tragedy.” Her gaze focused on him again. True eye contact, no flinching. “So am I.”
“Let’s not be tragic, then.” With one more kiss, he climbed past her and pulled the side door open just as Astor was about to land his meaty fist on the glass.
“What?” Blue asked, loosening his tie. Yellow silk. He had no idea who’d picked the color scheme.
“Blue?” Astor said. “Shit. Thought this was the florist. Your old man wanted his deposit back, but since it’s you—” Blue grabbed his neck the moment Astor reached for his holster.
Blue squeezed. Astor had his feet on the ground and had leverage on his side, but Blue was the dominant dog there, and Blue’s will was for him to bow down.
Astor’s knees buckled, fingers clawed at Blue’s hands, energy waned. His second wind came at the familiar raspy burr in the shout, “Astor, what’s the holdup?”
“He’s getting out of the car,” Diana said. She was already climbing over seats and heading toward the front door, ready to bolt.
“Sit,” Blue commanded.
“But—”
“You are not his prey, Diana.” He needed her to believe him. They needed to claim their autonomy and thrive on their own respectability. They’d lived under an egomaniacal, self-important Coyote’s thumb for too long, and the effects ran deep.
This ends.
Astor hit the ground. Blue stepped out and over him, meeting his father toe-to-toe on the roadside shoulder.
“You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve,” OG said.
“Blue?” Willa whispered behind him.
“One moment, sweetheart,” Blue said with forced calmness. “I’m fixing this. I promise.”
“But—”
“Does it make you feel like a big man to make people miserable?” he asked his father. Before he could open his mouth to respond, Blue preempted him with, “Don’t answer that. I already know you’re going to give me the same crock of bullshit about how all of this”—Blue flung his arms outward and spun around, pointing to the Wild West around them—“could be mine, right? One day when you finally die and I’m too old to give a shit?”
“Uh, Mr. Shapely?” Lily called out. “More guys are getting out of that SUV.”
Of course there were. The goon squad was predictable.
Lance squeezed outside and moved around as if to intercept.
Willa shouted at his back, “For goodness’ sake, this doesn’t have to happen. People are watching.”
“There are ways of making people forget things they’re not meant to see, sweetheart,” Blue said. “Coyotes have been in this area for a long time.”
“But what I’m telling you is—”
“If you don’t get back to that club,” OG snarled, “and handle business like a man instead of running away like—”
“Like a what?” Diana sniped. “Huh? Like a bitch? Like our mother? Leaving this place was the bravest thing she could have done.”
If OG had a response to Diana’s opining, he didn’t speak it.
Blue could make out tussling in his periphery. Lance versus two, maybe more. He needed to assist. He wasn’t going to let Lance get humiliated when he’d done nothing wrong except be a good friend. First, though, Blue needed to draw that line in the sand.
OG had his hands balled into fists, steely gaze locked on Blue, chest heaving with “how dare you disobey?” indignation.
Blue wasn’t going to be a follower all his life. He was too damned old to be letting other people make decisions for him, especially when all the benefits always only flowed in one direction.
“Shit. Here come the cops,” Diana said as the blue lights flashed.
The tussle near the SUV disbanded, but OG held his ground. He probably had a few cops in his back pocket. No skin off his teeth.
“You leave here today,” he said, “and no matter where you go, I’ll send a raiding party to follow. There’ll be nothing left. Everything that’s yours will become mine. You want to skirt the rules, then I’ll see to it that they’re followed, even without your assistance.”
“But you won’t,” Willa said with a quiet growl of exasperation as she stepped down from the van.
“Sweetheart, please.” Blue tried to lift her back into the vehicle, but the stubborn wisp writhed in his arms and then kicked his shin for good measure. “Ow!”
“Listen to me,” she said, grinding her fists against her eyes as OG stared down at her as though she were a pesky bug that needed stepping on.
He had no idea who she was, or what she was.
Fortunately, she’d already endured far worse than him.
Lance rejoined them at the van, keeping his gaze on the cops piling out of their cars.
“You’re not going to raid,” she said, looking at the ground in front of OG’s feet. “I’ve kept my head in the sand on a lot of issues pertaining to Coyotes, but I know that you cannot raid another alpha’s territory unless you’re declaring war. Trust me. You don’t want to do
that.”
Blue leaned in and murmured, “But it’s not my pack.”
“But it is. I was trying to tell you, and you wouldn’t listen. I abdicated my role as pack patron. If you’re not in charge, then we’re gonna have a serious problem back in Maria. The Foyes are only going to be able to keep things calm for so long.” She cringed. “That whole cats and dogs thing.”
Was she really telling him that she’d gone to the Foyes? That was the smartest thing she could have done. It was what Blue would have done, but that wasn’t important. The other thing she’d said was far more critical. “Am I hearing you right? You gave me the pack?”
She shrugged and twisted the toe of her sneaker against the hard, red soil beneath. “I guess it’s a good thing that with me as your mate, you’ll live as long as I do, because it’s going to take you a long time to fix what I couldn’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Pack’s a mess. You forgot?”
“Not that part,” he said in an urgent whisper. OG was huffing with impatience, probably wanting to get his pound of flesh for the embarrassment of the day, and Blue could hear slamming doors from the cars parked behind them. Cops were on approach. “The other part.”
Her brow creased. “The basically immortal part? Well, it’s not true for all demigods, but most get to keep their partners as long as their partners want to be kept. You could live a very long time.” Her forehead smoothed, and she looked up. “If that’s okay.”
“For God’s sake, of course it’s okay. You kidding me?” He pulled her close to him, grasping her hand and nudging her chin up so she’d look at him. If what she was saying was true, that meant that Blue was not only an alpha in title, but also in all duties. The shackles were off, and he was free to govern by instinct as most good alphas did.
“You trust me that much?” he asked, incredulous.
She nodded and nudged his hand away so she could look down at the ground again.
She was nervous. He understood. The situation was tense, and they had a hostile spectator.
OG walked away then to greet the approaching police officers, laughing and calling them congenially by name as he went.