That made his entire forehead groove. I tossed him a wink as I turned the corner.
The second I was out of sight, I dropped the smile and hurried to the bedroom my aunt and uncle had loaned me. I shut my door and sidled against it. My heart was thumping so hard it threatened to derail. Liam hadn’t recognized me. I was safe.
At least, that was what I believed for the next few minutes.
Two knocks on my door made me spring away from it.
“Open up.”
I sniffed the air. Evergreen. Not Liam. I turned the knob to let my cousin in.
It had taken his girlfriend almost dying for me to forgive my cousin for being such an ass back in LA. I hadn’t forgiven his parents, though. They’d yanked me out of my life one too many times to forgive.
“I just overheard Liam mention to his buddies that he ran into a hot blonde housekeeper.” Everest dropped into the flannel-covered armchair in the corner of my bedroom. “Was it you?”
I crossed my arms. “I’m offended you need to ask.”
“Only reason I’m asking is ’cause I thought you were planning on holing up in your bedroom until the pack left.”
“Can’t a girl change her mind?”
“You can change your mind, but if I were you, I’d stay the fuck away.”
“Noted.”
“I’m serious, Ness. Especially from Liam Kolane. He’s cut from the same cloth as his dad.”
A chill whorled beneath my ribs. “He rapes women too?”
“There are rumors…” Everest dragged his long fingers through his red hair.
I hated that I’d just reminded him of his girlfriend’s fate-raped by Liam’s father, Heath…the horror.
I sat on the edge of the duvet I’d fluffed upon waking, folding one leg underneath me. “Go against Liam.”
“What?”
“For Alpha. Go against him.”
Everest exhaled a rough breath. “I have no desire to lead the pack.”
“You’d rather have Liam lead you?”
“No.”
Ever since Everest’s girlfriend had attempted suicide the week I arrived in Boulder, I’d softened toward my cousin. His pain, although different, reminded me acutely of my own. Maybe that was why I’d found it in my heart to overlook Los Angeles. Gone was his cockiness, replaced by this oppressive despondence that had turned him into a bit of a recluse.
“I can’t stop thinking about what Heath did to Becca,” he whispered, hazel eyes slickening with emotion. Not many things got to me, but a man crying…yeah, that got to me.
I leaned across the narrow space and touched his clasped hands. “Heath is gone, Everest. He got what he deserved.”
Even though Heath had died a week ago, the realization hadn’t settled in Everest yet. Perhaps because Liam had decided to bury his father in an intimate ceremony to which only a handful of pack members had been convened. Although brutal, seeing my mother’s body lowered into the earth had brought me closure.
“He may be gone, but so is Becca,” he muttered.
“She’s not gone-gone.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Her odds of waking are fucking ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous is better than no odds at all.”
He snorted. “Can’t believe you’rethe optimist.”
He was right. I was a half-empty sort of girl.
He sighed then stood. “I should go. The meeting starts soon.”
“Think about what I said. About tossing your name in the hat.”
“There won’t be a hat. No one’s going to go up against Liam.”
“You don’t know that.”
He shot me a how-many-shades-of-clueless-are-youlook.
And here I thought the pack had balls. Many pairs of them. Was there truly no one to challenge a Kolane?
The second Everest left, I swapped my gray housekeeping uniform for skinny jeans and a white tank top. Mom’s wedding band drummed against my chest as I headed for the inn’s common area. Conversations and laughter frothed through the closed doors and filled the hallway. Steeling my nerves, I pumped the sculpted copper handle and drew the door open.
Squares of sunlight dappled the airy room. People were huddled in large groups, either sprawled over the leather sofas, or standing by the buffet of sweets and drinks set up next to the massive stone fireplace. No fire snapped in the blackened hearth, and yet the room smelled of warm smoke, as though the scent of winter fires had penetrated the pale-yellow stucco walls and Native-patterned area rugs.
As I dragged my gaze over the crowd, I caught Lucy’s attention. She shot me a look that could’ve withered one of her prized rose transplants. She wasn’t the only one glaring. I garnered many a glare. For example, Liam and the two guys standing on either side of him gave me the stink-eye.
I was the new kid all over again. Good thing it didn’t frighten me.
Lucy elbowed her way through the sunlit room toward me, then latched onto my bicep and tugged me aside. “What are you doing here?”
I shrugged her off. “I’ve decided you were right. That I should get out and meet people.”
Lucy dipped her chin into her fleshy neck. “Ness…”
“Yes?”
Her warning died in her throat. My aunt wouldn’t dare make a scene, and considering how quiet it had gotten, she chose silence over a messy confrontation.
One of the guys broke away from Liam’s little group and approached me, black eyebrows slanting over piercing green eyes. He stopped mere inches from me and tipped his head down. I crossed my arms, expecting him to tell me to beat it.
“Dimples? Is that you?”