I swallowed, twining my fingers together in my lap. Like Matt, I was no longer sure I knew who I was and what I was doing.
“Why did you go see the Pines, Ness? And please don’t tell me it was for money, because we’ll all pitch in and give you the amount you need. You’d have to ask, but we’d do it.” He touched my knee lightly, and I flinched. “Asking for help isn’t a weakness. It’s not a flaw either.”
My eyes went hot. With shame. But also with gratitude.
How I wished I could unburden myself, but if I told Matt my reasons for visiting the Pines, I’d be inking my death sentence.
“It was a job,” I lied, and then I repeated the words I’d heard Mom yell at Evelyn, “I don’t want charity. ” That was true at least. Like my mother, I had my pride. She’d worn it throughout her life like armor, and it had earned her the respect of many.
Matt loosed a rough sigh. “And what were you doing at Aidan Michaels’s house?”
This time, I told him the truth. How I’d hoped to understand why he’d killed my father. How I’d planned on entrapping him with a recorded confession.
Matt snorted.
“What?”
“Aidan Michaels is the biggest benefactor of the Boulder PD. He’s got every officer crawling around this town in his pocket. If I can give you some advice-which I hope you’ll actually listen to this time-don’t…ever…go to the police. Some people in the department are aware of our existence, and they share Aidan’s view-that we’re abominations. If they weren’t scared shitless of what we would do to their families if they waged an attack, they’d have tried to eliminate us a long time ago.”
Lucas came out of the bedroom, and we both looked up at him expectantly. “The good doctor needs alcohol.” He swiped a bottle of tequila from the rollaway bar tucked in the corner of the living room. I must’ve frowned, because Lucas added, “To disinfect the wound. We’re not celebrating…yet.” He flicked his gaze to Matt, then vanished back inside the dark bedroom.
“How did they know I was there?” My voice was as quiet as the cold air murmuring through the vent in the ceiling.
“Aidan is enemy number one of the pack. We’ve breached his security system, so we have eyes on him at all times. My brother, Cole, is a tech prodigy. He’s constantly monitoring the dude. When he noticed you there, he called me. Liam and Lucas were with me. Liam…he flipped.” Matt scratched a spot behind his ear. “He said you got real upset earlier over Heath’s decision not to seek retribution. Anyway, he was sure Aidan was going to kill you, or do…worse things to you.”
Guilt ravaged me. But then the conversation I’d had with Aidan played in my mind.
“Aidan shot my father because he thought it was Heath. Could Aidan…could hehave killed Liam’s father?” I sounded so pathetically hopeful.
Matt stared long and hard at me.
“Like I said, Cole monitors him,” Matt said slowly. “Aidan was inside his house all night.”
“Maybe he got someone else to do it for him?”
“Maybe.”
That little word buoyed me more than Julian’s support
Lucas padded back out into the living room. He wasn’t smiling, but his mouth was softer. “The wound’s closing up. He’s healing.”
Air whooshed out of Matt’s lungs. “Thank God.”
“I’d thank Greg, not God.” Lucas’s voice pinged around the glass walls enclosing the living room. “I need to go debrief the pack.”
His relief was making him jumpy and borderline giddy. I half expected him to hug Matt and pound him on the back, but Lucas did neither. He just asked his friend for a ride.
As though remembering I was there, Matt offered to drop me back at the inn. I rose just as Greg came out of the bedroom, wiping his hands on a steel-gray towel that reminded me of the one Liam had tied around his waist the night he- “He’s asking for you, Ness,” Greg said.
Isucked in air so harshly I coughed. “He wants to see me?”
Greg nodded, while Lucas and Matt exchanged a silent, weighted glance.
“You staying, right, Greg?” Lucas asked.
“Sure.”
Lucas pinned me with his blue stare. “Just until one of us comes back.”
Did Lucas fear I would finish the job the bullet had botched, or was he scared Liam might need a doctor on standby? I hoped it was the latter but believed it was the former. Sadly, Lucas and Matt had every right to be distrustful of me.
“I’ll stay out here.” Greg sat on the sofa, then picked up a large book from the wrought-iron coffee table. The History of Wolves
I wondered if it mentioned werewolves.
“We should be back in a half hour max,” Matt said.
“That’s fine,” Greg said. “I’m not on call tonight.”
So he wasa real doctor.
He put his feet up on the table and feigned great interest in the reading material on his lap.
“You gonna be okay in there, Clark?” Lucas asked.
I doubted he cared if I would be okay. What he cared about was if Liam would be okay with me in the same room. Still, I said, “Yes,” before I advanced toward the bedroom. Even though the door was ajar, I knuckled it. “Can I come in?”
A hoarse, “Yes,” answered me.
Without looking back at the others, I entered the bedroom, leaving the door open to show I had no ill intent. Liam was propped up on three pillows. Although still pale, some color had returned to his cheeks and some life to his eyes. In the darkness, they gleamed disquietingly bright, their beam ensnaring me. The hard set of his jaw told me he was angry.
Really angry.
The front door banged shut, and I jumped.
“Close the door.” His voice was deep and raspy, as though the bullet had scraped his throat.
My heart banged like Aidan’s shotgun.
“Please.” His Adam’s apple bobbed in his corded neck.
I bit my lower lip, eyeing the doorknob. Finally, I wrapped my fingers around the cool metal and pushed it. The click of the latch bolt against the strike plate echoed harshly in the quiet room.
I’d decided never to lay eyes on him after what he’d done to me, and here I was locking myself inside a bedroom with him. The night was stretching the limits of my sanity. I crossed my arms and raised my gaze to his.
“I know you can’t stand to look at me after what I did to you.” He watched what his words did to me.
My nostrils pulsed. The coppery scent of blood mixed with the smell of his skin was making my head spin. Or maybe it was the intensity with which he was studying me.