“Ness, please call me Frank. As to Evelyn, she and I share a tumultuous history,” Frank explained, which just had Jeb gape wider. At least he was no longer sobbing. “I owed it to Callum to take care of his little girl. He was a good man.”
At the mention of his brother, a strangled sound jerked out of Jeb’s mouth. He dug his fists into his reddened eyes.
“I’m glad you joined the pack, Ness.” Frank touched my cheek, then leaned over and placed a kiss on my forehead. “Welcome to the family.”
Little butterflies whirled around my stomach, and I smiled gratefully up at him. “Can I ask you something, Frank? Would you have made us kill each other?”
He smiled a little as he said, “That, you’ll never know.”
But I did know. His expression told me all I needed to know. Frank wouldn’t have made us spill blood. That was something Heath would’ve done.
I stayed next to my uncle after Frank left. “Where’s Lucy?”
Jeb drove the heels of his hands into his reddened eyes. “Eric…Eric locked her up in his basement”-his words were labored-“until she talks. Until she reveals where Everest is hiding.”
She’d sooner die than hand over her only son. “What happens if she doesn’t talk?”
“They’ll make the pack track him down.”
I’d meant to her, but I didn’t clarify my question. This was hard enough on Jeb.
“Let’s hope he went far, far away then,” I whispered just loud enough for Jeb to hear.
His puffy eyes widened, as though he couldn’t believe I wasn’t first in line to rip out his son’s jugular.
I wanted answers, and corpses don’t talk.
I gave Jeb a tight smile, then started to turn away when he called out my name.
“I have something that belongs to you.” He dug through his jeans and produced a key that he tucked into my palm. “It took me a couple years to get the money, but I bought back your house.”
That was how Lucy had gotten in…
I pushed that morose insight away as he continued, “It’s in your name.”
“I can’t-”
“You can.”
“But it’ll take me years to pay you back.”
“It’s a gift.”
“Jeb…”
He closed his fingers around mine, forcing the key into my palm. “I couldn’t prevent Aidan from killing my brother. I couldn’t prevent Heath from hurting your mother. And more recently I couldn’t prevent my wife and son from using you to terrible ends. Let me make amends.”
“But none of those things were your fault.”
“Please, Ness. Please take it. It’s in a dire state, but Nelson said he could help you. Or maybe August-”
“Thank you.” Heat blurred the sight of his pale features. “What’ll happen to the inn?”
He sniffed. “It’ll keep running. I’ll hire a new manager.” He stared down at his brown loafers. “Maybe after the summer, maybe I’ll close it down for a little while. I don’t know yet.”
I supposed working would keep him from dwelling on the fate of his family. “I’ll help out.”
“You don’t have to-”
“I want to.”
Can I get you back now?
The voice in my mind jolted me. Liam hadn’t moved from where I’d left him, and although he was surrounded by his pack, his full attention was on me.
“Thank you again for”-I nodded to my fist-“this. It means more to me than I could ever tell you.”
Jeb squeezed a smile onto his collapsed face.
I weaved myself between the large bodies until I reached Liam.
“Hey, sister from another mister.” Matt enfolded me in a bone-crushing hug, lifting me off my feet.
“We’re good again?” I asked once he’d set me down.
“As long as you’re good to my man, you and I are good, Little Wolf.” The warning was sugarcoated but clear.
Lucas held my gaze for a second. We didn’t exchange words. Unlike what Liam had told me in the car, I could sense I was far from Lucas’s favorite person. Maybe we’d grow on each other. Maybe not. We didn’t need to be best friends, but we would need to be friendly, for Liam’s sake.
Fingers gripped my chin and lifted my face gently.
A vein throbbed in Liam’s temple. Come home with me tonight?
Like the feather duster I’d been carrying when we’d met after so many years of being apart, Liam’s voice swept everything in the room away: the feral, rowdy men encircling us, my uncle’s intractable heartache, August’s strange chilliness. Even the musky male scents seemed to dim in the beam of Liam’s dark gaze.
“Yes.”
He smiled and then he kissed me, and whistles and cheers erupted around us. When he lifted his mouth off mine, I was completely breathless. And I could’ve sworn the tie that bound us together tightened a little harder.
****
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Find out in A Pack of Vows and Tears…
AFTERWORD
I hope you’ve enjoyed Ness’s story. She’ll be back soon in A PACK OF VOWS AND TEARS which is already up for sale.
Get book 2 here>>>