His pupils contracted with surprise, and his pale lips fell open. He hadn’t known.
“He sold it in exchange for his help in”-I toyed with my mother’s ring, weaving my fingers in and out of it-“tampering with the pack’s security monitors and getting out of Boulder.”
My uncle gaped at me, confirming he hadn’t known any of this. Talk about being the harbinger of crap news. I released the ring and set both my palms on my knees.
“I should never have put it in his name. Lucy, she said-” His voice broke. “Doesn’t matter anymore what she said.” He sealed his lips, as though to prevent himself from badmouthing the mother of his child. After another long stretch of silence, he said, “I own a few apartments in downtown Boulder.”
I frowned.”I’ll have one readied for us.”
I squeezed my knees. “Us?”
“You and me.”
So he wasn’t planning on ending his life. “You don’t have to worry about me, Jeb. Frank said he could take me in-”
“You’re my ward, not his,” he snapped. That was the most energy I’d heard permeate his tone since the day of the last trial when he’d found his wife holding Evelyn hostage.
I wanted to live with Evelyn, but I couldn’t abandon my uncle. “Okay.”
Suddenly, he sat up in bed. “Can you hand me my cell?”
I got up to retrieve his phone from where I’d put it to charge days ago and then I stood watch as he dialed a number and barked at the unfortunate soul on the other end.
After disconnecting, he said, “Have one of the housekeepers stop by this address. The place probably needs a good cleaning.” He filched a pad of paper embossed with the inn’s logo and a pen from the drawer of his nightstand table, scribbled an address, then tore off the paper.
I took it reluctantly, but then pushed away my reluctance. Although my uncle had been the one to drag me back to Boulder the second he found out I was living in LA motherless, he wasn’t to blame for the fiasco that had ensued. If anything, I should have been relieved that he cared enough for me that he wasn’t skirting his responsibilities. I folded the note with the address, deciding I would take care of the cleaning myself.
He got out of bed so suddenly I stepped back so he wouldn’t bump into me and send me flying backward. Anger flushed his features and sparked in his eyes.
“I can’t believe he struck a deal with your father’s killer,” he muttered under his breath, grabbing the frame of a watercolor painting and tugging on it hard.
I braced for chaos by hunching a little, but Jeb didn’t toss the canvas across the room. Instead, the frame folded like a book page. Behind it was a safe. He entered a six-digit number, and the safe beeped. He rifled inside, rustling papers, knocking over jewelry boxes until he found what he was looking for: an envelope. He peered inside, extracted two keys hooked to the same ring. He slid one off and tossed me the keyring. It landed at my feet.
“The key to our new home. Good thing I didn’t entrust it to my son. Can’t believe he sold Aidan Michaels our inn.” Jeb was so red I worried he would give himself an aneurism. Not that wolves could die of aneurisms.
I crouched to retrieve the keyring. “What happens once Lucy is released?”
My uncle stopped muttering and peered up at me.
I stared at the small silver key nestled in the palm of my hand. “I don’t want to live with her, Jeb. I can’t,” I said raising my gaze back to my uncle.
“I’m filing for divorce.”
Oh. Jeb walked over to me and gripped my shoulders. “We’ll get through this, Ness.”
His renewed desire to live restored my hope that we could heal from the deepest of wounds. Changed and scarred, but we survived. Even though I sensed Evelyn would put up a fight, I was touched that my uncle hadn’t abandoned me.
“You know, Callum was always trying to give me pointers about how to raise my son. It drove me insane, but now, I wish I’d listened to him.” He gave my shoulders a squeeze before letting go. “You’re a good kid, Ness.”
I pressed my lips together to drive back the emotion rising in my throat.
“Now, go pack your bags.”
I nodded and started walking toward the door but remembered the papers I needed him to sign. I took them out, and he signed them, telling me not to schedule driving lessons, that he’d give them to me himself.
Another wave of emotion surged within me. Jeb could never replace my father, the same way Evelyn had never taken my mother’s place, but I was glad for his support and his presence in my life, and hopeful that it would take some weight off my shoulders. I would never get to be a kid again-I didn’t even desire it-but I wouldn’t mind splitting some of my responsibilities with an adult.
By the time Lucas and I reached Tracy’s, Sarah was already there.
I’d packed my bags and swung by the new apartment to drop them off and make a list of cleaning products to purchase. Jeb’s investment was on the top floor of a two-story house, about ten blocks away from Tracy’s. The bedrooms were small, but they had their own bathrooms, and the living area had an open kitchen and an obstructed view of the mountains. In spite of the musty smell and the bare furnishings, I decided I didn’t hate it.
What would’ve been the point in hating it? It was to be my new home. Besides, I’d hopefully be moving into a dorm room soon. I was glad all my stuff fit in two blue Ikea bags. If I’d owned more things, relocating would’ve been a much bigger hassle. Besides, I adhered to my mother’s philosophy that things and the desire to always amass more stripped people of happiness and freedom. “The lighter you travel, the farther you’ll go,” she used to tell me. Back then, it had frustrated me not to be able to get a new backpack at the start of the school year or the Adidas sneakers everyone else was sporting, but I’d learned to stop wanting things. It had taken years. To be honest, it had taken my mother falling ill. Nothing else but finding a cure to keep her alive had mattered then.
I walked past the bar toward the wooden table Sarah was sitting at, drumming her perfectly manicured fingernails in time with the rain battering the windowed façade. She smiled when she caught sight of me, but then her smile wilted when she caught sight of my bodyguard.
Instead of sitting at another table like he’d done at the inn, Lucas plopped down on the seat beside Sarah. “If it isn’t my favorite Pine.”
“You don’t have a favorite Pine,” Sarah shot back. Then to me, she asked, “Why is the Neanderthal here?”
Lucas smirked, twisting the cap on his head. “Still at it with the name-calling, I see.”
Sarah glared at him, eyes a condemning shade of brown.
I sighed. “Long story.”
“I’m listening.” Sarah leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, making her extremely generous cleavage pop. I caught Lucas checking her out, and not just for a second or discreetly. He stared at her chest almost a full minute. Sleazeball.
Once I was done giving her the highlights, she uncrossed her arms. “Shit, Ness. That fuckin’ sucks.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I hope they get your cousin today. If only so you’re no longer stuck with this one.” She tipped her head toward Lucas who stole another lengthy look at her chest. “Eyes up, Mason. Didn’t your father ever teach you manners?”
Lucas’s gaze slid up to her face. “My father died before I started noticing anatomical differences between girls and boys.”
Sarah surely knew that Lucas had lost his parents-unlike me, she’d had a thorough werewolf and pack education. When a breathy gasp stumbled out of her mouth, I frowned.
“Forgot about that,” she said, a tad more gently.
“Was a long time ago.” Lucas removed his cap, dragged his fingers through his black hair, then screwed the hat back on. “Look who’s staring now?” Lucas said, one corner of his mouth tilting up.
Sarah spun back toward me.
Lucas flexed his arm. “Want to cop a feel?”
“Seriously?” She wrinkled her nose, seizing the laminated menu, which I was pretty certain she knew by heart. “I’d rather pet a rattlesnake than your bicep.”
“You like snakes, huh?”