“Dimples, come closer.” He patted the seat between us.
I was too numb to move, so he clicked off my seatbelt, dragged me toward him, then draped his arm around my shoulders, rubbing my pebbled skin, trying to deliver warmth into it. Tears still streamed down my cheeks and around my trembling lips, seeping into his flannel sleeve. I closed my eyes and let the scent of laundry detergent and sandalwood lull me.
Every part of my body felt anesthetized. Except my arm.
I felt my arm… felt the gentle strokes of August’s fingers.
“We’re here,” he whispered after what felt like an hour. He eased the pickup to a stop dangerously close to the lip of the mountainside and clicked on his hazard lights, streaking the row of other vehicles with orange flashes.
A fire truck topped with a huge beam and two other SUVs were parked behind us. I pressed away from August, scraped the heels of my hands over my cheeks, then took a fortifying breath and got out slowly. When the balls of my feet met the ground, I teetered. I flung out my palm, catching myself on the car door. My head spun like a top. I breathed in and out slowly, each breath raking up my chest like claws.
A hand curved around my waist and another around my elbow. “Are you sure you want to go down there?”
“Yes.” I inhaled again. “My bag. You have my bag?”
“It’s in the car.”
Everest’s last message was on my phone.
My phone was in my bag.
“Can you give it to me?”
August grabbed it, then hooked the long strap over my shoulder. After closing the door, he gripped my elbow again and guided me toward the illuminated ditch. The first thing I saw was the overturned vehicle.
Everest’s Jeep.
The second thing I saw was Liam’s deep glare.
“What the fuck were you thinking bringing her here, Watt?” he barked.
The firefighter beside Liam peered up. The truck’s beam made a small hoop gleam in his ear. In spite of his helmet, I recognized Rodrigo, the dark shifter who’d spent most of the meeting scowling at me.
“I made him bring me,” I said.
Car doors slammed, and two more people approached: Frank and Eric. Frank did a double take when he spotted me. Obviously no one had expected me to come.
Eric grabbed onto the bent guardrail and hopped down the vertiginous shoulder. He slipped but didn’t fall. Putting his weight in his heels, he took careful steps toward the remains of my cousin’s car.
Of my cousin.
Frank exchanged a loaded look with August. The elder was probably trying to get August to keep me from going closer. Before he could heed the unspoken instruction, I shrugged him off and made my way to the ripped metal railing, brushing past it. I eased myself down the side of the rocky knoll.
Liam stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the car.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he growled.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” I snapped, my voice all at once tight and toneless.
“What happened?” Eric asked, and I thought he was asking between Liam and me, but the bald elder was staring at Rodrigo.
“Looks like he either missed the turn or went over on purpose.”
He thinks Everest committed suicide? I opened my mouth wide but regretted it, because the air was laced with the acrid reek of death.
“Cause of death?” Frank asked, traipsing down the steep flank beside August. The elder almost fell, but August caught his arm and steadied him.
“A piece of metal went through his windpipe,” Lucas said. He was crouched as though searching for debris among the rock and tufts of dust-flecked grass, but I saw his nostrils flare. He was trying to catch scents.
Bile lurched up my throat. I pressed my knuckles against my lips to keep them locked. Once I had my nausea under control, I said, “He didn’t kill himself.”
All the men looked at me.
“And you would know this how? Did you chat with him again?” Lucas asked.
“Bite me, Lucas,” I growled at the same time as Rodrigo said, “Again?”
Liam crossed his arms. “Why do you assume it wasn’t suicide?”
More car doors slammed shut, and then two beefy blonds stepped in the beam of the truck and surfed down toward us.
“Hey,” Matt called out, his voice gruff. When his gaze landed on me, his honeyed eyebrows quirked in bewilderment. He quickly moved his eyes toward the Jeep. I watched his expression, waited for it to turn pained, but there was no pain. Had he not cared about Everest? Had anyone cared about my cousin?
No wonder Everest hated the pack.
No wonder he screwed them over.
Matt circled the capsized car, stopping next to the driver’s side. When he winced, a fresh wave of nausea softened my bones.
Was Everest’s body still in there?
“So you were telling us why Rodrigo was wrong about it being a suicide.” Liam’s voice blazed with cageyness.
“He left me a voicemail about an hour ago.” I dug my phone out. “It sounds incriminating… Then again, you all think I’m a criminal already, so why am I even trying to defend myself?” I tapped on my phone’s screen with my fingers that seemed to have transformed into thumbs. It took me three attempts to get my passcode right.
No one spoke. Scraping in another breath of death-tainted air, I held out my phone and played back the voicemail over speakerphone. Hearing Everest speak and knowing that he was gone was eerie.
When the message ended, Matt said, “Someone was following him.”
Lucas rose from his crouch. “It would explain the pieces of plastic we found on the road.” He turned to Rodrigo. “I know you said the taillight could’ve come off the Jeep when it went over, but it is more likely another car rammed into Everest’s.”
Liam’s jaw clenched, unclenched, clenched again. “Check the road for skid marks, Matt.”
Matt climbed back, sidestepping the two firefighters who were heaving the Jaws of Life down to the scene.
“What did Everest put in your room?” Liam’s voice dragged my attention off the serrated tool.
Lucas, who was still crouched, alternately scanned the tufts of dusty grass and my expression.