“Nothing.” She kissed me quickly.
“There’s something,” I said. “Let me take you to dinner. Have you been to the Watering Hole since you came back? They serve burgers now…”
“Rain check?” she asked. “I need to think.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Think about what?”
“About what we just did. What it means. What I want it to mean.”
“Seems like a problem we could figure out together,” I said.
But she was sliding off the dryer and hunting for her clothes.
“You’re not leaving again, are you?” I asked, unable to keep the hurt from my voice.
“What? No. No.” She pulled on her shorts and returned to me, bare-chested. Taking my face in her hands, she stood on tiptoes and kissed me. “I promise I’m not leaving. What we just did...damn, James. It’s everything. And you know me.”
“Always in your own head,” I said.
“Yeah.” She gave me a small smile.
“I’ll take you back to Daphne’s, then.”
We drove in silence. I would’ve worried, but Anna held my hand the whole way, letting go only when I had to shift gears.
When we reached the bed and breakfast, we looked across the cab at each other. Anna smiled.
“Call me later,” I said as she climbed out of the truck. “My number hasn’t changed.”
“Will do.” She gave me a little wave.
I watched until she was safely inside.
My mate had come home to me. A part of me that had been broken for ten years was made whole. But if she left again, I didn’t think I’d ever recover.
Chapter 11
Anna
Ten years ago, I left because it was too soon for forever. I left because as real as it felt, I was afraid to commit. Gram telling me I was too young had been that last push I’d needed. And by push, I meant flick. All it took was the suggestion that I should consider things, and I had run. Maybe I had one foot out the door longer than that and I just hadn’t realized it.
And that’s just what I was doing now.
I was ready to commit, and I was ready to run.
I left James in his truck, racing for the B&B like it was my lifeline, like I could hide from my problems and they’d simply disappear.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face. I could still feel his hands on me, feel him deep inside. Not just physically, but emotionally, too. I belonged to James O’Malley body and soul, and it was fucking terrifying.
I’d made a life for myself away from Forbidden. I had clients who were counting on me. I had Lenore. What would she do if I left?
Maybe I was grasping for excuses. Lenore and I could Skype, if she knew how to do that. Did she know how to Skype? I’d promised her a call, and now was the perfect time. Yes, I’d go up to my room and—
“Anna, what great timing!” Daphne’s chipper tone made me freeze in my tracks. She popped her head out of the room with the TV and smiled at me.
“Hey,” I said. “I, uh…”
“Are you busy? I could really use your help real quick.”
I was going to call Lenore—Lenore who was trying not to think about sex, just like I needed to stop thinking about James’s ripped abs and huge—
“Yep, no. I could use a distraction.” I followed her into the sitting room.
Another woman was in the room, putting a t-shirt on over her long-sleeved top. The words Sophie Tells It Like It Is were printed on the shirt. Sounded like some kind of intervention talk show.
“Anna, this is Sophie—Sophie, Anna,” Daphne said.
“Hi, I’m Finn’s mate,” the dark haired woman said. “Sophie.”
“Shhh,” Daphne said. “Ex-nay on the em-word-ay.”
“She knows,” Sophie said. “She’s a shifter. Finn told me.”
“Ohhhh.” Daphne shook her head. “Why did Declan not tell me that?”
“Are you and Declan—” I started.
“Oh yeah, we’re mates,” Daphne said. “We’re locking down those O’Malley boys, right Sophie? Starting the O-sister club.”
The two women laughed.
“All the O’s,” Sophie said.
A tiny dog ran into the room, though “dog” was a strong word for it. It looked like a cat inside a cloud. Those little dogs always made me smile.
“And this is Peyton.” Sophie scooped up the ball of fluff and held her out to me. “Isn’t she just the cutest?”
I nodded. “She’s adorable.”
Daphne handed me a phone. “Can you pretty please record for us? We’re doing a cross-promotional effort on Sophie’s show, trying to bring people to the B&B. Great, right?”
It seemed like I was supposed to nod. “Yeah.”
“You’re a therapist, right?” Sophie asked.
“I am.”
“Finn told me,” she said.
“Declan didn’t tell me that, either,” Daphne shook her head. “I swear.”
“Maybe I could interview you for a segment,” Sophie said. “If you have time while you’re in town. Or online, if not. It’s all about positivity.”
I looked between the two ever-positive self-starters and wondered how I fit into the dynamic. If I stayed in Forbidden, did that make me an O-sister, too? Would I be assigned a positivity mantra as a part of my initiation?
Daphne pulled my wrist. “Come on, everything’s ready to go upstairs.”
I followed after Daphne, Sophie, and Peyton, feeling like the odd fish flopping along the shore wondering which world I belonged to as the real fish dragged me toward their water. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the right metaphor, but I was completely out of my element, swept up by their energy and enthusiasm.
I tilted the camera up to follow them, and hit record.
Sophie opened the door to one of the rooms on the third floor. And she screamed.
I wondered for a moment if this was part of their show, just wild enthusiasm to the extreme, and then I saw her face. She was pale, and she was backing up. She plastered herself to the wall.
Daphne went over to her. “Are you—” She glanced into the room, then sucked in a deep breath, covering her mouth with her hands.
Okay, this was turning into a quite peculiar show, but honestly I didn’t know them or if this was just all part of the routine.
I turned the camera to the room, watching ahead through the screen.
There was a man sitting on a chair, spreadeagle, with a rose in his mouth. He was naked except for a sash across his chest, making him look somewhere between a beauty queen contestant and a flasher who didn’t seem to care about the way the cold made everything shrivel to look like grapes and a mini sausage in an oversized bush. The sash on his chest read Sophie Tells It Like It Is.
But Sophie wasn’t saying anything. And this man had no heartbeat.
No rise and fall of his chest.
He wasn’t breathing.
His head was shaved and his cheeks were round. I recognized him as the bull who’d wrecked breakfast yesterday—Baldy.
“Stop recording.” Daphne stepped in front of me.
I hadn’t even realized my hand had dropped until Daphne slid the phone out of it.
Daphne said, “I have to call Declan.”
I reached for their hands and pulled them from the room, shutting the door behind us. I sank back against the wood. The image of the dead guy was seared into my retinas.
More chaos in the B&B—like there wasn’t already enough to worry about.
Chapter 12
James
Just an hour after leaving the B&B, Declan called me and I had to return. Another one of the guests had been killed. Not Anna, he’d reassured me.
I climbed out of my truck and hurried to the front door.
Matt waited just inside, his face grim.
“Who was it this time?” I asked.
“Guy named Baldy,” Matt said. “Choked on rose petals.”
“Someone force-fed him?” I asked.
“Nope, looks like he fed them to himself.”
I frowned. “Second suicide in two days?”
Finn and Sophie came forward, with their little Pomeranian, Peyton, trotting after them.
“It could be another chaos demon,” Finn said.
“Not from Peyton this time,” Sophie said, reaching down to pick up the little furball.
“There’s no illness,” I pointed out. I’d been taken down hard by the chaos demon a few months ago. The possession had come along with a bad flu-like virus. As a shifter, I wasn’t used to getting sick, and the experience wasn’t something I was likely to forget.
Moira burst through the door, nearly knocking into me. “What the fucking hell is going on?”
“Nice to see you, Moira,” Matt said, giving her a nod.
We got her caught up, just in time for Brody to show up and demand answers.
“Are all the freaking O’Malleys here yet?” Matt said, scowling. “I don’t want to have to go through this again.”
Ignoring him, I turned to Declan. “Why are we here?”
“Matt wants us to interview the guests and sniff around,” Declan said. “He didn’t get a lot out of them last time, and could use our opinions. I got a report from Dr. Frylie. There was severe brain swelling, so she says it’s likely that Rooster was having major hallucinations.”
I peeked past him to the large sitting room and saw several people milling about inside, including Anna. “Seriously? You have Anna in there with the rest?”
“The others will be suspicious if we don’t question her but we question everyone else,” Declan explained.
“Their memories will all have to be wiped anyway, right?” I asked.
Declan shrugged. “Not necessarily.”
“This is bullshit,” Brody said. “So let’s get it over with.”
“Hey,” Declan said, putting on his alpha voice. “We need to find out what we’re dealing with. If it’s a chaos demon or something else, we need to know.”
“Maybe it’s another giant slug,” Brody said.
I thought for a second that Declan would smack him, but Declan just grinned. “Or maybe it’s a giant rat.”
Brody glared, but I didn’t miss his subtle flinch.
Interesting. Brody was scared of rats. I filed that information away for later.
“All right,” Matt said, “everybody take a guest, find out everything they’ve seen or heard that’s out of the ordinary, then report back to me.”
Brody made a beeline for Anna, but I grabbed his shoulder and steered him to the honeymooning couple instead. Then I came back and faced my mate.
“Hey,” she said, a tempting smile playing on her lips.
“Hey.” I resisted the urge to step closer and kiss her. “So I’m supposed to ask you if you’ve seen anything unusual.”
“Pretty much everything those terrible guys have been doing has been unusual,” she said. “They’re loud and obnoxious and I saw one of them outside wearing fake vampire teeth and biting himself. So...I’m not a fan.”
That must have been the issue Daphne had mentioned before.
“I caught a little of what Declan and Matt told Daphne when they got back from taking Mitchell in to get checked out,” she said. “Apparently he’d been hallucinating, probably on mushrooms like his dead friend, and the doctor confirmed the bites were self-inflicted. He’ll be fine, I guess. They cleared the guy’s room and the woods for mushrooms so it wouldn’t happen again. But here we are.”
The shitshow with Scrotal Eclipse of the Heart never ended.
“Uh...and there’s no one who seemed like they had a grudge against either of the dead guys?” I asked.
“Other than everyone wanting to smack them upside the head? No.” Her phone rang and she pulled it from her pocket, frowning. Then she brightened. “It’s Gram, is it okay—”
“Go ahead,” I said.
Declan wandered past, just as Anna said on the phone, “I’d love to, Gram, but there’s some trouble at the B&B.” She paused. “I’ll try to come by later, but I should help here if I can. Okay. Love you, too.”
She ended the call and looked up at me. “She wants me to come by for supper.”
“It’s okay,” Declan said to her. “We don’t need you here—you can catch James up on any strange happenings later if you think of them.”
“I could stay and help,” she said.
“It’s not your mess, Anna,” he said firmly. “Go be with your family.”
She looked hurt at his brusqueness, and I glared at him. He was treating her like an outsider, but she belonged here.
“Hey,” I said, pulling her aside. “I’ll see you later?”
She nodded. “You can follow me over to Gram’s if you want—she invited you, too.”
“Will she have apple pie?” I asked, unable to hide my enthusiasm.
“Maybe.” She winked, turned around, and left.
I watched her go until I couldn’t see her anymore. Declan caught my eye and shook his head, mouthing, You’ve got it bad. I shrugged. I did, and I didn’t care.
Moira and Matt were interviewing a couple of the troublemaker guests. That left one other guy—a pale dude with a pompadour. He wore blue jeans and a black leather jacket over a white t-shirt.
“Hi,” I said, walking over to shake his hand. There was a red mole on his cheek and I tried not to stare at it. I’d never seen a red mole before. “I’m James O’Malley.”
“Buddy Cross.”
His hand was clammy. I got a strange flash of everything going dim at the contact, and I quickly let him go.
“So, Bud,” I said.
“Buddy, please.”
“Buddy. Can you tell me a little bit about why you’re here in Forbidden?”
“Passing through. I was unexpectedly called back here.”
Sounded like Anna. “Family gathering?”
“Friends,” he said. “More like acquaintances, really.”
I nodded. He was being honest. Vague, but honest. “Would you have any reason to harm any of the guests here?”
“No reason at all,” he said. “I only recently met them. They’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’, and they’re making the proprietor go ape, but I’m not the kind of person who hurts other people.”
It was kind of a weird response. I felt like there was something he wasn’t telling me, although so far he’d only spoken the truth.
“Do you know who might have reason to hurt any of them?” I asked.
“It seems to me, they’re most intent on doing themselves harm.” He gave a little shrug, and added, “It’s a good thing you brought the fuzz.”
I couldn’t argue with him, there.
“Thanks, man,” I said, stepping away.
“No sweat.”
Daphne’s B&B seemed to attract some strange types, that was for sure. The whole fifties act was weird.
I walked over to Declan, eager to get away. Maybe I could meet Anna at her grandmother’s house. Gram made amazing apple pie for special occasions, and I expected that Anna’s presence here would be apple pie-worthy.
“Declan,” I said, “I’m done here.”
“Great,” he said. “I think everyone else is about finished.”
He stood up taller and looked around the room. “I’d like all the guests to return to their rooms, please. Everyone else, let’s have a chat.”
As the guests filed out and up the stairs to the second floor where most of them were sleeping, Matt and Declan looked around at the rest of us.
“I think we’ll need Pearl to come by and do some memory wipes,” Matt said.
Declan nodded. “Brody, can you get in touch with her, please?”
“I think she’s still out of town, but I’ll give her a call,” Brody said. “And then Moira and I have to take off. We’re looking at a job in Redemption.”
“O’Malley Construction has gotten good buzz after working on the B&B,” Moira added, a proud smile on her face. “That mig
ht change once they smell Brody’s truck.”
“My truck is fine,” he said, frowning.
Matt spoke up. “Did anyone learn anything useful?”
“The newlyweds wouldn’t answer my question about why they’re sticking around despite the deaths,” Brody said. “Weird-ass fuckers.”
“Yeah, if I was on my honeymoon and people were dying, I’d get the hell out,” Moira said. “Sounds fishy to me.”
Matt nodded, but Brody went on, “But they weren’t lying when they said they haven’t hurt anyone, and they haven’t seen anything weird. Too busy fucking, I guess.”
Moira, Declan, Daphne, Finn, and Sophie all reported on their interviews, which didn’t turn up anything good. I added, “Buddy doesn’t know anything.”
“Buddy?” Declan looked around.
Daphne spoke up. “The guy who looks like he stepped out of Grease.”
“So I’m heading out,” I said.
“Not so fast,” Declan said. “We’re going to need to patrol the B&B. You’re first shift.”
“But—”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “You want to be alpha?”
“Hell no.”
“Then do your job.”
I stomped out of the room, not caring if it looked childish. Anna was waiting for me. Gram’s apple pie was most likely waiting for me. But I was stuck here playing babysitter to a bunch of goth wannabes.
Chapter 13
Anna
Red fluid bled from the roast beef as I twisted my fork into it, staining the mashed potatoes. It was red wine sauce, and my favorite, but I just wasn’t hungry. Declan had basically called me an outsider, and James hadn’t said a damned thing.
I was supposed to be enjoying my dinner, with my grandmother who I’d flown in to see. And all I could seem to think about was James O’Malley and how easily he hurt me.
Gram threw back the rest of her glass of wine and looked at me. “When I met your grandfather, I was just a kid. Like you were.”
That caught my attention. “I thought you met in college.”
“No, we decided we were mates after college, once we both knew who we were. But we knew each other our whole lives.”
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