It takes a few seconds, but when he actually smiles back, I know I’ve got him. “Okay. Fine.”
My grin grows. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are an absolute prince.” I almost kiss his cheek but slam the brakes. Don’t want to scare him off. “See you out there.”
That was easier than I thought. Of course who could turn down a group of adorable children romping in the sunshine? I step out onto his wooden porch and stare down at the frolicking group. Adults paddle beside their kids, the older ones seem to be having a swim contest, and the few parents on the shore chat with others like we’re at a barbeque. Carefree. I’ll begin to enjoy it too once I take care of something.
Adam has set himself up as lifeguard sitting on the beach scanning the water. The last line of defense. After helping Mason tie his falling swim trunks, I grab one of the free folding chairs and drag it beside him. I know he clocked me since I started toward him, but he pretends not to notice until I’m right there. “Join you?”
“Sure,” he says with a quick smile. I sit and take off my shirt to get some sun. To his credit, Adam doesn’t stare at my rack. “He coming down?”
“How’d you …” Damn I’m transparent. I chuckle. “Yeah.”
“Good.”
“Not gonna lecture me for meddling too?”
“Whatever gets him down here having fun with everyone, I’m okay with. Speaking of …”
He nods toward the path. Damn. If I had my way he’d never wear a shirt. Or pants. Or underpants. I’ll settle him in blue swim trunks sans shirt, skin and hair literally glowing in the sun and highlighting all the contours of his hard-earned muscles. Once again … damn. I’m not the only one who appreciates the view. Claire, Mason’s mother Terri, hell every woman takes a moment to drink him in. Of course no one is happier to see him than Dusty, though for an entirely different reason. The boy’s mouth drops open and he sprints out of the water right into Jason’s arms. It literally warms my heart to see Jason scoop the boy up, pulling him tight into a hug. The love passing between them is almost palpable. And growing thicker. Nicole wades out of the water too. Jason picks her up too as Dusty chatters away, through I’m too far away to hear the words.
“He’s great with kids,” Adam says. I tear my eyes from this Rockwellesque portrait of family. “Loves them to death. Adults, not so much.”
“Yeah, picked that up. Any thoughts on how to fix it?”
“I’ve tried for years. By all means, take over. You got him down here with them. You’re a damn miracle worker.”
His words bring another grin to my face. In spite of everything, I think I’ve smiled more in the past week than the entire month before. “Thank you,” I say.
“I only speak the truth,” Adam says.
“No, not for—well thank you for that too—but thank you for being nice to me, especially after getting you in hot water with der Führer.”
“You didn’t get me in trouble, I did. I could have left or found an excuse.”
“No, this one’s on me. Apparently I shouldn’t have put you in that position. You just so obviously liked her, and you’ve been nice to me. I wanted to be nice back. I never in a million years thought I was doing anything wrong or out of bounds. I’m sorry you got chewed out because of me.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Adam says.
“So I’ve been told.” I shake my head with a scoff. “Even when I try to do good, I fuck it up. No wonder I don’t do it often.”
“You didn’t fuck it up,” Adam insists. “You just … it’s complicated.”
“What’s so damn complicated? You obviously like her. She’s single, you’re single. I don’t get it. It’s none of Frank’s business. He’s not a dictator. He can’t behead you for going on a date. Wait, can he?”
“No, nothing that severe,” Adam says with his usual quick smile. I stare at my new friend for a few seconds, my eyes slowly narrowing to add pressure. I want the damn story. When my eyes are mere pinpoints he looks away, shaking his head. Worked on my ex-husband too. “She’s a witch, I’m a werewolf. There are … issues, rules that forbid fraternization. If we ever decided to get married, especially have children, I’d have to go rogue. Leave the pack. My mother, my brother, Jace. I’d be all alone. I just don’t think I could do that.”
“Jesus, are all you werewolves hopeless romantics?” I chuckle. “Just because you sleep with someone doesn’t mean you have to marry them. A tumble in the hay may be enough to get her out of your system. Worked for me a time or two.”
Now it’s his turn to stare at me. All of a sudden I feel naked, hell like I don’t even have skin. He knows. Of course he knows. I’d be shocked if everyone on this beach didn’t. I seriously want to take back those words. I have to look away. My gaze stops at Jason, who now has a line of boys waiting to be thrown straight up then down into the water, squealing with joy the whole time. “But not always,” I add. I square my jaw before turning back with a smile. “Still worth a try, right?”
“Not in this case.”
“Come on. Don’t let Frank bully—”
“She’s my mate. It wouldn’t work,” he says with finality.
“So she’s your mate. I don’t …” I shake my head. I’m missing something again.
“I keep forgetting you’re new here,” he chuckles. “Feels like I’ve known you for years. A mate …” He clears his throat. “It’s like soul mates, I guess. The person you’re meant to mate with. We don’t know if it’s pheromones or a magical psychic link, but when a werewolf meets his or her mate, they know it. And that desire, that knowledge does not go away no matter how much we fight it.”
I do a double take. “Why would you? It slashes through all the bullshit. You’re meant to be. End of story. And there’s no chance you’d tell the love of your life to fuck off like most of us probably do. Probably cuts the divorce rate down too.”
“Unless, like me, your mate is someone you can’t be with,” Adam counters. “There have been others whose mate was already married, a … close family member, or someone couldn’t overlook the werewolf factor and all it entails. If they find them at all. You know what it’s like to be in love with someone and not be able to be with them? Not be able to touch them? Wake up next to them every day? To be around them when they barely know you exist? A carrot dangling forever a millimeter out of reach, and even if you grab it, you fall into the abyss below with no guarantee you’ll reach the ground safe? Hell. It’s pure hell.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, because what else can I say? “But … I don’t know. If it’s important to you, if she’s important to you, and it’s meant to be, you’ll find a way. It may require sacrifice, compromise, but hell if true love isn’t worth those things, what is?”
Those eyes of his study me for a few seconds. I’m getting sick of people not believing I’m being straight with them. “What if he lived thousands of miles from you? What if you had to leave your entire life, your friends, job, the whole shebang? Would you do it?”
“Me, personally?” I chuckle. “I live in a shithole apartment, I have no true friends to speak of, my career is going nowhere, and I have over fifteen grand in credit card debt and all that was before I was a wanted fugitive. Shit, there’s nothing to leave behind.” A quick smile passes across Adam’s face. “I’m sorry, does my miserable life amuse you?”
“Sorry, it’s just … never mind.” He nods to the right. “Incoming.”
I turn to find Nicole sprinting toward me. “Aunt Vivian, I have to potty.”
“Okay,” I say, rising. “To be continued.” Adam smiles as Nicole slips her hand in mine and we start walking. “You having fun?”
“Uncle Jason threw me up in the air. It was cool. He’s strong like Daddy. Mason was scared and wouldn’t do it,” she says, super-seriously, “and he’s a boy.”
“Well, I’ll let you in on a secret, kiddo,”
I say, matching her tone. “Boys are always more scared than girls. That’s why we have to do everything. We’re a lot stronger than you think, and a lot stronger than them.”
“Okay,” my niece says as if my word is gospel.
When we return from answering nature’s call, everything remains well in hand. Claire holds sentinel duty as Adam now officiates the swim race, and Mason and Dusty are sitting on the shore making a sandcastle. Jason stands a few feet away watching the boys as he dries his body. Even Claire is close to slack jawed as he caresses his taught muscles with a towel. Blondie’s oblivious as always. Nicole toddles over to her brother and his activity, and I to mine. I retrieve two waters on the way. Being that gorgeous must take it out of a man.
“You look thirsty,” I say, handing Jason a bottle.
“Thank you.” He downs the water, even dribbling some on his chin. I watch with a raised eyebrow as he wipes his chest and chin with a towel again. Damn, just looking at this man makes my g-spot tingle.
“Remind me to bring drool buckets tomorrow.”
“Why?” he asks.
“Because every woman within eyeshot needs one right now,” I chuckle.
“Why?” he asks, genuinely confused.
I shake my head. “Never mind. Are you having fun?”
“I am. Thank you.”
“Well, the kids adore you, that’s for damn sure. Should have recruited you earlier.”
“I’m not needed. You have more than enough help,” he says, face neutral though he’s calling me out on my lie.
I keep my smile plastered on. “Can always use more, that’s the God’s honest truth.”
“I don’t like being manipulated or lied to, Vivian,” he says, mask cracking a little.
“I wasn’t …” Damn it, I was. It’s jarring having someone see right through me. Normally my tricks dazzle them. Not him. Never him. “You never let me get away with anything, do you?” He doesn’t respond. “Okay, all cards on the table then. What I said was true, but I did have ulterior motives.” I step toward him, stopping close enough to bask in his inner inferno. “It’s come to my attention that you have a reputation around the pack as intimidating, if not downright frightening. They respect you and everything you do for them, but they are afraid to get close to you. You’re huge, you kill people, it’s understandable. Doesn’t help that you’re shy. They probably interpret that for snobbery, or that you don’t care what they think. But you and I both know that’s bullshit.
“These people are your family, every one of them—of course you want them to love you as much as you do them. To be accepted. Belong. So if I can help do that for you, I will. I know people, how they think. I just wanted to use that power for good for once. By showing them you’re good with children, by eating meals with us, by getting you to smile, we can get them to change that opinion. Is that so wrong of me?”
“And that’s the only reason?”
“What other could there possibly be? I’m trying to be a good pack member. That’s all.”
“I …” Those eyes of his fill with quiet desperation as they always seem to do when searching to my depths for answers to the question I can’t figure out he’s asking. It must not be what he was hoping for because the steel trap shuts on his emotions. No. No. “You just don’t get it, do you? I don’t think you ever will. I have to go now. Please leave me alone. Please.” With a grimace, he walks past the children, whom he doesn’t even acknowledge. Their little brows furrow.
“Jason …” I call, even taking a step toward him but not another. My throat closes from the tumult of emotions coursing through
me. Anger. Betrayal. Misery. My bottom lip begins quivering, and I can feel the tears rising again. No. I bite my lip, hard, to stop them falling. I will not cry, not over him. Not again.
“Aunt Vivian, where’s Uncle Jason going?” Dustin asks with a pout.
I hug myself. “Away.” From me.
“Why?” Dustin asks.
Because he sees right through me and doesn’t like the view. He is our father’s son.
fourteen
I watch my current prey from the parlor doorway as she says her good-byes to Frank. God, I hope this works. Have to time this just right. Nothing else matters, not the kids behind me playing a board game or the others in the hall, including Tate, who walks up beside me just to stare where I am. I ignore him. I only have eyes for Mona McGregor. She picks up her wooden case and purse, nods to Frank, and steps toward the door. About damn time.
“What are you up to, prin—” Tate starts smugly.
“Fuck off.”
He doesn’t warrant a glance as I start moving toward the witch. I keep my eyes down as I pass Frank in the hall. Fairly sure he returns the gesture. No awkwardness there. I stop at the end table with a mirror above, pretending to fix my high ponytail but really keeping my eyes on my father out of the corner of my eye. The moment he vanishes into the dining room, I scoop up the purse that I stashed behind the vase and hustle out the front door before anyone grows suspicious.
The sun is about a half hour from setting, that time when the sky resembles a tranquil Monet, and the temperature’s gone down enough to be tolerable. Perfect night for an escape. I’ve been planning this for an hour, worked every angle I could imagine. Staging a prison break is damn hard, nervous work.
My unwitting accomplice is loading her Acura down on the driveway. “Oh, Mona! Let me help you!”
She’s already shutting the trunk by the time I reach her. Damn. “It’s okay. I got it.”
“Oh. Well … off to the Inn then? I heard Frank was putting you up in town for the night,” I say merrily. “That’s awfully nice of him.”
“Yeah, well it’s a long drive back to Goodnight, my sister’s at my aunt’s, and I never pass up free room service.”
“Me neither.” I pause. “Actually, I was just on my way to town too. Errand for Frank. He said for me to catch you, that you’d give me a ride. Jason was supposed to take me but …” I shrug. “I’ve been waiting, and he hasn’t been answering his phones. You don’t have to bring me back. Sam’s already in town, he’ll do it.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Frank didn’t mention this to me.”
“It just happened. I caught him just after he spoke to you. But I mean, come on, I’m asking for a lift, not for you to help me rob a bank. I’ll even make it worth your while. First two rounds on me.” Or Frank since I’m using the cash I found still stashed in the suitcase from the trip.
“I-I guess I—”
“Oh, thank you!” I say, taking off like a shot toward the passenger door. I climb in before she can utter another word. I’ve used this ploy before. I’ve discovered once you’re inside the car, unless you puke or insult the driver right away, they won’t kick you out. Too much work.
I’m fastening on my seat belt when Mona gets in. The uncomfortable glances she fires at me don’t stop until we do, right outside the gate so she can punch in the code to open it. Just as it begins to slide, and I’m literally home free, Sam zooms up on his ATV. My first instinct is to duck down, but since Mona’s already suspicious, I just keep my serene smile on and stare straight ahead. Maybe he won’t notice me with the window up. He must not because he doesn’t chase after us as we roll out the gate to freedom.
I breathe a sigh of relief when the compound has faded from the rearview mirror. Thank you, God. Of course the tranquility shatters when Mona’s phone begins ringing. Oh shit, he did see me. It’s Frank calling to order her back. Fuck. “Can you get that for me?” Mona asks. I can’t exactly say no. I reach inside her purse and hand her the phone. I’ll beg. Tell her the truth then beg, and—
“Hey, Debs,” Mona says with a grin. Oh thank God. They haven’t sounded the alarm. Yet.
As Mona chats with Debs, who I think is her daughter from the amount of concerned chiding Mona expresses, I pretend not t
o listen while watching the scenery go by. Wooded patches end at the river. We pass over the bridge Jason was attacked on, which is still missing part of the metal guardrail where he went over. Jesus, he plummeted at least twenty feet into the slow-moving water. It’s a miracle he survived the gunfight, let alone the drop. A trickle of fear snakes down my spine. It’s a calculated risk—me leaving the compound, I know this. Hell, that’s why I swiped the gun in my purse, but I had to get away from there. Away from Frank, from the kids, from the smiles everyone had for me, from Jason. I just had to get away before I had a nervous breakdown. The risk is worth the reward.
“… love you too. You and Collins be good for Auntie Sara. I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”
She ends the call and tosses her cell back into the purse of the floor.
“Was that your daughter?” I ask.
“What? No, well not really. It was my sister. I’m her legal guardian so yes and no I guess. It’s complicated.”
“Well, if anyone knows about complicated family arrangements, it’s me.”
“Yeah,” she laughs. “I heard.”
“Oh God, what are they saying about me?”
“In all my expert eavesdropping today, I didn’t hear a word said against you. Quite the opposite.”
“That’s just because I spent all day watching their children. They don’t know me. Not a one. Not even Frank.”
We drive in silence for a few seconds before she asks, “Is that why you snuck out? Because you don’t think they want you there?”
“I didn’t …” My mouth snaps shut. Damn it. “What gave me away?”
“The words just out of your mouth,” Mona says. “Same ploy works on my sister all the time. I can spot stubborn rebellion a mile off.”
“Well, a little rebellion never killed anyone,” I say.
“Um … the French Revolution?” she counters.
“You know what I mean,” I say playfully. “I just needed some alone time. With tequila. Lots of tequila.” I give her a sideways glance, and smirk. “Care to join me, High Priestess McGregor?”
Werewolf Sings the Blues Page 22
