I watched as he took off across the street before I could object. Barely a minute later, he was back.
“Here, put this on.” He wrapped the heavy leather around my shoulders.
“Thank you.”
“Your parents live in Dark Moon Falls?”
“What?”
“You said your parents when I asked why you moved here.”
I hadn’t realized I’d said that aloud. “Oh. No.” I stared at my burning car. I hated lying, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the truth.
“I think you’re in shock. Maybe you should sit down on that rock over there.” He pointed to a flat, large boulder a few feet away from us.
“No. I’m okay. Really. The jacket helps.”
I couldn’t possibly sit down while my car was in flames before my eyes. But I was grateful for the jacket and tugged it around me; of course, it was huge on me, but that made it even warmer and cozy. And it smelled good.
“Will you be staying in Dark Moon Falls?”
“Possibly.”
He didn’t need to know that I was hiding out from the dangerous wolves who’d taken my parents’ lives, for God knows what reason. Milo might very well be worthy of my secret, but damn, I had trust issues these days and rightfully so, in my opinion.
“What about your folks? Are they from around here?”
“You ask a lot of questions, Milo Hart.”
“You remembered my name?”
I tapped my finger to my temple. “Don’t let that go to your head. I have a photographic memory.” That and the fact that I couldn’t get him out of my mind ever since leaving the bar. He was attractive. Well, more than, if I was being honest. He was downright gorgeous.
And sexy as hell with the way his biceps flexed when he ran his hand through his thick dark hair just now as he said, “I’m a lawyer. Asking questions is what I do. Plus, I’m trying to figure out why your car blew up. Maybe someone doesn’t like the fact that you moved here.”
God, I hoped he was wrong about that, but unfortunately, I had a bad feeling he was right. “Tell me about this hunch you had. You said something about a ticking noise?”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure it was a bomb.”
I took a step back and gripped Leo a bit tighter. “Why would you say that? Are you a terrorist?”
“Fuck, no. It’s just something I know about.”
“That’s not something someone usually knows about.”
“It’s something I’ve always been interested in. I have a technical mind. Anyway, bombs, or fire starters, if you will, can have timers and can make a clicking or ticking sound right before they go off. It was faint, but I have pretty good hearing, being a wolf shifter. Between that noise and the smell of gas, I figured we didn’t have much time before it triggered. I couldn’t just let you stay inside and explode with it if I was right, which I guess I was.”
I glanced at him, my stomach churning in knots at what he’d said. “You think someone sabotaged my car?”
5
MILO
The fear in her eyes and the panic in her voice made me want to grab her and pull her against me. The need to protect her and keep her safe welled in me like a shaken can of soda—a sensation I’d never experienced before.
Mate, my wolf’s strong desires echoed through my head. No. Too soon. I didn’t even know her. We’ve longed for her; his sentiments countered as though he even had an inkling of that sort of relationship.
“Well?”
Her sweet, scared voice brought me to my senses, and I shook off my wolf’s eagerness to make this woman, one I hardly knew, my mate.
“Well, what?”
“Do you really think someone intentionally blew up my car?”
“I do. But the better question is; who would want to blow up your car? And with you in it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they thought my car belonged to someone else.”
“Hmmm … that’s possible. But considering the size of this town, that’s highly unlikely.”
The sound of sirens pierced the still quiet of the lonely stretch of highway as my gaze caught Skye’s. Her already pale complexion turned milky white.
“You think someone was trying to kill me?” The wind picked up, blowing her hair into her face. She swiped it away, fisting the long strands against her chest. My jacket flew open, and she tugged it together with the hand still clutching the dagger.
I shrugged. “It’s a possibility. We’ll know more after the sheriff gets here.”
Black smoke rose from the bright orange flames licking the air around the car as the sirens got louder. Headlights glowed through the fog from just over the hill, illuminating the sky with hazy light.
The fire truck arrived first, thank Christ, since the wind was picking up, and I was worried the force of it would carry those flames into the brush by the side of the road. The truck stopped several yards away from the burning vehicle. Four firefighters jumped out wearing their heavy, fire-resistant suits.
Some of the firefighters of Dark Moon Falls were volunteers from the pack and were mostly called for large fires when needed, but it didn’t look like any of them were required this time. At least, I didn’t recognize any of these guys. But I’d been gone so long; there were many new faces around that I couldn’t identify.
They took a couple of seconds to put on their gear. Helmets on their heads, breathing apparatuses on their faces with a hose connected to a tank filled with breathable air attached to their backs. One man unraveled the heavy hose from the truck while another held the large nozzle over his shoulder, pointing it at the car. Water streamed out fast and furious and drowned out the orange blaze. Black smoke turned into puffs of white around the charred vehicle.
The sheriff and Deputy Johnson pulled up a few minutes after the fire trucks and got out of their SUV. They paused to observe the burning car.
Once the firemen had the fire just about out, Sheriff Templeton, followed by the deputy, headed toward us.
“Miss.” Sheriff Templeton nodded slightly and tipped the brim of his hat up, revealing a hint of his short blonde hair. His friendly smile reached his soft blue eyes in a way that made you want to trust him. He was beta to the Dark Moon Pack and presented himself in such a way that encouraged the respect he deserved. Mostly because he was friendly and didn’t appear to be the hard-nosed cop that I knew he could be when necessary. I supposed that made him good at his job and able to protect the town so well.
He glanced up at me, his stocky frame a bit shorter than mine. “Milo. Good to see you back in town.”
“You’ve grown a bit.” Deputy Johnson, aka Jagger to those of us who grew up here, chuckled. Typical. He’d always been a jokester, which was sometimes appreciated, particularly during a heated dispute. He had a way of settling things down to a rational debate rather than throwing punches. “It’s been what, five or six years since you left for school? I was beginning to think you’d left for good.” His dark eyes smiled along with his grin. He was slim and fast on his feet, both in human and wolf form, which was something I’d always admired about him.
“Seven. But this is my home. And, well, my family is here.” He knew what I meant when I said, family. There was more than just my mom and brother. The Dark Moon pack was also my family. They always would be as far as I was concerned.
After he left, I no longer considered my dad a member of my family. Paying for someone’s education didn’t qualify one as a father or a family member, in my opinion. At least not as far as John Hart was concerned. Elias had always been more of a father to me than my own blood.
Not that he did anything special for me. It was more of a mutual respect. He was my Alpha, and in many ways, my father figure. And I guess I could say something similar about a lot of the pack members. They were like brothers.
“Skye, this is Sheriff Templeton and Deputy Johnson. Skye is the owner of the vehicle.”
The sheriff nodded toward her. “Want to tell me what happened?”
> “Well, my car suddenly lost power, so I pulled over. Then, luckily”—she paused and glanced at me—“Milo happened to be driving behind me and pulled over too.”
Jagger glanced at me and raised his eyebrows, a crooked smirk on his face.
“It’s not like that, Deputy. I just happened to be heading in the same direction, that’s all.”
He nodded.
“I didn’t even know who was driving, but I figured whoever it was must be in some sort of trouble because there would be no other reason for anyone to pull over along this stretch of highway. Good thing, too, except…” Now I paused and glared at her because it took her forever to acknowledge me when I approached her car. But they didn’t need to know all that. Instead, I went with, “It took her a couple of minutes to roll the window down.”
Skye huffed out a breath and rolled her eyes. “I was being cautious.”
I rolled my eyes too. “Yeah. Anyway, after a few minutes of pleading, she let her window down a couple of inches, said her car lost power, so as I was heading back to my truck to get a flashlight to take a look, I heard a clicking or ticking sound coming from underneath her chassis, and I noted a heavy scent of gas, so I hurried back and got her out of the car right before it exploded. She—”
“We ran to the other side of the street right before it blew up,” Skye quickly supplied.
Alrighty then. We could go with that. For now. She avoided mentioning the fact that she’d teleported us safely away from the car. An ability that she refused to admit she had.
I rubbed my fingers over my chin. Well, I wasn’t one to divulge someone else’s secrets, so I kept my mouth shut about it. Supernatural abilities were no strange occurrence to the folks of Dark Moon Falls or Deputy Johnson, and I knew there was more to Skye than she was willing to admit. Not yet, anyway.
“We managed to get clear before the explosion, though the jolt had us diving for some bushes on the other side of that small embankment. The bushes sort of cushioned our landing.” I thought I’d better add all that since, well, hell, the fucking car exploded less than eight feet away from the other side of the street, which, if they were as good at being cops as I knew they were, they’d surmise something weird about us not getting blown to smithereens with the car. As it was, the explosion did give us both a jolt as we dove for the bushes. I smiled at the recent, pleasant memory of her landing under me, and my wolf stirred, reminding me how he felt.
“Well, good thing you made it clear from the explosion.” Jagger glanced down at her hand, where she held on to that dagger, which she’d claimed she stabbed me with because she thought I was trying to harm her. “Is there something more you want to add?”
“No. I think that about sums it up.”
“You want to tell us why you’re holding on to that blade, Miss? And why,” Jagger glanced at me, “Milo’s shoulder is covered in blood?”
“I, uh …”
“She’d been holding on to it when I pulled her from her car. The tip of it inadvertently punctured me when we were tumbling to the ground after the explosion.” I knew she’d deliberately stabbed me, but I also didn’t want them hauling her in for assault, even though I’d need to press charges for them to do so. But I didn’t even want to go there, because let’s face it, I knew she was scared.
“I see.” He rubbed his finger over his clean-shaven face. That seemed to satisfy him, for the time being anyway. But I knew she was hiding something. I could sense it and feel it in my bones, not to mention my shoulder.
Jagger nodded. “Can I see your driver’s license?”
She placed her hand to her forehead and squeezed her eyes tight before opening them again and looking at the Deputy. “Um … it was in the car when it exploded.”
Sheriff Templeton glanced around the area as firefighters bustled about. “Do you have any idea who might want to hurt you?”
“No.” Skye shook her head and kept her gaze toward the car.
A firefighter headed toward us carrying a charred and dilapidated black purse and handed it to Skye. “We managed to salvage this from the floor of the back seat.”
“Thank you.” She took the bag and looked inside, pulled out a singed red leather wallet, and opened it, handing Jagger a license that was slightly melted around the corners.
The sheriff studied the card. “Is everything current on here, Miss Huntington?”
“No. I haven’t been in Dark Moon Falls very long and haven’t had a chance to update it. I live at 1456 Middleton Court. The blue cottage at the end of the cul-de-sac.”
“The old Metzler place?” Templeton jotted down the addressed on a note pad he’d taken from his breast pocket as Skye shrugged like she didn’t know what he was talking about. I wouldn’t expect her to know who the Metzlers were if she’d just moved here. Thank fuck they were long gone. Nothing but trouble ever came from Ricky Metzler. “We’ll probably need to contact you as we investigate. Is there a phone number where we can reach you?”
She glanced at me. “My phone … Oh no. It was in the front seat.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll get in touch with you. We’ll have the car towed and investigated. If this was deliberate, then we have attempted murder on our hands, and I’ll most likely have more questions for you.” Then Sheriff Templeton glanced at me before turning his attention back to Skye. “Milo, can you give her a lift home?”
“What? No. Sheriff, why can’t you drive me?” Skye’s voice sounded panicky.
Jagger frowned and scratched his head. “We would, normally, but we need to stay here and wait for the bomb squad.”
She pursed her lips and glanced at me, then back at Jagger. “I’ll just wait here with you then.”
I knew I shouldn’t care, but it really bothered me that even though I saved her life, she still didn’t trust me enough to let me give her a ride home.
“That could be several hours, Miss. You should let Milo take you home. We’ll be in touch with you about your car. Better get a replacement phone and call your insurance, too.” The Deputy tipped his hat and walked toward the firemen who were wrapping things up.
She glimpsed at me, that blade she carried gripped tightly in her hand at her side. Did I really want this woman in the same vehicle as me?
I turned toward my truck, then glanced back her. “You coming?”
“Only because I have no other choice.”
“Then let’s go. And try not to stab me again.”
6
SKYE
I followed Milo to his truck. The sheriff seemed to trust him, so apparently, it was safe for me to also. “I won’t stab you as long as you don’t try anything funny.”
“No worries there.”
The deputy called out. “Drive safe, Milo. Good to have you home.”
“Thanks. Good to be here.” Milo placed his hand at my lower back, urging me toward his truck. “Let’s get you home.”
We rode in silence for a short distance until Milo suddenly spoke. “That guy at the bar. You ever see him before?”
“No. Well, like I said, I’ve only been in town for a short while, and that was my first time there. So I wouldn’t know many people.”
“It’s a good thing for you that your knight came along when he did.” His smirk, as sexy as it was, was beginning to annoy me.
“When my knight shows up, I’ll let you know.” I smiled at the vision of Milo wearing a suit of armor. Shiny and large. A long sword clutched in his hand beside him.
“So, how do you like Dark Moon Falls so far compared to a big city like Seattle?”
“Huh?”
“Seattle. You said you moved here from Seattle.”
“Oh. Yes.” Shit. I’d almost forgotten about the little lie. That’s the trouble with lies. One usually leads to the next, and before you know it, your entire life becomes nothing but a colossal sham, and it’s difficult to remember what the fib was in the first place.
“Do you have other family here in Dark Moon Falls, I mean, since you said your
parents didn’t live here?”
“No.”
“Then why move here?”
“Excuse me?” He was getting a little too personal. I had to be careful about what information I gave out. Milo might be a nice guy and maybe even a safe guy, but who knew who he might talk to about me. An innocent conversation with the wrong person could be detrimental to my wellbeing.
“I said, why move here? Why’d you pick Dark Moon Falls to take up residence?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seemed like a nice place.”
He nodded. “It’s not so bad once you get used to everyone knowing your business.”
I stiffened at the thought of everyone knowing about me living here. He was right. Small towns were notorious for gossip. But I had to come here.
“Having lived in the big city for a few years,” Milo continued, “I don’t think I’d want to live anywhere else but here. Are you hiding out or something?”
My eyes widened. “Why would you ask that?”
“No one simply moves to Dark Moon Falls out of the blue. Especially coming from a big city like Seattle. And on top of that, have their car blow up in the middle of a dark highway late at night.”
I sighed. He was bound to figure out the truth sooner or later. And besides, I was trusting him right now with my life, so why not give him the truth? Or some of it.
“Well, if you must know, my mother leased this house about a month ago. She’d wanted to live in a small town, but then she died before she had a chance to move here.” There was no fib there. She had always wanted to live in a small town like this. She’d been happy living just outside of Seattle, but that locale wasn’t quite as small as Dark Moon Falls.
I glanced at Milo, who seemed to be waiting for me to continue. “After she passed away …” I paused again because passed away was a wicked dissimilarity to the truth of how she actually died, and I needed to take a deep breath. “… I didn’t want to live in that house where she died. I decided to come here since she’d had this already rented, plus it was her wish to live here, and it makes me feel closer to her. So here I am.”
Dark Moon Falls: Volume 2 Page 60
