“I’m not mad, Hadley. I was afraid. You have no idea of the terror. An hour passed for you, but it was a full day for me, and on the heels of your grandfather disappearing. What was I supposed to feel in that moment?”
“You could have had faith that I would find a way back to you.” Even to my ears it sounded lame. I pushed forward anyway. “I’ll never leave you.” I leaned closer to him, my lips near his ear. “You’re stuck with me for life.”
He pulled me to him and buried his face in my hair. “I know you’re capable, Hadley. I don’t doubt that. I just … I love you.”
“I love you too.” I held tight a moment longer before pulling back. “Honestly, you were the first person I thought of. I knew you were going to be upset.”
“I tried to throw a punch at Booker for not watching you more closely.”
“It wasn’t his fault.” I shook my head. “The whispers … it was as if they were calling to me specifically. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“It was a trap,” he said. “The others didn’t hear the whispering. That’s why you should have mentioned it. Aurora would’ve realized right away.”
“Well, we know for next time.” And we both knew there would be a next time. “I’ll be able to keep my wits about me going forward.”
He didn’t look convinced. “I’m worried that knowing yourmother is over there — or something that looks and acts like her — will propel you to want to cross again.”
“I’m more worried about Wesley right now.”
He made a face. “It’s human nature for you to want to see her again, even if she’s not your mother.”
“Will you think I’m crazy if I tell you I believe it’s her?” I felt like a little girl seeking approval.
“I never knew your mother.” He paused, choosing his words carefully. “You’re the deciding factor on this one. You’re the one with the really good instincts.”
I pursed my lips. “But what if I only believe it’s her because I want it to be her?”
“Let’s take the food inside and talk about this,” he said. “There are a few things we should discuss.”
The ruthless growl of my stomach confirmed his suggestion.
HE CARRIED IN THE FOOD AND WE SATat the kitchen table. Normally we’d eat take out in the living room, but crab was messy and I was not a dainty eater.
Galen tucked a dish towel in the front of my shirt and I dug into the huge box of crab. I made a face but he didn’t apologize. He sat next to me and opened his container of steak and potatoes.
“No seafood for you?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I didn’t eat all day. I need the protein.”
That was a shifter thing. He preferred red meat to seafood but liked shrimp and crab as much as the next person. I was addicted. “Okay.” I smiled. The more I thought about what had happened, the angrier I got about the Wesley situation.
Galen could read me better than anybody and knew what was going through my head. “Nobody blames you for getting distracted by your mother,” he said. “Wesley won’t blame you either.”
“Do you think he’s seen her?”
“I don’t know.” Galen paused with his steak knife halfway to hishuge ribeye. “It’s possible she’s there to serve as a distraction. She didn’t know he was there. You said it yourself.”
“Right. She said she was going to look for him.”
“Sounds as if she understood the assignment enough to get you home. She waited for you to come through, seemingly knew it was going to happen, and then timed it just right to get you out of there.”
“That’s something a mother would do,” I said.
“Unless she’s trying to get you to trust her and it was all part of an act.”
“Like this serial killer wants me to fall for her act because of who she’s pretending to be? Why not just attack when I walked through the door?”
Galen shuddered. “Don’t put that idea in my head!”
