“What did he say?”
“He knows about Austin, and he said some pretty disturbing shit. I think we should go back to Darryl.”
Roscoe leaned back against the counter. “Still have the moving truck. I can put everything back into storage, but I don’t know about Darryl.”
“But he said—”
“We can’t,” Roscoe interrupted sharply. “We need to find a way without runnin’ back to him.”
“I know what you did was awful, but we’re in a bind. This place hasn’t sat right with me since we got here, and having an elder watching our every move makes it worse.”
“So, what does he want, exactly?”
“I think he’s holding something back, or he’s not being completely honest. He gave me some kind of ultimatum. I have to make sure you guys act normal and follow the rules.”
“That’s it?” Roscoe asked, looking a little puzzled. “Easy.”
“Yeah. Sure it is. I bet that room smells like piss still, doesn’t it?”
“Actually, it’s in their bedroom. Austin might be a little mad about that later, but that’s future Roscoe’s problem.”
“He threatened to lock me away in his house.”
“Pfft. He ain’t gonna make good on that if he ain’t already done it.”
“And how the hell do you know? He sounded pretty serious to me.”
Roscoe’s tail swayed. “Just seems kinda silly if he’s always gonna be watching ya anyways. Plus, this all sounds like he’s just tryin’ to get under yer skin.”
“Can we please just go? I won’t be able to sleep at night if we stay here.”
He grabbed the keys from a hook screwed into the wall above the light switch. “How about we take a nice little drive? We didn’t get to see all that much when we got here.”
“Really? A drive? After what I just said?”
“It’ll calm you down, and there ain’t no real police around here to pull me over—well, there are, but I think they’re all werewolves, so don’t gotta worry about bein’ tased.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Now when you piss the cops off, they can actually beat the shit out of you.”
Roscoe’s tail wagged faster. “You ever driven?”
“No.”
He tossed me the keys.
“Are you crazy? That truck doesn’t belong to us.”
“I’ll teach you,” he said, grabbing my hand as he led me out of the kitchen. “We’ll be back later, Adam. Gonna go fer a drive.”
Adam scrambled to his feet. “I wanna come.”
“We want some alone time, and Roscoe needs an ass that doesn’t look like Gruta Casa de Pedra,” I snapped, pointing at the door leading to the garage. “Plus you need to make sure he’s okay.”
“He’s fine.” The half-turn’s expression went from excited to angry. “I want to go with Roscoe.”
I now understood what was happening. He wasn’t trying to make me jealous, and he wanted another werewolf to cling to since Darryl was hundreds of miles away. Roscoe was his new distraction from Austin’s neglect. Once again, I had to weighfeeling sorry for him while also keeping him from monopolizing Roscoe’s time.
“I said no.” I held up the keys. “I’m learning to drive, and I don’t want you distracting me.”
