Uh-oh. Was she breaking up with me? Nah, nope, maybe uninviting me from all future events?
Or was it somethingdragonrelated?
I had no idea, but I followed slowly behind her anyway. I had too many questions that couldn't be ignored anymore. For some reason, it kind of felt like this was always going to happen. Like I hadn’t really processed or accepted the shifter stuff, and that pretending it didn’t happen wouldn’t just make it go away.
She led me toward the sidewalk coffee shop—a rolling cart with a Keurig and some cold creamers beside some café tables that moved from sidewalk to sidewalk in town, but for today, it was the right place, right time for what we needed.
She bought us two cups, poured a generous amount of caramel creamer into each one, then handed me mine. Then, she led me to a little table tucked beside the sidewalk, and we sat down together. “I saw you talking to Cam Piedmont.” She stumbled over the last name, and I waited for whatever else she was about to say. “He’s a bad egg.”
“A bad egg?” Considering everything I’d been told over the last couple days, I didn’t know if she meant he was an actual egg or if it was a figure of speech and I was too embarrassed to ask.
She widened her eyes. “Really bad.” We were both looking off into the direction they’d all walked, my daughter with them, and I glanced back at her, but she was shaking her head. “There are different packs andthatone…” She angled her head toward the street they disappeared down. “They probably scented her out. Discovered she was a shifter.”
Her opinion was obvious. And it didn’t favor the pack. She narrowed her eyes, scowled toward the spot.
“Maybe they aren’t as bad as we think?” I asked weakly
There was no evidence to support my question. None whatsoever. Nothing but my hopeful thinking.
She cocked a brow at me. “They most definitely are as bad as we think. Maybe even worse.” Her look said I was too trusting. Naïve on such a grand scale she considered me a new problem. I couldn’t very well deny it. Especially while she continued talking. “There are a lot of magical creatures at work. And they are all doing everything they can to keep the shifters in this town from being found by the vampires.”
Lots of magical creatures? I’d have to ask her more about that later.
“Well, that’s good, right?” A spirit of cooperation. Camaraderie. Trust. How could those things be bad?
“Oh, yeah!” Enthusiasm bubbled in her voice for a second, then she sobered. “But this pack, the one your daughter was with, is dangerous. They undermine all the work of the other shifters by being too obvious. When they take risks, they put all of us at risk.” For someone with such a dire position, she spoke casually, like the words didn’t matter. “And if your daughter is with them…” She shrugged.
“My daughter…” I said weakly. She was with them. How deeply she was in the pack, I didn’t know.
“That was your daughter, wasn’t it?” She had the courtesy to look as if she was actually verifying rather than accusing.
I nodded.
“You have to warn her. Watch her. Make sure she isn’t exposing herself or anyone else.”
I nodded. Because this was obviously important information. More than a checkmark on a to-do list. And by now, I had to believe we were dealing with shifters and vampires and that I fit into those categories. Well, one of them at least.
Damn. Tilly had somehow managed to get involved with an unsavory pack. There was anughin there somewhere, but it was going to have to wait. This was still a lot of information on top of all my other information.
I finished my coffee and stared down the road where Tilly had gone with the pack. My instincts had said they were bad apples, and according to my new friends, I was right.
I’d been such a mess from my earliest age, always seeming lost in the world, but my daughter had never been that way. She’d always seemed like an eighty-year-old woman in a young woman’s body. She got good grades, had good friends, got into a great college, so I tended to try to keep my opinions to myself and just trust her. But maybe I’d let my own low self-esteem get in the way of being a good mother to her. Maybe instead of letting her go with them, I should have voiced my concerns.
This wasn’t good.
Tabi smiled at me like she might’ve thought everything was going to be okay. But my stomach hadn’t stopped rumbling yet.
“What do you do for a living?” Tabi looked interested and this was the moment of truth. The make it or break it, when they would either decide I was friendship worthy, or they’d walk. I didn’t have much hope. Women like Tabi and Esther liked to surround themselves with the exceptional, and I was anything but. I knew they’dsaidthey’d be there for me, but words didn’t mean much. Action did.
“I do temp work. Enough to pay the bills. Keep food in the fridge.” I didn’t have aspirations. This worked for me. Although, if I ever had one, it would be for a house like Esther’s.
She waved a hand through the air. Dismissive. “We own a lot of businesses in this town. We’ll find you a niche.” She grinned. “Don’t worry for now though. Esther needs an assistant at a charity gala at the mayor’s house. She mentioned you.”
Mentioned me?And like we’d summoned her, she appeared at the edge of our table. She leaned down and hugged us both. I didn’t realize we were at the point in our friendship where hugs were appropriate, but I didn’t flinch or wrinkle my nose. I took it like a woman. Air kissed her cheeks.
“Hi, Esther.”
“Ladies, it has been a day.” She pulled over a chair and fanned herself as she plopped onto it. They shared a look and I fiddled with my paper coffee cup. “So, did Tab tell you that I am looking for an assistant for the mayor’s gala? I could really use you.”
