Carver wondered how Peter would react on the full moon. Some humans were fine with werewolves right up until they saw the wolf, and then they panicked. Carver hoped that wouldn’t be the case with Peter. Carver’s wolf would be devastated if Peter was scared—and unlike Carver himself, it wouldn’t understand why Peter had any reason to be afraid.
Maybe one of them should shift before the full moon, Carver mused? That way, one of them could stay human and monitor the situation.
He’d talk to Tex about it later. The full moon was still almost three weeks away, so they had plenty of time to come up with a plan.
“I bet anything would taste good after prison food,” Tex said, yanking Carver out of his thoughts. Tex ignored the furious look Carver shot him and asked, “How long were you in before signing up for the program?”
“About six weeks,” Peter said, looking at his plate. “But before that, there was the trial and everything, and that was a little over six months.”
“And you were in for money laundering?” Tex barreled on. Carver tried to catch his eye and get him to stop, but Tex ignored him.
“That’s what they said,” Peter mumbled, sounding miserable.
“Were you guilty?”
Peter shook his head. He opened his mouth like he was going to speak, but then closed it.
“No?”
“My uncle and sister set me up,” Peter said after a long pause. “I thought that they were helping me invest the money I got when my grandmother passed away. I’m not very good with money, but my sister is, and so I never really looked at all the papers I signed. I just trusted them.”
Carver wanted to believe it, but the truth was that he didn’t really know Peter. Carver knew how well people could lie—even to themselves.
“Carver’s firm has some pretty good investigators,” Tex said, leaning back in his chair and taking a sip of his water. “You want them to look into your case?”
“Carver’s firm?” Peter asked, looking at Carver.
“I’m a lawyer,” Carver explained.
“A really good one.” Tex sounded proud, and Carver’s chest warmed.
“Does it matter?” Peter asked, dejected. “I mean… I signed away my rights to be pardoned or have my case reopened when I signed up for the program.”
“We’d know you were innocent,” Carver said, hating the way Peter’s face crumbled. “And if we found evidence that your sister and uncle set you up, we could forward it to the police and make them pay for what they did.”
“I don’t know,” Peter mumbled, making Carver suspicious.
“You don’t want them to face justice?”
“No, I do.”
“Are you worried about what we’ll find if we look into your case?”
Peter shook his head, looking frustrated.
“I just don’t see what you’ll find that the police missed,” he said. “All the money and the accounts were in my name. Technically I did it.”
“Still, they might find evidence that you were set up.”
“I… you can do whatever you want. I don’t care.”
Carver locked eyes with Tex, the two of them sharing a frown. Carver was still annoyed with Tex for bringing up the subject of Peter’s incarceration, but in a way, he supposed it was better to have it out in the open.
“How about we talk about something else?” Tex said like he wasn’t the one who had opened this can of worms.
“Like what?” Carver asked, resuming eating.
“Like we need to go shopping for Peter,” Tex said, looking at the boy in question. “He needs clothes for starters. I’m working the evening shift tomorrow, so I could take him shopping in the morning.”
