“Keep this close,” Laurel had insisted only days after she’d arrived, her eyes wild with urgency. “Keep it with you always. Promise me.”
“Sure,” Willow had agreed, despite her confusion. “What’s it for?”
“You’ll need it if something ever happens to me. But not unless and until then, do you understand? It’s important, Wills.”
“You’re scaring me, Laurel. What kind of lock does this key open?”
“I’ve rented a storage unit in Breckenridge. It’s on a two-year lease. Hopefully, I won’t need it, but in case I do...”
“What are you talking about? What’s in the storage unit?”
Laurel wouldn’t say. The unit had been paid for in cash under a fake name to avoid it being linked to either one of them. Laurel had given her the address and number with strict instructions that Willow not go there unless the worst should happen.
“If the time ever comes, you’ll know what to do once you get there,” Laurel had insisted. “Just promise me.”
“I promise,” Willow had vowed. “Anything for you. You know that.”
That conversation—and the pledge attached to it—made the key feel like a lump of lead between her breasts now.
Willow touched it absently, uncertain what to do about her promise when Laurel’s death had sent her entire life into a tailspin. She never wanted to imagine the day would come that she’d be faced with fulfilling that cryptic obligation, let alone that she might have to do it while being shadowed by a massive Breed male claiming Willow needed his protection.
“How are you doing over there?” Razor’s deep voice jolted her back to the here and now. “You haven’t spoken for a couple of miles. You hanging in all right?”
She nodded, letting her hand fall back to her lap. “Yeah. I guess so. As much as I can be.”
“We’ve got a lot of road to cover before we get to the other side of this mountain. Plenty of time for you to tell me anything your sister might’ve said about who or what she was hiding from.”
Willow shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?” he asked, his tone clipped. “You know more than you’re telling me. I doubt you’ll want me to use my own methods to loosen your tongue.”
She gaped at him. “Like what? Tearing open my throat with your claws? Or would you rather do it with your fangs?”
He swore under his breath. “You have such a low opinion of me already?”
“I’ve seen what your kind can do.” She mentally tried to shut down the images that threatened to flood her mind. Old memories from the time when she was a young child, before she and Laurel were orphaned by Rogues that had been unleashed on the public en masse some twenty-two years ago.
Razor was staring at her as if she were the only maniac in the vehicle. “I meant that I could trance you and get you to talk about your sister,” he said. “I’d rather you tell me on your own.”
“Like I said, I can’t. I don’t know anything. Laurel didn’t want me to know.”
“Why not? What was she hiding from up on that mountain? Who was she hiding from?”
Willow shrugged. “I wish I knew. She contacted me out of the blue about six months ago to say she was moving to the area. She asked me not to tell anyone, which was easy since there was no one to tell. After she arrived, she sent me her location in a coded message.”
“Code? What kind of code?”
“The kind only she and I understood. It was a twin thing, something we started when we were kids. It doesn’t matter now. The point is, she wanted to keep her arrival in Colorado and her location a secret. I knew she was scared, but she wouldn’t explain. She said it was for my own protection. I thought she was being paranoid, but now...”
Razor grunted. “Was she ever involved in any kind of criminal activity?”
“Laurel?” A small laugh escaped Willow’s lips despite the weight of her emotions. “Never. Not my sister. She was the good twin.”
He acknowledged with a wry glance in her direction. “Could she have crossed the wrong person somehow? Done something to someone to turn them into an enemy?”
“No,” Willow replied. “Everyone she meets adores her.Adored, I mean.”
“What did Laurel do for work?”
