You’re not divorced, Arden.
Her entire soul and body shuddered away from that terrible reality. She could not let Grant see her. He could not know that she was here.
“Baz, please. I want to go.”
She expected Baz to ignore her entreaties, just like every man in her life always had. But with her hand on his arm, he backed away from Sloan, glaring at him with an if-looks-could-kill expression.
“You put one finger on her again, buddy, and you’re going to have a huge problem,” Baz snarled—and itwasa snarl, rumbling up from inside his chest, where his animal lived.
Arden was too shaken to fully register it, but for an instant she thought she saw Sloan’s two-toned eyes flash gold.
Grant Hamilton—notorious anti-shifter senator Grant Hamilton—couldn’t possibly have a shifter bodyguard ... could he?
Then Sloan whirled to intercept several people trying to film the commotion with their phones. “Get those down. Knock it off. There’s nothing happening here. Put those down, people, or I’m getting the cops over here for crowd control.”
Meanwhile, Baz hustled Arden away with his arm around her. She realized that she was shaking. She couldn’t have seen what she thought she saw; it must have been the afternoon sun glinting off Sloan’s eyes. There was no way she could have been around the man for years without realizing he was a shifter.
“What the hell was that guy’s problem?” Baz demanded. But he kept his voice low, trying not to draw any more attention than they were already getting. “Did he hurt you? We can press charges. Like I told you, Lexie’s dad is the former sheriff, and his name still carries a lot of weight around here.”
Arden shook her head. She forced herself not to look back, like a child hiding under the covers, as if Grant wouldn’t see her if she didn’t look at him.
“Let’s just get out of here.” Her breath hitched in a sob.
Before she realized what was happening, Baz’s strong arms were around her, pulling her close. Arden resisted briefly, and then, with a small gasp, let herself be pulled to his chest and held there.
“Are you okay?” Baz asked the top of her head.
“I’m fine.” She choked on a half-sob, but her trembling had begun to ease. “Let’s just go.”
“Yes. Of course.” He held her for another long moment until she pushed away and turned to climb up into the passenger side of the truck. Baz got in the other side, frowning.
“It doesn’t seem like talking would help, but I’ll listen if you need me to.”
“I know,” Arden murmured, looking down at her hands, where she had clutched the handles of her shopping bags tightly enough to leave red marks in her skin. “Thanks.”
“Are you hungry? There are a few good lunch places in town.”
Arden thought about the risk of running into Grant anywhere around town. Or Sloan, which at this point was almost as bad.
You’re not divorced, Arden.
“I—I’m not really hungry yet,” she said, swallowing. “Can we get takeout and take it back to Windrock and eat there?”
“Sure,” Baz said easily. “The others would love something that didn’t come from a cooler or a can. We can pick up burgers.”
He didn’t push her to talk. They got carryout from a drive-thru. Once they were back on the road, with the radio playing and the town falling behind them, she began to feel the knots in her chest loosening, one by one.
The radio went into a newsbreak.— and Senator Harrison is on the second week of his tour of smaller towns, raising publicawareness of the shifter marriage ban that the Senator is co-sponsoring, currently under debate on the Senate floor —
“Oh,thatguy,” Baz said, his voice full of scorn. “Is that what upset you so much? Don’t worry, that kind of thing never passes. He doesn’t have the votes. It’ll be all right.”
He reached over and turned off the radio. Arden opened her mouth, then closed it.
Baz was right, but not for the reasons he thought. Grant Harrison was often associated with anti-shifter legislation, but he didn’t care about shifters, either to hate them or like them. He signed on to anti-shifter bills for the attention and the kickbacks. If the bill didn’t have the votes to pass, Grant would just find some new cause to associate himself with. He had no real vested interest in the legislation itself.
But what he did worry about was his image. Such as the blow from having his pretty young wife very publicly leave him.
What the hell had Sloanmeant, the divorce wasn’t final? What did that mean for her?
