Nari watched him go, her instincts flaring. Roscoe yipped. She faltered and started for the doorway.
“No. Let me.” Wolfe stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Finish your breakfast.” He grabbed his and Angus’s lattes and strode out the door.
Nari’s stomach lurched. Everyone had a breaking point. With a serial killer after them, possibly the same one who’d taken his sister, was Angus nearing his?
* * *
Angus couldn’t breathe. His body flared as if fire ants swarmed beneath his skin, and every joint protested. He hurried into the rain, toward the forest, and let the cool water wash over his face. Navigating a barely there trail, he reached the trunk of a tamarack and leaned against it, partially bending over to gulp in air.
“Panic attacks suck.”
Angus jerked and lifted his head to find Wolfe on the trail, lattes in both hands. His eyes were direct and serious.
“Go away, Wolfe. Just give me a minute,” Angus gasped.
“Nah.” Wolfe loped toward him, handing over a latte. “We need to talk, and you could use some sugar and caffeine. Sit and drink.”
Angus’s neck prickled. “No. Go inside.”
“Sit or I’ll put you on your ass.” Wolfe smiled, and the sight wasn’t friendly. “Sure, it’d be a good fight, but you’re injured from the crash yesterday and in the midst of a panic attack. We’d end up on the ground, regardless.”
Whatever. Angus dropped to his butt, letting the surrounding fir trees provide protection from the rain. “I would’ve won,” he grumbled, his lungs filling finally.
“Sure.” Wolfe sat across the trail against the trunk of a spruce tree, stirring wet pine needles as he did so. He extended his legs and crossed his ankles next to Angus’s thigh. “So.”
Angus took a deep gulp of the coffee and instantly regretted it. He licked sprinkles from his lips. “I’m fine. Just needed a minute.”
“Minutes are all we got.” Wolfe drank his coffee.
Wonderful. Clarence Wolfe in a philosophical mood was more than Angus’s temper could take. “Okay. You can sit here, but let’s enjoy the quiet.” Angus was more careful with his next sip.
“My sister died when we were kids. She was a teenager and just a couple of years older than me.” Wolfe drank thoughtfully, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Met some asshole in a chat room, thought he was her age, and met him for a date. He was an adult. Her body was found in our safe little town.”
Angus set his head back on the rough bark. “I’ve read your file, and it’s not the same as my situation. Your loss stinks and I’m sorry, but it wasn’t your fault.” The idea that Wolfe wanted to talk about the past and his feelings only demonstrated how desperate Angus must look right now. His face heated.
“It feels like my fault.” Wolfe twisted the coffee cup in his hands, his focus on it now. “I know, logically, that I was a kid younger than she was. That I didn’t know about the dangers of the internet, and I really didn’t know that she snuck out of our house that night. But still, she was my sister, and a monster took her. Hurt her. Killed her. It’ll alwaysfeellike my fault, no matter what my brain says.”
“My sister’s deathwasmy fault,” Angus said quietly. “Without my job, without my obsession with Lassiter, he wouldn’t have turned his attention to me and then to my sister. She was innocent, Wolfe. A freaking kindergarten teacher with a fiancé. She just wanted a good life. I got her killed.”
Wolfe nodded. “She sounds like somebody who’d want you to hide away from the world and drink yourself to death.”
Pinpricks climbed up Angus’s throat. “Jesus, Wolfe. Don’t give me the what-would-your-dead-sister-want-for-you speech, okay? That’s just bullshit. What my sister would’ve wanted was to teach school, have a couple of kids, and then coach softball. Not to end up with her heart sliced out.” He wanted to puke. The sugary drink rolled around in his stomach.
“Nobody wants that, Force,” Wolfe said. “Stating the obvious isn’t going to get you back on track. If you’re running on fear, you’ll fuck this up. Considering you’re one of the few people I like in this world, I’d hate to have to kill you if Dana is threatened again.”
It’d be nice if Wolfe was joking, but he probably wasn’t. “You’re right,” Angus said. “So take Dana and get the hell out of town. Go to an island somewhere until I find this guy and just be safe. In fact, take Mal and Pippa with you.”
The quiet ticked around them for a moment.
“Listen.” Wolfe sucked down half of his drink. “I can handle you broody, I can handle you drunk, but I can’t deal with you being an idiot. If you need to hit somebody, let’s do it. I’m happy to take punches from you. But you have to pull your head out of your ass, and it needs to happen now.”
Angus took a deep breath. His friend was right, as bothersome as that fact was. “Is this your idea of tough love?”
Wolfe’s lips twisted. “Huh? No. Tough love would’ve been me putting your head through that tree. This is me trying to be understanding and all of that shit.”
Against all odds, Angus chuckled. God, he did appreciate his friends. “Okay. I’m focused. I’ll be clearheaded by the time we get back in the cabin and I’ll profile everyone.” Not once had he ever thought Wolfe’s would be the voice of reason.
“Good. You might also want to figure out what’s up with you and Nari. You’re pushing her away so she doesn’t get killed, she’s avoiding you because she doesn’t trust her choices in men, and it’s just making everyone else gossipy and curious.” Wolfe tipped back his head and finished his drink, leaving whipped cream on his lips.
