“Whatever.”
I frown, still unsure who’s who in the conversation. Hell, it could even be one of the other hands, or Billy, though I don’t think so.Dammit, I knew letting Jed around my boys was a bad idea.Now he’s poaching my staff right out from under me when I need my family the most.
The sounds shuffle away, but the voices don’t stop. I strain, West’s expression shuttering as he concentrates as hard as I do.
“You know he’s bad news.” The faint voice of reason, whoever it is, leaves me cheering internally. Whichever kid that is deserves a raise for his loyalty. That’s always meant the most to me. That, and hard work.
A soft laugh echoes across the otherwise silent yard. “You think Rand’s accident was a real accident? How the hell did you think Jed?—”
I never hear the end of that sentence. My head jerks to one side. Something twinges, my vision going white with the pain that results in both a blinding blankness and an all-over numbing sensation all at once. West flinches, swearing as his attention turns away from the conversation and to me.
“Fuck, not now,” I mutter, straightening too fast. The world pivots, or maybe I do. Gravity no longer matters.
“Whoa.” Large hands catch me, a shadow much taller than West’s looming above me. “Not the right time to take a nap, boss.”
I blink and find my nose within an inch of the ground. Billy eases me backward as I mumble my thanks. The ground and sky meld for an instant, swirling in a dizzying kaleidoscope of grays and blues and browns. Dust coats my tongue as I scrabble for the rope, certain Wreck’s hooves will slam into me over and over again.
But when my vision steadies, no bright lights flare the night wide, and no sterile scent floats around me.
Only faces I know well, concern etched in every expression.
I squeeze Billy’s hand, which still grips mine hard. I find West’s face among the crowd hanging over me, uncaring that I suck in more of Coyote Fall’s dust than air.
“All right. We do this like you said.”
I want to know who screwed with that bull, and I need my girl back.
Maybe not in that order.
Bite marks that do not come from a dire wolf decorate Aveline Swanson’s veranda. Her cottage sits on the outskirts of ValiantPeak, a mile or so from its nearest neighbor. Perfect fodder for wild critters to forage from, or rogue dire wolves, if the rumors that Pollux Jenkins and his media misfit band camped out on the poor woman’s lawn this morning are to be believed.
I hightail it across town, with West as my chauffeur, a solid week after my decision to seek out Lanie—a decision that has been delayed every damn day—to help out after a brief phone call. Apparently last night was the only night that Dallashasn’tspent at Aveline’s house this week, or for most of the month. No one else, including any of the Coyote hands, seems to have any damn idea he had invested in anything more than a one-night stand.
For a small town, our lone wolf has managed to play his secret damn close to his chest. That’s a solid achievement in itself. His rigid stance at her back tells its own story, not unlike the one developing between West and my sister. But from the look of the stricken woman who keeps glancing between her broken house, I have the impression that Dallas won’t be going anywhere any time soon. Her back door hangs from its hinges in what appears to be a failed break-in more than a wolf attack. The crowd gathers on her front lawn, leaving Dallas in defender mode. He’s claimed her for sure, even if he has to set up camp on the rickety chair beside the broken door.
West takes one look at the media circus parading about Aveline’s house with their picket line and cardboard signs, all declaring various ways to reduce the local wolf population, and his face closes.
“I’ll be right back. Ma’am,” he murmurs, nodding to Aveline, before he heads for the small garden shed at the rear of the property. A moment later, he returns with his arms full of tools and attacks the damaged door.
I curse internally that I can’t help him, but I know I’ll only be a hindrance. Today is not the time to test the newfound independence that both West and Billy have helped me develop over a crappy week of intensive PT and enforced rest.
Instead, I cast a critical eye over Jenkins’s combined forcesuntil I spot the man himself. My feet make quick work of the manicured lawn that I know Dallas has put his magic touch to, and only for someone he cares about. That conversation can come later. The older man must have a soft spot for the much younger woman, not that I care.
If he’s kept his dalliance a secret from the entire town as well as Coyote Falls, then it means the age gap between them bothershim. Something tells me he hasn’t revealed that little secret to Aveline just yet, and that sits poorly with me. Another chat I schedule for later, for after I fix my own relationship problems.
Having Lanie here with me right now would be a massive help. She knows so much more about the gray wolves than I do. I doubt there’s a dire wolf rampaging through Valiant Peak. The “monster” is purely Pollux Jenkins’s creation to stir the crowd into a witch hunt to earn himself a little extra side cash and his fifteen seconds of local fame on a short-lived pedestal.
I step to the back of the crowd, listening to the prepared speech he’s already halfway through.
“…wolf is a wily beast. It uses a combination of scent and pheromone trails to track its prey and return to its last haunt, where it will do the most damage, time and again.” Jenkins oozes at his followers, smiling into a camera. His eyes flick back toward Aveline Swanson’s cottage. A knowing expression widens his predatory smile, and the camera captures every nuance, just as he intends.
I’m surprised the lens doesn’t crack beneath the weight of his bullshit. Not a damn thing he says rings true.Lanie, I need you.For more than one reason. Sure, I can storm on over, pull my weight around, but last time I crossed swords with the con artist, Lanie was the one who put the scammer in his place, not me. I stood there as backup, towing my ass along for the ride. And at no point did she need me.
Not once.
The thought of her independence slices at me. I’m both proud of her for being so strong and devastated that she can walk awayfrom me so easily when I’m emotionally crippled without her. Because I want her back so damn bad, it burns.
Because I miss her. In my arms, in my home. At Coyote.
