My heart became very quiet. When he reached out for me, I took a step back. If he touched me, I’d break. Shading my eyes, I stared around the lot, then back at him, at the slant of hiseyebrows.
He stared around the lot too. “Are you expectingsomeone?”
“No,” I saidfast.
Jeb came around the car. “Morning,Liam.”
One glance at my uncle’s tear-streaked face, and Liam’s eyes widened, as though he understood mymoodiness.
“The fight’s off,” he said. “But only if we bothconcede.”
Uncle Jeb squinted his red-rimmed eyes. “Then who becomesAlpha?”
“Lucas,” Liamsaid.
As though he’d heard his name, Lucas stepped out of the warehouse, his black hair devouring the rays of palesun.
A chill swept up my spine. If he became Alpha, then Lucas wasn’t the one blackmailingme.
Unless he didn’t want thetitle.
No.He wanted it. Even though he wouldn’t have willingly taken it from his friend, there was no way he would turn thisdown.
Maybe it really was Lucy, but wouldn’t my uncle be aware of his wife’smachinations?
Unless Julian was behind the wholething.
“You need to tell the elders you’re conceding.” Liam placed his hand low on my back to guide me into the warehouse. His pressure was light, and yet I felt like his fingers were imprinting into myflesh.
Every set of eyes fixed on me. On Liam. On the place where his palm connected with mybody.
The warehouse was so quiet. Or maybe I couldn’t hear anything over the deafening sound of my thundering pulse. My phone vibrated in my pocket. I jumped. My gaze sped over every man and boy. I checked their hands for phones. None of them heldone.
With rigid fingers, I extricated it from my pocket. The silicone cover caught on the crumpled note, which slipped out and tumbled onto the sprinkling of sawdust like a cluster of down. I watched in horror as my uncle crouched to retrieve it. Time slowed as he rose, the paper tucked in hispalm.
The world tipped, and Liam’s fingers curled around mywaist.
“This fell out.” Jeb handed it to me without so much as glancing atit.
My knuckles seemed to have fused with my phalanges, yet somehow, I managed to hold the paper and stuff it back into mypocket.
A groove materialized between Liam’s eyebrows. It deepened when I stepped away from him to read my newest textmessage.
I tried to reason that it could be fromanyone.
Maybe it was fromAugust.
The number was unlisted.I seeyou.
Nothing else. Nothingmore.
My throat lockedup.
Someone touched my shoulder, and Ijumped.
“Everything all right?” Jebasked.
I powered off my phone. If they were watching me, that meant they were here. That meant they no longer had to communicate with me through enigmatic text messages. I wanted to yell at whoever was sick enough to toy with me to man up and step forward, but I didn’t yell. I barelybreathed.
