His answer had me gaping, until I remembered Evelyn’s earlierconfession.
“Thank you for putting her in my life,” I toldhim.
Jeb frowned so hard his brow scrunched up. “Evelyn?”
“Mr. McNamara sent her to watch over me andMom.”
“What?” Jeb gaped atFrank.
“Ness, please call me Frank. As to Evelyn, she and I share a tumultuous history,” Frank explained, which just had Jeb gape wider. At least he was no longer sobbing. “I owed it to Callum to take care of his little girl. He was a goodman.”
At the mention of his brother, a strangled sound jerked out of Jeb’s mouth. He dug his fists into his reddenedeyes.
“I’m glad you joined the pack, Ness.” Frank touched my cheek, then leaned over and placed a kiss on my forehead. “Welcome to thefamily.”
Little butterflies whirled around my stomach, and I smiled gratefully up at him. “Can I ask you something, Frank? Would you have made us kill eachother?”
He smiled a little as he said, “That, you’ll neverknow.”
But I did know. His expression told me all I needed to know. Frank wouldn’t have made us spill blood. That was something Heath would’vedone.
I stayed next to my uncle after Frank left. “Where’sLucy?”
Jeb drove the heels of his hands into his reddened eyes. “Eric…Eric locked her up in his basement”—his words were labored—“until she talks. Until she reveals where Everest ishiding.”
She’d sooner die than hand over her only son. “What happens if she doesn’ttalk?”
“They’ll make the pack track himdown.”
I’d meant to her, but I didn’t clarify my question. This was hard enough onJeb.
“Let’s hope he went far, far away then,” I whispered just loud enough for Jeb tohear.
His puffy eyes widened, as though he couldn’t believe I wasn’t first in line to rip out his son’sjugular.
I wanted answers, and corpses don’ttalk.
I gave Jeb a tight smile, then started to turn away when he called out myname.
“I have something that belongs to you.” He dug through his jeans and produced a key that he tucked into my palm. “It took me a couple years to get the money, but I bought back yourhouse.”
That was how Lucy had gottenin…
I pushed that morose insight away as he continued, “It’s in yourname.”
“Ican’t—”
“Youcan.”
“But it’ll take me years to pay youback.”
“It’s agift.”
“Jeb…”
He closed his fingers around mine, forcing the key into my palm. “I couldn’t prevent Aidan from killing my brother. I couldn’t prevent Heath from hurting your mother. And more recently I couldn’t prevent my wife and son from using you to terrible ends. Let me makeamends.”
“But none of those things were yourfault.”
