“You won’t leaveme?”
“No,querida. I will never leave. Just as I could never hate you, even if you transformed into adragon.”
A wheezy chuckle glided out between my blubbering. “Those don’texist.”
“Gracias a Dios.” If she hadn’t been holding me, I was certain she would’ve crossedherself.
The corridor lights flickered andbuzzed.
“I am ready to hear…more. Will you tellme?”
I nodded and tugged her inside. Once the door was closed, once she’d settled on the bed next to me and dragged her lotion-softened fingers through my hair, I told her about how I’d tried to become part of the pack after my father was shot in his wolf form by a hunter. I told her about Heath and what he did to Mom when she’d begged him to trainme.
What I didn’t tell Evelyn was that I’d entered the contest to become Alpha. I neither wanted to worry her nor have her tell me how dumb itwas.
Chapter Eleven
When my phonerang on Wednesday morning, I answered without even checking the number. For the past three days, all my calls had originated from August. We talked every day, and when we didn’t talk, wetexted.
I’d never communicated with anyone as easily. He made me laugh. He also made me feel things…things that were apparently against pack rules. Things that made me wish he’d come back to Boulder sooner thanplanned.
“Candy, you’re alive!” a chirpy voicesaid.
I rolled into a sitting position so fast I had to clutch the nightstand to avoid keeling over. “Hi,Sandra.”
“I’ve got a job for you,girl.”
“A j-job?”
“A client saw yourprofile—”
“I thought you took itdown!”
“I did, but he screenshot your pic and begged me to get in contact withyou.”
Creep.“I’m notinterested.”
“Hun, you got gypped out of your last payment because of the unfortunate demise of the customer. This is me trying to make it up toyou.”
“It’s okay, Sandra.” It’s not like I would’ve taken said customer’smoney.
“What about all those bills you still need topay?”
I let go of the nightstand. I did need money for the overdrafts on the joint bank account I’d shared with Mom, but I didn’t want to earn it doing…that.
“Why d’you think Everest insisted I pair you up with Heath Kolane?” shecontinued.
Sandra believed my cousin, whom she’d met through Becca—one of hergirls—had pimped me out so I could earn fast cash. I hadn’t played escort for Heath’s money, but explaining my true intentions would’ve earned me a restraining order instead of ajob.
“Real shame he died. He was one of my best customers. Real shame. Anyway, the customer I’m calling ’bout is offering threegrand.”
I coughed. “Threegrand?”
“You interested now,hun?”
Escort was a job like any other, right? Besides…three grand. I couldn’t exactly turn that down. I still had debts, plus I wanted to reimburse Evelyn for the money she’d loaned me to pay for Mom’s funeral. Even though she insisted she would never take a dime for it, the funeral had been pricey, because we’d wanted to give my mother an ending worthy of the woman she’dbeen.
“Can you tell me more about thegig?”
