I didn’t ask what that was supposed to mean, because I dreaded his answer. Had the agency told him I’d been the girl they’d sent to see Heath, or had Liam figured this out on his own? Or did his father have security cameras? I hadn’t seen any, but that didn’t mean the sleazeball hadn’t installedsome.
What did it matter? It wasn’t as thoughI’dkilled him with my three little anti-shifting pills. They were innocuous. I knew that firsthand, because I’d had to swallow one every day for the first three months after we left Boulder. Even though distance from the pack eventually blocked the change, Mom had used pills to drain the werewolf magic from my veins. The pills had belonged to my father, who’d taken them to avoid shifting while his bones mended after he’d broken both hislegs.
I hopped out of the car and muttered, “I’ll see you after tomorrow.” And then I slapped the door closed, feeling the vibrations all the way inside myjoints.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The following day,Lucy stopped by my bedroom at sunrise to ask how I was doing. I wondered if she honestly cared. I shrugged and told her I wasbetter.
“I heard they’ve kept you in the running,” she said, pulpy arms folded in front of her Double-Ds.
“I heard thattoo.”
I waited for her to tell me to quit the contest. She didn’t. And I didn’t share my intention to dropout.
Her hazel eyes combed over the bare legs peeking from my sleep shorts. “Can youwork?”
“Yes.” I stretched my arms. They no longer felt attached to dumbbells, but a faint sorenessremained.
So she assigned me guest bedrooms, and I donned my gray uniform and tackled her task, scouring rugs with a vacuum, stretching sheets to their breaking point, dusting the mason jars filled with homemade potpourri. The physical exertion kept my mind off what Liam hadinsinuated.
But only for awhile.
By the afternoon, after eating with Evelyn in the kitchen, I paced my bedroom like a tiger locked in a cage. At some point, I picked up the framed picture on my nightstand—a shot of me with my parents. I studied my father’s face and compared it to my own. Besides our matching dimples and perhaps the shape of our mouths, I’d inherited all of my features from mymother.
I growled as I realized what I was doing. How dare the Kolanes insert doubt into mybrain.
I was my father’sdaughter.
I was a werewolf, likehim!
I set the frame down so hard the glass rattled. Thankfully, it didn’tbreak.
A knock snapped my attention off the picture. I went to the door and then thrust it open. Crossing my arms in front of my chest, I scowled at Everest, then gave him a piece of my mind. I gave himallthe pieces of mymind.
He dropped a shopping bag on mybed.
“What’s that?” Igrumbled.
“A dress. I hope it’s the rightsize.”
“What the hell? You bought me a dress?” I threw my hands in the air. “You think I’m going to forgive you because you got me apresent?”
“I didn’t buy it to cajole you. I bought it because you’re going to need ittonight.”
“Why am I going to need a dress tonight?” I realized I was yelling when Everest pressed a hard finger against mylips.
“Keep your voicedown.”
“Don’t you dare tell me to keep my voice down. You don’t get to tell me what to do! You ditched me.” My voice caught on asob.
Everest sighed and tucked me against him. “I’m sorry. My parents.” He shook his head. “And then—then I found out something, and I was working on a solution before I came to you. Now calm the hell down, so I canexplain.”
I pushed himaway.
“Liam hired a PI,” heexplained.
My throat became a dryhusk.
