He got up and rubbed his hands against his black mesh shorts. “Besides, if all goes well, you’ll be rid of me bytonight.”
His words echoed through me.If all goes well . . .In other words, if Everest was found andkilled.
I clamped my fingers around my clothes. “Do you have anynews?”
“No.” He studied me for a long second. “So, what’s the plan?” His voice was a tad less cocky, as though he felt pity for me instead of annoyance. He must’ve figured out that my sullen mood was more due to what was happening in Denver than what was going down inBoulder.
“Do you have a car?” Iasked.
“I have access to one.” He gestured to the window. Even though the sky was overcast, Liam’s black SUVgleamed.
However much I wanted to get rid of Lucas, I couldn’t deny how practical it was that he could drive. “You have a license,right?”
He cocked the eyebrow slashed by the white scar. “Since I was sixteen. Why? Youdon’t?”
I pressed my lips together. “No, Idon’t.”
“Seriously?” His eyebrow seemed to rise a couple moremillimeters.
“I never had time to get it. But that’s what I wanted to do today. After I stop by the inn to see Evelyn and Isobel.” I started for the bedroom door, holding my clothes against me, but paused and turned back to Lucas. For the first time since I’d woken up, I smiled. “Oh, and then I’m having lunch with Sarah at three at Tracy’s. Or should I say,we’rehaving lunch withher?”
His lips puckered as though he’d swallowed something sour. As I entered the bedroom, I heard him grumble something that sounded like, “I’m not being paid enough forthat.”
I smirked as I donned yesterday’s outfit. When I returned to the living room, tying my hair up in a ponytail, Lucas was gone. I spied him outside, crouched with his nose low to the ground. Heart pounding in time with my feet, I treaded to him, surveying the dirt road and the gently swayingpines.
“Is something wrong?” My low words were snatched up by the blusterybreeze.
“I got a whiff of somewolves.”
“From thepack?”
“No.”
“Pines?”
His nostrils flared one more time before he unfurled his long body back to standing. “No.”
“Real ones,then?”
“Smell.” He nodded to thegrass.
I crouched and inhaled. Mixed among the earthy, green aroma of the slick blades was the woolly scent of wolf edged with the distinctive musky scent ofhumans.
Werewolves.
14
“How canyou tell they’re not Boulders?” I rose from my crouch, morning dew seeping into the fabric of my tightjeans.
“I’m a tracker,Ness.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning while you studied calc, I sniffed scraps of fabric belonging to various bodies before going afterthem.”
“You didn’t go toschool?”
“Oh, I went to school.” He flashed me a smug grin. “I just had more interesting after-school activities thanmost.”
