As we walked toward the car, I said, “I have a lot tolearn.”
“What?” He slapped a palm over his chest. “The great Ness Clark doesn’t knoweverything?”
I slugged his bicep, and it was like hitting solid rock. “Shutup.”
He chuckled, which was strange, because Lucas was a sulky bastard, not a chuckler. He jutted his chin toward the house. “You lockedup?”
“I don’t have akey.”
“Liam didn’t give you akey?”
I frowned. “Why wouldhe?”
As he pulled out a keyring from the pocket of his mesh shorts, he cast me a sideways glance. I didn’t ask what his look meant. While Lucas locked up, I climbed into the SUV and strapped myself in. A minute later, he sprang behind the wheel and revved up theengine.
As he pulled out of the driveway, I examined the forest again. “Is there another pack in theseparts?”
“Not that I knowof.”
“Soloners?”
“Possibly. But they’re playing with fire by running around here. If they value their lives, they better have been passingthrough.”
The landscape was cloaked in a gray light that turned everything flatter, duller. I was glad there was no sun. I didn’t feel like sunshine. I checked my phone for updates on the Everest hunt. Having none, I stuffed my phone into mybag.
“Nervous?” Lucas asked as we headed up the inn’s longdriveway.
I chewed on my thumbnail. “Aren’tyou?”
“Nah. I have total faith in my Alpha.” He side-eyed me. “Unless he’s not the person you’re nervousfor.”
The golden log façade of the inn rose beyond the windshield. Soon it would belong to a detestable man. Aidan would probably strip it of its hominess and transform it into another impersonal, multi-million dollarventure.
“He’s my flesh and blood,Lucas.”
“He used you, then tried to have you killed, yet you hope he gets away with his life? I don’t get it,Clark.”
I twirled the ends of my ponytail. “What if there’s more to it? What if he didn’t mean to do any of that? What if Aidan Michaels coerced him to do it? Or blackmailedhim?”
“And what if Aidan Michaelsdidn’t?”
My skin prickled from his sharp answer. Then that would make my cousin truly heartless. “I guess we’ll never know since Everest won’t get atrial.”
I gripped my doorhandle.
“We’re not animals. They’ll interrogate him before putting himdown.”
Sucking in a sticky lungful of air, I gritted out, “He’s not adog.”
“You know what Imean.”
I did, but it still bothered me. “You don’t have to comeinside.”
“Until it’s over, I’m shadowing yourass.”
I heaved an annoyed breath and hoppedout.
While Lucas went to park, I pushed through the revolving doors. The inn was bright and warm and smelled faintly of potpourri and varnished pine, scents I’d come to associate with Boulder. It wasn’t home, and it wasn’t a safe haven, but for a while it had been the closest place to a home I’d had. I stopped by the bell desk where Isobel was answering a call. She raised her index finger. I waited, studying her face. She was pale, but not sickly so. And although her cheekbones pressed against her skin and her shoulders jutted through her cream blouse, she wasn’t emaciated. For a moment, I superimposed the image of my mother over Isobel, and my heartbeatsslowed.
