I paused with my fingers on the door. Liam and I, we’d been together for all of four days. If Lucas’s logic was accurate, my grieving period should already have beenover.
“How long were you withTaryn?”
Gaze sunk on the obscurity, he muttered, “Toolong.”
My heart went out to him. Which was crazy because I didn’t think my heart would ever have gone out to Lucas Mason. Then again, I never thought my cousin was a pimp, or that Liam would lead a girl to his bed so soon after almost kissingme.
On my way up the staircase, keys jingling in my trembling fist, I worked on coming up with a good lie as to the reason I was home early. I hated deceiving my uncle, but I couldn’t share what I’d just learned with him. It would shatter what little good memories he had of his son. I palmed away my tears and steppedinside.
33
The next day,I went to work and pretended everything was great when I felt completely broken on the inside. August and I didn’t cross paths at least, so there wasthat.
I spent Saturday in bed. On Sunday though, Evelyn called and said she was expecting us for brunch. Jeb made me drive to Frank’s house, and I did so without a single glitch, even though I hadn’t slept well and my eyes felt gummy. I’d believed my heart couldn’t possibly shatter more than it already had back at Tracy’s, but I’d been wrong. The shards had simply been crushed into finer ones. Just like the vase I’d knocked over in my house one of the first times I’d shifted. The glass had fragmented on our pine floor, and then the pieces had been ground to a powder under my father’s boots as he’d tried to corral me into his arms to calm medown.
“I phoned up the DMV and set an appointment for a driving test tomorrow,” Jeb said, whipping me out of mythoughts.
“I thought I needed a year before I could passit?”
“The woman who runs the place, she owed me afavor.”
I glanced atJeb.
He indulged my curiosity. “Her husband was using the inn to shack up with his mistress.” He shot me a jaunty smile. “I wouldn’t have tattled had the guy been an upstanding citizen, but he was a jerk, who at some point tried to get with Lucy.” His glee dampened a little at the mention of his wife’s—ex-wife’s?—name.
“Is she still locked up in Eric’sbasement?”
He stared at the winding mountain road. “No. She’s back at theinn.”
“She’s working forAidan?”
“She’s packing up and arranging thehandover.”
I almost swerved off the road. “I thought you were going to fight for theplace!”
Jeb clutched the grab handle. “My lawyer suddenly changed his tune. He said the contract was airtight and it would be a waste of my resources to try and nullify it. And now I can’t find a single lawyer in our zip code willing to represent me. Aidan Michaels’s money is burning holes in too manypockets.”
Not for the first time I wished the hunterdead.
I thought of Megan and her cross. Once people knew us, once they realized we weren’t all out for blood, maybe their fear would subside. “Do you really think that if knowledge of us spread it would be sobad?”
Jeb scrubbed his beard, and it made a chafing sound. “That’s a tough one. Some people have a romanticized idea of werewolves, but finding out we exist . . . I’m not sure their awe would outweigh theirfear.”
“Do you think we’d get hunteddown?”
“Remember what they did to people they claimed used witchcraft back inSalem?”
Ishuddered.
“And they weren’t even witches. So, to answer you, Ness, I’d rather not find out.” He reached over. I thought he was going to adjust my hold on the steering wheel, but instead, he laid his hand on top of mine. “Aidan Michaels is old, Ness. He’ll die soonenough.”
Unless he died tonight, it wouldn’t be soon enough. “Did you at least recover the payment for theinn?”
“Yes. But it’s being held in escrow until the divorce is finalized. Hopefully, that’ll be soon.” After a beat, he added, “Lucy’s being a little . . .difficult.”
I didn’t ask what that was supposed to mean. If Jeb wanted to tell me more, hewould.
“I like the apartment, Jeb, but I was thinking, if you have any money set aside with which you could fix up Mom and Dad’s old house”—I shrugged—“at least the windows and front door, we could move inthere?”
