Jillian’s voice cut in. “What are you talking about, Dakota?”
“Those—those rock things. They weren’t in the filter. Not even a trace of them. No chemical reaction as the coffee was brewing. They were added afterward, and there’s only one person who could’ve done it.”
And there I was, standing in the kitchen like an idiot while my pack fought in the living room.
It was hard to believe what Dakota was saying.
Shit, if it’d been anyone else, I wouldn’t have let myself consider it so easily.
But Dakota wasn’t a liar, and he hadn’t done a single thing that wasn’t in the interest of our pack since before he’d even joined us.
Kent had been with us since Idaho. Maybe he’d?—
Maybe he’d messed up.
Maybe I was a fucking idiot.
I took a deep breath, forcing the tightness in my chest to ease before I wiped my hands on the apron I was wearing.
I’d just wanted some damned macaroni and cheese. Was it too much to hope my pack could sit around and enjoy it together?
When I got to the living room, Dakota and Kent were having a standoff.
Cash had curled up into the corner of the couch, flinching back from everyone. Seth had stopped his pacing, and his glare was locked right on Kent. He wasn’t even blinking.
And there was my sister, not quite planted between Dakota and Kent, but standing to the side. Still, the way she’d angled her body made it clear whose side she was on.
“Enough,” I snapped at them all. “Someone needs to explain what the fuck is going on. Right now.”
32
Dakota
Confronting Kent hadn’t exactly been the plan, but then I’d walked into the room and seem him there. Seen him acting like everything was just fine, and he hadn’t tried to basically murder the man I loved.
Smiling and laughing and sitting on our fucking couch when he was also working against our pack from the inside.
After discovering none of the poison in Kent’s coffee, we’d gone through everything Seth had saved, and frankly, the truth had been so transparent I was surprised he hadn’t caught it right away. No poison in the coffee grounds or cream or sugar. No poison in Kent’s cup. No poison in the coffee filter with the grounds. Just in the pot and Jax’s cup.
There had only been two people in that room, so there were only two ways for the poison to get into Jax, and since no one in their right mind thought Jax had poisoned himself, I thought the answer was transparent as fuck.
Poor Seth had been at a loss for what to do.
Oh, he’d been furious with Kent, that much had been apparent from the way he’d crumpled the paperwork in his hands, every muscle in his body tense and ready to leap into action.
But of course I was the one who’d broken.
Jax could have died.
Even now, looking at him, he was... pale and wan, with huge dark circles under his eyes.
Far worse, for the first time since I’d known him, Jax looked... uncertain. I could see that teenager who had challenged his alpha, but who hadn’t been one hundred percent certain of himself in that moment. Who hadn’t been sure he was doing the right thing.
So I had to handle this... if not delicately, since we were way past that, then at least carefully.
Unfortunately, Kent decided to try to head me off.
“He’s just panicking because we don’t know what happened,” he insisted to Jax. Then he turned to me, a snotty superior look on his face. “But you can’t blame me for everything just because you’re scared. We’re all nervous. But that doesn’t mean I’m a bad guy.” He motioned to Jax. “Jax has known me for way longer than you’ve been around. You don’t know me like he does.”
