“I didn’t mean to. I was at this after-hours party at a museum, trying to get drunk.” I arched both brows at him, and he rolled his eyes. “I know, I know. But I had no idea what was happening to me. Every shift into cat form that I’d made had been involuntary. I’d figured out how to shift back, but not why it was happening in the first place, or how to stop it. Drinking was the only thing that still made sense. Only it was suddenly super hard to achieve abuzz.”
The elevator slid slowly down from the fourth floor, and I glanced at our reflections on the mirrored wall. He had one arm around my waist, his gorgeous gray eyes totally trained on me, and we looked fucking adorabletogether.
“So, I was at this museum party, finally actually starting to feel the vodka, and this song started playing. I can’t even remember what song it was now, but the moment I heard it, I started flashing back to the woods. To what happened at the cabin with Ivy and her…boyfriend. They must have been playing that song in the cabin, or something, because hearing it triggered ashift.
“I ran out, with my hand shoved into my pockets so no one could see that my nails were turning into claws. Everyone seemed to think I was going to puke—I’d had half a bottle on my own by then. I wound up in the alley behind the museum, hidden by the trash bin, and there was nothing I could do but let ithappen.”
“Right there in the middle ofJackson?”
“Yeah. It was kind of terrifying. Anyway, when it was finally over, I stood up and had to pull what was left of my clothes off with my teeth, youknow?”
Ididknow. The same thing had happened to me with my very first shift. The one I hadn’t known wascoming.
“That’s a very surreal moment, when you’re shaped like a cat, but you’re still wearing human clothes, and suddenly you don’t seem to fit into eitherworld.”
“Exactly. I rememberthat.”
The doors slid open, and we stepped into an empty hallway at the back of the lobby, but Justus lowered his voice, just in case. “Anyway, I was just going to hide there until I’d regained enough strength to shift back. But then this guy came around the corner of the Dumpster. It was Elliott, and hewaspuking. He didn’t notice me until he was done. I didn’t have anywhere to go. I was boxed in by a fence, the building, the trash bin, and him. And I was still a little drunk. Then he got scared and grabbed this long board sticking out of the Dumpster. He started swinging it at me. There were nails sticking out of the end, and he actually grazedme.”
Justus pushed up his short sleeve to show me a thin white scar on his left shoulder. “So, I swiped at him. I didn’t even think about it. I mean, there was no human thought process, like, ‘What should I do now?’ My paw just shot out, and I smacked him. I didn’t even realize I’d actually scratched him until I met him in the basement of Titus’s poolhouse.”
“Then there was no malice,” I summed up in a whisper, running my finger over his scar. “You were acting in self-defense, and you had no idea you could infect anyone. Do you think Elliott would testify tothat?”
Justus shrugged. “I have no idea what heremembers.”
“Well, we could call your brother and ask to talk to him.” I glanced at the front of the lobby, then at the door leading to the lot in back, where we were parked. “Why don’t you check us out, and I’ll bring the car around front. It’s my turn todrive.”
“You’re not old enough to drive a rental,” heteased.
“Neither are you. Give me thekeys.”
He gave me the keys and a kiss. I lifted his duffle off his shoulder and hung it over my own, opposite my backpack. “See you in a minute.” Then I headed out the back door, while he went toward thelobby.
In the parking lot, I popped the trunk with the button on the key fob and dropped our bags inside. Then I slammed the trunk and lookedup—
Someone grabbed me around the waist. I opened my mouth to scream, and a hand clamped over my mouth. Panicked, I inhaled through my nose and instantly recognized the scent of the hands that heldme.
Jared lifted me off the ground, and I kicked and thrashed, and though my shoes slammed into his shins a dozen times, he never even flinched. He just shoved me head-first into the open back seat of his car, then slammed thedoor.
One glance told me it was the very car we’d stolen and left for him in the parking lot of the fast food taco place, only since then, he’d screwed a rough-cut plexiglas panel into the backs of the front seats, separating me from him like a cab driver from hiscustomers.
I pulled on the door handle, but nothinghappened.
“Child safety locks,” he said as he slid into his seat behind the wheel. The passenger seat next to him was filled with a large, unmarked cardboardbox.
“I can pull the handles right off,” Ithreatened.
“Yes, you probably can.” He shoved his key into the ignition and started the car, then backed smoothly out of the parking spot. “And that will get you into a lot more trouble. But it won’t get you out of this car. So buckleup.”
“Let me out!” I yelled, as close to his ear as I couldget.
“Shout all you want.” He shoved something small and green into his left ear—an ear plug. “But if you do anything to wreck this car and either of us gets hurt, the Southwest Pride is fully prepared to charge you with recklessendangerment.”
“You stupid son of a bitch, you have noright—”
Jared took the curve around to the front of the parking lot too fast, and I had to grab the door handle to keep from falling over. As we pulled out onto the street, I turned to bang on the rear windshield, shouting Justus’s name. I could see him through the front window of the hotel, paying for our incidental charges. I shouted as hard as I could, but there was too much distance between us. Too many doors andwindows.
“Say goodbye,” Jared taunted. “The next time you see your poor groom will be at hisexecution.”
