“I don’t know what that”—he swirled his hand at the world around us—“was all about. And frankly, I’m too pissed to care. Where is Walker Hayles?”
Stiffening, my knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. “I don’t know.” The last time I’d seen Walker, the only time I’d seen him in the last ten years, he’d almost shot me. That was a few days ago.
“You’re lying.”
My stomach clenched. With Landon, my default seemed to be lying. I had to give him something. “Right now? No clue. Last I saw him, he was okay.” A bit of a stretch. He’d been escaping my brother’s Alaskan compound with a nameless woman in tow, another beast like him.
“So you are involved in his disappearance.” His voice was low and disbelieving, like he spoke to himself. Then he squared his shoulders to me. “Saying ‘he’s okay’ isn’t good enough.” Granite entered his tone.
I chanced a glance at him from the corner of my eye and noted the clenched jaw, the fists in his lap. “I saw him a few days ago and he was fine. Spunky even.” There was a small chance Hayles had been recaptured, but after what I’d heard he’d done and survived while enlisted, I had faith he’d gotten himself and the woman out the same night I left my brother for good. There’d been enough chaos surrounding the compound, and I’d seen the damage they’d done to the security gate.
My eyes slid to Landon, then away. How could he be friends with someone who could shift their form at will? How could he trust someone like that to not rip off his face when they got angry? The questions sat on the tip of my tongue, but went no further—questions I’d had since seeing Walker and Kane transform in front of Landon that day in the woods.
Remembering the events of my last night in Alaska, my traitorous acts toward Emerson…I forced my hands to relax, twisting them against the smooth leather covering the steering wheel. It squeaked with the movement.
“Okay,” Marley’s voice came over my comm, and I straightened. “Your tail is doing a standard search pattern. You have some space.”
“Let me know when we’re clear.”
“Can do.”
I stared straight ahead, anxiety creeping up my spine with each silent second.
“I’d like to know more about these friends of yours,” Landon said after a few minutes. “Maybe I can be friends too.”
Alina snorted. “Marley pulled up his file. If a multimillionaire CEO wants to be friends with me, sure, I can suffer. Does friendship with him include borrowing his cabin on Vancouver Island? It’s massive.”
“Hold on, I’ll ask.”
After a full minute of waiting, Alina snorted again. “You’re not going to ask, are you?”
“Hell no.” Landon not strangling me was entirely temporary. I wasn’t going to start asking favors from the man I’d royally screwed over.
The things I’d done for my brother… I leaned forward and pressed my forehead against the steering wheel, wanting to bang it, but managing to restrain myself.
“How did you find me?” I asked finally, needing the answer in case Emerson could use the same method.
Landon was silent for so long, I turned my head and met his gaze. That one, fury-infused expression was enough to make it feel like he’d punched me in the stomach. I’d hurt him. Badly. I’d gotten a job with his company under false pretenses. I’d slept with him, then stabbed him in the back after he’d given me the best parts of himself. And there probably wasn’t anything I could do to fix my sins.
I didn’t deserve a second chance.
I didn’t deserve kindness.
Whatever he wanted to dish out in retribution, I’d take with a smile on my face. It was the least I could do.
“I’m going to need every detail you have on Walker Hayles’s last whereabouts,” he said, his jaw clenched.
I faced forward, my forehead pressing harder against the steering wheel, a physical reminder I was alive and free of my brother. I cleared my throat. “Of course.” I’d give him information on the compound in Alaska, even if I knew Walker wasn’t there anymore. Marley had confirmed its destruction with satellite imaging. “Let’s get out of this situation first.”
I straightened and leaned against the headrest, waiting for Marley to give us the all clear.
We were quiet for a while, when he said, “To answer your question, it was luck. Luck was how I found you.”
Hopefully my brother wasn’t so lucky.
“Are you bringing Mr. CEO here?” Marley asked in my ear after a while.
“No.” Too complicated. Too much. Too…everything.
