Page 28 of Wynter

There’s something in that smile. Like he understands. Like he’s trying to tell me everything’s going to be okay.

“I’m Xavi,” he tells me, and his voice, it’s like that smile. Shy. Sweet. Soft.

“Xavi is a journalist. For the Herald,” Thora chimes in. “He was just asking me some questions.”

“The Herald?” I swallow hard. Partly because I’m still off-balance. Partly because the paper’s investigating the robberies—which means that soon, the entire town will find out.

“I’m Zoelle Wynter. Zoe. I work for the Cleanly Den.”

“I know,” he says, and then his cheeks flush. He looks past me—at the officers, no, at the door—like maybe he wants to run, too.

Liam clears his throat. Maybe to get our attention. Maybe as a pointed reminder that no one is going anywhere. Maybe both.

“I think we’ll take it from here,” he says, after exchanging a look with Bert. Then he glances at me and narrows his eyes, like he thinks the scary troll look will get me to confess.

I shoot him a cheerful smile instead. Which isn’t easy to do while I’m processing the fact that I suddenly have three mates. Two of whom rejected me, and one who looks ready to flee.

“Zoe, was there anyone around when you came in to clean Bitchen’ Baubles?” he asks. And though he says it with a straight face, hearing the serious, uniformed troll say the word “bitchen’” makes me want to laugh.

I don’t—laugh, that is—because I notice that unlike back at Triple E and the gift shop, Liam isn’t questioning the shop owner. He’s questioning me. Like maybe whatever courtesy he was giving me because I work for his brother-in-law is now gone. Replaced with suspicion after I tried to run.

“Leith was at the rink.” My heart spikes as I say his name. “Leith Rogowsky. He plays for the Blades. He showed up just as I was done locking up and he was here. Practicing.”

My cheeks flush with heat as I remember my time with Leith, and the way he just flew away. But I know how it must look to a cop. Flushed cheeks mean guilt. I’d be suspicious, and obviously Liam is too.

“What aren’t you telling me, Zoe?” he asks.

Which leaves me with two choices. Tell him the whole embarrassing truth. Or lie.

Usually, I’d pick option two—mixed with a healthy dose of cheerful, care-free Zoe. Which is when I realize that one thing I told Leith wasn’t completely right. That fun-loving Cleanly Den maid everyone in Silver Springs knows may not be the real me, but she’s someone I really want to be. And I haven’t been pretending to be someone else. I’ve been acting like the person I want to become. I’ve been faking it until I make it. And maybe it’s time I started telling the truth.

“Leith is my mate,” I tell Liam. I hear Xavi inhale sharply and quickly add, “I only met him last night. After I was done cleaning the shops. And I might as well tell you the reason I just tried to run. Xavi is my mate, too.”

“I am?” Xavi sounds surprised.

“He is?” Liam sounds just as surprised.

“Congratulations,” Thora, the shop owner, squeals.

“I’m really your mate?” Xavi asks. He looks hopeful, but I don’t let it affect me. Not after how badly things ended up with Leith and Ghost.

So I just nod instead.

“But then why did you try to run?” Liam asks.

“You’re one to talk.” I roll my eyes. “I heard how you reacted when you first met Violet. She said you ran through a glass door. I was the one who got called in to clean it up.”

“I didn’t run through it,” Liam growls. “I slammed it shut. And she looked older than Gran.”

He has a point. Violet had been posing as an eighty-year-old woman at the time. My mate is hot.

“I just wasn’t expecting to find a third mate this afternoon,” I tell Liam.

“Third?” Xavi asks.

“Long story.” I shake my head. “But I wasn’t lying when I said I don’t know how the thief got in. I didn’t see anything suspicious. No one was here, other than Leith, and he showed up right as I was finishing up.”

“And he left with you?” Liam asks.