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“Shut the door,” she said.
He lifted a brow, but he did as she ordered.
“You think Melda’s going to leave Mel behind?” she asked.
Matt hadn’t thought about it. He hoped so. The fewer warm bodies around here, the better.
“And Amberleigh,” Gina continued. “We’re gonna have to drop her at the local loony bin, then call her folks.”
“Okay.”
Gina nodded, chewing on her lower lip.
“You didn’t call me in here to go over the plan, Gina.”
She lifted her gaze. He wanted to cross the room and kiss the crease between her eyes. So he did.
She relaxed into his embrace. “I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here.”
“Manage.” He rubbed her back. “You always do.”
“Not very well. I lost the ranch.”
“It’s yours now. I promise.”
“Jase thinks I slept with you to get it back.” She lifted her head. “Do you think that?”
“It never once crossed my mind.” Her smile was worth a thousand sunrises, and when she laid her head back on his chest Matt ran a palm over her tangled brown hair. “You should have told me you heard that thing calling your name.”
Her chest lifted and lowered against his, making him think of things other than the situation at hand, but he held her until she stepped away.
“Sorry. I can’t think when you touch me.” She sat behind her desk. “Or I can think, but not about anything but you.”
Matt’s chest went tight. He wondered if she’d agree to go to town and stay there until this was over. If he lost her, he didn’t think he’d survive.
“Ten years ago I felt a … presence down there. I was out of it, scared, high from lack of oxygen maybe, but—” She lifted her gaze, and her pupils had dilated until her eyes appeared black. “When it’s dark and I’m alone, I know that something evil played Duck, Duck, Goose with our lives.”
“What does that mean, Gina?”
“Someone had to die. Then I didn’t know why, but now I think sacrifice kept that thing alive, if alive is what he is. All the people who died on that piece of land fed him somehow, and when no one came, because of the curse, he called names until someone did.”
As theories went, hers wasn’t half-bad. Especially since she didn’t know yet what Edward Mandenauer had told Matt.
“Maybe Amberleigh did hear what she said she heard,” Gina continued. “Maybe she saw what she said she saw.”
“She might have heard something, but I doubt she saw it. Fanny put wolfsbane at the entrances.”
“Does that really work?”
“Hell if I know,” Matt muttered. “But I think Isaac’s right. If the werewolves could get in, they would have.”
“And we’d all be dead. Or worse.”
They remained silent, thinking about worse; then they both spoke at the same time.
“You should stay in town,” Matt said.
“I want you to go back to Arizona,” Gina blurted.
