Chapter Twelve
Blake scowled at the note. “It smells like that wolf shifter, Bo. And he’s stinking up the woods near us, too. I can’t believe I didn’t wake up when he was getting close to us. I should go after him.” He trained his cool gaze on the treeline.
“No, that would be the worst thing we could do. Let’s drive into town to get some breakfast and I’ll explain on the way. We needed to get going anyway.” She glanced around uneasily. She didn’t want to talk until they were in the SUV because she didn’t want to be overheard. Bo’s scent still hung in the air, but it was growing weaker—he was heading away from them, fast. He’d just come to deliver Dawnie’s message—via bow and arrow.
They took down the tent in record time, folded it and tossed it into the back of the SUV.
“You drive,” Blake said. “You know where we’re going, and after you fill me in on what’s up, I need to use my sat phone to call Stef and check in.”
She waited until they were in the SUV and driving away before she started talking.
“That was Dawnie Reed’s handwriting, and that was typical Dawnie. Acting all sweet offering us her summer cabin but attaching it to an arrow was a thinly veiled threat. Not only that, she’s making it clear that she knows we’re here in her territory and she has eyes on us.”
“So, we’re not going to stay in her cabin, of course.”
“Oh, yes we are. First of all, if we turn it down it’s practically a declaration of war. And secondly, we’ll be just as safe—or in as much danger—at her cabin as we will anywhere in her territory. She can find us anywhere out here. She’s got people everywhere.”
“You keep calling it her territory,” Blake said. “And it seems to me that she does more harm than good out here. She sells moonshine that has addictive properties and sometimes fries people’s brains or makes them go berserk, she shut down the mines which took away a major source of income in the area… why don’t people rebel?”
Krista heaved a sigh. “Because her family’s ruled this town for generations, and everyone’s just too whipped to stand up to them. And she’s a mean ass grizzly, and so are her kids, and any one of them could take down any other shifter in this county, including you, Blake. And also because she does keep a lot of money flowing into the holler. She makes charitable contributions, she takes in strays and orphans and raises them to be loyal to her… or tries to.” She shuddered as she said it.
She’d been one of those strays. She hadn’t been loyal. Dawnie never found out the true depths of Krista’s disloyalty, or Krista wouldn’t be standing here breathing oxygen.
“Sounds like there’s a story in there.”
She winced. She wanted to believe that he was her fated mate, that he’d meant every word that he said last night. But they’d just met, and he said pretty words, but it wouldn’t the first time that a man had said pretty, empty words to her with passion and feeling.
And in the clear light of morning, with most of the lust-fog having diminished and the orange globe of the sun rising up over the mountaintops and pouring its syrupy light into the holler, she couldn’t help but think of who she was and where she came from.
And the depth of her betrayal against Dawnie.
“There is, but it’s a story for another time,” she said lightly. She looked straight ahead, but she could smell disappointment and hurt burning in the air, so heavy it made her eyes water. He didn’t just want some of her. He wanted all of her.
And he didn’t trust her, not 100 percent. That was understandable; they’d just met. But that went both ways. She wasn’t ready to open herself all the way up yet.
“We’re looking for a missing boy.” Blake’s voice was harsh with accusation, and after their tender intimacy last night, it stung like a swarm of bees.
“I know that. How could you think I’d forget that?”
“When you withhold information from me, you make it impossible for me to do my job and you risk that child’s life.” His warm gaze had frosted over. He sounded like he was a million miles away. She was back to being nothing more than an assignment to him.
Her stomach twisted in a knot.“I’m not withholding anything useful, it’s something that happened ten years ago and has no relevance to today.”
The sharp edge of his voice cut her like a knife blade. “I decide what’s useful to our investigation, Krista.”
“Well, I guess you’ll just have to get my license yanked then,” she snapped.
The temperature in the SUV seemed to drop thirty degrees. She shivered, the hair on her arms lifting. “I’m sorry you think that about me. I’m going to make that call now.”
His voice was stilted and formal as he called Stef on his satellite phone.
She could hear both sides of the conversation.
No, they hadn’t made any headway yet. Several of Michael Coffman’s pride members had been attacked when they went pounding on people’s doors in the area near where Ethan had disappeared, demanding to be allowed in to search, and they’d fought back, injuring three members of a wolf family. Michael was ready to explode with fury and panic, and he was threatening to call in the heads of all the lion prides on the East Coast and basically declare war not just on Flowering Dogwood but on the entire area known as The Zoo if he didn’t get his son back right the hell now. And that war would spill over into Crystal Bay—and have national implications. When shifters went to war with each other, humans tended to get caught in the crossfire.
He’d spoken to Dawnie face-to-face yesterday around midnight at the Flowering Dogwood town hall, and it hadn’t gone well. She’d started out with her benevolent matriarch act, promising that she’d have all of her people out looking for the boy, and assuring him that there was no need for his men to go poking their noses around, saying it would just make things worse. He’d responded with red-hot fury, swearing that he’d send his men wherever he damn well pleased until he had his boy back, and if he didn’t get Ethan back safe and sound he’d rain down hellfire on the entire holler and leave nothing but scorched earth.
The meeting had ended with shouts and threats.
