Chapter Twenty-Three
The next morning…
At first it had seemed like baby Stuart, which was the name Bruce had picked out, was getting better. The aspirin worked at first. But now the baby had a fever even when they gave him aspirin, and he didn’t look right. And he still hardly ate, and when he cried, it sounded weak and funny.
Duane looked at John. “We promised,” he said to him. “We’re going to try to find a doctor.”
“How would we even find one?” John asked, worry curling in his stomach. If Mr. Tompkins killed him, what would happen to Bruce? Bruce would ask too many questions, and…who knew what Mr. Tompkins would do to him.
“We know town is to the North. That’s where his car comes from,” Duane pointed out.
That was true. All the boys had good hearing because they were wolves, so they had a pretty good idea of where the road was, even though it was far away.
“I can find it,” Duane said confidently. “I’ll take the baby and I’ll go tonight after he falls asleep.”
I hope he lasts that long, John thought nervously, glancing at Stuart.
* * * * *
Mary stood in the hallway, her nerves humming with tension. Briony was sitting in her room, talking to Constance. Angela had insisted that Mary come out and speak to her, which was stressing her out. She was petrified that somebody would go into her room and find Briony and haul her off to be executed.
“Why do I need to be in the hallway? Why couldn’t we talk in my room?” she asked. Then Craig rounded the corner, and Mary turned to glare at Angela
“You betrayed me, devil-cousin. I thought you were better than that. Slightly better, at least.”
“No, you need to listen to this,” Angela said stubbornly. “Craig came to talk to me and we’ve made up, and also there’s something you really need to— Get back here!”
Mary was heading back to her room, but Craig ran and jumped in front of her and blocked the way. Damned fast werewolves.
“Jarrod didn’t want to stand you up back in high school. It was all Earvin,” Craig said quickly. “He set your mother up so she’d get arrested for shoplifting from a store that he owned, and she was facing some serious time in jail because she was already on probation. Then he told Jarrod that he’d agree to get rid of your mother permanently – he’d pay for her fake her own death and leave town. Jarrod knew what you were going through. He knew Hilda had moved out and left you to deal with everything by yourself. He knew you were waitressing after school and your mother was stealing your tip money to buy booze and drugs. He knew your mother was bringing home drunk boyfriends who were hitting on you. So he agreed to break things off with you, and he swore a Blood Oath not to tell. A wolf can’t break a Blood Oath. It’s sacred to us.”
Mary swallowed hard.
“He didn’t want to leave you. It devastated him, but he thought he was protecting you. He wasn’t lying when he told you the reason that he’s never stayed with a woman since then is because he never got over you. And Earvin had promised to let you know that Jarrod wouldn’t be showing up for dinner, but he didn’t, of course. And he posed as Jarrod and sent out a message on Facebook to all the popular kids in school letting them know about it, because he wanted to make you hate Jarrod as much as possible.”
Mary felt hot tears burning in her eyes.
Her mother had been alive all this time and hadn’t bothered to get in touch. “Did Jarrod know that my mother was still getting money from the pack?”
“No. She started threatening to tell you, and Earvin was afraid that might result in you getting back together with Jarrod. So he kept sending her money.”
“How do you know that?” Mary demanded suspiciously.
“Because yesterday Jarrod went to the business office, grabbed the head of the pack’s banking department, and beat the hell out of him until he talked. Also, Hilda found out about it because she tried to get your mother’s death certificate to see if she could get any social security checks, and she found out that your mother was alive. So she started blackmailing Earvin too. She made him help her set up Mated and Matched, and she made him let her be the one to arrange Jarrod’s bridenapping. He wanted you off the Bridenapping, but Hilda insisted on keeping you on.”
Mary stumbled, taking a step back under the weight of all of these betrayals. She blinked hard to keep from crying.
“Craig?” Jarrod shouted from around the corner.
Craig winced.
“I told him to come here. I hope I did the right thing,” Craig muttered, suddenly sounding nervous. “Maybe you should go. You might not want to see this,” he added to Angela.
“Nope. I was a stupid dumbass for leaving you before.”
“True,” he agreed.
“And I’m never leaving you again. Also you’re supposed to argue with me and tell me I’m not a stupid dumbass.”
