Page 63 of New Blood

Jude locked the door from the inside and turned back toward the bed. He was naked again after having shifted back into his human form. He approached the bed.

Danielle was sitting there, clutching her bathrobe in the front to cover her torn negligee. He could see the tension in her body.

A foot away from the bed, he stopped.

“I need you to tell me the truth. And no matter what the truth is, it won’t change how I feel about you. But you have to tell me the truth.”

She nodded.

“Did you have an affair with William Gallagher?”

He held his breath.

“No. Eve was lying.”

Relieved, he sat down on the bed and pulled her onto his lap.

“Thank you.” He kissed her, then released her lips.

“Do you know anything about the letters Eve was mentioning?”

“No. I have no idea what she was talking about.”

“So you didn’t know William before you came to the pack?”

“That’s right. It was my mother who told me if I ever needed help, to find William Gallagher.”

“So she knew him.”

“She must have.”

“Did she ever talk about him to you?”

“No. All she did was give me a letter that I should give to William should I ever need help.”

“Did you read what was in the letter?”

“Mom told me not to. I respected her wish.”

“So it’s possible that there’s something in that letter that made Eve believe that you slept with her father.”

Danielle let out an exasperated huff. “I don’t know. But that was just one letter. Eve spoke about letters, plural. Love letters. That can’t be my mother’s letter. She would have simply asked William to help me. Maybe he owed her a favor.”

“That’s possible.” Jude contemplated her words. “Eve mentioned her mother committing suicide. Violet mentioned it too yesterday. What do you know about it?”

“Not much. I could hear her and William argue a lot, but that doesn’t mean much.”

“How was she treating you?”

“Hot and cold.”

“What do you mean?”

“At the beginning, she was very nice to me. But then suddenly, from one day to the next, she couldn’t find a single nice word to say to me. She ordered me around—much worse than Flora. As if I’d done something that she wanted to punish me for.”

“Do you think she thought you had an affair with William?”

“But I didn’t,” Danielle protested.