Page 41 of Last Call at the Doghouse

“You have things to do here.”

She took a step toward him. “Do I? Do I really? Or is that just another lie?”

“I didn’t lie,” he argued. “I just didn’t tell you everything.”

“I occasionally turn into a gigantic dog is a damn big omission.”

He stepped toward her; she stepped away, moving behind the bar so there would be something solid between them. She wanted to be so angry that she felt nothing else, but it didn’t work that way. She’d liked him… a lot. She’d wanted him to distraction. In his bed she’d felt alive again. For a while she’d felt as if she had a partner in Duncan, a real, true partner. She’d never had that with Andrew, hadn’t even known it was possible.

“I didn’t know how to tell you. How exactly does that work?” Anger flashed in his eyes. “I’ve never told anyone. I can hardly explain it to myself. I’ve just now found a little bit of control. In the early days, it just happened. I had to hide out in the middle of nowhere for weeks until I could manage even the smallest amount of control. My dad knows because he’s in the same boat, but I haven’t told anyone else. I can’t find the words. I like you, Armi, I even…” His anger faded. “I like you. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Did you kill Carlton?”

“Hell no.”

They were both angry, but Armi felt her own anger fading. She fought the urge to slip around the bar and take him into her arms, to accept his explanation and his insistence that he hadn’t hurt Carlton. Was everything she’d felt for him manufactured? False? She didn’t think so.

“Forget Mystic Springs,” he said in a low voice. “Forget the damn book. Let’s… go. You’re right; Montana is beautiful. I have some money saved. No one needs to know where we are. We can hide out there and play it safe for as long as we can.”

Something in his tone alarmed her. “What would we be hiding from? If you’re right about what’s coming, would any place be safe?”

“For a while,” he said. “Could be the timing is off. What we’ve been warned about might not happen for a long time.”

“So I’m supposed to run away and let my kids and grandkids handle it?”

He had no answer for that. “You just said…”

Yes, she’d just been thinking of running away, but when it was put to her this plainly she knew couldn’t do it.

There was no reason for her not to be honest. She’d pretended for too long, especially where men were concerned. Andrew, specifically. Maybe if she’d been herself, if she’d rebelled against the woman she was expected to be and embraced the woman she was, their marriage would’ve worked. She hated her ex now, but there had been a time when they’d loved each other.

She couldn’t go back, but she’d learned a hard lesson. “I can’t be with someone I don’t trust.”

“I get that.”

“Do you? I don’t want anyone to lie to me to spare my feelings, to make my world nice, or to keep from rocking the boat. Rock the boat. Tell me everything.”

He looked as if someone had yanked the rug out from under him. “There are things I don’t want to tell you, that I’m not ready for you to know.”

“I’m a big girl. I can handle it.”

Whatever secrets he kept ate at him. She saw it. He was a big, strong man, but he was carrying something heavy that he could barely handle.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

He stepped toward her. This time she didn’t move away. Suddenly she wanted to shout no! She wanted to tell him to keep whatever was tearing him apart to himself. It wasn’t good news. It looked to be news of the worst sort.

Duncan rounded the bar and wrapped his arms around her. She let him. He placed his head on her shoulder and held on. Who was comforting who?

“I’ll change it if I can. We have a few days to… to fix it. If we can’t fix it, Montana isn’t the worst idea.”

“Tell me,” she whispered again.

Duncan lifted his head, smoothed her hair away from her face, and looked her in the eye. “You’re not a shield, you’re The Shield, according to your aunt and her pals.”

“I don’t understand.” No army? No others coming to join her? The idea of fighting alone was horrifying.

Duncan looked pained as he said, “If you’re who and what I was told you’d be, you won’t survive the equinox.”