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“What about her?” Nicole whispers.
“You...killed her, Nicole. I saw her.”
“What? No, I didn’t. I shot her with one of the darts.”
Cameron and Wilson are listening intently, but wisely not speaking yet.
A dart?
“You mean, she’s not dead? Wouldn’t the dose kill her?”
“No,” she shakes her head. “The medication inside of it causes temporary paralysis, but it’s not fatal on any level. You had the ointment, so you were able to recovery pretty quickly. She didn’t, but she’s definitely fully recovered by now. Probably went back home to work.” Nicole sighs. “I probably shouldn’t have shot her with the dart, but I was so pissed.” She shakes her head, then turns to Wilson and Cameron. “She tried to drug Julie. I thought Bernie was being a fucking weirdo, but even I couldn’t believe she went to such lengths.”
Nicole fidgets, moving from one foot to the other.
“So...can I go now?”
Wilson, Cameron, and I all look at each other. If she’s being honest – and her scent doesn’t smell like fear or tension that would come from lying – then not only is Bernie still alive, but she’s likely back at Lucky headquarters. She’s undoubtedly filled them in and told them that Nicole is a traitor to their team.
I don’t know if Bernie was going to introduce Nicole to dragon hunting or if she, too, wasn’t sure why they were trying to capture shifters, but I do know that when it comes to Lucky, they don’t like loose ends.
Nicole?
She’s a loose end.
“You can’t go back,” I say.
“What?” Her eyes dart to me. “Why not? You’re going to kill me, is that it? Oh, fuck.” She sinks to her knees and lifts her hands to her eyes. Then she starts to sob. “I never should have taken this fucking job,” she cries. “I just needed something not-shitty in my life. For once.”
“You aren’t going to kill her, are you?” Julie asks, looking from me to Cameron to Wilson and back again. “I mean, you can’t.”
“Of course we aren’t going to kill her,” Cameron rubs his forehead. He’s obviously getting a headache. We all are. This situation is messier than we’d like it to be. “But Lawrence is right. She can’t go back. Nicole, do you understand what you just told us?”
She stops crying, but doesn’t look up.
“Lucky doesn’t fuck around,” Wilson says. “If your ‘friend’ really went back to work, she told them you left. She might have even said you had met another girl and ran off with her. I don’t know. Either way, they’re going to be looking for you. Oh, I don’t think they’re going to waste a search party on you. They might be hoping you’ll get lost and die in the woods, but if you go back, that’s going to be the last time anyone ever sees you.”
Nicole looks up at them.
“What? Why?”
“Because,” Wilson squats down and lifts her chin. He stares at her hard, and then he tells her the cold, hard truth. I hate that she’s learning it this way. No one should have to learn the truth like this. “Lucky hates shifters. The entire corporation is built on hurting us. If they think you’re going to turn on them or that you have friends who are shifters or even that you have friends who know shifters, they’re going to gut you for information and then they’re going to kill you.”
Fear radiates from her, but she doesn’t move.
“Wilson, I’m going to take her to my mother’s place,” Cameron says. Cameron’s mother is a veterinarian who sometimes moonlights as the clan doctor when Donald needs another hand. While he was away, she handled things on her own. She’s been more than happy to offload some of the responsibilities that come with caring for an entire clan. “She looks dehydrated and she’s going to need some help. Maybe some therapy?” He looks at the clan leader. “I don’t want her going into shock. I’m taking her.”
Without another word, he pulls Nicole to her feet, takes her hand, and guides her away. Nicole doesn’t look back, and my heart fills with sadness.
“Is she a threat?” Wilson asks me when they’re out of earshot.
“I don’t think so,” I tell him.
“She hurt you?”
“Yeah, she shot me with a dart. Julie?”
Julie reaches into her bag and pulls out the dart gun, the darts, and the antidote.
