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This wasreallynot good.
“Great,” Parker said. “Get back in the house and keep Dylan in there.”
“What happened to Brandy?” Meredith stepped outside.
“She’s okay, Meredith. She passed out. I’ve got it under control.” Parker widened his stance, keeping that rifle trained on Reardon. “Go back inside.”
Meredith disappeared back into the house, which surprised Reardon. She wasn’t one to take orders from what he’d seen, and he knew how much her family meant to her. If her daughter was on the ground, she’d want to go to her. If she thought Reardon was a threat, she’d make every attempt to protect her kin.
A soft click sounded behind him, but before he could take his gaze off Parker’s rifle, a sharp jab got him in the shoulder blade. When he turned his head, Meredith stood on the front step, a tranq gun still raised in her hands.
“Sorry, kid, but I don’t know what’s going on here. My daughter’s on the ground, a man who is usually pretty level-headed has you at gunpoint, and my grandson is visibly upset inside. We all need a minute. A minute in which you are not able to fight back.”
By the time Meredith was finished, everything around Reardon had grown fuzzy and his body didn’t feel like his own. A numbness crawled throughout him and he sank to his knees. When his arms were unable to move, he crashed face first into the dirt at Parker’s feet.
“He should be out for a while, but let’s tie him up until the police get here.” Meredith’s words all ran into each other in Reardon’s ears.
He heaved in a breath. Brandy was close enough that her fragrance filled his nostrils and he relished the scent.
Even if it was probably the last time he’d ever smell it.
****
Brandy snapped awake and her body jolted in the recliner. Her living room. She had somehow gotten to her living room from outside.
Outside where she’d seen footage of something that could not be real.
Could it?What if it was? What if everything she’d researched about lycanthropy was… real? What if Reardon was Alator and Alator was Reardon?
She stood and marched into the kitchen. “Parker? Mom?” She poked her head into the dining room. “Dylan?”
No one answered so she opened the front door only to see Parker and Meredith walking up from the entrance gates.
“Brandy, are you okay?” Meredith jogged over and gave her a hug, but Brandy couldn’t manage to get her arms to reciprocate. “You want something to drink, kiddo?” Meredith stepped back and studied Brandy.
“No.” Brandy got in front of Parker. “I want to see that footage again.”
Parker shook his head. “I don’t think that’s necessary.” He still held the rifle.
“Idothink it’s necessary, Parker. I need to be sure about what I saw.”
“It has to be a trick or something,” Meredith said.
“You saw it?” How long had she been unconscious? Brandy squinted up at the sky and figured it was still morning.
“Damn straight, I saw it. I needed to know what caused my daughter to end up flat on her back in the dirt.”
“Let’s go inside.” Parker corralled her toward the house, but Brandy sidestepped out of his reach.
“No. I have to… I have to talk to Reardon. Where is he?” She turned in a tight circle as if he might magically appear.
“Sheriff Olsen sent two officers out to pick him up, B,” Parker said, still trying to edge her toward the house. “We’ll let them sort it out.”
“You didn’t… oh my God, Parker, you didn’t give the sheriff that security cam footage, did you?” She had a strong feeling that if what she’d seen was true, Reardon didn’t necessarily want the whole world to know what he… could do.
Parker rubbed his temples. “No, I didn’t. I’m not sure what to think of all that yet. I told the sheriff Reardon was trespassing on Silver Moon land. That’s enough for them to hold him for some questioning, but we have to come up with something more if we want them to press any kind of charges.”
“What charges? There are no charges.” Brandy paced away and came back. “Reardon hasn’t done anything wrong.”Except keep a mammoth secret.A secret he’d been trying to tell her this morning. A secret that would change the world as Brandy knew it.
