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“Hey, Dani.”
Violet swirled her cup and took a sip. The look on Red’s face caught her eye as she set the drink down. Red was wide eyed and pale, lips pressed tight together.
“Violet…” Her eyes went to something over Violet’s shoulder.
“Violet Davis?”
She turned to find three men behind her, crowding their small Starbucks table.
“You need to come with us,” one of them said without waiting for her to confirm her identity. Dread curled in her stomach.
When she turned back to lock eyes with Red, every bit of what she felt was on her friend’s face too.
“Dani,” she said nervously into the phone.
“Ms. Davis,” one of the men insisted.
“Where am I being taken?” Violet demanded. “Do I have a choice?”
She was about to ask if she could call an attorney. The thought was so laughable she almost asked just to piss them off.
The men looked between her and Red, then each other, uncomfortable.
“To the Town Hall to await a gathering this evening to discuss your role in revealing information to outsiders. We’ve got orders to bring you in by whatever means necessary, but we’d prefer if you’d come quietly.”
Red looked even paler, sick with her eyes glassy. “I’ll make sure Mikel knows,” she promised. “He already does,” she corrected in response to whatever Dani said over the phone.
“Okay then.” Violet stood on leaden legs.
“It’ll be okay,” Red insisted desperately as she was led away.
Violet looked back over her shoulder, pausing for as long as she dared without enticing the brutes to bodily move her. “It really will,” she promised with a confidence she didn’t feel but hoped would be enough to convey to Red that she wouldn’t let her lose Daniella for this at the very least.
THE DAY PASSEDslowly. It could have been minutes or hours between each session of rattling the doorknob and yelling furiously through the crack. In a windowless suite in Town Hall, Violet lost all concept of time. It was a small relief that the room was comfortable—a bed, a bathroom, a thermostat on the wall, and opulent decoration that matched the lobby of the building. Yet any form of entertainment or connection with the outside world was totally, maddeningly absent. The men had said nothing. The car ride over was made in stoic silence while they ignored her questions, content just to deliver her without fuss.
When the door finally opened much later, the same men led her back to the elevator, down through the lobby, and out of the front doors. The night was well underway around them, and her questions fell on deaf ears, again.
Another car with blacked-out windows took her back to the square. Violet went over the mantra that had kept her sane all day—they would fix this. After all, in every movie and story, the alpha was always triumphant. Mikel would come through. They’d find a way to convince the town. Lila would be safe. Red wouldn’t lose Dani. She wouldn’t lose the man she loved.
The sky was inky dark and starless, lit only from the east by a waxing gibbous moon when they opened the door for her on the other side of Main Street. Violet moved around the car, flanked by black-clothed bodies. The square was already full. This time, rows of seating were arranged in neat lines from the center where a cluster of people already waited. Off to the side was Lila.
She sped up, noting the set of her sister’s shoulders and that she looked unhurt but scared, still wearing the jeans and blouse combo she’d been in yesterday.
“Violet,” Mikel said.
He came out of the crowd as they breached the small aisle through the seating. The men around her jumped, but Mikel was quicker, already through them, and catching her around the arms so he could look at her.
His green eyes were dark, concerned, and the set of his jaw tight. She couldn’t see his wolf in his eyes, but inexplicably, she felt it, simmering close to the surface, waiting.
“I’m okay,” she promised, ignoring the guards who shuffled uncomfortably around them and the rippling knowledge of her arrival and his that was spreading through the crowd. The concern on his face didn’t change, but beneath it was something colder, darker, wilder.
“Mikel—”
He kissed her. It was soft at first, just his hands sliding to her waist and holding her while he dipped, then harder, hotter, and longer. Something inside her reacted to the energy pouring off him, to the glide of his tongue across her teeth, to the delicious power of him. It left her insides warm.
Someone tried to interrupt. “Mr. Davis—” He growled.
Regaining a sense of time and place and remembering that her little sister was probably watching and his hands weredefinitelyon her ass now, she broke the kiss and leaned back. For just a second, his eyes were gold. Her own took longer to change back.
