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“You’re seeing things that aren’t there.” A siren shrieks from down the phone line. Wincing, I hold the phone away from me until it stops. “Where the hell are you? I thought you were in your apartment.”
“She wanted to be alone. I’m outside, watching it.”
“You’re watching the apartment?”
“She’s in danger, Dariel.”
Something jabs my thigh and growling, I kick a broken stool away. “She’sthe danger. The sooner she leaves, the better for all of us.”
Aden is silent for a beat. “You don’t mean that.”
My wolf rumbles, the sound louder than it should be this early in the morning. The later the day, the harder it’s always been to hold him at bay. But in the morning? This doesn’t bode well. For me or anyone who comes near me today.
Once the worst of my anger has burned away, I release a slow breath, waiting until the wolf growls in my head have fallen silent before I speak. “I do. What’s important is the bar because, without it, we have nothing. What’s important is we have each other because otherwise, we’re alone. What isnotimportant is a runaway who threatens all of that. Better you shove some money in her hand and send her on her way.”
“Then why didn’t you do that to me?”
The question is so soft that I don’t think I’d have heard it if I wasn’t a wolf.
But I do.
“You’re different.”
“Because I risked my life fighting with you? That makes my life more valuable than hers. Is that what you’re saying?”
I lift a hand to massage my brow. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
When did things get so fucking complicated? Who the fuck is this girl that she can wander in and in under a week have Kade wrecking the bar, Aden ready to turn his back on the rest of us—on family—and have me on the edge of losing control of my wolf?
Not even Monica had so much of an impact in so short a time.
“You haven’t even spoken to her. You don’t—”
“Want anything to do with her. Yes, you’re right, I don’t. I mean that, Aden, I want her gone. I don’t care how much money you give her, but I don’t want her at the bar again. This is me putting my foot down.”
“But the staffing—”
“You heard me.” I don’t waste either of our time arguing.
He falls silent, but just because he’s on the other end of a phone line, doesn’t mean I can’t read what’s going through his head.
“Look, this is in all of our best interests.” I soften my voice. “The sooner she goes, the sooner we can get back to our lives. Kade will stew in whiskey for a bit, sleep around a little more, and when he’s settled down again, maybe we’ll talk about him coming back to the bar. Butonlyif he leaves this shit behind.”
“And I’ll go back to managing the bar.”
I nod. He gets it.Finally. “Yes.”
“And you’ll go back to hiding in the office, living in terror that one day your wolf will get out and savage the customers because you’re in an even worse state than Kade is?”
He is too fucking observant by far.
“Aden…”
“No, I get it. We’ll all go back to existing as we… what? What the fuck are we waiting for?”
I don’t have an answer for him. I wish I did. But I don’t.
“Her. Saige.That’swho we’re waiting for, and you’re talking about just throwing her away as if she’s nothing.”
