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“I get it. What makes you a good fit here?” I lean back in my chair, observing the way her hands toy with the edge of her shirt. “If you’re this nervous just talking with me, are you going to be able to work around me?”
Her hands still, and her eyes find mine. She tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I can multitask, and I honestly just really need this job. I was dating Aaron before…”
My jaw clamps together, my teeth making an audible clack, and she flinches.
“He’s been really weird,” she says softly. “He stopped… well, everything. Hugging me, kissing me, he barely even talked to me anymore. Until he kicked me out. I moved in with my friend for now, staying on her couch, but I can’t even afford to pay her any grocery money right now.” She chews on her lower lip for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Gods, I sound pathetic. I was working with him in his friend’s auto shop in town. I’d answer the phones and stuff, but once he kicked me out, they replaced me there too. It’s…” She wipes away a stray tear, scoffing. “It’s humiliating to be erased as if I didn’t exist or matter, you know? Almost as humiliating to be dumping all of this on you when you didn’t even ask.” She looks up, grimacing.
“Can you start tonight?”
Her mouth hangs open. “Are you serious?” Her eyes fill with tears when I nod, and she closes them, blowing out a breath. “Oh my gods.” She smiles at me when she opens her eyes. “I’ll go out there right now. Thank you, uh, boss.”
I nod at the door. “Ask Frank for an apron. He’ll show you the ropes.”
She smooths a hand over her hair, pulling back her shoulders as she goes back into the crowded bar. Once the door closes behind her, I reach into my desk and grab the bottle of whiskey, drinking from it as I make a mental note to pay Aaron Kilch and his friends a visit.
I get through three more interviews, choosing to hire Lucas’s girlfriend, Vera, along with Cali. I almost hire a third, offering Lucas some extra pay instead, if he fills in when he doesn’t have a set to play, knowing Adara plans to wait tables whether I allow her to or not.
The thought reminds me to balance my books, so I pull out my notebooks and start that after checking the new security camera I added to my office window. But it shows nothing. Irritated, I focus on the numbers swimming before me on the page. Why leave a note once and not return?
They’re playing with you, my wolf says.
Growling, I tip back my glass, downing the whiskey and refilling the cup. I know that, butwhyare they playing with me? What game is this?
Pausing my movements, I glare at the window. “Why did you saythey?” I mumble. “The note only had one initial.
You have more than one enemy, Gideon.
I walk over to the window, staring out into the dark night outside. My reflection stares back at me in the glass. “Don’t be cryptic. It doesn’t suit you when you’re normally a blunt ass.”
There’s a lot of names that start with A. Aaron. Aramin. Allen. But none of them could make the night air stale and press pause on a breeze.
My lip curls up when I realize how stupid I was. Of course it wasn’t Aramin—she’s never been the type to leave a note. She’s the type to show up unannounced at the lake and beg for me to take her back. Rathmann’s murderous stare from the council meeting sends off alarms in my head. I don’t understand why he’d sign that note with his first initial, unless to throw me off his scent on purpose. He knows—he must be watching me.
And he must be working with a witch.
Pissed, I know my wolf is right. Only a spell could stop the wind from blowing, stop the breeze from taking that light weight package from where it was strategically placed outside my window. But why would Rathmann be working with a witch if he hates them as much as he does?
Downing the second refill of whiskey, I hurl the rocks glass at the wall. The glass shatters and rains down on the floor as I slump down onto my chair. I rub a finger over my chin, trying to figure out why a witch and a wolf would be working together. Is it just to target me as the alpha? Or is there more to this—to go as far as to include Adara?
I rip my phone off my desk and text her, wanting to make sure she’s okay.Sleeping yet?
Not a wink,she sends back.
I smile at the screen, glad that she didn’t fight me on responding quickly like I’d asked. I send her one of those kissy faces before checking the list of hunters Frank gave me. I dial the name written down for tonight—Brent Poltan.
“Hey, boss,” he answers on the first ring.
“Update.” I pick up a pen, hovering over my notebook, clicking the top of the pen over and over.
“Uh, nothing much really. Ashes look undisturbed at the house. No tracks anywhere. No fresh scents.” He angles the phone away from him to speak to someone else, then pulls it back. “Everyone here has the same report, same as day shift too.”
“Keep me updated. The minute you see something, you call me.”
“You got it.”
I hang up, slamming the phone on the desk, and stare at the blank page before sweeping everything off it and into the wall. Gods damn it all, I just want one—one—piece of something to go on and know what is happening. What Monique is up to, the coven, the council, Aramin, Kilch.Everyone.
Staring at the mess on the floor, I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Gods, this is infuriating.
