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My heart raced at the thoughts shooting through my mind like a bullet. What if hunters were around and heard about a wolf running through town? I needed to pack. I needed to get out of here. This town wasn’t safe. I’d overstayed my welcome. Adios, Blackwood Creek.
Panic grasped my chest again, holding my lungs in a tight vise as I struggled to get oxygen to them.
“Tori? Tori?” Ridge’s voice yelled in the distance.
The skyline of the town’s businesses was ahead of me and now within walking distance. Relief sparked inside me. I’d made it back. I scanned the somewhat sleepy town and tried to devise a plan. It was morning. There would be people around, getting their coffees and heading to the diner for the early-bird special, walking their dogs, getting the paper from the front walk.
Oh, this was bad. This was so bad.
“Tori!” Ridge’s voice got louder as he got closer.
My heart hammered in my chest and my hands shook. I could smell him now. He was close.
He couldn’t see me like this. Nobody could see me like this.
I ran across the last path toward the closest building, which had a door with a lock I could break. I moved faster to the safety of shadow and cover, not thinking about the consequences, just the desperate need to be out of sight.
To my surprise, the door wasn’t locked. That would’ve never happened in the city. Within moments, I quietly opened the door and was inside.
I looked at the shelves filled with bottled liquor, bulk bags of shelled peanuts and chips, bar napkins, and coasters. Appraising the items around me, I realized it was the back room of The Tipsy Tavern. I almost shouted in glee when I spotted a pile of clothes that had to belong to Mateo—T-shirts and skinny jeans were definitely his style—stacked with aprons by an old washer-and-dryer set.
Without second-guessing myself, I threw on a T-shirt that went to my knees and a pair of basketball shorts, then headed back to the door and cracked it open a notch. I planned to head back out that way and sneak back to the B&B, but Ridge’s scent hit me like a ton of bricks. It came from upwind, and I’d have no option but to pass him.
Life was unfair. This was just more proof.
Wanting to avoid him, I quietly shut the door and hurried toward the front of the tavern. Hopefully, I’d make my way out the front door before Ridge or any other townsfolk caught me. Not waiting to get spotted, I moved fast. Not even James Bond had such stealthy moves.
I went through the swinging door from the backroom and kitchen area to the waitress station. I’d only taken three steps inside the bar when I skidded to a halt.
Oh, fuck. This was bad. Deputy Phillip Hill was lying on the center of the bar in a large pool of semi-dried blood. His eyes were half open, and his mouth was twisted in pain. There was no doubt this man was dead. Massive claw marks tore through his chest cavity, and his throat looked to have been ripped out. Pieces of his skin and muscle were lying in clumps around his body.
My blood pressure dropped and I got lightheaded at the scene before me. I couldn’t move, and then a noise sounded to the left of me. A door opened, and a triangle of light lit the floor. Feet walked across, clacking on the hardwood.
Audrey Greenthorne walked into the room from Mateo’s private entrance. She glared at me, then her gaze shifted, settling on the body. She screamed at the top of her lungs—a real scary movie kind of screeching howl—and I winced as her high-pitched cry rattled my ears.
“You killed him!” She pointed at me and then put her hand over her mouth. “You fucking killed him! Tori killed the deputy! Help! Somebody help!”
Oh, this was about to get really bad for me.
Wearing only sweatpants, Mateo hurried into the room as the Magpies and Mr. Greenthorne ran inside from the front door. It would only be a matter of seconds before the whole town stood in the tavern, pointing their judgy little fingers at me, and here I was without an alibi and the first person at the scene.
Did Mateo seriously leave the front door unlocked even though the business was clearly closed? I mean, he’d obviously left the back door open and his clothes where I could get to them. Both of which I was thankful for, but damn. The front door?
Audrey screeched and pointed her finger at me. “She did it! She killed the deputy.”
Flabbergasted and overwhelmed by the gory sight before me, along with the screeched accusations, I found speaking was impossible. Even if I could speak, I didn’t know what to say. I shook my head and repeatednoover and over again.
The Ashworths and Mrs. Marrow rushed into the building as well. They all gasped and covered their mouths. Some turned away, but people kept coming through the door like the bar was a sideshow at a county fair.
My voice finally made a grand reappearance when my wolf woke up from her nap and nudged me to say something. “I didn’t. I swear I didn’t. I just got here and saw this at the same time as Audrey did. I have no idea what is going on,” I pleaded. It didn’t matter what I said, though. I could have remained silent, and it would have had the same effect as my denial.
Even though my wolf was guiding me to point fingers at Audrey, too, I reasoned that it’d take more time to figure out who killed the man if there were multiple suspects. Of course, I was the only one standing at the scene of the crime, and I didn’t know who to try to blame to shift the focus from me.
So, I silenced my wolf and shoved the idea away. I wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t point the finger at somebody who hadn’t done anything. No matter how much she annoyed the shit out of me.
“She had to have done it. We don’t know her, and she was here alone with the body,” Audrey said. “Why would she be here when the bar’s closed, anyway?” She was starting to piss me off, but I wasn’t quite up to a fight with a wolf who was a little too big for her britches.
I glanced down at my hands, worried that I’d missed some blood, and my shoulders dropped. I could only imagine what they were all thinking. Everything about this moment made me appear horribly guilty. Worse, I didn’t know how I’d gotten the blood all over me, so I couldn’t offer any reasonable explanations.
