Before they could answer, a truck pulled up to the curb, tires squealing, not even bothering to take the few extra seconds to swing into the parking lot. Carl and another man climbed out. He was another werewolf. A breath of musk and wild came with them, fur and skin, and something foreign. An enemy, an intruder. Opposing pack. Another truck and three more followed them. No Meg. Somehow, this was a relief.
I didn’t have time to go for the weapons in the trunk. They spotted us. Without hesitating, Carl stalked toward the door. He was huge, tall and muscular—a monster even if I didn’t know his other nature. His brown hair and beard needed trimming, and his whole manner was as animal as it could be without him shape-shifting completely. His pack held back, wary, watching what we would do.
Near the doors, I moved to intercept him, trusting that Ben would watch my back.
“Stop!” I called at him.
Carl didn’t slow. “Who told you I was coming here? Who warned you?”
“You can’t be here, Carl. You need to leave.” Brave words. Stupid brave. I braced like my slight body could actually stop him, or even give him pause.
He bent his arms, cocked his fists, and I knew the move he’d throw at me. He’d punch up with one, drive down with the other, trapping me and smashing me into the ground. His lips drew back in a snarl.
I waited for him. I kne
w what was coming, and I waited. When the blow came, double fists moving like I knew they would because I’d seen this before, I ducked. I wasn’t there, and when he lurched into the space I used to be, I shoved. Planted my shoulder in the soft space under his rib cage and pushed.
He stumbled but kept his feet, and for a moment we both froze, staring at each other, panting though our expended effort so far had been slight.
After all this time, something still bound us. Because of that, we couldn’t tear each other apart like animals. The thought came to me, incongruous: I used to have sex with this man. I almost laughed. I couldn’t remember what he tasted like.
“Stay back!” Ben shouted. I didn’t look away from Carl, but in the corner of my vision I saw Ben move forward, holding a gun out and ready to fire. Carl’s followers had spread out, arranging themselves in a line to move in on us—a wolf pack surrounding weak and injured prey. Ben halted their advance.
“You got silver?” one of them said.
“You bet your ass,” Ben answered. “Now let these two have their little chat.”
The wolves stayed back.
That left me and Carl to hash it out.
“What did you think you could do here?” I said.
“You invade my territory, I can do the same. I can tear you apart.”
“The police are coming. They’ll arrest you. It won’t take them long to figure out what you did to Rick’s people.”
“That’s none of their business.” A tacit confession. He didn’t even try to deny it, or pretend that he didn’t know what I was talking about.
“You’re a murderer! That is their business!”
He donned a thin smile. “You shouldn’t have come back. You shouldn’t have gotten involved.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sucks to be me.”
“Now, I attack you, and your boyfriend shoots me. Is that your plan?”
It would be so easy. End it—or at least this half of it—right here. Then Hardin would drive up, see Ben with a smoking gun, and throw him in jail. I didn’t think I could handle that. Not again.
The plan was to hold Carl here long enough for Hardin to come get him. We’d come out of this with our hands clean.
“Only if he has to,” I said.
“You should have quit when I told you to. None of this would have happened, not Washington, not this. The police shouldn’t be involved in this—they wouldn’t be, if you’d just shut up. If you’d done what I told you to, I would have kept you safe.”
“Like you kept Jenny safe?”
Something changed in his expression. I’d managed to calm him—he’d stayed in one place, I’d kept him talking. But a rage burned in his eyes now. His skin flushed. The snarl returned.