This time when Callum went quiet I could practically hear the gears in his brain going. That was a good sign. It meant he wasn’t jumping straight back to dragging me home. There was a chance—however small—he might put some faith in me.
“Hank has been arrested?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“But he’s alive.”
“Yes.”
A sigh, though I wasn’t sure if it was from stress or relief. I chose to believe it was the latter.
“Where’s Wilder? Is he with you?”
“See… I’m going to tell you something, and some day you’re going to think it’s funny, but right now isn’t that day.”
“There are very few things I find funny, even through the lens of hindsight.”
Better just to jump in headfirst then. “Wilder is also in jail right now.”
“For what?”
“He might have punched a sheriff’s deputy and broken the guy’s nose.”
“And why would he punch a deputy?”
“Because we were getting arrested at the time.”
“Eugenia.”
“Sorry, should my imprisonment have been the headline? A lot has happened in the last couple days.”
“Are you still there?”
And calling you from my jail cell? “No, Cash got me out. I was only booked for trespassing. Apparently Deerling decided not to press charges. I guess he doesn’t need misdemeanor wolf crime when he has a Class A Felony to flash in front of the press.”
“Cash? You called your human boyfriend before calling me?”
“He specializes in supernatural law.”
“He’s human. And more importantly, in case it slipped your mind, he’s a law student and not an actual lawyer. My God, at any point during this ordeal did you actually stop to use your head? Even once?”
“I saw what Deerling and his people did to the girl. I know what they’re up to. That has to count for something.”
“The word of one werewolf—who now has a criminal record—against a church leader. Let that sink in for a minute.”
“They didn’t press charges. I don’t have a criminal record. And Deerling is a religious leader for a group of well known zealots and whose hatred of the supernatural population is documented on the public record. It’s not out of the question people might believe my side of it, especially considering it’s the truth.”
“Truth has no place in the court of public opinion. Why do you think we stayed hidden so long? This is all they need, this one sliver of evidence however tenuous. Once the world believes we’re monsters, they’ll never stop believing it.”
“Humans kill each other every day,” I pointed out.
“Humans are aware of their own evil. They know the depths to which they can sink. We’re not like them anymore; they know we’re different now. Human evil no longer applies to us. One murdered girl might not make headlines if a human had killed her, but you know damned well this will go national once the press gets word that a werewolf killed a woman.” Another sigh, this one definitely from stress. “Your heart was in the right place, and I am glad we know what really happened, but I don’t know if it was worth it.”
“I might still be able to help. I think there’s more going on here, and if I had a little more time to look into—”
“Ben will be there in the morning.”
“If Ben is here in the morning, I won’t be.”