Page 22 of Ruthless Moon

I swallow the softball-sized knot growing in my throat.Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.Not only is this man not fazed at all by what happened, he’s telling someone to, what—finish the job?

“He wasn’t lying, was he?” The question slips out unbidden. I know my father is capable of terrible things. But murder? Over a ranch? Killing innocent women? And Matthew’s involved. Helping.

Matthew’s usually impassive brown eyes flick to meet my gaze. “No. He wasn’t lying. Stay away from him. I don’t need you fucking this up worse by trying to apologize to a man with nothing left to lose.”

“Right. Of course.” I take another step backward, toward the door of his office.

He pins me with an angry glare. “Get back to your house while I deal with this. If something happens to you, your father will makemedisappear.”

My bottom lip trembles. I swallow hard and nod.

The front door swings open and I gasp a little, half expecting to see Mr. Darcy standing there with a rifle pointed at my heart. But instead it’s one of my only friends from town, Rachel, with two mega cups of coffee from her café in her hands.

“Hey, hon! I brought you a...” Her voice trails off. Her gaze takes in the cracked office door and our silence and then she frowns. “What happened?”

“Both of you get out. The police will be here shortly and I need to contain this situation.” Matthew bites out the words and I nearly leap the rest of the way out of his office.

I grab my purse from my desk and rush to Rachel’s side, take her arm, and usher her out the door onto the sidewalk. The sheriff’s siren isn’t far away, maybe a couple blocks. “Just keep walking, I’ll tell you in a minute.”

We hurry down the sidewalk, cross at the stoplight, and we’re standing in front of her coffee shop before I can breathe normally again.

Rachel puts a hand on my shoulder. “Babe, what’s going on?”

“My father did something terrible. Something I didn’t think he was capable of and...” I swallow my confession and stare into my friend’s compassionate face. I can’t put her in more danger. “I’m sorry. I can’t pull you into my mess. But if you see Mr. Darcy, I need to hide, okay?”

“Fuck. Gen. What happened?” Rachel scans the sidewalk ahead and behind us, then looks back at me. She’s not scared. “Tell me, right now. I’m perfectly able to take care of myself.”

I hesitate. It’s selfish to pull her into my drama.

“Gen.” The authority and confidence in her voice convinces me.

“He was just in the office. He threatened to kill me. Matthew made me leave, but I’m supposed to be waiting for a delivery and—” Panic swells in my chest, choking off my air.

Meredith is counting on me. I’m not where I’m supposed to be. I have no way of contacting her from here. Those outsider wolves will cause more problems if they don’t get the spell from her—from me.

My surroundings spin and nausea swirls in the pit of my stomach like bathwater going down a drain.

Rachel’s arm goes around my shoulders and she leads me down the alley beside her shop. Then she sits me down on the stoop to her back door.

“Breathe. This is the delivery from Meredith.” She waves a cream-colored envelope in front of my face.

Wait. How?

I finally get the question out. “You know Meredith?”

“Yes, I’ve known Meredith my whole life.” She says it like it’s no big deal.

I take the envelope from her hand and shove it into my hip pocket. “Do you know what it is?” I’m fishing, but I’m not willing to ask her outright.

The corners of Rachel’s mouth turn up. “You mean do I know Meredith’s a witch, and that the envelope contains a spell for a couple of out-of-town werewolves? Yes, I do.”

Holy crap.

Apparently everyone knows more about what’s going on in this town than I do.

“I wish we could’ve let our friendship evolve a bit more naturally, but there are certain advantages to just ripping off the Band-Aid, I suppose.”

I agree with the Band-Aid theory. Quick pain and get over it, versus dragging out the discomfort. Except she kept this from me for years. We’ve been friends since she first opened the shop in town.

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