Page 62 of Wolf

Ash nodded, her eyes glaring holes into the floor. “Fine,” she conceded, chewing on her bottom lip. Then she turned to me, looking over Anna’s head, and despite not being able to see through her glasses, I could tell her eyes were meeting mine. “What doyouknow?”

“The Black Jacks,” Lamb answered instead. Ash’s jaw ticked, but otherwise, she didn’tacknowledgehim.

“That’s it?” Ash snapped, head turning to Anna, forcing Anna’s back tostraighten.

“Don’t look at me like that, Ash,” Anna growled. “I also showed Wolfthefile.”

I saw Ash straighten her spine like a rod had been shoved up her ass. “You did what?” she hissed, pissed, as a snarl broke through her teeth, not looking at me but directing her aggression toward Anna. It was the first intense emotion I had seen from her that wasn’t immediatelyshutdown.

I was aware of Lamb shooting a questioning look in my direction, but I ignored him. When I’d seen the file, I had wanted to show him it, but that was before Anna burned it, and from what I could read from her at the time, I wouldn’t be able to convince her to let Lamb have a peek. From Ash’s reaction, I could see how deadly protective they were of it, only solidifying my thoughts. I’d just have to deal with Lamblater.

“Ash,” Anna said, her voice softening slightly, shaking her head. “They’re involved now. There was nothing Icoulddo.”

Ash clicked her tongue but otherwise didn’t argue with Anna as she dropped down onto the metal chair, lips flattening into a straight line as her head turned ever so slightly in mydirection.

“What’s your connection to Rothwell?” I asked, fed up that this interrogation wasn’t making any progress. My arms, wrapped so tightly around my chest, were beginningtoache.

The sunglasses may have been shielding her face, but they couldn’t hide the soft, genuinely happy smile that pulled on her lips. “I shoved a knife into his wife’schest.”

The way she said the words—so casual, calm—unnerved the very deepest part of me. I’d seen a killer in the past, hell, I’d met a serial one or two, but this girl... I hadn’t met anybodylikeher.

At my silence, Ash must have seen my reaction, and I saw her walls shut back down, story time over. “That’s all you need to know,” she said, looking over to Anna. The disappointment was clear in Anna’s eyes as she shook her head at her, but Ash shrugged it off, pushing herself up from the chair and moving past Anna without a second glance. “Time for mydrink.”

Ash reached for the door, her body moving forward with the wide motion, only to find herself staggering to a stop as a figure blockedherpath.

Lamb looked down at her, forcing the brunette to lift her head up to face him. The carefree attitude around this girl turned guarded the second her eyes met his. Lamb’s previous stare had evolved quickly into a bone-chilling glare, his silver-brown eyes locking onto her with an absolute focus that forced her to stop in hertracks.

Ash turned her head away, her eyes boring into his chest. “Move,” she growled, her sharp British toneicecold.

What felt like a lifetime passed before Lamb stepped aside, and Ash didn’t waste a second as she grabbed the door and lunged outofit.

I sent Lamb a questioning look, but whatever had taken over him had passed, and he just gave me a shrug before following her out the door. I stared at the metal door leading to the stairway to the upper floors, wondering what exactly I had justwitnessed.

“Don’t think too much about it,” Anna said softly, causing me to turn to look at her. She was staring at the door, too, her eyes slowly moving away from it before she looked at me, offering me a tired smile. “She has that effect on somepeople.”

“I don’t like her,” I grumbled, unsure what it was exactly that I didn’t like. “There’s just something that doesn’t quite fitwithher.”

“Despite the fact she just point-blank told you she murderedsomeone?”

“I’m not blind. I know she said it that way because she’s defensive. And I’ve lived enough years to know that that isn’t the whole story,” I grumbled, trying to work my head around it. “But she also helped out Mallory. I get the feeling there are more sides tothisgirl.”

“I suppose it would appear that way to you.” Anna chuckled, reaching up to touch her ear, fiddling with the earring. I recognized it as a comforting gesture, and the foreign sight of it on Anna made me frown. Ash wasn’t the only unusual thing since her appearance. Even though it had only been a few hours, there was this side of Anna peeping to the surface, an Anna Ididn’tknow.

“Why? What do you see?” I asked, despite being unsure if I really wanted to know Ash’s true nature or not. I had a feeling getting to know this girl wouldn’t be quite the ride I wouldexpect.

“A girl who’s led a life spinning lie after lie to protect herself. She’s got one face but many masks, to put it eloquently.” Anna’s voice was soft, softer than I’d ever heard it, and despite the part in me that resonated with the gentleness of the sound, it didn’t last long enough for me to figure out for what reason. Instead, it turned into a harsh grumble. “Although half the lies the bitch pulls are utterbullshit.”

I looked down at her, at the force she was glaring at the door with, and was reminded of what Anna had said earlier. “Madrid?”

“Don’t,” Anna hissed, “ask aboutMadrid.Ever.”

With that, the sassy blonde turned on her red boots and marched out of the room with an echoing force, leaving me helplessly wonderingaboutit.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Anna

“Well... this is nice,”Ash grumbled, looking around one of the spare rooms at the compound. It had a bed, two bedside tables, a lamp, and a set of drawers and an attachedbathroom.

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