Page 47 of Wolf Tamer

Boy am I glad Reid did.

“How did you get into the killing business?”

I almost laugh because it’s like he’s reading my mind. “Would you believe I have a knack for it?” I joke.

“Of course I would.”

I sit up, staring at him. “You’re not supposed to agree with me.”

“Then why would you even ask?”

“I like to torture myself, apparently.” I draw in a deep breath. “I wanted to escape. Once my parents died and it was just me and Carmen, the responsibilities fell on me. I had to take care of us, and I had to keep the bills paid. It was a lot. I’m not built for a nine-to-five. I wanted a way to get paid and still use my invisibility skills.”

“It’s not exactly something that you can just apply for, though,” Reid says.

You’d think. My throat tightens with a memory so vivid that I automatically want to stuff it down. “Actually, it was an old ad that I found in one of the local papers, obscure enough to catch my attention, and when I called the number and met with the guy… it was for a job. And I wasn’t sure if I could do it.”

I remember the night I staked out the potential vic. I wanted the money. Moreover, I wanted to see if I could do it. The invisibility wasn’t a problem for me; it was the moral code—the witch code, where we were always told to harm none.

Except the man in question had hit someone’s little girl with a car and then gotten away without punishment.

I tell Reid about it now, wondering if it will do something to impact his opinion of me.

It is the strangest fucking pillow talk of my life. Then again, nothing with him is normal.

“I remember when I shot him. I’d always had a great aim,” I say, and it’s not a brag. “I hit him right between the eyes. He crumpled down to the floor, still staring at the area where the shot had come from. He died confused. He paid for what he’d done, and instead of feeling bad… I felt validated.”

“In what way?”

“He’d done something bad, and he’d gotten away with it, without remorse. He’d gone on living his life while a little girl lost hers, and her father could not move on or forgive himself for failing to save her. So he turned to me, and I got the job done. I was justice.”

“A real angel of vengeance,” Reid agrees.

“I think we can both safely say that I’m not an angel.”

“I think we can both safely say that we’ve done things in our past that other people may shy away from.”

“We’ve done what we had to do.”

It’s simple, really. And I’ve long since lost the feeling that I need to justify my actions.

“We have, yes. For me, it was less of a challenge to rectify what I’d done versus how it would affect my sister. But the money quickly smoothed things over. I was able to provide for Carmen in a way I hadn’t before.”

But keeping the real reason behind our lucky streak, as she used to call it, had sucked for me. We’d always been open and honest with each other until then. Suddenly I was sneaking out at night, using my powers to rectify the wrongs of the world for quick cash, and it became life.

Mylife.

I tell Reid all of these things and more—some of the best kept secrets of my life and those I’ve never shared with anyone else. In turn, he gives me a glimpse behind the walls of his castle. A glimpse into the scared little boy he used to be and the man he’s turned into.

The man hates matching socks.

Who would have guessed?

He’s always envied Liam for his ability to skate beneath the radar. He’s jealous of Julius and the way he is brass, loud, and unapologetic.

He is a fan of corn dogs with mustard, but never ketchup. He keeps a blanket on his bed, even during the summer, but rarely uses anything outside of a simple cotton sheet.

And the glimpse he gives me of his private self has me tripping over my feelings, falling a little faster, a little further, and it doesn’t seem to matter that my head is screaming at me to be careful and back away. With his fingers still trailing fire up and down my spine, the worries get softer and softer until they’re nothing but a whisper.

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