Page 26 of Under Dark Skies

“I honestly don’t know, but I’m glad you’re here.”

Rafe smiled. He helped her stand up and held her by the forearm. “I’m going to steal a car and we can finally head out to Crescent City. I’m going to take the back road. Running right now wouldn’t make any sense.”

Layla nodded. All she wanted to do was get a break from all this chaos. A consistently humming car sounded like the perfect recipe right now.

Rafe moved slower, intentionally trying not to drag Layla along. She was significantly smaller than him, so he could easily trip her off her feet. Layla appreciated this gesture, and it made her heart warm.

They came across a plain silver car parked across from an alleyway. No one was around, but Layla knew they had to work fast. It wouldn’t look good to see a wolf breaking into a car. But then again, what did it really matter?

“Stand over there for a second.”

Layla stepped away, and realized why within a few seconds. Rafe closed his eyes and then braced himself. He shattered the glass with his elbow, then reached in to unlock the doors. Layla wondered where this skin had come from, his decades of being a wolf, or being a private eye?

He opened the side door for her and she climbed in. She could have started crying at the feeling of her body finally relaxing.

He sat in the driver's seat beside her. He lifted the folded mirror above him, then moved into the glass compartment in front of Layla. Inside he found the spare keys. He lifted them with a single finger, smiling.

“I’m sure you were waiting for something much more climatic than that.”

She nodded and smiled, though smiling hurt her at that moment.

“I was waiting for you to rub two wires together.”

He started the car. It sprang to life with a roar. Layla was more than ready to drift to some kind of sleep.

Rafe jetted forward. “Maybe next time darling.”

That word again. It made her heart feel something she’d never felt before. It was terrifying, but also beautifully exciting.

She’d heard from thousands of poems and songs that they called that feeling love. But the cautious side of her knew that she also barely knew this man. He had saved her countless times, but she still wasn’t sure that he was sharing all of the information he had with her.

After a few moments of silence, she decided to inquire.

“So why couldn’t we take a plane?”

“It’s very likely that PEACE agents are hacking into the traffic cameras and looking for us. Whoever is pulling the strings on this operation is pretty high up it seems. They mayor has declared martial law until the attacks end, and the attacks on humans are only happening because some of the wolves are working with PEACE. So pretty much everyone is looking for us. We’d easily be captured there.”

Layla nodded while Rafe stared at the road. The sun was going down, and the sky looked like a painting done by Monet.

She was exhausted, but she knew that she couldn’t attempt to sleep with all that whirled around in her mind. She wanted to trust him completely.

“Something is telling me that you’re not just a PI Rafe. I know you’re a wolf too, of course. But there’s something else I feel like I’m missing.”

Rafe moved silently onto a barren highway. Layla felt comforted by the darkness that was beginning to drape over them.

“What is it exactly that you want to know?”

“I want to know everything. I thought we’d been over this.”

She didn’t want to start an argument, but she could feel annoyance eroding her sleepiness. She definitely wouldn’t be able to rest then.

She spoke because Rafe remained silent and focused on the road. “You were so concerned when you got that letter. If you are just some normal PI you’d probably try to trace Darla the older fashioned way—credit cards, social media, etc—but instead you started somewhere else. Plus there’s the hideaway. You leapt in there like you knew it so well.”

Rafe gazed at her quickly. There was a slight smirk on his face, that both irritated and inflamed Layla’s desire. She waited for his response this time.

“It’s an incredibly long story, Layla. I’m almost 100 years old, and its over 100 years of loyalty and betrayal, secrets and truths. Maybe you should rest for a bit before you take that on.”

Layla looked at the time—6:30 PM. She wanted to talk, but there was a possibility that it would only further add to her stress. She hated that he might be right.

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