Page 52 of Married into the Mob
“Don’t worry about him.” His voice was underlaid with venom.
“But I do.” I was shrieking, giving my best terrified performance, which wasn’t an act because Stefan was scaring me.
“He’s insignificant. A pawn. Forget him.”
I clutched my throat. “Thank gods. I thought he was the boss or whatever it’s called, telling you what to do.”
“Never,” he seethed and swirled around to face me, a packet of tea bags in his grasp. “He’s all brawn and no brains, just like his stupid father.”
They knew one another well. “Oh.” I glanced around and wrapped my arms around me. “He’s not here, is he?”
“No, that fool doesn’t come intomyhouse.”
“But how do you know him?”
He slammed a mug on the kitchen counter and narrowed his eyes. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“I’ve been asking them since two nights ago because nothing makes sense.” I paced the floor, wondering if it was too early to bring Hunter in. I’d discovered little, so if I caved, him coming in would achieve nothing.
Still, I wanted Hunter here, by my side, facing Stefan with me. But I had to probe more.
“So, Draven is a bad guy and Hunter is one too. How did I get in the middle of them?”
His nostrils flared and his mouth was shaped into a sneer. “Clever, right? That was my doing, a lifetime of waiting and it finally panned out. And you, Odell, were the key.”
Oh boy. I was in deep doo-doo. Stefan wasn’t a bit player, or perhaps he was exaggerating. But I got the sense he wasn’t.There was a strength about him and a determination that wasn’t there yesterday.
“I don’t understand.” That wasn’t a lie.
“It was me, not Draven or his father, who pulled the threads together after our kind, our family was decimated. And I’m so close to achieving my goal.”
Our family. That was what he said. Draven and his father were part of the Silverback pack. Was he saying he was part of that family or that they’d hurt his own, entirely different family? I fingered my wedding ring ‘cause it reminded me of Hunter and I needed him.
“I understand having an outsider destroy your family. My folks were?—”
He cut me off saying, “Yeah, yeah,” and continuing with, “I was the outsider, the one sent away from them because I was different.”
Ouch! Sounded like a dysfunctional childhood.
“But I returned when my brother was defeated, leaving Draven adrift.”
No, no, no. I had to clarify. “Draven is your… nephew?”
“Technically. But I cast him aside, and I will rise along with the new Silverbacks.”
This guy was human. Hunter told me. How could he be head of a wolf pack? Not that I could ask him because I wasn’t supposed to know shifters existed and maybe he didn’t either. No, he had to know his family had wolves inside them.
Why didn’t he have one? Unless he was hiding and Hunter and the others couldn’t smell him. Was that possible?
“And you, dear Odell, are an important part of my plan. In order to ascend, another group must fall, starting with the Durands of La Luna Noir.”
Okay, it was ear-tugging time, and I yanked one and the other, forgetting if it was the left or right I was supposed to pull.
It didn’t matter because the door was yanked from its hinges, crashing to the floor in a cloud of sawdust.
Stefan aimed a gun at me, while my mate who was sort of in human form, was ready to shoot him.
“You are a fool, Hunter Durand. But just the shifter I wanted to see.”
