Page 12 of Heart and Soul
“Limpdick.”
He pounds the wheel. “Okay, I don’t know what I was thinking.” He puts the car into gear.
“Wait, wait, no. What about it?”
“What aboutwhat, Shayne? Let’s hear you say it.”
Grinding my teeth. “Love.”
“Oh,love. Is that what it is? Am I wrong?”
This is so awkward. I should have kept my big mouth shut.
“Am I wrong?” he persists.
I fold my arms across my chest. “No.”
“Okay, so you found it. You fought for it. You won it. But now comes the hardest part: you’ve got to keep it. I’m trying to give you a heads up.”
My heart skips a beat. “I’m listening.”
Rook stares at the road, as though tempted by the idea of simply speeding away from this conversation. “Darby Monson is Manistee Forest pack.”
“I’ve heard of them. Coyotes.”
“Right? Doesn’t it make sense? You never wondered why somebody as dominant as Nolan would be mated to a fox?”
His words prick at my pride, but I have to admit he’s right. Nolan and I never made sense on paper. There was no benefit for him. I wouldn’t add to his dominance or expand his territory. Darby Monson, on the other hand, sounds like she would do both. “He used to go to Manistee all the time for fishing trips or work.”
“Yeah, he wasn’t doing either of those. He was spending time with his woman.”
“Then why chasemeso much? I’d given him an out. He should have thanked me.”
“Because you’re family, Shayne. He wasn’t chasing you. He wasprotectingyou. And he was willing to lose Darby Monson to do it.”
“Protecting me from what?”
He throws his hands up. “See? Dumber than I thought. Not protecting you fromwhat. Protecting you fromwho.”
The whole truth drops on my head like an anvil. My mind reels in shock. The ultimateduhmoment. “Ben,” I say.
“Ben,” he confirms. “If Nolan didn’t claim you, Ben would have. We all know that. Ben has literally salivated over you for the last ten years.”
I shudder at the truth. Ben the sadistic narcissist, Ben the psychopath, with a claim over me? “I’d have turned him down flat.”
Rook nods gravely. “We all know that, too. And what would Ben have done then?”
My flesh crawls. “He wouldn’t have killed me,” I say. “It would have been much worse than that.”
“It still could be, Shayne. You quit your pack, turned them all down, but it’s not you or Nolan he’ll blame now, is it?” Rook pins me with a knowing look that skewers my heart.
With a rush of fear, I suddenly feel the need to find Jay, to see with my own eyes that he’s okay. “I have to go.”
“I don’t envy you.”
“I have to go,” I repeat, running for the truck.
When I practically break downthe doors of Homicide Division at Detroit PD’s central station, Detective Ferro throws a hand up in my face. “Stop right there, Davies.”
