Page 578 of Love Bites

CHAPTER3

The house was exactly the same as it was the last time I saw it a year ago. Granny had more crap on her tables, walls and shelves than an antique store. Dwayne was positively speechless and that was good. Granny took her décor seriously.

“I’m a little disappointed that you want to be a model, Essie,” Granny sighed. “You have brains and a mean right hook. Never thought you’d try to coast by with your looks.”

I gave Dwayne theI’ll kill you if you tell her I’m an agent on a missionlook and thankfully he understood. While I hated that my granny thought I was shallow and jobless, it was far safer that she didn’t know why I was really here.

“Well, you know…I just need to make a few bucks, then get back to my life in the big city,” I mumbled. I was a sucky liar around my granny and she knew it.

“Hmmm,” she said, staring daggers at me.

“What?” I asked, not exactly making eye contact.

“Nothin’. I’m just lookin’,” she challenged.

“And what are you looking at?” I blew out an exasperated sigh and met her eyes. A challenge was a challenge and Iwasa Werewolf…

“A bald face little fibber girl,” she crowed. “Spill it or I’ll whoop your butt again.”

Dwayne quickly backed himself into a corner and slid his phone out of his pocket. That shit was going to video my ass kicking. I had several choices here…destroy Dwayne’s phone, elaborate on my lie or come clean. The only good option was the phone.

“Fine,” I snapped and sucked in a huge breath. The truth will set you free or result in a trip to the ER… “I’m an agent with the Council—a trained killer for WTF and I’m good at it. The fact that I’m a magnet for trouble has finally paid off. I’m down here to find out who in the hell is killing Werewolves before it blows up in our faces. I plan to find the perps and destroy them with my own hands or a gun, whichever will be most painful. Then I’m going to castrate Hank with a dull butter knife. I plan on a short vacation when I’m done before going back to Chicago.”

For the first time in my twenty-eight years on Earth, Granny was mute. It was all kinds of awesome.

“Can I come on the vacation?” Dwayne asked.

“Yes. Cat got your tongue, old woman?” I asked.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” she said almost inaudibly. “I suppose this shouldn’t surprise me. You are a female alpha bitch.”

“No,” I corrected her. “I’m a lone wolf who wants nothing to do with Pack politics. Ever.”

Granny sat her skinny bottom down on her plastic slipcovered floral couch and shook her head. “Ever is a long time, little girl. Well, I suppose I should tell you something now,” she said gravely and worried her bottom lip.

“Oh my god, are you sick?” I gasped. Introspective thought was way out of my granny’s normal behavior pattern. My stomach roiled. She was all I had left in the world and as much as I wanted to skin her alive, I loved her even more.

“Weres don’t get sick. It’s about your mamma and daddy. Sit down. And Dwayne, hand over your phone. If I find out you have loose lips, I’ll remove them,” she told my bestie.

I sat. Dwayne handed. I had thought I knew everything there was to know about my parents, but clearly I was mistaken. Hugely mistaken.

“You remember when I told you your mamma and daddy died in a car accident?”

“Yes,” I replied slowly. “You showed me the newspaper articles.”

“That’s right.” She nodded. “They did die in a car, but it wasn’t no accident.”

Movement was necessary or I thought I might throw up. I paced the room and tried to untangle my thoughts. It wasn’t like I’d even known my parents, but they were mine and now I felt cheated somehow. I wanted to crawl out of my skin. My heart pounded so loudly in my chest I was sure the neighbors could hear it. My parents were murdered and this was the first time I was hearing about it?

“Again. Say that again.” Surely I’d misunderstood. I’d always been one to jump to conclusions my entire life, but the look on Granny’s face told me that this wasn’t one of those times.

“They didn’t own a hardware store. Well, actually I think they did, but it was just a cover.”

“For what?” I asked, fairly sure I knew where this was going.

“They were WTF agents, child, and they were taken out,” she said and wrapped her skinny little arms around herself. “Broke my heart—still does.”

“And you never told me this? Why?” I demanded and got right up in her face.

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