Page 35 of Scapegoat

When I glanced up, my heart went still. This wasn’t a metaphor. I had that stuttering feeling, where your heart wants to fucking beat again, but it just can’t, and you’re left feeling like the kid on the top of a rollercoaster ride, knowing you’re about to go plummeting down. I stared into those blue eyes, that were just like those belonging to any number of other Aussie blokes. Actually, no, they weren’t. These eyes were starting to turn silver and human eyes didn’t do that. Xavier’s narrowed slightly, but his lips quirked up into a smile. A slow thing, a tentative thing, almost hidden by a thick scruff of a beard.

“Good to see you again—”

“Kai!”

My head jerked around to see Billy shoving his head through the servery window.

“How long do I keep stirring these pots and how do I work out when the fish fillets are ready?”

I jerked myself away from the counter, leaving the burgers where they were, but the girls were already grabbing them and handing them over to customers.

Just not to Xavier.

People looked at him impatiently as he held up the line, but he didn’t tell the girls what he wanted when they asked him.

Probably because, apparently, what he wanted was something he couldn’t ask for.

He stared after me, just like he always had, with a kind of hunger in his eyes, but I wasn’t selling what he wanted to buy. I thrust my hands against the kitchen doors, hearing them swing wildly back and forth against each other behind me as I left the restaurant.

“Fish is done when it’s golden brown,” I told Billy, hoisting the baskets out of the fryers, then giving them a shake. “Same with anything in the fryers. Don’t let it cook for too long. Spoils the food and the oil.” I then strode over to the pots I had simmering, turning the heat down a fair whack more, then giving the pots a stir, making sure nothing was catching on the bottom before adding a couple of cups of water to each pot. “You can leave the pots for a bit, just focus on the fried food because I’m going on break.”

“Now? But—”

“Now.”

That was one thing I’d discovered outside of Stanthorpe: just how fucking strong I was. I’d put myself back together after everything that happened and that made me bolder. I’d lived my life under my mum’s control, under the boys’ shadows, and where the hell had that got me? If whichever boss I had didn’t like my forceful attitude, well, I just moved onto the next job.

I moved often anyway, even if they did like me.

Because nothing good ever came from staying in the same place.

“I have to make a call,” I said, holding up my phone. “Family emergency.”

“OK, right, well—”

I didn’t bother waiting for Billy to finish that sentence, stalking out the backdoor to the dingy loading dock. I paced back and forth over gravel that had been laid years and years ago, weeds growing up between regardless, waving forlornly in the breeze. But none of it, none of it registered as I went to unlock my phone.

My hands were shaking so much that my fingers struggled to tap out the required passcode. That had my teeth grinding, then a growl of frustration leaking past my lips. But once the bloody home screen appeared I tapped on my contacts, putting a call through to the first one.

“How ya doing, baby girl?” Jamie said, her voice pitched loud, to compete with the roar of her truck’s engine. “Billy treating you all right?”

“J, where are you?”

“Fuck, Kai, what’s going on. Hang on, I’m pulling over. Yes, you little fuck, that’s an indicator.” I heard the tick, tick, tick of her indicator, then the relative quiet as she brought the truck to a standstill. “What’s happening?”

“They found me…”

That was all very mysterious and much later I’d apologise to Jamie for not giving her more details, because right as I said the words, three men came walking around the back of the truck stop. Their boots crunched on the gravel, announcing their presence, but that wasn’t something that was required. The wolf, she scented them, sweat prickling all across my skin, making me feel hot and cold all at the same time.

“No…” I said, to them, to my phone, to my whole bloody life, shaking my head for emphasis. “No.”

“We’ve been looking for you for two long fucking years,” Jayden said, staring at the building, the sky and then me, his brows pulled down tight. “And here you are.”

Chapter 21

“Kai…” Billy opened the back door to call out to me, frowned when he saw the three guys, but continued on, “I know you have a family emergency.”

“Jamie,” I said at the same time, holding the phone back up to my ear, wincing as I heard her yelling down the line. “I’ll call you back tonight.” I felt like a fucking bitch when I cut the call. Probably because I was. I’d stopped her, mid-haul, with an emergency and then… “It’s OK—”

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