"A fucking squirrel," I say eventually, keeping my eyes on the trees.
He doesn't admit it was nonsense, but his silence says everything.
"You don't have to lie to me, Beau."
He's quiet for a while. His shoulder is warm against mine, and I can hear him take one careful breath before he answers. "I do, Red. I'm sorry, but I really do. And I can’t tell you why, but I hope that you can trust me."
My fingers are cold in my lap, and I look down at them, trying to work out whether I'm angry or just tired. I think I'm just tired.
"Please just tell me there isn't a body somewhere out there."
There’s a small huff that's almost a laugh. "No bodies, Red."
"That's something, I suppose."
He doesn't reply. We sit a while longer, with the wind in the pines, that bird singing, and the slow weight of his shoulder against mine.
"Why can't it be easy?" I ask eventually, staring out over the treetops that fall away as the slope across the cabin steepens.
His head turns toward me, but I keep my eyes down on my hands.
"It can be," he says quietly. "If you want it to be."
Now it’s my turn not to answer.
The silence stretches, and he doesn't push. Nor does he move his thigh away from mine. He just sits next to me, and somehow, that feels almost worse than if he'd argued.
After a beat, he frowns and shifts to face me more fully. His arm comes up then, and he touches my cheek, just under my eye, with the back of his hand. "You feeling okay, Red?"
His concern surprises me. It shouldn’t, not when he’s shown himself to care so deeply about everyone around him, but I’m still taken aback. I’m used to being on my own.
"Just tired.”
He doesn't argue. Just keeps his hand against my cheek for another second, his thumb stroking once, lightly, along my cheekbone, before he takes it back and rests it on his knee.
I stand but Beau stays sitting on the step with his hands loose between his knees, watching me but not getting up.
Suddenly feeling emotional, I walk to my car without looking back and slide into the driver's seat before pulling the door shut. The cabin is small in my windscreen, framed by trees, as I pull away.
Beau stays exactly where I left him, one elbow propped on his knee now, watching me leave.
17
BEAU
The wolves are dealt with… for now. They understand that Amber is the alpha’s mate and not Zara, so they won’t be back to bother her, at least, not until Amber’s been found.
And with that threat gone, I'm on to the next job.
I'm parked across the road from a strip club on the wrong side of town, late on a Wednesday night. The club is squat and ugly, though to its credit, without the usualLIVE GIRLSsign or garish lighting, it is marginally more upscale than most of these places. Two doormen on the front step, both heavy, keep a watchful eye on both the front door and the street.
Inside, my brother Bodhi is on his first shift as a security guard, working undercover on the new case that Chase brought us in on a week ago. A young woman named Emma is being held by the owner of this club as collateral for her brother Jake's gambling debt.
Tonight is about reconnaissance and praying Bodhi makes it through his first night without raising any suspicions. Tomorrow, well, we’ll deal with that when we get there.
For now, my job is simply to sit out here in case he needs me, and to keep an eye out for any sign of Jake’s sister coming or going. But three hours in, with nothing much happening and no sign of Bodhi being thrown out, I'm reaching for the key when a battered grey sedan pulls up at the curb on my side of the street, fifty yards down.
Why not park in the lot?