Lib Novel Page 167
“No, I just got out of the shower. Come on in.”
He walks inside, and I see him looking around.
“Did you have company?”
I shake my head. “No. Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” He smiles at me, that strange tilt to his lips once again. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“About what?” I try not to show it, but I’m beginning to feel nervous now.
“Last night, I don’t know if you heard, but there was a cage fighting ring discovered in the local boxing gym. While that is normally human police business, one of the fighters was a shifter, and she killed her opponent, who was a human.”
Noah is studying my expressions very carefully, and I pretend to look shocked. “This happened yesterday?”
“Early this morning,” Noah responds. “The pack security team had already been warned about a shifter taking part in the fights, and they were waiting outside. But when the shifter did come out, she was defended by three black wolves.”
“Black wolves?” I repeat, trying my best to look horrified. “You mean Northern wolves?”
“Yes. Up till this point, I thought we just had one Northern wolf in our town. It turns out there’s at least three. We are beginning the process of elimination. There are some visitors in Oakrest staying at the motel. Can you tell me anything about them?”
My voice turns stiff as I say, “There are a lot of people at the motel, Noah. You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“There’s a group of six men staying there, and they’ve been seen talking to you once or twice on the streets. They’re the ones I’m asking about.”
“Oh, you mean Alex and his friends?” I blink, trying very hard not to show my anxiety. “They’ve been to the Dancing Bear a couple times. And I met one of them at the farmers’ market; I told him about the human-owned farm at the edge of town where you can pick your own strawberries. That’s pretty much it.”
“Are you sure?”
I look at Noah. “Why would I lie about it? They know me because I work at the bar, so sure, maybe they’ve stopped me on the street to say hi. But aside from light chitchat, I’ve never really tried to get to know them.”
“Do you know what their business is in this town?”
“I don’t,” I reply slowly. “I never really asked.”
“I see.”
I’m getting a bad feeling about this. Why would Noah come to me specifically and ask about Alex and the others unless he knows something? Even if someone spotted us out in the street, I’ve never spent more than a handful of seconds conversing with them in public. I have a feeling this is not all there is to this situation.
“There’s something else I want to talk to you about,” Noah begins. “It’s about our relationship.”
My cell phone begins to ring from the other room, and I let out a quiet sigh of relief. “Give me a minute.”
My phone is not in the bedroom but the kitchen. I must have forgotten it there before I left for work yesterday. The battery is very low, and before I can answer the call, it dies.
I plug the cell phone into the charger, and as I bend down to plug the charger into the outlet, I see a small plastic bag lying in a corner. For a moment, I stare at it, confused, and then it hits me. That’s the bag I picked up in Rita’s study. From the wastebasket she had pointed at as she was dying.
I glance out into the living room where Noah is waiting for me. He is sitting with his back to me, so I quickly empty the contents of the plastic bag onto my table and sift through them. Aside from a few flimsy wrappers and an empty ink bottle, there’s not much to see.
Hold on.
There’s a piece of paper, all balled up.
I straighten it out and then read the contents.
Sophia,
I wanted to tell you this on the phone, but there are bugs planted in my house. I believe they are recent, and I don’t want to put you in any more danger than you already are. Noah is going to kill me tonight. He will kill me because I will not tell him what he wants to know. I’ll keep your secrets, Sophia. I’ll protect you from him. I won’t be alive when you get this.