Lib Novel Page 179
All he gets back is static. I can hear the noise from where I’m standing next to him.
“There isn’t a good signal out here,” I tell him. “You have to head deep into the forest for any reception.”
Alex shakes his head at my words and is about to end the call, but I stop him.
“You won’t be that far away. You need to know your men are safe. I’ll be fine here. Nobody will see me.” Alex hesitates, but I urge him to go. “Nothing’s going to happen to me. They’re not even coming in this direction, remember?”
“Alright,” he agrees reluctantly. “Just don’t move from this spot.”
He walks into the woods, shouting into the phone, “Jared?”
His voice grows weaker as he moves further and further away from me, and I feel a sense of discomfort.
Shivering, I lean against a tree, thinking over what Alex told me.
Why is Alpha Black here in the first place? Why was Noah so scared of me meeting him?
There’s something I’m missing. If only I could figure out what it is, I have a feeling I’d be able to piece everything together.
“Sophia!” My head swivels to the left when I hear somebody calling my name. “Sophia!”
Drew bursts from the trees, completely drenched from the rain, and I nearly jump out of my skin.
“There you are!”
“What are you doing here, Drew?”
“Trying to save you!” He approaches me. “Noah found out that you left. Come on! He knows you’re at the lake. He captured one of Alex’s men!”
I freeze in fear. “What?”
Drew holds out his hand. “Come with me! We have to get out of here!”
I’m about to go to him when I look in the direction Alex disappeared. “I have to wait for Alex.”
“There’s no time! We can find him later.” I’ve never seen Drew look so on edge. “Noah is pissed, Sophia. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but he is out for blood. We need to go!”
Fearing the worst, I take one step toward Drew, but then my wolf digs in its heels, instantly suspicious, recalling what Alex told me. “You were with Alpha Black.”
Drew blinks at me. “What?”
“You were with the Alpha this afternoon, weren’t you?”
“Who told you that?” Drew sounds outraged. “I would never—”
“Alex saw you. You knew Alpha Black was coming to town.”
“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.” Drew looks confused, making me doubt myself. “Even if he is in town, what do you want me to do? Avoid him?”
“It’s one thing to be unable to avoid him but an entirely different matter to have a conversation with him in a secluded part of the forest.” My heart is racing as I level the implied accusation toward him, an accusation that even I don’t wholly comprehend yet. “What were you talking about?”
“Nothing. We just ran into each other.”
But he doesn’t meet my eyes, and my heart sinks.
Drew is my friend. I was there for him when he was at his lowest, when he couldn’t look after himself and Tim. I’ve loved them like family. I don’t want to look at him with suspicion in my heart; I don’t want to even consider such a thing. But I’m picking out pieces and slivers of our conversations from the past few weeks, things I didn’t pay attention to before but are now sticking out to me.
“You told me you didn’t want to retraumatize Tim by talking about Katie,” I breathe, my chest tight. “But I found out that you punish him for talking about his mother. Why? And you’re a construction worker. Where are you going at all hours of the night, leaving your child alone at home?”