Hyena Moon (24 page)

Kess went still and blank. There was a part of her, the logical part that was distanced from all of this, that acknowledged that was a good one. If he’d wanted to make her feel like crap, it was masterful. Inside she felt a great, black vortex open up within her. All of her shame and self-loathing came spewing back up from it; all the feelings that it had been her fault somehow, that she was to blame for Sek’s advances came rushing into her head.

Gingerly, almost feeling like she was made of glass and could break at the slightest wrong movement, Kess stepped backwards. Cormac was breathing hard, so angry that he looked like he might spew flames. She took another step back, wanting to be anywhere but where she was right now.

Kess clenched her fists to keep them from shaking. She managed to make her voice sound relatively normal, but it took all of her self-control. The back of her throat ached from trying to keep back the scream she wanted to voice. “I think it might be a good idea if I go. I’ll come back later.” She hated to say this, hated the way it made her sound and feel, as if she deserved to be treated like this. She knew he was upset, angry and blaming himself—and yeah, probably blaming her too—but also knew that now was not the time to get into it with him.

As much as she might want to.

She came out of the bedroom, her eyes down so she noticed the shoes first. Her eyes flew up to find Finn waiting in the hall. The walls in the house weren’t soundproof by any stretch and by the look on his face she knew he had heard at least some of it. Kess stepped out of his way so he could go in. Maybe he’d be able to get Cormac to calm down.

“I’m sorry,” she said as she waited for him to walk by her.

Finn put a hand on her shoulder. "You do know he didn't mean any of that, right? He's just scared."

Kess ground her teeth together so hard she thought her molars would turn to dust. Finn's words just made her feel more miserable. She looked up at him and saw the frown on his face, the worry in his eyes. He loved Lenore almost as much as Cormac did. He didn't need to be bothering with her emotional breakdown right now. Cormac needed him more.

"I know he is." Not that knowing helped with the hurt. "Go on in. He needs you."

"Alaric and Emmeline are already on their way. So are Dad and Burke."

"Great." She tried to sound grateful, but knew she fell far short of the mark. She needed to get away from here.

Finn's hand on her arm stopped her. "I don't blame you." When she shook her head, his grip on her arm tightened. "No, this wasn't your fault. You had eyes on him. You were doing what you could. Hell, I was taken in by him too. All those times we went running, hung out—I thought, at base, he was a good kid." He let her go and went in to talk to his cousin.

Kess walked outside, kicking off her shoes on the deck. She bypassed the pool and headed straight into the yard, wanting to feel the tickle of dry grass under her feet. She walked back and forth under the shade of the palm trees until her heart stopped racing. She knew she should be hot—it was a late summer afternoon and no thunderstorm had rolled in to cool anything down and the world was baking—but she felt ice cold. She gritted her teeth to keep them from chattering.

When she felt more in control of herself, she took her phone out of the pocket of her shorts. She dialed Rafe’s number, the number for the phone she had gotten for him when he’d first come to stay at the house. She had a feeling he still had it.

He picked up after the fourth ring. “Hello?” His voice was guarded, cautious. As well it should be after what he’d done.

“You can tell your mother congratulations.” Kess kept her voice without inflection, trying to give nothing away. He didn’t need to know what his actions had cost her; she wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. “I’ll make the trade.”

“Um…okay?” He sounded unsure over the line.

Kess wondered if he would answer her next question. She gave it a try—it couldn’t hurt to try. “Is she alright?”

“Is who alright? My mom?”

Kess rolled her eyes. Seriously, did he think she was some kind of moron? She spoke slowly, as if to one mentally deficient. “Lenore, Rafe. Is Lenore okay?”

“How would I know?” He didn’t say anything for a minute and then, in a very small voice, he asked, “Isn’t she with you?”

He didn’t know. He really had no idea what they’d done. The small part of her that she was still allowing to feel things was relieved. At least he hadn’t been involved in this; if she’d been right about nothing else, it was that he wouldn’t hurt Lenore. “No, she’s not. Your sister just sent us Lenore’s charm bracelet with an offer for a trade. My life for hers.”

She heard the swift intake of breath on the other end. Finally, he gets it, she thought. She’d been worried she’d have to explain it to him via stick figure drawings next. “I didn’t know. I…”

Kess cut him off, not interested in his explanations. “Tell your mother I’ll meet her tomorrow night. Lenore must be delivered alive, intact and unharmed or no deal.” She closed the phone, ending the call.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Rafe stared at his phone for a second. Oh shit shit SHIT.
Teresa, what the hell did you do?
He pulled up a record of his calls and texts, both sent and received, and saw the one from Lenore. He scrolled down and there it was. One he hadn’t sent, but knew who had. And then Lenore’s reply. OK.

He flung the phone across the room. It hit his closet door and spun to the ground. Rafe stood, breathing hard, fists clenching and unclenching. He had given Ter his phone without a second thought, believing her when she said she’d lost hers. What the hell had he been thinking? It wasn’t like Teresa twirled an imaginary mustache and laughed maniacally to let him know she was going to do something evil, but on all other occasions she could be trusted! Teresa was not benign!

This was all his fault. He knew Teresa better than this, knew what she was capable of when she felt her sibling supremacy was in jeopardy. Why didn’t he see it last night? The soft voice in the back of his head, the one that had been quiet since he’d left Kess’ house, whispered the answer: because he hadn’t wanted to. For the first time in what felt like forever, his mother had been pleased with him. He hadn’t been thinking at all about what Teresa was like, about how this might look like a threat to her place and position. He hadn’t thought about what she could do if she felt threatened.

God, he was like king of the dumbasses. Emperor Dumbass.

He thought of Lenore. Lenore who didn't belong in any of this, who wasn't even a were. And now she was getting dragged into this conflict because of him. The only thing she was guilty of was liking him, which was more than he deserved. He wondered if she was hurt; Teresa wasn't what anyone would consider gentle. He needed to see Lenore, to make sure she was okay.

Okay, he had to think about this clearly and carefully. He couldn’t go rushing off, trying to fix things and just making them worse. Part of his problem with his mother and sister was that he was impetuous and hotheaded, just like they were, without the malice that made them so dangerous. So he’d have to be smart about this. He’d need to outthink them, not go head to head with them if he could help it. Whenever he did that, it always ended badly for him.

Kess’ call had woken him from a deep sleep—the party had gone on until the early morning hours, making it hard to fall asleep. His clock said it was already 11. He rummaged around his room, pulling on the jeans from last night and grabbing a clean shirt from his dresser. He went to the bathroom to splash some water on his face and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Better to look fully dressed and aware and not like a sleepy kid this morning.

He found his mother and sister, sitting at the kitchen table eating from a bag of white powdered donuts. Without preamble, he said, “Just got a call from Kess.”

“Hmmm?” Samara stared at him from over the rim of her coffee mug. “I’d expected her to call me.” She gestured at a phone sitting between them on the table. It was Lenore's—Rafe had seen it a lot over the past month.

“She told me not to tell you about it. She wants to meet with me—I expect she’ll want to try and make me feel bad about Lenore in the hopes that I’ll help her.” He turned to face Teresa. “Nice one, by the way. Wish I had thought of it.” Teresa’s superior smile faltered on her face. She hadn’t been expecting this reaction from him. He thought that maybe she’d grabbed Lenore not so much to gain standing back with their mother, but more to hurt him. He’d learned a long time ago that if you cared about something, you let Ter know about it at your own risk. As much as it killed him to act disinterested, he had to do it for both his and Lenore’s protection.

When his mother spoke, she was deceptively casual, as if they were discussing what they were going to do that day. Rafe felt his stomach clench. “And why should I let you meet with Kess? All I need from her is her answer.”

Rafe shrugged, striving for a nonchalance he most definitely didn’t feel. “Doesn’t matter to me. I just thought that if I go maybe I can learn something that might be useful. Who knows, maybe I can even work some angle so they’ll trust me again. I might be able to bring back information about what they’re planning to do.”

His mother's eyes were on his face. He stared back at her, unflinching. “What if they decide to keep you as a hostage? It would be foolish of me to allow them any leverage.”

He barked a hard laugh. “What leverage? They think you don’t want me after you left me behind once already. They know you wouldn’t be willing to trade for me.” This he had no doubt about. “Besides, they won’t do anything to me. They’re too weak—they wouldn’t dare risk Lenore getting hurt. Believe me, Cormac won’t let that happen.”

Samara tipped her coffee mug to him, kind of like a salute. “You’ve thought of everything apparently.”

Rafe was wary. He had to be careful. If he pushed too hard for this, they’d know something was up. “I can go, arrange the details of the switch, maybe spy around a little. Or you can send Teresa in my place. Makes no difference to me. I was just making a suggestion since Kess called me.”

“Why should we trust you?” Teresa was watching him from beneath hooded lids, the blue of her eyes barely visible. His mother eyed him quizzically.

Rafe had to sell this. He decided that something that sounded simple and honest was the way to go. “Because you’re my family. My pack. I came back because I wanted to. And where else am I going to go?”

His mother was silent. He tried not to fidget, to just stand there and look like this was the most boring discussion ever held in his presence. He thought about calculus a lot.

“Go on, then,” Samara said, waving her hand at him as if shooing away a bug.

He turned to Teresa. “One thing. I’m going to need to see the girl. It would help if I had her scent on me as proof we’ve got her and I’ve seen her.”

“And maybe get a little tail? I saw how you looked at her." Teresa grinned at him.

He gave back what he hoped was his wickedest smirk, determined to play along even if the idea made him sick. "Well, Kess was dangling her in front of me like a piece of meat…"

"Rafe, you sly dog." There was a certain amount of respect in her voice. Figured she'd respect him for something like that.

"Just make sure she's in good condition when you're done with your fun." Samara looked at the two of them, eyes glittering beneath heavily shadowed lids. “Teresa, you’ll take your brother to see the girl as soon as possible. I want this resolved quickly. I've waited a long time for Miami.”

Teresa got up. “Be ready in ten,” she called back as she left the room.

“There’s a lot riding on this, Rafe,” his mother said, stretching her arms over her head. She stood up and walked closer to him, so that they were almost touching. “Don’t disappoint me. You know what happens when you disappoint me.” She stroked his smooth cheek gently, the threat implicit, and then left the room as well.

Rafe put his hands on the back of one of the kitchen chairs and tried not to throw up.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Lenore sat in the corner of the small room, knees pulled up tight against her chest. She didn’t know how long she’d been here, but took it to be a few hours at least. Without a window or phone, she had no way of knowing. The room was bare, except for an empty bucket shoved in the farthest corner from her. Otherwise it was just her and the four walls. The door was locked from the outside. A dim light bulb hung overhead.

She’d been expecting Rafe to show up at Vizcaya, but he hadn’t. She’d walked around the village since the museum and grounds didn’t open for several more hours, hoping that maybe he’d just gotten delayed. A car pulled up to the front and a young woman in what looked like a work uniform got out and popped the trunk. She began unloading a bunch of boxes from it and Lenore sort of drifted over.

The woman noticed her. “Hey,” she said. “You’re here too early. We don’t open until nine.”

Lenore came closer so she didn’t have to shout. She was maybe around Kess’ age, perhaps a little older. “I was supposed to meet someone.”

“Maybe they’re caught in traffic?” Lenore shrugged. “Look, since you’re here, can you give me a hand with all this? I’ll let you hang out on the grounds for free.”

Lenore had been raised that you always helped people who needed it, so she nodded. She didn’t see any down side to getting into the house for free. “Okay, sure.”

The woman smiled. “Great. Grab what’s in the backseat while I get this stuff. It’s unlocked.”

Lenore moved to the driver’s side of the car. It was a coupe, so she opened the door and moved the lever to push the back of the front seat forward so she could get to the box that was in the backseat. She was getting ready to lean in to pull out the box when she felt something hard smash into the base of her skull and she pitched forward into darkness.

She’d woken up here. Wherever here was, well, that was anybody’s guess. Her cell phone and wallet were gone, and her charm bracelet was missing. She’d panicked at first, but felt overall too horrible to do anything much more than cry. Her head hurt a lot and it was making her sick to her stomach. Lenore had stayed where she was on the floor until she felt better.