Waking Hearts (33 page)

They’d been dug during Prohibition when distilling whiskey was a crime, even in the remote California desert. Did they get raided? Only once. But bears were cautious by nature. Having escape routes was something they appreciated. They didn’t like having to fight their way out of a situation, even when they were almost guaranteed to win. No, avoiding the fight in the first place was far more desirable and safer for the cubs.

This needed to end, whether they found Joe’s money or not. The amount of attention being drawn to their small corner of the desert was making his bear itch.

“You’re so quiet,” she said. “Are you happy?”

He jerked up from gathering their clothes. “Am I what?”

“I can feel your frown from over here. I know you want me to stay in your room at night, but I just can’t, Ollie. It would feel too awkward—”

“Allie, I’m happy. I am the happiest I can ever remember being in my life.”

It was the simple truth, but he was glad it made her eyes sparkle like that. It was the way she used to look in high school and when the boys were little.

“I love you,” she said.

He felt his mouth curve up a little. “You sure about that?”

God, please let her be sure.

“Yep.”

“Good.” He gathered a bundle of their clothes in his arms and walked back to the couch.

“You missed my bra,” she said.

“I did?” He looked around.

“It’s on the light-up beer sign with the armadillo.”

“Huh.” He cocked his head. “I think it improves it.”

“Ollie!” She laughed. “You can’t keep my bra in your office.”

“Fine.” He grabbed it and tossed it to her. “Spoil my fun.”

They got dressed quickly, locked up, and walked to the car holding hands.

Yeah, holding hands. He felt like a kid and he didn’t care.

“So the sleeping thing—”

“Told you we were going at your pace,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“So we’re just going to keep fooling around on the couch in your office?”

“Clearly”—he opened her door—“you underestimate my creativity.”

“Should I be worried?”

“Nope.” He shut her in and took one last look at the bar before he walked to his side. There was something…

He tapped on Allie’s window and she rolled it down.

“What’s up?”

“You smell anything?” he murmured. Her nose was way better than his.

Allie leaned out the window and took a deep breath. “Nothing.” The wind shifted and she put a hand on his arm. “Wait…”

He stood completely still, not wanting to kick up dust or anything that might distract her.

“Cat,” she said quietly.

“What kind?” He heard a faint rustling in the bushes.

She shook her head. “Gone now.”

Ollie walked back to his side of the Bronco while she rolled her window up.

“Who would be hanging out at the Cave like that? Hiding in the bushes?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. How old? Could you tell?”

A juvenile might worry about being caught out late and try to avoid detection by shifting. God knows he had when he’d been young. Most teenagers in the Springs spent half their nights in natural form.

“Didn’t smell like a kid,” Allie said. “Didn’t smell like anyone familiar. It was just for a second though, so—”

“I’ll ask Ted tomorrow. Or Alex. He keeps track of who’s moving in and out of town better than anyone.”

She must have heard the irritation in his voice, because her mouth pursed in disapproval. “When are you going to forgive him? You guys have been best friends your whole lives.”

“Forgive him for what? Being friends with criminals? That’d be the pot calling the kettle black.”

“For building the resort.”

He bit his tongue and started the truck. Then he backed out slowly, thinking about her question.

“You guys haven’t been the same since he announced the plans.”

“We haven’t been the same since he moved to LA.”

“But you understood that. You don’t understand the resort.”

He said nothing. He knew her dad’s store was thriving with all the new people moving back into town. And it wasn’t as if his own bar hadn’t benefitted.

“I didn’t like the idea,” she said. “Even though it probably would have meant Joe could have a steady job again.”

“You were worried about the kids.”

“Yep.”

It was exactly what he worried about.

Cambio Springs was special. It was the only place where their odd tribe could be who and what they were without fear. He grew up cautious around outsiders, but within the town limits? Life was free. Nobody had suspicions because everyone knew their secrets. It was a safe place. The
only
safe place.

“I want your kids—
our
kids if we ever have them—to be able to grow up the way we did. Running around without having to worry. Playing games like Kevin and Low did the other night. Just free to be themselves, you know?”

She fell completely silent.

“Allie?”

“We haven’t talked about kids,” she said under her breath.

His heart twisted a little because yeah, he wanted kids with her. But she had four, and he knew she probably felt overwhelmed by even the idea of more kids. She was young enough, but how could he ask her to carry another baby? She was probably sick of diapers and car seats and sleepless nights.

“Do you want kids?” she asked.

He figured it was just better to be honest from the get-go. “Yeah. But it’s up to you.”

She leaned her head against the window. “Ollie, you can’t—”

“You asked. I answered. It’s not a deal-breaker for me. You have four great kids that I love. But yeah, I’ve got a big house and I love you, so I’d have more if you wanted to.”

More silence.

“
If
you wanted, Allie.” He reached for her hand. “I’m not going to put pressure on you. That would be a shit thing to do.”

“Can we talk about this later?”

He squeezed her hand. “Your pace, remember?”

“Where do you think Joe hid that money?”

Since he was running on an honest streak, he just kept going. “Out in the desert somewhere only he was going to find it.”

He expected her to protest or argue, but she didn’t.

“I don’t think he did,” she said softly.

“Why?”

“Because he texted Maggie and ran. He knew someone was after him.”

“And?”

“If there was anything that man was good at, it was knowing his own faults. Sometimes that’s all he focused on.”

Ollie said nothing. In his opinion, Joe’s faults had outrun his virtues by a mile.

“But if he knew someone was after him, he’d know his chances. And it seems to me like he would have known his chances weren’t good. Old Quinn said he wanted to leave money for the kids. I think he would have tried to do that. If he knew he wasn’t going to make it, he would want to the kids to get that cash.”

“I don’t understand why he just didn’t shift and run. He could have been halfway across the country if he’d done that. Come back later when things were cooled down.”

“He probably didn’t even think of that.”

“How’s that?”

She was silent for a little while. “He really didn’t like being a coyote. He only shifted when he had to. If he’d been able to avoid it, he’d never have changed.”

The thought staggered him. Ollie loved being a bear. Wearing that skin was as natural as breathing, and he knew Allie felt the same way about being a fox.

“So,” she continued, “if he knew he wasn’t going to outrun them, if he knew they’d find him, he’d put it someplace I’d find it.”

“He didn’t think to drop you a note?”

She shrugged. “Maybe he couldn’t. Or just didn’t want to.”

Ollie pulled up to the dark house and scanned the yard before he exited the vehicle. “You’re the one who was married to him, darlin’. You’d know way better than me.”

No sign of anything out of the ordinary. Elijah was parked on the porch in human skin. Paul he could see loping toward the barn, probably ready to shift back and head home. His cousin Sandra rose to standing in the distance, a faint furry outline in the waxing moon. That meant that Dani was probably exploring the tunnels while her older cousins covered the surface.

“I’m gonna look at his parents’ old place tomorrow with Jena.”

He paused before he opened his door. “As long as you don’t go anywhere on your own, I’m okay with it. But I don’t want anyone looking for that stash by themselves. Not Sean. Not you or Jena. No one.”
But especially not you.

“I get it,” she said. “I heard. We’ll be smart.”

“I’m probably going to Indio tomorrow.” He had a couple of other strings he could tug. “Do you need anything?”

“You.” She leaned over and kissed him sweetly before he got out of the truck. “Home safe at the end of the day.”

“You got it.”

“I’m serious.”

He watched her face. The exhaustion wasn’t able to mask the quiet happiness and growing contentment he saw there.

Allie was happy, but it was a fragile thing. He knew that if her trust in it broke, she might never be the same. He’d promised to make life sweet for her again and was startled to realize that part of that promise meant his own self-preservation.

“I’ll be safe,” he said. “I promise.”

THAT promise in mind, he called Alex the next morning after the kids were off to school and Allie was headed over to Jena’s.

He drove over to Ted and Alex’s old adobe house on the other side of town and waited in the driveway while his friend kissed his new wife good-bye.

It was good to see Ted and Alex that way.

He’d been angry at Alex for what felt like years. But that didn’t mean Ollie didn’t want his happiness. It had been a hard road home for the young wolf alpha, but Alex had made it and was now enjoying his own measure of peace, even if he carried the mantle of responsibility for the town’s economic future.

It was a heavy burden—one he didn’t envy.

When are you going to forgive him?

Shit. As usual, Allie was right. It was past time. Holding on to a grudge never worked well for Ollie anyway. He was too apt to understand other people’s points of view. And at the end of the day, he understood what Alex was trying to do with the resort.

“Hey.” Alex popped open the door and put two travel mugs of coffee on the center console mounted between the seats. “I brought the good stuff.”

If Alex wanted to share his overpriced Hawaiian coffee, Ollie was not going to argue.

“You get my message?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Then Alex grinned. “But I got something better.”

He raised an eyebrow and waited for Alex to speak.

“Cam came through.” Alex slammed the door shut. “And it turns out even tough guys like their spa appointments in Palm Desert. Ready to get your chakras aligned?”

Ollie cracked his knuckles before he put the truck in reverse. “Oh yeah. They’re all out of whack. Maybe punching something is just what my aura needs.”

Chapter Twenty-One

ALLIE WIPED HER HANDS on her jeans, a cloud of dust rising to her nose as she eyed the old attic space now owned by Josie Quinn and her family, who’d moved there after Josie’s husband, Marcus, was killed.

The house, which had belonged to the wolf clan, had been given to Josie, even though she was a Quinn by marriage. But Alex and Marcus hadn’t only been co-workers; they’d been friends. He took his responsibility to Marcus’s widow seriously.

Jena sneezed beside her.

“I don’t”—
sneeze
—“see anything that tells me Joe was here recently. You?” Jena wiped her eyes.

“Nothing,” Allie said. “I can’t smell anything but dust and old paper. I don’t think Josie’s touched it yet.”

“She says she won’t let the kids play up here until she can clean it out. I don’t blame her for waiting until winter.”

Neither did Allie. Even in the fall, the attic was sweltering.

Allie tapped her foot and remembered when the attic had been Joe’s hideout. His teenage hangout he shared with Sean and Alex. Even Ollie occasionally came over. Then Allie had started coming over, and Ollie had stopped.

So many years she was seeing in a new light.

She walked over and traced initials carved into a beam.

A.S. + J.R.

He had loved her once.

Not enough
.

No. Joe’s love had been a shallow, struggling thing. Allie had only realized that after drinking deep with Ollie. She brushed tears from her eyes when she remembered the boy her late husband had been. There was no comparison to Ollie. It wasn’t even fair.

Oliver Campbell could love her fully. Generously. Because he’d been given that love by so many in his life it practically poured off him. But the boy who’d carved hopeful initials into the old house hadn’t been loved like that. He had a hope of it, but none of the determination to make that hope live.