Heartsong (Green Creek 3)
Page 113
“You did. You made it your own. You updated all the computers, added new programs. Gordo bitched and moaned, but he always does. You could tell….” He cleared his throat. “You could tell he liked having you there. The others did too. One of the guys, I guess.”
“They haven’t been down here,” I said, keeping my voice even.
He said nothing.
I looked back up at him.
He was picking and choosing his words carefully. “They’re giving you space. They don’t want you to be overwhelmed any more than you already are.”
I nodded. That wasn’t all of it. There was something else, something bigger. I was too scared to ask what it was. Knowing meant facing something I wasn’t ready for.
I don’t know what he saw on my face, but he said, “Maybe we can ask them. You know. To stop by. When they have a moment.”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Okay.”
“But that didn’t answer my question.”
“Which one?”
My hands tightened in my lap. “What you do. How you can be here in the middle of the day.”
“I work for the town. So does Carter.”
That wasn’t surprising. “Doing…?”
“He’s the mayor of Green Creek.”
My head shot up so hard, my neck cracked. “He’s what?”
He was struggling not to laugh. “Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too. You saw how the humans in town didn’t seem too fazed by werewolves?”
My head spun. “That’s another thing that doesn’t make sense. How the hell did they find out?”
He sobered a little. “When Michelle sent the hunters to Green Creek, they went after the whole town. Cut us all off in the middle of a snowstorm. It was unavoidable that the people would find out about us. About the pack. You can’t go to war in the streets without repercussions. The storm was bad and a lot of people had already evacuated, but many stayed. And they were caught right in the middle. Rico’s girlfriend—the woman in the truck who saw you when you were running crazed through town—”
“I wasn’t crazed, what the hell—”
“Sure you weren’t,” he said. “She owns a bar in town. Called the Lighthouse. Bambi gathered everyone who remained—”
“Bambi,” I repeated.
He nodded. “Bambi.”
“The fuck.”
He was solemn when he said, “You don’t want to underestimate her. She will kick your ass. She almost shot Mark in the head after he backhanded Mom accidentally o
n purpose.”
I swallowed my tongue.
He waved it away. “The Omega in him was eating him whole. He’s better now.”
“That’s good,” I said faintly.
“Anyway, Carter was in the bar and shifted in front of all of them because the timber wolf was trying to kill Mark and Gordo—”