He shook his head even though he was grinning. “I didn’t hear a thing. Just something about exploring.” He waggled his eyebrows like I’d been talking about sex. I was glad he couldn’t read my thoughts. “I’m down for anything, so long as it involves you.” He held out his hand, like I was a lady in Regency times who required a man’s assistance to stand.
These were the little things he did that made me feel like a queen. Maybe I could explore things with him. A relationship. A real one. Maybe this one time, life wouldn’t fuck me over.
“Willow, thanks for feeding my girl, but we’ve got to get back to town. She works in the morning, so she’s got to get to bed early.”
Audrey laughed. “Yeah, Boyd says the same thing, but it never means to sleep!”
Based on what Clint promised in the barn, I didn’t think it meant to sleep either.
16
CLINT
The next day, I knelt next to Starshine to check on him, and my mind flooded with images of Becky. No way I could ever get rid of this foal now. He would forever remind me of my mate. I’d worked hard all morning mucking out the stalls and riding four of the horses, but my mind had never left her.
She was scheduled to work today. While I wished she’d have called in sick, I’d agreed the hospital was safe enough after she’d explained to me that the Labor and Delivery and Mom/Baby areas were kept on lock-down. The security there was tight, and no one could get on the floor without proper ID. Even her ex, or so she promised me. She knew what he could do more than me, and I trusted her that she was thinking of her safety when I’d dropped her off for her shift.
But when Rob came into the stable, and I caught the urgency in the way he said my name, my wolf took notice.
“Audrey called,” he told me. “She wanted to get a message to you. Sheriff Duncan went to the hospital and picked up Becky for questioning.”
“What?” I barked. My chest puffed and my hands clenched into fists. My wolf howled in anger.
Rob was calm, as usual. “He had a deputy with him. While she wasn’t under arrest, they read her her Miranda rights and took her to the station.”
The stable spun. I may have partially shifted because my vision sharpened like I was on a hunt. The growl that filled the stable made the horses whinny with fear. I reached out, set my hand on a hay bale. I gripped it in my fingers, lifted it with one hand and tossed it across the stable.
“For what?” I demanded, my breath coming out in ragged pants. I couldn’t lose my shit here. My mate was in fucking jail, and she needed me.
He didn’t step closer, just gave me room to lose my shit.
“Her ex was found murdered in her place last night.”
I was already moving, jogging out of the stable to my truck assuming he’d follow. “What? Murdered? In her house? What the fuck was he doing there, and how did he get inside?”
“I don’t know that. I only know what Audrey told me,” he called from behind me.
“Tell her I’m on my way.”
“Hold up, Clint,” Rob barked. He must’ve used alpha command because that was the only thing that would’ve stopped my feet, and they skidded to a halt. I stood in the packed dirt area in front of the stable. My truck was a hundred feet away in front of the bunkhouse. I could get in it, get to town and be with my mate within thirty minutes. Except my alpha commanded me to wait.
“Listen to me,” he said. “The guy had his throat ripped out.”
I spun around to face him. “What the fuck? Who rips—oh shit.”
“This was a message.” He came up to me, set his hands on his hips. “I think Donald found you. Scented you. Followed you to Becky’s. Knows she’s yours.”
My eyes widened at what he was saying.
No.
No!
I opened my mouth to bellow, but Rob shot out more of that alpha command. “Keep your damn head.”
“It’s my fault. My mate and unborn child are in jail because of me. This was why I tried to keep my distance. I knew all along I was nothing but trouble for her.”
I spun around, faced my truck and kicked a huge dent in the side panel. Then I ripped off the side view mirror, hurled it across the parking area.
He clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder, grounding me. Stopping me. “You need to call Selena to meet you at the jail. Becky needs a lawyer who knows human law and understands what the fuck really happened.”
I was seething, but his words penetrated. They made sense. Selena could deal with the sheriff and the questioning. Becky had been with me for over twenty-four hours when I dropped her off at the hospital. I had no idea when Todd had been killed, but it had to have been in that window since he’d gone into her house after he’d been released from custody. That meant Becky wasn’t a suspect, only the dead guy’s widow. Being a shifter, Selena would recognize the cause of death and know it was shifter related and put it together.