Chapter Twenty - Part Two

“And Ethan? Have you any thought to what you’ve done to him? Or his family? Mathew was their only source of income. He was doing what was necessary to support his family –”

“Please, Charles, spare me the parts of this conversation where you pretend to be the good guy – that’s so cliché it’s annoying.” I said, pouring myself a cup of coffee. “Besides, we both know that you don’t give a damn about Mathew Raines. Sofia – maybe, but I have a hard time seeing Diane being ok with that…”

“Obviously,” Charles began tightly, straightening his tie, but I knew that he would much rather have been strangling me with it. “You knew Mathew was stealing the money. And I won’t ask how, because frankly, at this point it doesn’t matter. But what I want you to know, is that I’ve also known the entire time. And I allowed it to happen so that he could get out of debt and focus on supporting his family and this Pack. He couldn’t have done that worrying about bills.”

“But?” I asked, eyebrows raised as I took the first tentative sip of my drink.

“But?” he repeated, in a questioning sneer.

“Get real,” I said, with a snort. “Do you honestly expect me to believe that you let Mathew get away with stealing out of the kindness of your heart? You had something on him, or he had something on you… Either way you used the money as a ticket out – a favor for a favor and you each turned a blind eye to what the other was doing. But one of your mice got caught in a trap yesterday, so you had no choice but to let the cops haul him away while you turned your back. But now I have a question for you, Grandfather. How did you escape the cuffs? Why didn’t Mathew rat out his partner? Or Sofia, even? Why were they both so willing to let you break them? Why did they take the fall for you?”

Charles stooped slightly, and gathered his case and coat, silent. But on his face sat a strange and devilish smile.

“Because they’re afraid, Naomi,” he said casually, and turned to go. “As you should be too…”

“Oh? Should I be afraid like you are of the Hunters?” I said, rising as he paused with his back to me in the doorway.

“You have something to do with those Humans dying now, just like you had something to do with that magical flue all those years ago. And it’s happening again.”

“You think that because we’re family, I can’t be hard on you, and you moronically assume that I’ve underestimated you. But I am warning you now, Naomi, your last name holds weight no more. And as of this moment, your blood will no longer protect you.”

He left, and with a frustrated cry, I turned and chucked the coffee mug hard against the wall. It broke with a satisfied tinkle as coffee splattered in large droplets across the floor and wall.

His threats were genuine, I knew, but what scared me more was that perhaps he was right – what if I truly had underestimated him? What if I all along I had gone up against an adversary who had only given me his ten percent? I had deceived myself with my own pride, it seemed.

Not to mention that at the same time, Charles – the real villain – had somehow managed to paint me as the bad guy too. So now, the only real question was who could play the role best…

*  *  *

I showered and dressed hurriedly, intent on making my way to the Blue Moon to find Lucas. I wanted to catch him early during the day, in order to talk when I knew the bar would still be quiet. No more coffee – and no breakfast either – would be able to pass my lips again until I found a way to shine some light on this dark, dire situation.

I pushed through the doors of the bar, and though the sign in the front window displayed that they were open, the Blue Moon was empty. Save for Lucas, of course, who was busy sweeping between the tables.

“So, I heard there was a lot of drama last night,” I said, approaching carefully. I couldn’t tell if he was in a mood or not, seeing as how his normal expression usually tended to be dark and brooding anyway.

“If you wanna call it that,” he said, without looking up. “Deeds done in the dark, usually tend to come to light after a while. It’s all just a matter of when… I’m surprised the Elder hasn’t called an emergency meeting yet.”

“Yeah, me too.” I said, as my stomach turned with guilt. “So Sofia and Mathew both confessed?” I asked, sticking my hands in the back pockets of my jeans.

Lucas nodded.

“They did, but I can tell Charles wants to be lenient. But Pack law stands – either the Elder had to turn them over to the Hunters, or the Human police. He made his choice. But I’m sure the Humans are much kinder, so Charles actually did them a favor.”

“Right,” I said, nodding, but seething too as I realized that in the center of it all, my grandfather was still being made the hero. “But with that said, the Leadership is two down. We’re gonna replace at least one of them, right?”

“I don’t know,” Lucas said, stopping his work to lean on the broom. “That’s still somethin’ to be addressed. But we’ve already got members from all the leading families in Harbor, and rules are you have to be a pureblood to be on the Leadership. And that doesn’t leave us with many options.”

“Rules. I get so tired of them.” I replied, with a sigh.

“That’s not obvious,” Lucas said with a snort.

I chose to ignore him.

“You know, I’m just thinking about how all of this affects Ethan. I don’t think he and Mathew were very close, but I know that he still really looks up to his dad. I can’t imagine how he’s dealing with all this. It must be so hard on him and his family…”

“And?”

“And, this wasn’t Ethan’s fault. But I have a feeling that this is all somehow gonna backlash on him and the rest of his family. And I know that it wouldn’t make up for what might happen, but I was thinking that maybe there was something we could do to help.”

“Such as?”

“Well,” I said, and took a deep breath. “We could make Ethan a real Leader – give him more than just a Champion’s title. With Mathew gone, the Raines family doesn’t have an income anymore, and Champions don’t get paid.”

But Lucas cast me a knowing look, deciding that it was time he get back to his sweeping.

“You do realize,” he said. “Even if he’s made a Leader, that won’t break your bond? He’ll be a Leader, but he’ll still be your Champion too.”

“I’m really not even thinking about that right now,” I assured Lucas. “I’m only focused on Ethan. I know he’s upset, and I can push aside my own problems to focus on that. After all, that is what a true Leader does, isn’t it?”

“Right,” Lucas said, giving me a grin that was full of both amusement and suspicion. “Look, I’ll mention it to Jonathan and if I have his backing, then we’ll bring it up at the next meeting. But let’s have the three of us – including Ethan – on a united front about this before we bring it up. That way, we’ll have a better chance of convincing the Elder.”

“Hey, we’ll do it any way you want,” I replied, with an obliging smile.

This had actually gone much better than I had planned. If Lucas could turn Jonathan onto the idea of making Ethan a Leader, and if Lucas was to present the idea to Charles, then maybe the Elder might actually consider it. I didn’t know whether it was more my guilt or my own inner desires that caused me to think up the idea of turning Ethan into Leader. The idea never could have worked properly with Mathew and Ethan both serving at the same time, because the possibility of two against one weren’t odds in my favor. But on the other hand, with Mathew out of the picture, giving Ethan more power was a risk that I was more than glad to take.

After all, helping Ethan to become a Leader would make up for me getting his father thrown in jail (karma-wise). And keeping him beneath my thumb, but still with a measure of his own power, was enough to give me hope that I could retain some sort of protection against Charles. With Sofia and Mathew gone, there was more room for my influence to spread. Which meant I could get rid of Charles that much sooner.

With a grin, I turned to go, but seeing an empty cup on a table prompted me to grab it and return it to the counter for Lucas. I set it down, but his clipboard caught my eye – the same one that he used to hold his order forms and receipts. But as I looked down at it, lying there carelessly on the bar’s countertop, I noticed something strange, and astonishingly confusing…

Written in familiar handwriting on a sheet of familiar stationary, was a short list of ingredients the bar was running low on. And as my heart began to dance a jig in my chest, I reached out and touched a hand to the paper, letting my eyes travel across its crème color with the silver trim…

Lucas. Lucas Blacklock had left the anonymous note on my doorstep.

I looked down the bar where Lucas stayed faithfully sweeping. He knew. He knew something dark about me and my past, something about my shifting ability that obviously he was afraid would be discovered by the wrong people. He had the answers to questions that I hadn’t yet even thought of, and I intended to find out exactly what it was that he knew. Even if that meant having to take my time with it.

*  *  *

Acting casually, I hung around the bar for a while longer, ordering a coke for breakfast. But the bar began to have its first few customers trickling in after that, and Lucas had other patrons to turn his attentions to. So after my drink had been finished, I turned my thoughts towards home and Ethan. I had the strong desire to call him, as a true friend would, and make sure that he was ok. But then, with a sad irony, I remembered that I had stolen his phone, and that he wouldn’t have been able to answer my call anyway.

So I went home instead, and decided the nap couldn’t have been a better invention. I couldn’t think of the last time when I’d had one, and upon entering my room and looking at my bed, it had never looked so empty and inviting. The mattress sang out with a siren’s cry and I went to it, willingly. And for once I managed to scrape together a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, before Mrs. Trentley was shaking me awake for the second time that day.

“Come off it woman!” I grumbled, shaking off her hand after she had brutally thrown back the covers. “Sleep isn’t just for the dead ya know!”

“I’d get my behind up and moving if I were you!” Mrs. Trentley said severely, standing over me with her hands on her hips, as I rolled over and closed the sheets over my head.

“I don’t want to, Mrs. Trentley. Beat me later if you want. Hell, I’ll give you a raise if you just get out. I’m tired.”

“Well, are you too tired for Ethan Raines? Or your mother, Paris?”

I sat straight up, like the dead rising from its grave, shoving off the sheets as I did.

“My mother is here? In my house?” I asked, needing to hear her clarify, as my heart began to thump.

“Yes, she’s here.” Mrs. Trentley said. “And she doesn’t look happy, so I suggest you get downstairs to the foyer before she eats your friend. Isn’t that what vultures do?”

We shared a small snicker together, trying to find the humor in such a black occasion.

“Obviously she knows,” Mrs. Trentley went on, flipping the switch back to serious. “That’s why she’s here – she’s got the autopsy report with her.”

“And now she’s here to confront me,” I said, finally rising from the bed. I’d have to change back into my street clothes; I had put on my pajamas to fall asleep in.

“Oh, I don’t know why I haven’t called the police.” she said, fretting. “And I don’t know why you haven’t either –”

“Mrs. Trentley, the police couldn’t handle a woman like my mother,” I said. “And besides, if she’s clever enough to get away with killing her own husband, then she’s clever enough to escape prison. She isn’t like Mathew Raines – you and I both know that.”

“True, but you were still cleverer than her, Naomi.” Mrs. Trentley said, surprising me with a rare, almost motherly compliment. “You were the one to figure out her secret when the rest of us were too busy grieving to notice. So if you can figure that out, then I know you can figure out how to put that hideous woman away.”

I didn’t have enough time to say “how” or even “thank you” before she left the room. It seemed that Mrs. Trentley’s mood wasn’t that sentimental. But regardless, I smiled and thanked her silently as I took my clothes into the bathroom, feeling slightly pleased.

*  *  *

As I descended the staircase and saw Ethan and Paris coming into view, it was obvious that they were working hard to ignore each other from opposite corners of the hall. But they both looked up in unison as I made my entrance.

I could see that Paris was only a word away from releasing her fury, but Ethan on the other hand, remained much more passive. He was here to make peace, while my mother had ridden in on a current straight from hell.