Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,44
her mother was disoriented from the sheer amount of stress she was under. He told Katelyn that she needed to take care of her. And Katelyn had.
But who is taking care of me? she thought now, trying to shake it off. I don’t need taking care of. I’m seventeen.
But the entire exchange between Lee and Justin had freaked her out. Permission? To go to Little Rock? How was she ever going to get out of Wolf Springs and have a real life? Was her future really going to be so strictly controlled?
She took a deep breath and said aloud, “You will get out. You will make it happen.” Things would change. Lee Fenner would be replaced. She would earn that new alpha’s trust, and then her freedom. She’d get out.
She had just about calmed herself down when she rounded the last corner before coming into view of the cabin and saw Trick’s Mustang parked out front. She flinched. What was he doing there?
She got out slowly and walked up the steps onto the porch. Opening the door, the first things she saw were an old, battered suitcase and a duffel bag by the front door — her grandfather’s luggage, she supposed.
Trick and her grandfather were bustling around in the kitchen, Trick rinsing dishes while her grandfather gave her a wave with a kitchen knife.
Mordecai looked at her inquisitively as he finished cutting a sandwich — she smelled cheese and salami — and laid it on a plate. He’d made two. One for him and one for Trick.
“Oh, hi. I—” she babbled.
“Hi. Sandwich?” Mordecai asked.
“Yes, thanks. Just cheese.” Even though she wanted the salami. But she was on record as being a vegetarian and didn’t want to raise any more red flags.
She glanced at Trick, whose face was turned as he scrubbed a coffee cup as if getting it clean was a matter of life or death. Apparently he hadn’t told her grandfather about the piece of silver she’d seen. That surprised her, since the two seemed so close. He set the cup down and looked at her with hooded eyes.
“Surprise,” he said.
Her grandfather started making the sandwich. “I thought you might like it if we took a friend with us, so I got another ticket to the show. I figured you’d invite . . .” Mordecai drifted off, and cleared his throat. “I just asked Trick.”
Cordelia. He’d thought Cordelia would be going with us. Katelyn’s chest tightened. She’d be going with Trick now, instead. She told herself that given what had happened in the parking lot, she wasn’t sure she wanted to spend a weekend with him. But who was she kidding? And what could she do about it anyway?
She turned to Trick. “I — I’m glad you’re coming,” she said, her face going hot.
“Thanks,” he bit off. “Me, too.” So there was to be a truce, but they weren’t in the best of places. That was better than having to salute him and call him “sir.”
Sheesh.
Her grandfather looked from one to the other, and then occupied himself with getting something out of the fridge, grinning slyly. “We should head out soon.” He glanced out the kitchen window. Clouds had rolled in, and the day was gray. “Might rain.”
“Gimme five,” she told him. “Ten,” she amended. She hadn’t packed and she still wanted to look at that old drawing again.
She spun on her heel and dashed upstairs. She took a moment to retrieve the old parchment from her underwear drawer and unfolded it. There was the rock-shaped heart and behind it, a waterfall, just like in the painting that had hung downstairs: it had to be the location of the mine.
She quickly threw some clothes into her father’s leather suitcase engraved with his initials SKM — Sean Kevin McBride — on a brass plate, making sure to pack her new dress from Babette’s very carefully. Then she slipped into clean jeans and a turtleneck the color of her light blue eyes. After running a brush through her hair she trotted back downstairs.
“All set,” she said, as she picked up the cheese sandwich her grandfather had made. She devoured it while her grandfather put away the dishes Trick had washed and they all then piled into her grandfather’s truck, Katelyn sitting on the front seat between them. She had thought about suggesting that they take her Subaru, but that would have meant Trick would be in the back seat.