Hank anyway. Ideally I’d like to see them drop all charges against you and Genie, and in my brief discussion with Sheriff McGraw he implied they might be willing to do just that, provided you two get out of town.”
“That’s amazing.” I knew I should have sounded happier, but there were a dozen different but replies coming to mind.
Wilder voiced one of them for me. “I’m not leaving without Hank.”
We couldn’t leave Hank here. Not knowing what they’d done to him. But we also couldn’t help him if we were in jail with him.
“I think the sheriff is in on it,” I announced. “If we can make him think we’re leaving, we might be able to work the case from nearby.” I looked at Wilder. “We passed a motel not too far from here. If we set up there, we could find out what Timothy is up—”
“No.” Cash held up a hand and shook his head emphatically. “I’m not getting you out of here just so you can turn around and get in even more trouble. Jesus, Genie, what’s gotten into you? You’re not acting like yourself at all. The girl I know would take a pardon, say thank you and go right back to her normal life. How can you possibly think this is a good idea?”
“Hank is pack.”
“Hank is a bigoted asshole.” He looked at Wilder. “No offense.”
“He’s been called worse.”
Cash continued, “My point is, you don’t owe that guy anything. The evidence is stacked against him. And I’ll try to help, even though it goes against all my better judgment, but you’re both done with this. You’re not going to stalk around the parish like Nancy Drew and one of the Hardy Boys. You’re not detectives, and you…” this was directed to me, “…you’re not your sister.”
Those words stung. I was used to getting compared to Secret on a regular basis, but coming from Cash it hurt worse. No, I wasn’t my sister. I didn’t have the power of the federal government at my back, or the ear of the highest powers in the vampire and werewolf communities.
I didn’t need to be my sister.
Being me should be enough.
What hurt worse about the statement was that Cash clearly didn’t think I was capable of being a leader, or helping protect my people. Those were both Secret trademarks.
“Hank is pack. I don’t need to like him to do right by him. Pack is deeper than family. You can abandon your family, but you can’t abandon pack.” I crossed my arms and matched his serious look with one of my own. I didn’t want to act snotty with him, but I wasn’t going to let him insult me, either.
“You don’t lead the pack. Hank isn’t your responsibility.”
“If I pass the buck in a situation like this, I don’t deserve to ever lead the pack.”
“I thought you didn’t want to, isn’t that what you told me? You said you wanted a normal life, and you wanted your brother to lead the pack.” Every time he said pack he made a face like he was biting into something sour.
Since this was neither the time nor the place to explain my plans for the future—especially since I didn’t know what they were yet—I avoided his comment. But I couldn’t help but notice Wilder had taken a keen interest in what was being said between Cash and me.
Great, now I had a pack subordinate who knew I’d put my support behind Ben. I wish Cash knew what kind of corner he’d just painted me into.
“Is that why you didn’t call your uncle?” Cash asked. “Because of some misguided idea you need to be able to save Hank on your own? Don’t you think your pack leader deserves to know what kind of a disaster he’s about to be involved in? I never thought of you as selfish before.”
Wow.
Not only was he sticking the knife in today, he was determined to twist it as many times as he could.
That was me, Selfish Genie, hoarding all the problems to myself.
Too bad he was also kind of right. I should tell Callum everything, especially now that my initial plan had failed. We had Hank…sort of. Maybe it was time to call in the cavalry and admit this was too much for me to deal with.
“Hey,” Wilder interjected. “That’s enough. The only reason she’s here to begin with was so she could help me. She figured by coming along she could keep me from doing anything too stupid.”
Cash