Deerling, but Wilder had to hate him more. I needed to feed off his loathing, no matter how unhealthy it was for me, because Wilder was right. Deerling was out to wipe every supernatural creature off the face of the earth, and I couldn’t hesitate because he had a pretty wife and a bun in the oven.
“He tried to kill you.” He placed a hand on my cheek, and I let myself lean into it, reveling in the rough warmth of his skin against mine. This was the comfort I’d needed last night, and no one had been there to give it to me. “He will kill you if we give him half a chance.”
I smiled, liking the way it felt with his hand on my face. “You said you thought I wasn’t easy to kill.”
Wilder’s hand dropped. “Let’s try to keep it that way, okay?”
He was right.
It was painful to realize these were the kinds of decisions I’d be faced with on a regular basis if I followed in Callum’s footsteps. These were the things Secret had been faced with all the time. The seemingly impossible choice between one evil and another.
Nothing was going to come easily for me again after this.
I shifted the car into drive and followed Deerling, making sure the length of road between us was enough he wouldn’t suspect we were on his tail. We needed to know what he was doing and what his plan was now that Hank was in jail. And there was no way for us to do that if I was afraid of what it might do to his family.
He’d forfeited his right to a happy ending the moment he had someone try to drive me off the road.
If he wanted a war, he had it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I was not a born private detective.
Several times while we were tailing Deerling, Wilder had to remind me not to get too close, and whenever we got too far back, I started to worry we would lose him. Lose him where I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t a big town, and now that we knew what car he was driving, we should be able to spot him easily.
“If he goes to the church, we’re not going to be able to follow him,” I said. There was nowhere near the big building we could park inconspicuously, and considering what had happened the last time we walked on Tim’s lawn, I wasn’t too keen to repeat the performance. One arrest in a week was enough for me. If I had to tell Callum I was back in jail, he’d never trust me again.
As it was I was walking a fine line with him allowing me to spend the extra two days in Franklinton on my own. I wasn’t about to squander that opportunity by being an idiot.
We drove past the turnoff into Franklinton, bypassing the road that would have taken us directly to the church.
“Where’s he going?” Wilder asked.
Like I’d know.
After another fifteen minutes of driving I was dead certain we weren’t going anywhere near town, which made me think Deerling was going to lead us somewhere useful. For all I knew he might be going to pick up baby supplies at Walmart, and God knew he’d have to drive a long way to get there. Yet I didn’t think that was the case.
I was grateful that the farther we got from town the more traffic picked up on the highway. I let a car get between us and was careful to not draw attention to us. Still, fear circled around me like a shark in bloody water. No matter how many precautions we took I felt certain he knew we were back here.
Another ten minutes and I was wringing my hands on the wheel, ready to turn around. I could only follow so long before it got obvious, and we were damn near crossing the line. I had almost announced an ultimatum, when Deerling’s signal went on and he exited the highway onto an obscured dirt road. He made the exit so quickly I was already driving past the road when I realized what had happened. I pulled over to let the car behind me pass, and shut the engine off.
“What are you doing? Go back.” Wilder craned his neck to look over his shoulder.
“Yeah, let me drive blind down some dirt road where we have no idea what’s at the end, and we could be driving ourselves right into a trap. Sounds like a peachy-keen