Crashing into Fate (Maple Grove #25) - Lynn Hagen Page 0,14

talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Arlan’s voice reached a squeak. “I had a very weird nightmare. I never even went to the diner. It was all in my head.”

“Can you please let me in?” Christian might have sworn Lewis to secrecy, but Lewis planned on telling his mate everything. Arlan deserved nothing less.

“How do I know I can trust you?” The safety chain was on the door, but Lewis could easily break it. He just wasn’t going to. That wouldn’t win Arlan’s trust.

Lewis rested an arm on the frame and sighed. “You don’t know, but I’m asking you to trust me.”

“That’s what a killer would say.” Arlan shut the door just a little more until only one eye was visible. “A lot of killers are charming.”

Lewis arched a brow. “You know a lot of killers?”

“I’ve watched enough documentaries. Serial killers are always charming, pillars of their community, and everyone interviewed can’t believe their neighbor or friend was a murderer.”

Lewis was starting to understand what Arlan was saying. “You think I killed that guy?” He couldn’t help it. Lewis laughed then sobered. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh, but I didn’t kill him. I was in the office when you ran in there. I can’t be in two places at once.” He pushed away from the doorframe. “If you want, I can have the sheriff vouch for me.”

Arlan’s brows shot up. “After what I just saw you and the deputy do? No, no, no. You guys didn’t change into animals. It was a nightmare. It had to be.”

Lewis wanted to ease his mate’s worries, but he wasn’t about to do that while standing outside. “You probably don’t want to face the truth, but I can prove it to you if you let me in.”

“Not a chance.” Arlan slammed the door in Lewis’s face.

“You want me to talk to him?”

Lewis turned to see Mike standing just inside the front office, the door open. The bastard was trying to hide his smirk.

“I can handle my own mate.”

Mike lost the war to hide his smile. “I can tell. If he looked any more scared, he might have crapped himself.”

Lewis was not in the mood. “Do you mind?”

“Hey, you’re the one doing this outside. I was just seeing if I could help you.”

Lewis walked past Mike and entered the office. “He thinks I’m the killer.”

“I heard.” Mike waved for Lewis to join him in the room behind the desk, but Lewis didn’t want Arlan’s door out of his sight.

“I think I’ll just chill in this chair until Arlan is ready to talk to me.” Lewis took a seat, crossing his ankles.

“You have until noon,” Mike said. “Then Arlan is on the clock. I’d suggest wearing a cup if you continue to harass him.”

“I’m not harassing him,” Lewis argued, though he couldn’t help but feel that he was. It wasn’t his intention. Mates were a rare find, and Lewis wasn’t giving up on his and Arlan’s one chance at happiness.

He just had to get Arlan to trust him.

* * * *

“We got a problem,” Gavino said when he walked into Christian’s office. The prince was behind his desk and held up a finger as he spoke into the phone.

“I don’t care what you have to do. I want him found.” Christian hung up then rubbed his temples. “There are times when I just want to take my family and walk away from all of this.”

Gavino knew how Christian felt. The annihilators had been working overtime to cut down the population of not only rogue vampires but newborns. He wanted to find the one responsible for converting them and tear them apart.

“What’s the problem?” Christian leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach.

“That clean sweep we did.” Gavino sat across from Christian. “The one from two weeks ago. Word on the street is that Lewis Callister has a bounty on his head. I got word from a deputy in Maple Grove that said an attempt on Lewis’s mate’s life has already happened.”

“A deputy from Maple Grove?”

“I’m friends with Malik Burrows. I asked him to keep an eye on Lewis just in case something like this happened. He was able to kill the vampires, but you know as well as I do that Mena will send others.”

“That whole mess was a shitstorm,” Christian said. “It never should have gone down that way.”

Gavino agreed. It had been fucked up from the beginning and had only gotten worse. They had lost a lot of good men