But that first statement .
.
.
Maybe she thought we were too overwrought to notice--and Ben was sometimes not as aware of subtle cues as some of the other wolves.
But maybe Mary Jo didn't realize that I could tell when she was lying as well as any of the wolves could have.
"You knew we weren't in the house," I said slowly.
And then the light dawned about what that meant.
"Did Adam send you out to keep watch over me while he met with the others? Did you see us leave?" She had.
It was in her face--and she didn't bother denying it.
She might be able to lie to the humans in this room, but not to the rest of us.
"Why didn't you tell him?" asked Ben.
"Why didn't you stop him before he went into the fire?" "Answer him," I said.
She met my eyes for a long count of three before finally dropping them.
"I was supposed to follow you if you left.
Make sure you didn't get hurt.
But you see, I think everyone would be better off if one of the vampires had killed you." "So you chose to defy Adam's orders because you disagreed with him," said Ben.
"He picked you to watch Mercy because he trusted you to take care of business while he dealt with the pack--and you betrayed that trust." I was grateful that Ben kept talking.
Mary Jo was one of the people in Adam's pack I'd thought was my friend.
Not because a debt the fae owed me had kept her from dying a little while ago .
.
.
I suspected that had been a mixed blessing, like most fairy gifts.
But we'd spent a lot of hours in each other's company because Adam liked to use her as a guard when he felt I needed one.
Mary Jo wanted me dead.
That was what that look had been about.
It was such a shock that I might have missed her answer to Ben's question if she hadn't sounded so defensive.
"It wasn't like that.
She was safe enough; she left with Samuel.
There's nothing I could do that would protect her better than Samuel could." "So why didn't you stop the arsonists?" Arsonists? There had been arsonists? "I wasn't ordered to protect her place.
She wasn't in there." Ben smiled in such satisfaction that I realized he hadn't known there were arsonists either.