The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,36

we have a get-together.” I approached him but kept my distance. “You don’t want a relationship with me. I’m so sorry for meddling in your personal life the way I did, but you opened up to me with that secret, and I felt like I had to do something or say something about it. I don’t want to fix you, and I don’t want you to fix me. I’m not perfect by a long shot. We’re just two old friends who got caught in a rainstorm and sought shelter under the same tree. Or in this case, a bed.” I gestured behind me, then slapped my hand against my hip. “The storm’s passed, Lakota.”

An almost imperceptible smile touched Lakota’s lips. He tilted his head to the side, his voice just as soft as the look he was giving me. “You’re poetic.”

I bit my lip and held on to my purse strap as if it were a lifeline. “Next time you’re in town, we’ll go out and grab some barbecue.”

He lifted his chin. “I can do you one better. We’ll camp out like old times.”

I chuckled. “In your father’s backyard?”

“Promise you’ll come?”

The tension between us melted away, and I gave him a wistful smile. As much as I would have liked to roll back the years, we’d changed. “I’ve got a business to run now. Not as much time on my hands, so we’ll see.”

“You can always hire help. How about Wheeler?”

A laugh bubbled out, and I covered my mouth. “Are you trying to kill my business before it even gets off the ground? He’s great with numbers, but if you put him behind a cash register, he would fill up a swear jar, not a tip jar.”

Lakota pressed a chaste kiss to my forehead, and my heart clenched. “Take care of yourself, Freckles.”

This was goodbye. We led separate lives, and that meant we might not see each other again for months, maybe years. Suddenly there seemed no appropriate way to say farewell. This was new territory—a night I would press into my heart. It would rank with some of the greatest moments in my life, and it was special because it was ours alone. I hoped he wouldn’t become resentful toward me for thinking I could cure his lifelong trauma in one night, but that was always a possibility.

Uncertain what to say, I did the only thing that came naturally. I curled into his warm embrace and hugged him goodbye.

Chapter 8

Lakota waited impatiently outside the motel, his arms warming in the sun and his T-shirt now dry. After their embrace, Lakota had been the one to leave the room, and Melody hadn’t come out since. She’d probably changed her mind about a shower, or maybe she was practicing avoidance since he hadn’t budged from the spot outside her door.

When a horn blared, he stood up from the walkway and waved at Tak, who suddenly hit the gas and made the black pickup lurch forward.

Lakota had been sent here on a job, and he’d learned rather quickly how difficult it would be to acclimate. He’d met Tak in a bar one night when Tak hustled him in a game of pool, only to find out that Lakota was a better hustler. Lakota offered to buy him a beer, but Tak wanted tea instead. They had a good conversation and hit it off. It was a good thing too—Tak was a big guy who could have been a Viking in a past life. Lakota needed to immerse himself in the community, and Tak was his way in. The local Shifters were standoffish, and it hadn’t taken long for him to see the division between the packs and the tribes.

Tak rolled down the window and stuck his head out. “I could get used to this ride,” he said, a robust laugh setting off his remark. “She’s small, but she’s got spirit.”

Feigning annoyance, Lakota slowed his pace and folded his arms. Despite Tak’s brutish appearance and the ink on the left side of his face, the man carried a sense of humor that his father frowned upon. Understandable. His father just so happened to be Shikoba, the chief, and he probably didn’t think his people would respect an alpha who was always hamming it up. Lakota noticed how the tribe looked at Tak differently, but he wasn’t entirely sure it had to do with his friend’s personality traits. His alpha power wasn’t weak—that was for certain. It practically vibrated lampshades whenever he entered a