Chapter 6: Is She Dead Yet

I went around the counter so fast I hit my hip on the corner.

I shoved the door open.

The bell clanged.

Celia was already sliding into the back of a black SUV at the curb.

"You opened the gate," I said.

I said it loud.

Two women on the bench outside the hardware store looked up.

Celia rolled down the window.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said, sweet as pie. "Do you need help? You look unwell."

The SUV pulled away.

The two women looked at me.

Mae came out and put a hand on my back.

"She said it to you with only me in the room," Mae said. "She knew exactly what she was doing."

"You heard her."

"I heard her. And I'm a sixty-one-year-old woman who works for you. Who's going to take my word over the Ironclaw Luna's?"

I went inside and called Rhett.

He came at closing time.

I told him everything, word for word.

The envelope. The necklace. One latch.

He stood by the plywood window with his arms folded.

"She paid rogues to come through that gate," he said. "Rogues don't work for free, and they don't keep secrets for free."

"They were all killed. Dominic said so. It was all over the news."

"He said so." Rhett looked at me. "Did anybody count?"

I didn't have an answer.

"Let me walk you home," he said.

"It's four blocks."

"Then it's a short walk."

"Rhett, you have a summit. You have forty alphas at your lodge."

"They can eat without me."

"I want to walk by myself," I said. "Just once this week. I want to walk home like a person."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Run Away From the Cruel Alpha from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.