Page 5 of Deception

Yeah, he got it, all right. But what to do about it if Summer wasn’t ready?

She came around his side of the room and placed a coffee by his hand. When she leaned close, her hair fell in a silky curtain, and he itched to brush it back. To taste her lips. To make the haunted expression fade from her eyes just long enough to have them shine at him.

When she slipped away again, he saw the shadows under her eyes. She looked a little ragged, probably from all the working hours she’d insisted on putting in at the saloon and café. Worse, Sarah said she’d heard Summer crying herself to sleep some nights.

He wanted to take hold of Summer’s perfect hands and shake some sense into her. She thought she had to prove herself to the others? They’d long since accepted her. All she really needed was to accept herself.

Yes, she’d worked for the Blue Bloods. But she’d been forced to. She’d done everything in her power to thwart their plans, and she’d managed to save the shifter cubs the rogues had kidnapped. Why couldn’t she move on?

“What we need is an insider,” Kyle said. “Someone we can send to snoop around and see what the Blue Bloods are up to, if anything.”

Summer stiffened at the mention of the rogue pack, and it took everything Drew had not to leap over and hug the anxiety out of her slight frame.

“But who? They’d see through us in a second.” Sarah shook her head.

“Maybe we can get someone from another clan,” Soren said.

“A wolf would be better,” Tina said. “A wolf, like them. Maybe I can get someone from my sister’s pack in California to help out.”

“Are we really prepared to put someone in that kind of danger?” Sarah asked.

“If it’s for the good of the pack,” Tina said. “For the good of all shifters.”

“I’ll do it,” Luke said, raising his hand.

Sam shook his head. “I know their type, believe me. I’ll go.”

Several others volunteered or murmured suggestions until a clear, determined voice spoke up, silencing everyone in the room.

“I’ll go,” Summer said, looking fiercer than he’d ever seen her before.

For a split second, he could hear the hum of the refrigerator behind the bar. It was that quiet. But a moment later, everyone broke into a hubbub, supporting or rejecting the idea.

“Too dangerous…”

“Too risky…”

“Well, she is one of them,” someone else noted, making Summer wince.

She’s not one of them,he wanted to roar.She’s one of us.

The pained look in her eyes told him how much she wished for the same thing.

“Summer does know them,” Tina admitted. “And they know her. She could pull it off.”

Sarah nodded, too. “A deception. Summer can get closer to the rogues than any of us ever could.”

Drew wanted to holler,no, no, no!But even he had to admit she was perfect. Just the way she’d ghosted through the room before proved it. For all her natural beauty, she had a way of slipping through space unnoticed. Of listening when she seemed to be tuned out.

But he noticed, damn it. He noticed her eyes go a tiny bit wider, showing a hint of fear. He noticed how she threw her shoulders back when she spoke, forcing herself to be brave. He noticed the tremble of her lips.

She took a deep breath and spoke so vehemently, no one could protest. “I’m the best one for the job. I’ll do it.”

I swear,her eyes added, blazing at everyone in the room.

* * *

It all happened so quickly, Drew didn’t have time to protest. Once the others jumped on the idea of Summer as their insider at Hope Springs, everyone rushed on to arrangements.

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