Page 43 of Cold Foot Curse

“Enough talk of leaving, I’m taking this book with us,” he said, holding it up. “For me. It’s not breaking the rules. I’ll buy a book without a shirtless fuckboy on it to put in the book mailbox when I return it too. We can be fixers together.”

Okay, he was fun. “First off,” she said as she closed the little free library door, “Garrison Hartford is not a fuckboy, which you would know if you read the blurb. He is a misunderstood billionaire who can change into a honey badger to protect his love.”

Kade belted out a laugh. “Oh yeah? Can he destroy the house of his arranged pairing, piss off her entire Crew as he kidnaps her, and then catch her sobbing when he tries to bring her pizza—”

“Oh my gosh, we could write you into a book! I’m going to need to take shirtless photos of you. It’s not weird, and I’m not hitting on you. I’m just going to need some eye candy so people will read your story. Taken by the rhino.”

“Dear God, no.”

“Anal-Banged by the Rhinoceros.”

He scrunched up his face. “How about Seduced by the Tiger Witch.”

She nearly tripped on a crack in the cement. “How do you know what I am? You haven’t ever seen my animal.”

He snorted. “Yes, I have.”

“What? When?”

“Before your accident.”

She stumbled to a stop to stare at him, combing through her memories of that time. They were all so blurry. “I didn’t know you before my accident.”

“I was around though.”

“Around enough to see me Changed?”

“On accident.” He ran his hand down his jaw and continued walking, leaving her to trot to catch up.

“When did you come to Sister’s Edge again?”

“Maybe a year before your accident.”

“A year?” God, why couldn’t she recall him in her memories of that time? The timeline did make sense though on him making a run for Third. “How did you get into Sister’s Edge? And how did you get to be Derek’s Third so fast?”

“I knew Tawk, Seth, and Tanner from when we were kids.”

She scrunched up her face. “Tawk is an asshole. I’m judging you now for the friendships you kept.”

“He’s an asshole to people he doesn’t know or trust. Anything he sees as a threat, he’s going to treat like a threat.”

“So, I guess he saw me as a threat,” she grumbled.

“He didn’t trust you, for sure.”

“How close were you two?”

“We were from the same place. Seth and Tanner too. We were closer when we were kids.”

“Tawk is a freaking dragon. Why isn’t he Second, or Third? Or hell, why isn’t he Alpha? If it was a fight between him and Derek, it’s Tawk burning him alive and eating his ashes all day long.”

“Tawk doesn’t want a Crew under him. He’s not like that.”

None of this made sense with the Tawk she knew.

Kade inhaled deeply and said, “Tawk’s dragon cares about treasure. That’s all. There is something about Sister’s Edge that his dragon covets. Doesn’t mean he wants to listen to the Crew’s problems and fix their shit all the time.”

“But you wanted to, as Third?” she asked.

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