Page 71 of Mystery in the Mountains

Asher walked out of the diner with the bags of food in one hand and his other on the small of her back.

He got her to settle in and set the bag of food behind her before walking around the truck and climbed in.

“Sunshine,” he said quietly, gently cupping her chin and turning her head. “What is going on?”

She bit her lip and took a breath. “How well do you know Ruby’s piano teacher?”

“Nox Whittaker? Not very well. He moved here a couple years ago. He teaches music at the school part time and teaches piano. He seems like a decent guy. Why?”

“He’s never given you a weird vibe or anything?”

Asher shook his head. “I mean, I haven’t talked to him a lot, but whenever I have, he seems like a nice guy. You know who you need to ask, and we just left her.”

Sunny nodded. “Let’s just go home.”

Asher turned the key, and the truck rumbled to life. When Sunny didn’t move to turn the radio back on, he knew whatever she’d seen was bad.

Once on the road for a few minutes, Sunny had yet to say anything and was just staring out the window.

Reaching over, he put his hand on her knee.

She jumped and withdrew.

“Hey, Sunny, you’re kind of freaking me out.”

She took a breath before turning her body to look at him and lacing her fingers with his.

“So, you know how I’ve been seeing those red eyes in my visions, and I swear I saw them outside of the bar the other night?”

Asher glanced at her and nodded carefully, not liking where this was going.

“I’m not sure why, but when her piano teacher—Nox, did you say?—was at the door, I saw his eyes glowing.”

Well, that isn’t great.

Asher nodded. “Do you think it means he was at the accident?”

Sunny’s face fell, and she looked out the window again. He hated when she got like this. Usually, she was so full of life. Her smile could light up an entire room, but when she went dark, his whole world felt cold. It reminded him of when she’d left, and he couldn’t stand that feeling, not after just getting her back.

They pulled up to her house, and he turned the engine off. They sat there in silence.

“I mean, it’s weird, right? Do you think he watched us at the bar?”

“If he did, he’s a fucking dead man.”

“Asher . . .”

“Do you really think this guy had something to do with the accident and watched us last night?”

The anger was building inside of him. His wolf was starting to growl, though he was trying to remain calm. While he hadn’t known him long or well, Nox had always seemed like a stand-up guy.

“I don’t know,” Sunny blurted.

Asher got out of the truck and opened her door.

As he took a deep breath, his wolf was itching to pay this guy a visit. This close to the full moon, things would get intense for him.

He pulled her legs out of the car and faced her, bent low. “Sunny. You have to tell me. Do you think he had anything to do with it? And I swear if he saw what we did . . . I’ll feed him to the woods so fucking fast.”

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