Page 26 of I Hate Myself for Loving You
Pushing her hair behind her ear, she looked Max directly in the eye. “I didn’t think it was relevant, and he’s not the man I once knew.”
“So what do you know about Lassiter? If you spent some time in high school with him, you must know who he comes from. Where he comes from. What his parents are like?” Max asked.
“Lassiter is adopted. Well, not adopted, he was a foster child for almost all of his life. We saw each other in California again one year ago. I hadn’t seen him in almost ten years by then. He was so different from the man I knew when I was a kid. But knowing him didn’t change the fact that we had different beliefs, and it didn’t change the fact that I was going to keep protesting his stupid condos.”
“So you have unresolved feelings for him. Don’t bother to deny it, it’s written all over your face.” JC waved her hand, dismissing the thought. “Forget that for now. Even if he isn’t really an Adams, he had the money to pay off those trumped up back taxes. That still brings us right back to where we were now. No condos. He hasn’t built a single thing. He’s torn up a tree or five and made himself a nice little trailer park, but no condos. So what do you think he’s up to?” JC asked, wrapping her arms around Max’s shoulders.
“I did something pretty sneaky last night,” Avery said, almost more to herself than to Max and JC.
Max snorted. “I’ll bet. I’d even bet whatever you did, it was how you found out Lassiter was a vampire,” he mused.
“I showed up at his door in my werewolf form and he let me in. He thought I was a stray. He fed me…” she revealed, her face turning red from humiliation.
JC began to laugh so hard tears streamed down her face. “Oh, do I know that story. Max did the same thing. I took Max to PetSmart and to the vet to be neutered.”
Avery couldn’t help but laugh, too. It was all too unbelievable.
“So what happened? Did he turn into a bat?” Max queried.
“No, nothing like that, but he’s got a whole lotta blood in his refrigerator and he sorta confessed to Prince—er, me, that he was a vampire.”
“Any clue as to why he never told you, Avery?” JC asked, smiling in sympathy at her.
Shrugging her shoulders, she shook her head. “I’d guess for the same reasons I didn’t tell him my secret. Who just walks up to their high school crush and says ‘I’m a werewolf’?”
“Hell if I don’t know that,” Max commented wryly, sending JC a warm smile.
Tucking her hair behind her ears, Avery said, “He also mentioned a letter. A letter he was telling his parakeet Bud about.”
“You know,” JC said, looking directly at Avery, “how bad can this guy be if he takes in stray dogs and has a parakeet? Nothing about the man we see digging up holes and always angry fits here.”
Martine poked her long, elegant neck around the corner, silky strands of hair framing her face. “Speaking of that bird of his, I can’t figure it. I want to wrap him in a crescent roll and eat him, but something keeps stopping me…”
“Hector would shit a bunny if he knew you wanted to eat another animal, Martine Adams. I’d control those impulses, if I were you,” JC joked.
Martine grinned and stuck her tongue out. “I’m just saying he looks tasty. Under normal circumstances and if caviar weren’t shipped to me by Escobar on a regular basis, I might be forced to give in to temptation and it could get ugly.”
Just then Max’s cell rang, bringing both JC and Avery back to the situation at hand. Max jumped up to grab it and a smile spread over his face, making him look worry free for the moment. “That’s great news, guys. I’ll pass it on and the troops will be there soon. Okay, see you soon, Xavier.”
He winked at JC. “Guess who just had a little girl?”
“Oh! Julia had the baby. A girl? How fabulous!” JC squealed. “But wait. Is it a cat or a dog? And hang on just a second. I was pregnant before Julia! Why did she have a baby in just a few months and my pregnancy goes on and on like War and Peace? It’s not fair, damn it!”
Max laughed, shuffling her out of the room while JC moaned in between gabbing excitedly. Avery guessed they were going to prepare for a trip to Manhasset to visit Julia and Xavier and the new baby.
A little girl.
Avery’s heart clutched with just a smidge of envy, but she pushed it aside in favor of the sleuthing that had to be done.
She had a vampire to catch.
Chapter Nine
The Adams house was quiet, too quiet with everyone off seeing Julia and Xavier’s new baby in Manhasset. They’d named her Catalina and according to JC after her phone call to Avery, she didn’t appear to be lion or werewolf. The nature of little Catalina’s shifter form might take years to develop.
Avery decided one last trip to Lassiter’s in her wolf form was in order. For whatever reason, he seemed to feel comfortable talking to “Princess,” and finding out about this letter was essential to finding out what Lassiter was doing here in Cedar Glen.
She didn’t know why it was so important, but it had to be the key to unlock this last door and save The Adams land. It was also the key to finding the old Lassiter and that had become as important as stopping him from building the condos.
