Page 4 of I Hate Myself for Loving You
Avery looked up into the handsome, rugged face of Max Adams and for the first time since she’d begun this project to save his land, she felt all hope slipping away.
“I can’t give up, Max. I feel like it today, but I can’t and neither can you. Don’t you want your baby to someday be able to run under the moonlight on Adams land? Don’t you want that, too?” she asked Derrick pleadingly, turning to face him and Martine.
“Yes, Avery,” Max assured her. “It’s what we all want, but we’ve used up a lot of your valuable time. There’s no talking to the man, no reasoning with him. He bought our land right out from under us and with no explanation. It doesn’t matter if he’s an Adams, according to the town. They just like the fat account they have now because of him. So what else is there? You can’t go on day after day calling him names and throwing foliage at him. Not to mention, you can’t continually hide who we all are forever. He’s going to catch us one of these days, and lose his damn mind.”
Hiding the fact that they were werewolves definitely wasn’t easy. But they’d done it for three months now. A couple more wouldn’t break them.
“I know you miss the freedom of your shift, but let’s not forget, the people in Cedar Glen don’t know about us either, and you’ve managed to keep them at bay,” she reminded him.
Max nodded. “That’s true, but we’ve been here for hundreds of years. There’s a semblance of respect amongst everyone in Cedar Glen, human and otherwise. The humans stay in town, and we stay here. But that’s not what I meant. I meant, you had a life before our cause and you should be able to go back to it.”
If only the life part of that impassioned speech were true. Avery’s life was the animal rights organization she worked for. Save the Tails was all she had and truth be told, she’d be really sad to leave the Adams, even if they did find a way to stop Lassiter.
“So are ya kicking me out?” she half-joked, half-wondered out loud.
“Are you kidding? Who would teach us new and inventive ways to say shit stain, if not for you?” Martine asked. Her smile was sympathetic and so genuine it made Avery’s teeth hurt. “We just feel guilty, Avery. We know the money for this cause you’ve taken on is long gone by now. Your paycheck stopped coming three weeks ago. Hector told us.”
Foiled again. Indeed, her paycheck had stopped coming because Save the Tails couldn’t justify the kind of money needed to stop a company as large as Lassiter Adams’. It was a non-profit organization. Their salaries came from donations. The pay was little, but the work was rewarding for Avery.
It didn’t matter that her pay was inconsequential. It was never very big to begin with. Avery just barely got by on her salary as it was. She couldn’t afford to live without it permanently. She’d be high and dry if not for her trust fund.
“I’m okay, Martine. I really am. I want you all to have what you deserve, and Lassiter Adams has to shit or get off the pot someday. He can’t just keep digging forever. We have to figure out what he wants and try to offer him something.”
Damn, she hated the failure of her voice in her own ears. Fuck Lassiter Adams the defenseless animal killer.
“Just give me a couple of more weeks and let’s see what happens, okay? I’ve been in a tangle or two with the likes of worse than Lassiter. Unless I’m imposing…” She let her words trail off. Maybe they were just sick of her interfering in their lives? Avery could be very single minded when it came to the environment.
When she was off trying to preserve something, she forgot much else.
Like her nails.
Looking down at her hands, she realized they were in need of a good manicure.
Everything went by the wayside when she had the environmental bug up her ass.
“Avery can stay as long as she wants. Got that?” JC called from inside the freezer. “She’s the only other person in this house who hasn’t made fun of me because I’m worried this baby created by my farm stud is going to be born with better hair than me.”
Max’s chuckle was playful when he crossed the kitchen to swat at JC’s backside.
“You can stay as long as you like, Avery. You’re no imposition. We feel like we’re imposing on you.”
If only Max Adams knew how good his family was for someone like Avery.
Someone like her who didn’t have the support of her own family, but had found it with these people.
Her reluctance to give up bolstered.
Lassiter Adams could kiss her hairy lupine ass.
And why did the very thought of that give her chills?
And not the kind that were unpleasant.
* * * * *
Avery rapped on the thin, white door of Lassiter’s trailer. Trees whipped with the nippy breeze, the air was clean with the scent of freshly dug dirt. The night was chilly, calling to her to shift and roam freely over the hills and valleys of the Adams farm.
But you can’t do that if Lassiter is going to be hot on your ass with his bulldozer, now can you?
