Page 10 of The Reveal
I just have to come up with more money.
I turn and storm back out of the historic bank onto Jacksonville’s pretty main street and run straight into Samuel.
Straightinto him so that he catches me by my elbows and I nearly collide with his chest.
I wish I did.
“Oh,” I say, suddenly feeling the polar opposite of sickened. “Hi. I just—”
“Did you really rent out outbuildings on your property toactual monsters, Winter?” Samuel demands, scowling down into my face. His green eyes areblazing. This is more exhilarating than he means it to be, I’m sure. “Is this some kind of death wish? Because you don’t have to go to all the trouble of putting out ads for monsters, you know. You can just go down to the river, show a vampire your neck, and let it feed. Problem solved.”
3.
“The jury is out on two of them as to whether or not they’re monsters,” I reply almost automatically, not sure if I’m confused or simply taken aback, but his hands are still gripping my elbows and that’s hard to think past. Also, I’ve never seen him angry before. Certainly not atme. “The other one is Maddox Hemming.”
Samuel knows exactly who Maddox Hemming is, I can see that immediately. Because everyone knows who Maddox Hemming is. He lets go to step back, and normally I would consider that one of the greatest losses of all time. But instead, I fold my arms over my chest and frown right back at him because ... what is this?
“Maddox Hemming is a werewolf,” Samuel tells me, very distinctly and slowly, as if I’m an idiot.
“Thank you,” I reply. Stiffly. “I’m aware.”
“Winter. You can’t live that close to a werewolf.” He shakes his head as if I’ve disappointed him, and unlike the disappointment of crooked and creepy old bankers, this lands. It feels like a punch in the solar plexus. I’m not sure I knowhow muchI rely on his good opinion of me until this moment. “For any number of reasons, but mostly because she’ll slaughter you in your sleep.”
“How did you even hear about my tenant situation?” I ask him, because there’s the usual small-town grapevine that none of us can ever escape entirely, but this feels extreme. “This literally all happened in the past few hours.”
“News travels fast when you do stupid shit,” Samuel says darkly.
“Luckily, I’m not doing any stupid shit,” I reply, stung. “I live in Jacksonville, Samuel. Supposedly a safe zone. We can either choose to believe that or not.”
“One way to keep it safe is not to shack up withfucking werewolves.”
“Of the monster attacks in the past three years that violated the safe-zone boundaries, none of them were perpetrated by werewolves,” I remind him. Maybe a little tensely. “You know that as well as I do.”
Because we go to all the same meetings. We read the same paper his sister puts out. Or maybeIgo tohismeetings, something that I find sits on me wrong, all of a sudden.
I don’t like it. “Is there anything else, Samuel? Any more character assassinations? Want to call me an idiot a few more times?”
He blows out a breath, though he doesn’t apologize. “I don’t think you should do this,” he tells me gruffly. “It’s not safe.”
I’m touched by his concern. Really, I am. Later, after I barricade myself in my bedroom and put new iron gates on my windows to deter the werewolves I refuse to admit I’mslightlyconcerned about, I’m sure I’ll trot that out and cuddle up with it. As I try to sleep through another long night of nightmares about some scary, powerful creature with snakes in her face.
Right now, all I can do is laugh. “Samuel. Look around. What the hell is safe anymore?”
I’m still asking myself that when I get back up to the house—after getting extra keys made for the back door and the cottages and taking a trip to the scrapyard, where I avoid another clutch of zombies and find some good pieces of usable iron—to find my three new housemates standing in the yard.
It looks like they’re all about to throw down and get in a fistfight.
This seems deeply unwise for many reasons, but the main one is that there’s a line of dangerous men and Harleys to one side.
“Finally,” Maddox drawls when I get out of the truck, my favorite gun already in my hand. “This is getting very boring.”
She certainly looks bored, but then, she always does.
“Which one of you told all of Jacksonville that I’m taking on a werewolf as a boarder?” I ask as I make sure to lock my own truck. “Just out of curiosity.”
“Oh, that was me,” Maddox confesses with a grin, all boneless there against the side of her vehicle. “You know how it is. Mrs. Bosko always hated my guts, but shelovesyou. It was petty, but it had to be done.”
“Mrs. Bosko lives two doors down.” I shake my head. “She’s never going to sleep again.”
