Page 69 of The Tracker's Secret
He smiled back, his eyes tender and full of love. My heart ached, twisting on itself so intensely that I gasped for breath.
The words “I love you” perched on my lips, but I held them back. Right now, they wouldn’t make any of this easier, and maybe, once I knew what I should do, I would be glad I’d held them back. If I decided that I didn’t want to be with him, not saying them would be for the best. But if instead, I decided to be his mate, then I would be able to tell him without any concern about what might happen next.
He took a deep breath, his broad chest expanding. “I think it’s better if I leave.”
I nodded.
“I’ll be right next door if you need me.” He walked toward the steps, then paused with his hand on the railing. He shook his head and gave a derisive laugh. “This goes to show you how you affect me and make me forget everything, but... did you find Blake? Is he alive?”
I matched his derisive laugh because I had also completely forgotten about the awful experience, and now that he brought it up, the horror of what I’d witnessed hit me all over again, and all I could do was nod, as I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to put the images of that mangled face out of my mind.
“Fuck, so Ulfen was right.” Jake forgot about leaving and walked back. “Do you know where to find him?”
I shook my head. “No. I couldn’t come up with a location. Um,” I searched my memory for something other than the blood and Blake’s gleeful expression, “he was in some sort of warehouse, I think. He was beating a man to a pulp. I believe... I watched him kill him.”
“Oh, Toni. I’m sorry. That must’ve been awful.”
“It was. He was enjoying himself so much, beating him with his naked fists.”
“Did you recognize the man?”
“No. His face was destroyed.”
Jake winced. “I hate that you had to see that.”
“I always thought Blake was a good man, but no good man could do what he was doing. I wish I’d been able to see more, so we could find him.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, okay? You did what you could. Just call Tom and let him know what you found out. He can tell his men to be on the lookout. I’ll see what I can find out, too. Earlier today I made a list of people I can ask and places Blake was known to frequent. Maybe I’ll find him.”
I stepped forward and snatched Jake’s hand. “Don’t. Please, don’t look for him. He’s a monster. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Jake gave me an amused smile that seemed to say “Don’t be silly, little girl. No one can hurt me.” Oh yeah, he thought he was such a big bad wolf, and no one could harm him or ever get the drop on him, but he hadn’t seen Blake’s savagery, that terrible hunger to cause pain and see his victim’s suffering.
“I’ll be fine. You don’t worry about me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’ve been asking you not to worry aboutme, but you don’t listen, so why should I?”
“That’s different. I’m a werewolf, Toni. I can rip a man’s head off if I want to. You, on the other hand, are vulnerable.”
If he only knew. Though I still had to learn how to control the shift, then maybe I’d also be able to rip someone’s head off—not that it was something I looked forward to doing.
“Are you sure you’ll be all right? I could stay. There.” He pointed toward my papasan chair.
I would have loved for him to stay—in the chair, or preferably, on top of me—but we’d already determined that was a bad idea. And more than that, I had to get up in a couple of hours and go to Eric’s place for my second training session.
“I’ll be all right. I’ll scream bloody murder if I need you.”
“I’ll lock up on my way out.” He backed away, nodding, and went downstairs taking slow, reluctant steps. With a mind of its own, my mom’s protection spell had started allowing him in, so there was no keeping him out.
The bell chimed as he exited, and then there was silence. I went back to bed and tried to sleep, but before I could catch a wink, the clock struck 3:30 AM, and I jumped out of bed and drove to my second meeting with Eric Cross.
