“D-d-d-did that just happen?” Sheila asked after we’d been driving in silence almost the whole way back to the little trading post gas station halfway between Enchanted Rock and the Frost Security safe house. It was just a few minutes ahead and, from one glance at the gas gauge, I knew Sheila was going to need to pull in and get gas. Thank God that place was twenty-four hours. As late as it was, it was probably the only business open in the whole county.

My head was in a tailspin from the events of the last hour. Scratch that. It had only been minutes—Bikers, getting shot at, the violence outside the cabin, and, of course, werewolves. Werewolves? I was in love with a werewolf. A man who could shift from human to wolf, and back again. I felt bad, on one level, for reacting to him the way I had. He…he couldn’t help the way he was, could he? I didn’t know. Had he chosen this for himself? Had it just happened from birth? Had he been bit by one of other wolves, who I assumed were the other men at Frost Security? Maybe, if he’d just said something to me, I would have been able to take this all in.

“I think it did,” I whispered.

“Richard’s a…werewolf? Is that even possible?”

“I guess so,” I said, looking out the window, gazing out at the rocks and trees as they rushed by.

Instead, my first exposure to Richard’s animal form was with blood covering his face. Human blood.

I didn’t know how I was supposed to react. But, still, there was a part of me that wanted to make Sheila turn right back around, to take me straight back to the cabin, to Richard. But how could I do that? Especially with the way I’d spoken to him? I put my face in my hands and took a deep breath.

“What?” Sheila asked, taking her eyes off the road for a fraction of a moment to glance over at me. “You okay?”

I groaned. “No. What I said to Richard, about never speaking to me again. I can’t believe I said that.”

“What the hell? Why, Jess? He obviously cares for you!”

“Oh, God, maybe I should leave town. I should have taken Wyatt up on his offer as soon as he made it, then I could be far away from this place, with all my troubles over.”

“Come on,” Sheila said. “It’s not that bad. Richard’s a good guy. So what if he might get fleas in the summer.”

I turned and looked at her, my mouth agape.

“What?” she asked, glancing over at me again. “He’s hot. He might be a wolf some of the time, but look at him the rest of the time! He gave himself up for me, Jessica. What other guy would do that? You weren’t paying enough for him to do that, and you know it.”

I frowned, desperately wanting to change the subject. Sheila was wearing me down on the whole thing. I mean, who was I really to judge? So what if he was different? He didn’t kiss any different, and his arms and hands felt just like any other man’s arms or hands when they pulled me close. Well, that wasn’t necessarily true. His felt right when they did it, made all the other previous men in my life seem like poor imitations when they were stacked next to him.

Why was this happening to me? I find a perfectly good man. A perfectly sane, handsome, attractive man who’s good with my dogs, who wants to support me. Who’s a great kisser. And he turns out to be a man only part of the time. What kind of luck was that? I suddenly realized, as these thoughts swirled around in my head, that I needed to change the subject.

“Sheila?”

“Yeah.”

“How’d you get wrapped up in this? I thought you were staying in tonight? I dropped the dogs off with you and everything.”

She sighed and groaned. “I fucked up, that’s how.”

I glanced at her, eyebrow raised. “How?”

“I went down to a Skull and Bones watering hole I know, got into talking to Wyatt, asked him about the deal. He was still smarting over what Richard did to him, I guess, and as soon as he realized I knew you and him, they grabbed me and pulled me along when they got a call about following the computer girl that works for Frost. Guess he thought I could be a bargaining chip or something.”

“Aw,” I said. “Thanks. That’s actually kind of sweet, in a weird way.”

She chuckled. “Well, sweet or not, it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Even stupider than Chad. And he was dumb as a sack of door knobs.”

I laughed. “Yeah, but he was so your type.”

She grinned, a little color returning to her cheeks. She looked like she’d begun to, at least partially, put the events of the last couple hours behind her. “I guess so. But you know what? I think my type’s going to change after tonight. Those guys, Jess, the things they said to me, the way Wyatt looked when he put the gun to my head. It was unreal. I thought that shit was just in the movies. I can’t imagine ever being with a guy like that, not again. I thought these guys did Toys for Tots bike rides and shit.”

I reached out and touched her hand where it was tightly gripping the steering wheel. “I’m sorry,” I said. “But, thank you again, for trying to help. That’s what matters.”

We lapsed into a comfortable silence for a few moments after that. A little later, a notification on Sheila’s phone went off. She flipped it over in her lap and looked at the screen.

“What’s up?” I asked as she put the phone to her ear.

“Voicemail,” she replied as she listened to the recording. “Karen. Sounds like she’s been having a rough night. She’s been really clingy the last few months, what with her mom and all.”

I knew what she meant. The occasional drop-ins were okay, but sometimes Karen just grated on my nerves. But she was a human being and deserving of some sort of friendship, wasn’t she? “Well, her mom’s sick, Sheila. She needs our support.”

“I know,” she said with a sigh. “But she just used to be so much fun. Probably not fair to her we’ve been hanging out so much, especially with me helping out at the shop with your accounting and stuff.”

“Yeah. I don’t know, if you two hadn’t been here for me when I came back from school, I don’t know what I would have done, especially when my family fell apart.”

“Tell you what,” Sheila said. “How about we plan a girl’s night out? After all this is done? Or even a weekend away? We can go down to Denver, hit up some clubs, dinner, a show. What do you say?”

I grinned from ear to ear. That was the best suggestion I’d heard in months. “Yeah,” I said, “that sounds really nice. Let’s do it.”

The gas station appeared up ahead on the left and Sheila began to slow. “Need anything while I’m inside paying?” she asked. “On me, of course.” It was one of those little gas stations that hardly ever saw any upgrades, so there was no credit card reader at the pump. Part of the reason it was open twenty-four hours was that you still had to go inside to pay for gas.

I shook my head. “I really just want to get the dogs and head home.”

“Head home?” Sheila asked, sounding concerned as she pulled the car into the lot and parked next to the far pump. “Sure you want to be alone tonight?”

“Trying to get me to stay the night, aren’t you?” I asked as she put the little sedan in park and looked over at me.

“It’s already late, girl,” Sheila said. “I’ve got the guest room, you know that.”

I laughed and shook my head. Then, a thought occurred to me. One that I was a little surprised hadn’t come to me earlier. “Do you think we should…” I sighed, trailing off.

“Should what?”

“Go to the sheriff in the morning?”

“What?” Sheila asked, perplexed. “Why? Those guys showed up on Richard’s property, didn’t they? I mean, sure, what happened was wrong, and all.”

Chewing my lip, I glanced away from her. Maybe she was right.

“Hey,” Sheila said, snapping her fingers. “Look at me.”

I sighed and turned back to her, still worrying away at my lower lip.

“Do you want Peak to think we’re fucking crazy? We watched a pack of werewolves attack a gang of bikers, Jess. He barely believed you were getting threatening calls from your stalker. Think he’d believe us about this?”

I had to admit that she was right. “You have a point,” I conceded. “I just don’t like the idea that a crime might have been committed, that maybe we’re involved.”

“You’re too much of a goody-two-shoes,” she said with a smile, leaving the keys in the ignition and climbing out of the car. She leaned back in. “We didn’t do anything wrong, Jess. We were just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Got it?”

I nodded. “Got it.”

She shut the door and headed inside to pay for the gas. As she left, I thought back to the video Lacy had shown me in the bedroom. Maybe it was just one of the biker’s girlfriends or something? What did they call them on that TV show? Their old ladies? But  there was something about the woman in the video, something I recognized. I just knew it. Her designer jeans maybe? Her boots?

Staring out the window, I watched as Sheila stopped at the service station door and pat her butt like she was searching for something. She turned on her heel and started heading back. She came up to my side and opened the door. “Forgot my wallet. Grab it out of the console for me?”

“Yeah,” I said, shifting in my seat so I could dig around in the center console for her. I quickly found her wallet and pulled it out. What was sitting below it, though, made me catch my breath.

A burner phone. One of those cheap, crappy ones you could buy at Wal-Mart for twenty-five bucks. The prepaid kind. The kind drug dealers used. The kind my stalker had been calling me from.

“It’s in there, right?” Sheila asked from behind me, shaking me from my stupor.

“Oh,” I said, turning around and handing her the wallet I tightly clutched, “yeah. It’s right here. Sorry.”

“Thanks, doll,” she said, grinning. Then, just like that, she was headed back into the service station.

I watched her go, my heart in my throat, my brain a fog of a million thoughts flying at once.

Sheila had pushed me to sell to Wyatt Axelrod as soon as she heard about the offer.

She was the one who told me the business was failing, but I’d just taken her at her word.

She told me she went to the Skull and Bones bikers, but what if what she’d been the reason they came after Richard? What if they had known about following Lacy because of Sheila, after I’d dropped Eli and Wallach off with her? And now, right now, why had she been so adamant about me staying the night? Just because of shock from the events? Or because she’d run out of other options on trying to get to me? I couldn’t forget, either, that she thought getting Frost Security involved was a bad idea at first. She’d only given me their recommendation after I’d pushed for it. And now she didn’t even want to go Sheriff Peak!

But, my brain screamed, why? Why did she want me gone so badly? Did she hate me? Did I steal a boyfriend from her or something? I didn’t know. But if she was the one behind this, behind that poor tortoise that had shown up at the gallery, then there was no telling what kind of batshit crazy world she was living in.

I pulled my phone from my pocket, the first time I’d even looked at it since I’d left the cabin, and went to turn on the screen. It wouldn’t go. I turned it on, one eye on the service station door like I was a scared child looking for the bogeyman to come out of the closet. The phone powered up and I saw that there were four text messages from Richard. Then the battery meter flashed abruptly at zero percent and powered down again with a happy little chime.

Shit! Sometimes in poor service areas, when the phone was constantly searching for a tower, it would do this. I’d completely forgotten about that fact with everything going on in the last couple days. Considering how infrequently I left my coverage area, too, I wasn’t surprised. I stared down at the black, inert screen of my phone, wondering what I should do.

Here I was, in the middle of nowhere. My phone was dead. I was maybe sitting in my stalker’s car. And my stalker had my dogs.

I had her spare, after all, but the question was: how do I get to her house before she did?

Behind me, headlights lit up from the direction of Enchanted Rock. I watched as the car began to slow and it pulled into the little trading post parking lot. Maybe, just maybe, I’d know the person, or it would be one of the town cops or state troopers. Whoever it was, I hoped they could help me get in touch with Richard or get me back to town. Something, anything, would be better than this.

The car, a small BMW, pulled up at the gas pump beside me, and a beautiful blonde with striking blue eyes climbed out.

Oh, thank God, it was Karen!

“Karen!” I nearly shouted as I jumped from the car. “What are you doing out here?”

She jumped in surprise. “Jessica? That you? Jesus, girl, you look like a mess! I couldn’t sleep, so I was just driving around. What about you?”

“Long night,” I said. “Listen, can I get a ride by Sheila’s place real quick? Like now? She and I just had a, uh, fight, and I have to get my dogs from her, then head back to my house.”

She smiled warmly. “Absolutely, girl. I’ve got plenty of gas. I was really just coming in to get a soda. Hop in, I’ll take you right there.”

I practically ran around to the passenger seat and hopped in. Karen slid back into the driver’s seat and started the car back up. The BMW rumbled to life with the smooth purr of a jungle cat, and we took off for Sheila’s house.

First, I’d get Eli and Wallach back from that bitch.

Then, what?

I didn’t know. I’d figure out my next steps after. The most important thing, though, were my dogs, and the fact that, no matter where I went, Sheila was going to have them if I didn’t get them back.

And that meant I had to. Tonight.