Reno obediently stood up and closed the curtain. I threw my dress on the floor, and after changing into a new pair of panties and a white tank top, I hid beneath the sheet.
Rain dripped in through a leak, tapping loudly into an empty pot. Reno reappeared and tossed the towel in the bottom. “That’ll muffle it,” he said, sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed to my right. “You want to tell me what’s going on, or do you want me to find out for myself? It’s what I do for a living, April. I can. And I will. So what kind of trouble are you in?”
The kind a virtual stranger didn’t want to know about if he knew what was good for him. He was a PI; what if he turned me in for theft?
“So that’s how it is?” he said. “Your friend said he didn’t know who attacked him.”
My voice was monotone and low. “Reno, if you keep talking, I’m going to lose it. I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs and just… lose it. I’m not feeling well, and I can’t talk anymore. I can’t think anymore. Please, just leave. You don’t want to get mixed up with someone like me.”
All I could think of was Sanchez showing up in the middle of the night with a carving knife. I tried to forget all the hallucinations from the party and the fact I had been on drugs. God, what had happened to me? I used to be on the right track until my train jumped the rails and began heading toward a cliff.
“Is someone after you?” he pressed.
I rolled over with my back to him and he stood up, lingering in the doorway. “I’ll sit outside if you don’t want me in here, but I’m not leaving you alone tonight.”
He closed the curtain and went out the door. I listened to the rain hammering against the trailer for what seemed like an hour before it tapered off. Then I crawled out of bed and went into the living room. I flipped on the light and noticed my fish, Salvador, was floating at the top of his bowl. I scooped him out and held him in the palm of my hand.
“Sorry, little guy,” I said, wrapping him in a napkin and putting him in the trash.
My hair hung in my face in tousled clumps. I couldn’t even run my fingers through it. Trevor was never going to speak to me again after this.
How did he manage to walk out on his own two feet?
My eyes floated over to the sofa. His arm had to have been broken. His face had been beaten to a pulp, but when he walked out, the gash in his forehead was gone, and his arm was fine!
Something put a fright in me when I heard a tap against the door. Or a scrape. I peered out the window but didn’t see anyone. Then I heard a familiar whine. I unlocked the door and glanced down at a masked face.
“Hi, sweet boy. Where have you been?” I opened the door and knelt down before my wolf. My fingers brushed through his dry fur and I frowned. “Have you been sleeping under the trailer? Do you want me to fix you something to eat?”
I stood up and reached in the fridge, pulling out leftover sausages wrapped in foil. He trotted inside and shook hard, making himself right at home. I glanced down at his paws and knelt beside him with a towel, cleaning them off.
“You don’t smell like a dog,” I said, kissing him on the side of his snout. “Most dogs get that pungent smell when they’re wet, but… so weird. You just don’t smell like a dog.” My wolf smelled like early mornings in springtime.
He sat down and gobbled up the cold sausages. It gave me a chance to inspect his wound to see how it was healing. Although I couldn’t see anything through his mass of brown fur, he didn’t appear to be in any pain.
I crawled over to the door, locked it, and then wiped up the tracks of mud off the floor.
“Last chance to go back outside,” I offered. As if understanding me, he sprawled out on the tile and yawned. I touched his soft ears and looked into his dark, familiar eyes. “How come nobody loves you? It seems like someone should be out looking for you by now. You’re so handsome. Anyone ever tell you that?”
I tried to keep my focus on the wolf and not the area by the sofa. There were still spatters of blood all around and the crumpled note in the corner. Tomorrow I would clean up the mess and call Trevor to check on him. Once I locked the door, my nerves took over and I found myself wiping down the counters and picking up a few clothes. I placed a tattered blue blanket in a heaping pile by the door, and almost immediately, the wolf circled around on top of it and settled down.
Finally exhausted, I switched off the light and went back to bed, heavy with sleep. Tomorrow I would replace the money I’d taken from the business account. Then I’d contact Sanchez and pay him off before he came after me or hurt someone else.
Not long after, when I was half-asleep, the wolf crawled up in the bed beside me. I nestled my face against his silky fur and held him tight.
Chapter 13