Honesty Read Free Page A

for a woman you barely know. You still haven’t even asked me what I did, why I was on the run.”
    His eyes narrowed. “Because I don’t believe for a second that you did anything wrong.”
    “I could have driven away,” she said, swallowing hard. “I shot him in the leg and he was crying and begging me not to kill him and I could have left him there and I could have driven away. But I didn’t. I shot him, four times in the chest and once in the head.”
    She expected Alder to look at her like a stranger, or worse, but instead his stoic mask fell back into place. Putting a hand on her head, he smoothed her hair out.
    “When you’re ready, we’ll talk about it.”
    He walked away and she stared after him until he disappeared into the fog.

CHAPTER THREE
     
    Thunder rumbled in the distance as Taylor heaved another bag of trash onto the growing pile on the porch. They’d moved the last of the crates onto the porch about an hour ago and since then had been gathering up the loose trash in large burlap sacks.
    Some of the garbage was downright foul and she could hardly believe she’d slept in the cabin with so much mold and decay. On the plus side, the cabin was miraculously free of bugs, which may or may not have been because Lark enjoyed eating them. Taylor wasn’t sure, but the raccoon shifter had said some pretty suspect things about the taste of roaches.
    “What should we do with it?” Glenn asked, leaning back against the wooden railing.
    “Store it in your room?” Lark asked hopefully.
    Glenn scoffed. “Not a chance. Beka would kill me.”
    It was hard to imagine Glenn and Beka were brother and sister. Aside from their both being way too skinny, they looked nothing alike. While Beka was a leggy blonde, Glenn was only a nose taller than Taylor. He had shaggy brown hair and one of those teenager beards that hadn’t quite grown in everywhere it should have yet.
    Lark said, “I suppose we could throw it all in the river.”
    Taylor’s eyes bulged. “Throw it in the river? You can’t throw garbage in the river!”
    Lark gave her a questioning look. “How come?”
    “Well, for one,” Taylor said, holding up a finger, “it’s bad for the environment, and for two”—she held up another finger—“littering is a crime.”
    Glenn laughed at her. “What do you care if it’s a crime? Aren’t you some sort of murderer?”
    Taylor scratched the back of her head. He did have a point there…
    “Wait a minute,” Taylor said, pinning him with a hard stare. “Did Alder tell you that?”
    “No, I did,” Lark said, giving Taylor a sheepish grin.
    “Alder told you?”
    “No, you kind of did,” Lark said. “You were very loud this morning.”
    Taylor felt her cheeks heat. She’d spent the past few hours trying to put her afternoon interlude with Alder out of her mind . The fog had cleared a while back, but he hadn’t returned.
    She wasn’t sure if she’d been trying to give him the reality check he needed or if she’d just been trying to push him away. Either way, the fact remained that Alder had no business leaving his home and his pack behind for her.
    “You should know,” said Glenn, “Lark has impeccable hearing but the complete inability to shut her mouth about anything.”
    Lark nodded. Sadly, she said, “It’s true. I’m awful at keeping secrets.”
    “Duly noted,” said Taylor. Then, something else occurred to her. “Doesn’t it bother you guys? You know, what I did?”
    They both shrugged.
    “This isn’t l ike the human world,” he said. “We’ve all killed here.”
    Surprised, Taylor looked to Lark for confirmation.
    “I told you yesterday,” Lark said. “It wasn’t always peaceful here.”
    Glenn pushed off the railing and then hefted two of the heavier crates into his arms. “Come on. I think I know somewhere we can put these.”
    Snatching up one of the lighter sacks, Lark gave Taylor a cheeky grin and followed him off the porch and down the stone walkway. Taylor