The hair on Mal’s arms went up. “You’ve seen him?”
Olivia shot him a perplexed look. “We ran into him when I was touring Northwestern. Had dinner with him.” She grew quiet, thoughtful.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Chase was scared of him.” She moved closer to Mal. “Too scared to turn down his dinner invitation. He wanted me to pretend I was sick to get out of it. Then he changed his mind and wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom by myself, or even leave his side. It was a long night.”
Mal hated Chase a little less. The guy was still in serious trouble when they met, but he’d tried to keep her safe from Cyrus. Initially. “Was it a long time ago?”
“Six months,” she said. “We’d stopped by a bar to have some drinks and listen to some local music before dinner. Anyway, he was there.”
“At the bar?”
She nodded. “Chase totally freaked out, spilled his beer. They made small talk, and Cyrus offered to take us to dinner.” She stopped. “Chase monopolized the conversation, I remember that. Stepping on my toes when I was going to talk. Cyrus gave me his card and told me if I ever needed work or help with school to call him.”
Mal’s gut churned. She’d been in the same room with the man that had skinned him, beaten him, and ripped his throat out. She’d been having dinner with a monster, defenseless. “What did you do?”
“Chase told me Northwestern wasn’t the place for me, and we left that night instead of the next day. I sort of wrote the thing off and assumed Mr. White was just some weird eccentric guy.” She shrugged.
“They never brought up business?”
She stared off at the horizon. “The only thing I remember was something about Russian dolls.” She stopped, smiling. “That’s it! I remember now, that’s why I thought he was super creepy. He’s a doll dealer or something, buys and sells dolls from all over the world. The better condition, the more money. He spent thirty minutes talking about a sealed, early-edition fashion doll and how in demand they were. It was just weird.”
“Dolls?” Mal repeated, thoroughly confused. “Cyrus had you kidnapped because your brother screwed up a do
ll order?” The collecting part, Mal believed. But whatever Cyrus was buying and selling from her brother, it wasn’t dolls.
...
They’d been huddled across the highway for an hour, her stomach growling so loudly she worried they’d attract bears. But then she remembered what Mal had done to the last bear and decided they were okay.
“How do you know if there’s danger?” she whispered.
“You tune in,” he said, clearly searching for the right words. “You’ll feel it. It’s like a ripple in the air. A wave. When a wolf is near, you’ll know.”
“Even from here?” she asked.
He nodded.
“The scent says whether it’s your pack or not?” she asked.
He nodded.
“But we’re waiting?” She’d learned that if she just kept asking questions, she’d find out what she needed to know. “Even though you don’t smell anything and there’s no ripple in the air.”
He nodded.
“Because…?” She waited.
“You,” he said. “They don’t know you made it. That you’re a wolf.”
She sat back against the rock. At this point, she didn’t want to acknowledge that last part. He could be the wolf. The bad guys could be wolves. But she wasn’t. She was starving, and she could have eaten an hour ago. There was more to it. Something else was preventing him from going to that diner. But what? Whatever it was, maybe he needed to do it alone. “I’ll wait here. That’s easy.” She smiled.
He frowned.
“What?”
He shook his head.