Page 129

Ha-fucking-ha.For sure, Rowan will be sadder about being ousted from the driver’s seat than he will be about the Rhodeses. But Jay is sure to need a smoother ride than Rowan Foster’sGrand Theft Autostyle behind the wheel.

Climbing in behind Leo, Luca makes sure Jay’s seatbelt is on before urging him to rest his head in Luca’s lap as they head toward their temporary home. Rowan makes not one iota of fuss about being demoted to navigator, just makes himself at home in his newly assigned spot, phone gripped tightly in his hand.

Luca is so proud of him; it’s like having the tracker app open eases his wolf, and that lets Rowan control the wolf’s output.Huh. Not bad advice, after all, Luca Wilde.

Belatedly, it occurs to Luca that he can’t smell his alpha, and even if it means he’s going to bed later smelling like a forest fire, Luca needs it in order to read Jay better, so he finds the edge of the scent blocker, intending to peel it away.

“No, Baby. Just…”

Jay just presses Luca’s hand to his neck instead.

Rowan finally turns to look at Jay over the edge of the seat. “Jay, you don’t have to hide your feelings from us.”

“Rowan is right. Please. Don’t hide from us.”

Jay peels it off himself, and the flood of smoky pine fills the small SUV. Despite his assurances that Jay didn’t need to hide, it’s still a veritable flood of grief and sadness. Rowan opens the window a bit but still manages to keep hold of his anxious wolf and be sensitive to Jay’s struggles.

“Sorry. Sorry for all of this,” Jay mutters, lips grazing Luca’s thigh, his alpha’s nose pressing into the skin, as if grounding himself in the scent.

“You don’t have to be sorry. It’s shitty. No matter that they were…”

Rowan hesitates to call a spade a spade.

What a fucking hard line to walk.

“You’re right, Rowan. They were shitty, and they were still my parents.”

“Still makes it hard, though, right?”

Harder, maybe, if Luca thinks about it—and Jay clearly is.

“Right,” Jay sighs.

“What happened?” Luca asks, taking Jay’s hand as his alpha sits up to stare out the window.

“We talked to my mom,” Jay starts, but then stops and shakes his head.

“You don’t have to do this. Just let me tell it, okay?”

Leo catches Luca’s eye in the mirror.

“We met Miranda, and she was…better.”

Better?Whatever that means. There’s something Leo doesn’t want to say in front of Jay—or maybe at all—so Luca lets the obvious omission slide.

“She told us that James Senior was in over his head with Carnell, basically, and she apologized.”

Luca tries to keep his skeptical expression off his normally very “loud” face, but he must fail because Jay says, “She said she was sorry, Luc—and I believed her.”

Miranda Rhodes was just about as bad as it could get when it came to being a mother, or even a decent person.

“She was trying so hard, and she was scared. Scared of my dad. I have never seen her act like that before. Fuck! I should have made her come with us.”

“Jaybird, you heard her. She said she had to stay. That she would call us when she was ready to get out.”

“I should have made her!” Jay slams his fist into the small window. It cracks so loudly that Rowan growls, and Leo swerves briefly into the oncoming lane.

“Made her?” Luca asks quietly.