Page 5 of Cold Foot Revenge (Wreck’s Mountains #7)

“You can’t stand silence, can you?”

“Are you…are you wanting me to be silent now?”

“Yep.”

He pursed his lips. Fine. He didn’t need to talk to this rude woman anyway.

This rude woman who was a day-ruiner by day, and dancer by night.

Eatin’ her turkey sandwiches, and…and…two percent milk.

And hamburger with the red sale stickers on it, and boxes of Hamburger Helper.

“The stroganoff Hamburger Helper is the best,” he told her.

“You lasted about fifteen seconds,” she said as she unloaded her groceries onto the conveyor belt.

“That’s what she said,” he joked.

She didn’t look amused.

He sighed heavily and stared at the ceiling, praying for patience. “How do you know me?”

“I don’t.”

“But you know my name and you recognized me.”

“I’m pretty sure I know you,” the guy in front of her said.

“Keep talking and I’ll tell your wife where you were on Tuesday, and I’ll tell her you don’t wear your ring when you go to strip clubs.” She whispered the last part, and the guy’s eyes lit up with recognition before they dimmed as he realized what she was saying.

Ooooooh. He must’ve been at the Rabbit Hole on Tuesday. Naughty boy. That’s where the guy recognized her from. Dylan laughed, thoroughly entertained, and relieved that she was spewing her vitriol at him, and not Dylan at the moment. It was way more fun when he wasn’t the one under fire.

“Fuckin’ skank,” the guy said loud enough for the line to hear. “Probably crawling with STD’s.”

“Hey,” Dylan barked at the guy. “Not another word. Leave now before I rearrange your fuckin’ face.

” He hadn’t meant for his voice to boom like that, but the entire place definitely went silent.

He watched the guy until he was out the door, and without thinking about it, told Wolf Mask, “You’re good. ”

“I’m always good,” she snapped, but there was emotion in her voice, where there hadn’t been before.

He tried to see her face, but she kept it downcast and wouldn’t meet his eyes.

The silence grew thick, and awkward. When the cashier told her the price, Wolf Mask jerked her attention up to the computer screen. “It said the lunch meat was on sale, two for six dollars.”

The cashier looked down at a list of coupons and shook her head. “Sorry, they must’ve left the sign up. That sale ended yesterday.”

A flash of bright, bright blue glowing eyes froze him in place. She had mortification in her eyes. Oh shit.

“Can you take one off?” she asked low.

“Of course,” the cashier said, seeming to want this transaction done as fast as possible too.

She scanned one of the packages of lunch meat again and the number came off the total.

“I can help,” he said in a rush.

“Don’t,” she gritted out, and there was something in the rawness of her eyes that made him swallow down his insistence. She didn’t want his help.

“Give it to him,” she said to the cashier as she handed her all of the cash from her purse. “Gym Rat could use more protein in his diet.”

Gym Rat? Well, that was a cool nickname. Half-flattered, Dylan looked down at his physique but figured out real quick she’d done that as a distraction because she motored away, nearly jogging with her cart in front of her.

Shhhit. “Uh, can you scan fast? I’m going to check on her.”

“I don’t think that freaking bobcat wants to be checked on,” the cashier pointed out, but she scanned his few items in a rush anyway.

He booped his debit card as fast as he could and then scooped the groceries into his cart without even bothering to bag them up, and then he bolted for the exit.

Outside, Wolf Mask was closing the passenger door of her car. She walked around the front of it and made it to her driver’s side door before he caught up to her.

“Wait!” he called.

“Don’t be creepy,” she told him.

“Whoa, that’s rude. I’m not creepy.”

“What are you still doing here?” she yelled, clearly flustered.

“What do you mean?” He was confused and backed up a step, unsure of what to say. “I’m from here.”

“You got away, you idiot. You were away. You are free!” She dragged air into her lungs like she was fighting a sob. “You’re free so what are you doing coming back here?”

“My parents are here. My history is here. My ex, my old friends, the house I grew up in. The apartment I shared with my brother is three blocks that way,” he said, pointing up the road. “My first job was at that tire shop off McAllaster. I belong here.”

She shook her head over and over, staring at the grocery store.

“Those guys last night,” he said. “Are they your Crew?”

“They’re not mine.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But I’m in their Crew.” A frown knitted her delicate eyebrows, and she slid her glowing blue eyes to him. Oh, her animal was worked up. He could see it right at the surface. Even her cheekbones looked sharper now. “How do you know about Crews?”

“I’ve been with one. Actually, Garret’s officially in one.”

“What?” she asked softly.

“Yeah. Hey, do you know my brother too? How do you know us?”

“I…” Wolf Mask dropped her gaze to the ground. “Is Garret okay?”

“Yeah. He wasn’t for a while, but he landed well. He’s got a mate and a baby and everything.”

And now she wouldn’t look up at him.

“Did Garret mean something to you?” he asked, trying to figure this all out. Maybe they dated or something.

“I’ve never met him,” she uttered softly. She lifted her gaze back to his and forced a smile across her lips. “I’m glad for him. What Crew did he register to, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Dylan thought about not telling her, because he didn’t understand her connection to him or his brother, and that old instinct to protect Garret at all cost was a big one.

But…she’d saved him from something he didn’t understand the other night, he thought, and so it felt right when he told her, “The Cold Foot Crew. He’s up in Wreck’s Mountains.

He’s under the protection of Damon’s Mountains now. ”

She lifted her forearm and stared at the gooseflesh that covered her skin there. “Well, that’s something I never would’ve imagined for him,” she said low. With a single nod of her head, she opened the driver’s side door. “That means you have even less of a reason to be here.”

“I have to find out,” Dylan said. “I have to know.”

“Have to find out what happened to him?” she asked, one leg in her car and one on solid ground.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll tell you what happened. He escaped something awful, and he ended up in the Cold Foot Crew as a part of Wreck’s Mountains, as a member of Damon’s Mountains, and now he can live happily ever after. That’s what happened to him.”

“What’s your name,” he asked as she moved to get into the car.

“What’s it matter to you?” she asked.

Dylan shrugged. “I know you don’t want to tell me anything.

Maybe you’ll get in trouble, or maybe you know Garret’s Maker and you’re protecting them.

I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to see you again though, and in my head, I’ve been calling you Wolf Mask.

” He gestured to her face. “You’re even prettier like this, without all the jewels and the wig.

It would be nice to know you’re name when I think about you. ”

She stood there frozen, like a picture. Cut off shorts high on her tan, toned legs, tank top hugging her curves, toenails painted bright pink and matching her neon plastic flip flops, flyaway strands of hair whipping around her face in the breeze because they’d escaped her ponytail.

Vibrant blue eyes full of emotions he had no guess at. She was pretty as a picture right now.

“I’ll give you a fruit roll-up if you tell me,” he bargained.

A smile transformed her face, and she ducked her gaze, shook her head, and looked at him once again. “Roxy.”

“Not your stripper name.”

“Asshole, that’s my real name. And my dancer name.”

“I like it for both,” he said, ripping open the box of snacks.

“You don’t actually have to give me one of those.”

He took a few out and then shoved the bag of turkey meat in there and handed her the whole box. “When’s the last time you took your hard-earned dollar bills and splurged on something delicious?” he asked.

“My dollar bills? That sounds judgmental as hell.” She swiped the box out of his hand. “It’s gross packaging meat and sweets together,” she murmured, removing the turkey to toss it into the grocery bag on her passenger’s seat.

“Woman, I’m living in a hotel right now eating Hot Pockets and donuts, I’m not making any of the right decisions here. Go easy on me.”

“I don’t do that, you know.”

“Go easy on men? Noted.”

“No, I mean what that guy in there said about me. About me crawling with STDs. I don’t ever sleep with—”

“Roxy, you don’t have to explain any of this to anyone—”

“Just let me finish. Let me tell one person this.”

Dylan pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay then, say it.”

“I don’t sleep with anyone. I have a rule that I don’t take my panties off when I’m dancing. Not ever. The last person I slept with was my ex and we had been dating for a while before I was okay with that. I dance. I only dance.”

“Is it just the money?” he asked, curious.

“Money is the biggest part of it. Thirty places in this town have my resume at the bottom of a stack of resumes. It wasn’t like I didn’t try, but this…

” She gestured to her face, and her unnatural glowing blue eyes.

“The animal side of me is still pretty new, and I don’t have great control over her. ”

Fuck. A dozen flashbacks of how out of control Garret was when he was first Turned rippled across his mind. He of all people understood how hard a shifter animal could be on a life. The person Roxy was before the animal is not the person Roxy was now.

He made a click sound behind his teeth and leaned onto the handle of the cart. “No one is allowed to judge you. Next time some asshole treats you like that guy did in there? Bite him.”

“Bite him,” she repeated softly. “A bite will Turn him, and I will never Turn anyone. Especially against their will. It doesn’t matter what they do to me. I would never. I would never.”

There was something there in her eyes. Something haunted. “Is that what happened to you?”

“Go back to Wreck’s Mountains, Dylan.”

“Roxy,” he said, his instincts buzzing. “Did someone Turn you against your will?”

She shut the door beside her and turned the car on.

“Hey, Roxy, just tell me that much. Did someone do this to you?” He had to know. He had to.

She waved out the tinted window and backed her car out of the parking spot and left him there gripping his hair in the back, his mind racing.

What the hell was happening in this town?

That happened to Garret. Dylan’s best guess was that Garret was injected with something that night.

There had been no bite wounds. And now this wolf or bobcat or whatever she was had a similar story?

Clearly, she didn’t want to talk about it, but he knew the answer.

Someone had done to her what had been done to his brother.

And she was working at the same place Garret had been Turned.

There had to be a connection, right?

As he watched her turn onto the main road from the parking lot, such hollowness swallowed him up.

Whatever she’d gone through, he felt for her. He’d seen how messed up Garret’s life had been because of his Turn, and now this woman was…was…what?

She seemed big.

She seemed like the kernel of information he needed to lead him down the rabbit hole.

She was the center puzzle piece to a picture he didn’t understand yet.

But he wanted to.

No.

Dylan ran his hand down his facial scruff as his mind raced.

He needed to understand it.