Page 11 of I Hate Myself For Loving You (Wolf Mates #7)
“Pumpkin?” Max said to JC, smiling at her. “Avery has something she’d like to say.”
She leaned back in her chair and looked toward Avery with an expectant expression.
Shoving her hands into the pocket of her worn jeans, Avery looked back at them both. “I know he’s not an Adams because he’s no werewolf.”
“Well, we didn’t know for sure,” JC reminded her.
“It’s why we haven’t beaten him up for ruining the land out there.
If someone were to know about us, we’d be in far worse trouble than we are now.
It’s rather irritating to know Max could annihilate him and he hasn’t for fear of being found out.
Talk about your hands being tied behind your back, huh?
So do tell. How’d you find out he’s not a werewolf? ”
He wasn’t going to go into the deceptive game of “here, doggy-doggy” she’d played last night, but she was going to tell them what she’d learned.
Swallowing hard, she replied, “He’s a vampire .”
“Wow. Like drinks blood and sleeps in a coffin, vampire? How do you suppose he put a coffin in that little trailer out there?” JC wondered out loud, completely unfazed by what Avery had just revealed.
“Did you hear me, JC? Lassiter Adams is a vampire,” Avery repeated, hopefully this time with effect.
Taking a long sigh, JC nodded. “I know this is the part where I’m supposed to freak out, but do remember where I found my lifemate.
In the pound. And also remember, Max is essentially a big dog, which should explain how he fooled me.
He’s just like you, Avery. Nothing could faze me after that.
I have no doubt that there are plenty of you critters around, and I have no doubt there are critters I know nothing about.
I’m not egotistical enough to believe I’m the only life form that roams the planet.
I’m good with it. It’s really sorta X-Files , if you ask me. ”
“The point is, if he’s a vampire, he can’t be an Adams,” Avery stated.
JC cocked her head up at Avery and giggled.
“Er, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The Adams are a busy bunch.
Look at Max and I. I’m human. Martine is a cat.
Hector is a vegetarian. Xavier is a lion.
Why would it surprise you that a vampire might be related to them?
Nothing surprises me when it comes to this bunch of cuckoo for cocoa puffs. ”
Avery’s brow furrowed. “You can’t possibly believe that what he says is true.”
JC stood, pushing back from the table and placing a hand in the crook of her back.
“After what I’ve seen, honey, I’d believe anything.
” Coming to stand near Avery, she picked up a lock of her shoulder length hair and examined it in the sunlight.
“You know, Avery. I’ve been thinking about your hair.
It’s so beautiful. Never been dyed, silky and the color is gorgeous.
Why don’t you let me trim it? You could use a trim. ”
She’d just told them that Lassiter was a vampire and JC was offering product tips and makeovers. “Are you people insane? Lassiter is a vampire. A vampire!”
Max barked a laugh. “Yeah, and so?”
JC laughed too. “It doesn’t change anything. He still bought the land and paid those trumped up back taxes. He owns it. Even if he’s an alien with two heads. He has the right to dig it up.”
“And he digs you, Avery,” Max teased.
Deflated, Avery knew she was going to have to confess to them about her past relationship, too. It would save the questions later if they found out. She’d rather they heard it from her than someone else, or maybe even Lassiter. “I also have a confession to make.”
JC rolled her eyes. “Lord, Avery! What else is there?” Throwing her hands up, she said, “Forget I asked that. Never mind. I can only imagine. Go ahead, tell us.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Avery sighed. “Lassiter and I were once friends. We kind of spent some of our last years in high school together.”
Rocking back on his chair, Max gave her a knowing smile. “I knew I felt something between you two. I knew it. Question is, why didn’t you tell us before?”
Pushing her hair behind her ear, she looked Max directly in the eye. “I didn’t think it was relevant, and he’s not the man I once knew.”
“So what do you know about Lassiter? If you spent some time in high school with him, you must know who he comes from. Where he comes from. What his parents are like?” Max asked.
“Lassiter is adopted. Well, not adopted, he was a foster child for almost all of his life. We saw each other in California again one year ago. I hadn’t seen him in almost ten years by then.
He was so different from the man I knew when I was a kid.
But knowing him didn’t change the fact that we had different beliefs, and it didn’t change the fact that I was going to keep protesting his stupid condos. ”
“So you have unresolved feelings for him. Don’t bother to deny it, it’s written all over your face.
” JC waved her hand, dismissing the thought.
“Forget that for now. Even if he isn’t really an Adams, he had the money to pay off those trumped up back taxes.
That still brings us right back to where we were now.
No condos. He hasn’t built a single thing.
He’s torn up a tree or five and made himself a nice little trailer park, but no condos.
So what do you think he’s up to?” JC asked, wrapping her arms around Max’s shoulders.
“I did something pretty sneaky last night,” Avery said, almost more to herself than to Max and JC.
Max snorted. “I’ll bet. I’d even bet whatever you did, it was how you found out Lassiter was a vampire,” he mused.
“I showed up at his door in my werewolf form and he let me in. He thought I was a stray. He fed me…” she revealed, her face turning red from humiliation.
JC began to laugh so hard tears streamed down her face. “Oh, do I know that story. Max did the same thing. I took Max to PetSmart and to the vet to be neutered.”
Avery couldn’t help but laugh, too. It was all too unbelievable.
“So what happened? Did he turn into a bat?” Max queried.
“No, nothing like that, but he’s got a whole lotta blood in his refrigerator and he sorta confessed to Prince—er, me , that he was a vampire.”
“Any clue as to why he never told you, Avery?” JC asked, smiling in sympathy at her.
Shrugging her shoulders, she shook her head. “I’d guess for the same reasons I didn’t tell him my secret. Who just walks up to their high school crush and says ‘I’m a werewolf’?”
“Hell if I don’t know that,” Max commented wryly, sending JC a warm smile.
Tucking her hair behind her ears, Avery said, “He also mentioned a letter. A letter he was telling his parakeet Bud about.”
“You know,” JC said, looking directly at Avery, “how bad can this guy be if he takes in stray dogs and has a parakeet? Nothing about the man we see digging up holes and always angry fits here.”
Martine poked her long, elegant neck around the corner, silky strands of hair framing her face. “Speaking of that bird of his, I can’t figure it. I want to wrap him in a crescent roll and eat him, but something keeps stopping me…”
“Hector would shit a bunny if he knew you wanted to eat another animal, Martine Adams. I’d control those impulses, if I were you,” JC joked.
Martine grinned and stuck her tongue out. “I’m just saying he looks tasty. Under normal circumstances and if caviar weren’t shipped to me by Escobar on a regular basis, I might be forced to give in to temptation and it could get ugly.”
Just then Max’s cell rang, bringing both JC and Avery back to the situation at hand. Max jumped up to grab it and a smile spread over his face, making him look worry free for the moment. “That’s great news, guys. I’ll pass it on and the troops will be there soon. Okay, see you soon, Xavier.”
He winked at JC. “Guess who just had a little girl?”
“Oh! Julia had the baby. A girl? How fabulous!” JC squealed. “But wait. Is it a cat or a dog? And hang on just a second. I was pregnant before Julia! Why did she have a baby in just a few months and my pregnancy goes on and on like War and Peace ? It’s not fair, damn it!”
Max laughed, shuffling her out of the room while JC moaned in between gabbing excitedly. Avery guessed they were going to prepare for a trip to Manhasset to visit Julia and Xavier and the new baby.
A little girl.
Avery’s heart clutched with just a smidge of envy, but she pushed it aside in favor of the sleuthing that had to be done.
She had a vampire to catch.