Page 16 of Marked by the Pack (Crooked Point #2)

Monday

Zoey

Otto came over every night as promised. But he was acting a lot more like a boyfriend than a bodyguard, because I was barely getting any sleep.

I yawned as I walked out of Officer Davis’ house.

Now that Emma had told me she thought I slept with my personal fitness clients, I was finally starting to notice the evil glares around town.

Officer Davis’ wife had actually sat in on my session with him today.

It was completely ridiculous. I wasn’t interested in her husband.

But I did love handcuffs. Maybe I’d bring that up to Otto tonight.

I walked down Main Street toward the cute little coffee shop.

Everything was starting to feel normal again.

Especially since I was on my way to meet Emma for coffee.

Today I was finally going to convince her to open up to me about everything.

We were going to be good. And I was good with Callum.

Really. I’d finally stopped thinking about King’s warning about vampires.

There were no other supernatural creatures lurking about Crooked Point. If there were, I’d know about it.

Although, it was a lot easier to forget about King’s warning when I hadn’t logged in to talk to him for several days.

I was probably losing subscribers. But I didn’t care.

I was really freaking happy. And honestly, people wanted what they couldn’t have.

Actually, maybe my subscriber number was rising…

I walked into the coffee shop. Emma was already sitting there, but she didn’t look up. She was staring into her coffee like it held all the secrets of the world.

“Hey,” I said.

She jumped.

I laughed as I sat down. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s fine. I was just thinking about the pros and cons of marble versus granite.”

“Mhm. We both know granite is better. It’ll look great in your kitchen.” At least she’d told me she was renovating a house to live in with Callum. She still talked to me about some things. “What’s really going on?”

“Nothing. I got your favorite.” She gestured to the coffee that was waiting for me.

“Spiked coffee? You shouldn’t have.”

Emma laughed. “I didn’t.”

“Well, I can fix that.” I pulled the flask out of my purse and topped off both our coffees.

Emma spent her nights with Callum. And I spent mine with Otto.

Which meant I hadn’t had anything to drink with her in ages.

I needed her lips loose so she’d spill everything.

All of it. I wanted to hear all the details. Even the bloody ones.

“You’re going to get arrested one day.” She blew on her coffee and then took a sip.

“As if Officer Davis would arrest me. Honestly, he’s more likely to arrest you. Remember when you went to the station and tried to get Officer Davis to arrest Callum for identity theft? And you kept asking if he was like a 70 year old man or something. ”

“In my defense, I think Callum may have actually been guilty of that.” She laughed. “There’s probably a dead Theo Gold out there wondering why the hell someone is using his name.”

I stared at her. “Wait, you don’t know whether or not his new name is just made up or he swiped it off a dead guy?”

Emma shrugged. “It hasn’t come up.”

A lot hadn’t come up between her and Callum. Or maybe a lot had come up and she just didn’t want to share it with me. “So you two just have really good sex every night and no pillow talk?”

“We talk all the time. I just don’t think obsessing over his past is very healthy. And you’re the one that told me not to ask too many questions.”

I took a sip of my coffee. That was true, I had told her that. But I’d also had a lot of wine that night, so my advice was suspect. “So you’re living in the present. That should be great. And yet…”

“And yet what?”

“You don’t look very happy, Emma.”

She laughed. “I’m very happy.”

“You sound more defensive than happy.”

“Zoey, you know I’m having a hard time with Callum not wanting to change me.”

Oh. We had talked about that. I didn’t think that was still an issue. I thought we agreed that it was romantic that her boyfriend didn’t want her to change. “Are you really still upset about that?”

“Of course still I’m upset about it. Callum says he wants a future with me. But clearly he doesn’t want that future to last forever.”

“ Forever forever? That’s a really long time. ”

Emma sighed. “Yeah, he’ll probably be sick of me after one lifetime.”

“Whoa, that’s not at all what I was saying. Who would ever be sick of you? I was actually just thinking that if you live forever forever, you’ll probably miss me.”

She finally smiled. “I would. So much.” She shook her head. “But it’s not just about me either. He told me how much it hurts to watch everyone he’s ever loved die. I can’t even…I can’t even imagine what it would feel like to lose him. I don’t want him to experience that again because of me.”

“That makes sense. But do you really want to be vampire? Do you even know what it entails?”

“I know I’d be giving up a lot. And apparently changing is incredibly painful.”

I forced myself not to look at her neck. I was pretty sure Emma liked a little bit of pain. “Well, maybe there’s another way.”

She just stared at me.

“If someone turned Callum into a vampire…maybe someone can turn him back into a human.”

“Like a witch or something?”

I laughed. “Who knows.” Maybe there were witches out there.

And if there were…I knew the salt around my bed would come in handy.

Because for the life of me, I couldn’t get it out of the crevices in my wood floors.

“But I actually know someone who might know something about it.” King.

“One of my clients seems to know quite a bit about vampires. Or at least knows people who know things. He’s a billionaire. ”

Emma just stared at me. “You told someone about Callum’s secret? A fitness client or a sex client? ”

I laughed. “Sex client? I’ve never referred to any of them that way before.

But yeah, one of them. Actually…two.” Grudge figured it out and King seemed to know too before I admitted it.

And honestly Elias probably knew too. I hadn’t spoken to him in almost a week though.

I was really starting to wonder if he was a vampire hunter or something.

If so, he might pop up any moment with a wooden stake.

“Zoey, you promised you wouldn’t tell anyone about Callum.”

“I was freaking out about your safety, Emma. And mine. I was worried Callum would lose control and kill both of us.”

She sighed. “That’s definitely not going to happen.”

That’s not what King said. But I kept my mouth shut. “Well, maybe he knows how we can change Callum back. And then you don’t have to change. Or ever live without me.”

She smiled. “I never really considered the fact that maybe he could go back to the way he was before. I wonder if he’d want that.”

“Girl, of course he wants it. He wants to be with you, not accidentally kill you in your sleep.”

Emma shook her head. “He’s not going to do that.”

“He might do that.”

“Just let me know if you find anything out, okay?”

“Of course. It would be really cool if that was possible. Then we’d have nothing to worry about anymore.”

She gave me a weird look.

“Well, some worries I’m sure.”

“Right. Like your thing. ”

My thing? God, what was up with her and the idea of foursomes? There was seriously nothing to worry about there. Besides, it had only been that once. Otto was the only one visiting me at night.

We were both quiet for a moment as we finished our coffee.

“Let me go get us some refills,” I said. I walked over to the counter and ordered. I smelled Huxley’s expensive cologne before I even turned around. Huxley and Ace were both standing there.

Huxley smiled. “Zoey.”

“Huxley.” The last time I’d seen him, I’d had his cock down my throat. And the last time I’d seen Ace, he was inches away from licking my pussy. It was a little hard not to think about, even though we were standing in the middle of a crowded coffee shop. “Ace,” I added. “How are you guys?”

“We’d be better if Otto wasn’t keeping you all to himself,” Ace said. His eyes scanned down my body.

Jesus.

“You should come over for dinner again soon. I’m starving.”

The way Ace said it made me swallow hard. He wasn’t talking about food. He was talking about the fact that he hadn’t gotten to taste me yet.

“Speaking of the other night,” Huxley said. “You forgot something at our place.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out my lacy black thong. It dangled from his index finger.

“What are you doing?” I hissed and tried to grab it from him.

But he pulled back and somehow my thong landed on the floor. I was super sex positive. But that didn’t mean I wanted half the town to see my lingerie. There was a reason I wore a bunny mask on MyFanatics. A few heads turned in our direction.

Ace leaned down and picked it up. “Slippery fingers?” He held it out to me this time.

“Put it away.” I swatted his hand and he tossed it back to Huxley.

Huxley laughed. “We’re trying to give it back to you.”

“Just put it away,” I said again and put my hand around his to block my thong from view.

“So you’re saying I can keep it?”

“Whatever. Just stop tossing it around.”

Huxley slowly put it back in his pocket. “As you wish.”

The women at a nearby table started whispering and staring at me. Yup, I definitely noticed it now. The women of Crooked Point didn’t approve of me at all.

“Are you sure you don’t want it back?” He reached into his pocket again like he was going to pull it back out.

“I swear to God, I will slap you if you pull it back out.”

“That’s what she said,” Ace said.

The brothers high fived.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “That was a terrible ‘that’s what she said’ joke. You’re supposed to do it when someone says ‘wow that’s so huge,’ or something.

Ace shrugged.

“We gotta head back to work,” Huxley said. “But it was great seeing you.” His eyes fell to my lips for just a moment. “We’ll see you later. ”

They turned and walked out of the coffee shop.

They hadn’t even ordered any coffee. They’d just come in to try to embarrass me in front of the whole town.

Which was odd, because Otto didn’t want anyone in town to know we were dating.

This was all so confusing. And what did they mean by ‘see you later?’ Because I was totally down with seeing them again.

I walked back over to Emma. “Sorry about that,” I said and sat back down.

Our fresh coffee had been left on our table. And Emma was already halfway done her new cup. Emma watched the twins as they left the coffee shop.

I really didn’t want her to bring them up again.

I couldn’t stand the way she said they weren’t human.

I cleared my throat as I poured a little alcohol from my flask into her coffee.

I tried to focus even though part of me wanted to pull Huxley and Ace into the restroom.

“So what were we talking about? Vampires? Right.”

“We really don’t need to talk about this anymore.”

“Well, I’m here you know. If you ever do want to talk more about changing into a vampire.

Or if you need to talk about anything at all.

” I was relieved that’s what was bothering her.

Selfishly, I was mostly relieved it was still an issue because I didn’t want her to be a vampire.

I didn’t want to be scared of her too. I shook the thought away.

I wasn’t scared of Callum anymore. Everything was fine.

“I can talk to you about anything at all?” Emma asked. “Anything?”

“Of course.”

She nodded. And then she downed the rest of her coffee.

Finally. Loose lips time! We were getting somewhere .

“I know Otto sneaks into the house every night. Or at least…I think it’s Otto. Maybe it’s one of the twins. Or both? Or all three?” She kept looking more concerned the longer she spoke.

“It’s Otto. And I know that Callum sneaks in most nights when you’re at my house.”

She laughed. “I know, but…you’re being careful right?”

“Yes. Do you use condoms with Callum?”

“That’s a random question.”

Why was that a random question? She’d just brought up being safe.

“Do you know when Bennett is going to be back in town?” she asked. “I really need to talk to him.”

“I didn’t realize he was out of town.”

“Yeah, he’s away on some deal or something. I don’t know. I stopped by the bank this morning and Ace was really vague about it.”

“Why do you want to talk to Bennett? Doesn’t Callum hate when you talk to the big bad boys at the bank?”

She laughed. “Yes. So if you see Bennett can you please tell him I need to speak with him? It’s a matter of life and death, Zoey .”

Emma was being so dramatic right now. But for some reason the way she said it made me shiver. Probably because she’d emphasized my name. Like she thought I was the one in danger.