Page 81 of Rule the Night

Now she stalked into the living room, mustering her rage as cover for the fact that we’d caught her cold stalking Ethan Todd.

“How dare you?” she said, dropping her bag on the dining-room table.

“We’re just looking out for you,” Poe said.

“I didn’t ask to be ‘looked out for.’” She was pissed, her cheeks flushed, chest heaving. “And I definitely didn’t ask to be tracked.”

“And we did it anyway,” I said, drying my hands on a dish towel. “You’re welcome.”

“I’m not going tothank youfor installing a tracking app on my phone without my permission.”

Remy walked to the fridge and removed one of his smoothies, made by Maeve the night before.

“What were you doing there, Maeve?” Poe asked.

“None of your business.”

I grabbed her arm as she started for the hall. “It’s our business when you’re living here.”

She looked down at my hand on her arm. “Get your hands off me.”

I dropped my hand like I’d been burned. The truth was, I’d dreamed about touching her.

I’d just never dreamed those would be the words out of her mouth when I did.

“We know about Todd,” I said. “We know that he played a part in what happened to your sister and we know that you’ve been hunting him online.”

I didn’t want to bring up the possibility that scared me most: that the rumored attempt on Todd’s life had been real, thatMaeve had been the one to take a shot at him six months earlier outside his hotel.

I didn’t want to bring it up because I’d never been scared by a woman before, but Maeve scared me in ways I couldn’t even articulate, and acknowledging that felt like the end of my life as I’d known it.

“Morebackground?” she sneered.

“In a manner of speaking.” I held her gaze because no one — not even Maeve Haver — was going to make me apologetic for keeping shit under control in my town.

In my home.

“Now you know,” she said. “So what?”

Poe walked toward her, took her hand. “We just want to make sure you’re okay.”

She pulled away. “I’m fine.”

But even I could see that she wasn’t fine. Her lower lip trembled, her mouth set in a thin line I’d never seen before, not even when she’d been pissed at us.

“Do you really want to spend your life fixated on that asshole?” Remy asked. “He’s not worth it.”

She shook her head and looked at her feet. Some of her dark hair had come loose from her ponytail, and the strands fell in front of her face like a wispy curtain. “You don’t understand.”

She looked so alone standing at the entrance to the hall. Poe was just a couple feet away from her, but from the way she was shutting us out, it may as well have been miles.

And me, I understood. I hadn’t given her the time of day, had been trying to run out the clock until her ninety days with us was up. But she’d gotten close with Poe — Remy too, probably — and everything about her body language saidstay away.

“Then help us understand,” Poe said softly.

“What would be the point?” she asked bitterly. “I lost the Hunt. I’m on my own.”

“You’re not on your own,” Remy said.