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I ran into my room and closed the door before taking a deep breath and pressing the answer button.

“Hi,” I said.

“That took a while,” an unpleasantly familiar voice sneered. “You weren’t considering letting me go to voicemail, were you?”

“No, of course not,” I said quickly.

“Good. Just because you don’t live with me anymore doesn’t give you the right to disrespect me.”

You’re making that very clear, Dad, I thought. That was what this whole phone call was about. A power game. He was just trying to show he could still throw his weight around. Could still keep a hold over me despite how far away he was.

“Why are you calling?” I asked, trying to keep my voice level.

“I’m not allowed to check in on my daughter?” he asked. I didn’t miss the mocking tone in his voice.

Any other father, maybe. You? Not without an ulterior motive, I thought. My fingers tightened around the phone. Out of anger or fear, I wasn’t entirely sure. Just hearing his voice was enough to make my heart thunder and my mind race with terror.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Claire is, too.”

“That’s good. And have you forgotten our deal?”

“No, sir,” I said, fully aware that this was the entire reason he was calling. It wasn’t to check on me. I might have been angry had I not been so unsurprised. If anything, I just felt tired and resigned.

“So you haven’t told him or anyone else anything?” he pressed.

“No, sir,” I said. “Not a word.”

“Good. Keep it that way.”

I bit my lip, running my fingers through my hair as I paced back and forth. I didn’t have anything else to say to him, but I knew if I hung up before he was finished, I’d be in a heap of trouble, even if I didn’t live with him anymore. He would still find a way to make things miserable.

“And just remember,” he continued, “any word of any of it to that boy or any of the other Gold Wolves, or anyone else in that nothing town, and both you and Claire will regret it.”

I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. I could understand him threatening me; I was used to it. But I couldn’t understand a man who would threaten his own granddaughter. It just seemed despicable.

I wanted to tell him as much. The words pressed against my lips, yearning to spill out. But they lodged in my throat, just like they always did.

Instead of saying any of the myriad of things I wanted to say, the only two words that came out of my mouth when I opened it again were, “Yes, sir.”

“That’s what I want to hear,” Dad said. “Now, be a good girl and remember to give that Gold Wolf whatever he wants to keep him happy. And I mean anything.”

Before I could respond, he hung up. My fingers tightened around the phone as anger threatened to overwhelm me. After a moment, I let out a frustrated, inarticulate cry and threw the phone across the room. It thumped into a pillow before landing on the comforter, entirely unharmed.

I closed my eyes as I leaned against the wall, trying to sort out my emotions. The whole point of that damn call hadn’t been to check on me or to see how I was doing or even Claire. It had been to remind me that he could still reach me, that I was still under the Blood Moon pack’s thumb no matter how far I ran. If I did anything to disobey them, they would find a way to make me pay for it. Or worse, Claire. Which meant I had to comply.

I had hoped that maybe being this far away, I might finally be out of Reacher’s grasp. That maybe I could finally live my life. But it was clear that I was still his pawn, only here as a bargaining chip and to keep an eye on things so that the Gold Wolves didn’t interfere with his plans. The thought that I was still trapped, still in a prison of sorts, made it hard to breathe. I closed my eyes, willing for the sensation to go away.

A knock on the door made me jump. Taking a deep breath, I cracked it open to find Jackson on the other side. I swung it all the way open.

“Everything all right?” Jackson asked.

“Yeah,” I said, trying to force a smile on my face.

Based on the skeptical look he gave me, it must not have come off as particularly convincing. “Who was that?” he asked.

“Oh, just my dad.” I tried to adopt an airy tone, as if it wasn’t that big of a deal. “He just wanted to check in on me and make sure I got settled in okay.”

I knew before he said anything that he didn’t believe a word. I hesitated, trying to come up with some way of deflecting or stopping him before he got too suspicious.

“I’m fine,” I insisted. “Really.”

He took a step closer to me. I sucked in a breath, fully aware of how close he was, the way heat radiated off him, and how all it would take was a half-step for me to fall into his arms.

I blocked out the image. I wasn’t going to let myself go down that path ever again. Just considering it was too much. I wasn’t going to let him hurt me again. I couldn’t.

“You know if there’s something wrong, if something happened between you and your dad, you can tell me,” he said. “I’m always here for you, whatever you need.”

Looking into his eyes, I could see the sincerity there. I desperately wanted to believe him, to confide in him. I wanted to tell him everything that had happened since I left all those years ago, including about Claire. I was tired of lying, and I didn’t want to burden myself anymore.

But I couldn’t tell him. I didn’t trust him. And even if I did, telling him would only put myself and Claire in even more danger.

“Everything is fine,” I lied.

He studied me for a long moment. Feeling like an ant under a microscope, I waited for him to decide whether or not he believed me or whether he would push. Part of me wished he would, because it wouldn’t take much pushing on his part to make me cave. Then I would finally be able to stop lying and could have at least one weight off my chest.

“Okay,” he finally said. “But you know you can tell me anything if something does happen, right?”

I wanted to laugh in his face. Tell Jackson anything? The man who had abandoned me and left me to fend for myself? The man who had betrayed my trust? It would take a miracle for me to ever tell him anything.

But saying any of that would be entirely useless. I forced a smile and gave a short nod.

He took a step forward, his hand twitching toward me as if he wanted to touch me. But he stopped himself, letting his hand fall back.

“Let me know if you need anything, okay?” he said.

I nodded. He turned and left, leaving me alone.

***

I paced around the house, feeling restless. So far, I hadn’t really gotten out of the house to explore Falcon’s Reach beyond going to the grocery store. I had nowhere else to go, and I was beginning to feel cooped up. At the same time, I don’t really want to go out and explore. It felt too much like accepting the situation.

Despite my reluctance, I couldn’t help but admit, if only to myself, that I liked the house. There was a coziness to it in spite of its size. I liked the high ceilings and open spaces. I liked being able to enter a room where I could go and be on my own without having to worry about someone coming to bother me. It felt safe.

As these thoughts ran through my head, the doorbell rang. Dragging myself from my musings, I headed over, assuming it was Claire and she had forgotten her key to the house.

I opened the door and froze. It wasn’t Claire.

My mouth dropped open as I stared at the pretty, curvy woman with blond hair as she beamed at me, her eyes the same shape as Jackson’s. I recognized her immediately, but shock, disbelief, and excitement rendered me mute as my brain tried to catch up with my eyes and assure me that, yes, I was seeing who I thought I was seeing.

Finally, I managed to get out a single word. “Mira?”

“Audrey!” Mira flung her arms around my neck and pulled me toward her. She held me tight, practically cutting off my air as she hugged me. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it. Jackson told me, but I thought he was bullshitting me or something. But now…” She squealed in my ear, shattering my eardrum. But I grinned, ignoring the dull ringing in my ear as I returned her hug.

“Oh my God, this is incredible!” Mira gushed. “I’m so happy to see you again!”

We hugged for what could have been an hour. Eventually, we pulled away from one another, both still giving broad grins.

Jackson had told me Mira lived in town and that she was Declan’s mate now. That didn’t change how bizarre it was to run into her again after all these years. When I last saw Mira over eleven years ago, she had been timid and insecure, pining over Declan. I couldn’t remember all the times she had whispered to me about her secret crush on him. She hadn’t been bubbly or effusive; she’d been too shy for that.

Now, however, it seemed she had come out of her shell. She practically glowed with a confidence I had never seen in her before.

“Come in, come in,” I urged her. “This is so great.”

“I know, right? We have eleven years of catching up to do!” As she entered, her eyes landed on a pair of Claire’s shoes by the door, kicked off absent-mindedly, one still on its side. “And you really have a kid?” Mira asked, her eyes turning wide as saucers as she turned to look at me again. “Again, I thought Jackson was bullshitting. I thought the whole thing was a giant practical joke.”

“No joke.” I pulled out my phone and held up a picture. “This is Claire.”

Mira practically snatched the phone from my hand as she looked at the photo. Her eyes went wide as saucers. For a wild, panicked moment, I wondered if she would notice the similarities between her brother and my daughter.

“She’s so cute!” Mira exclaimed, handing over the phone again. She broke into a wide grin. “Almost as cute as mine.”

My mouth dropped open. “A kid? You have a kid?”

“ Kids , technically,” she said. When I looked even more dumbfounded, Mira laughed. “One is technically my stepdaughter, the other is a baby. I can’t wait for you to meet them. Oh!” She clapped her hands together in excitement as her eyes lit up. “You should bring Claire over. I’m sure she and Dani would get along. Dani can be a handful, but she loves kids her age. I mean, I’m assuming Claire is around her age.” She shot me a questioning look. “How old is she?”

“Ten,” I said, trying to keep a straight face as I prayed that Mira wouldn’t do the math and make the connection.

“Hmm,” Mia mused. “Well, Dani’s a little younger than that, but I think it’ll be okay. But enough about the kids! I want to hear about everything you’ve done in the past ten years.”

“It’s pretty boring,” I said, laughing as we walked to the couch. “You go first.”

The next couple of hours flew by. For the first time since this entire fiasco began, I found myself smiling and laughing. It only took a few minutes of being around Mira for me to remember why she had so quickly become my best friend back in the day.

“Why did you leave without telling me?” she asked.

I stiffened, though I knew the question was coming. “It’s complicated,” I said, struggling to come up with a lie as I realized Jackson hadn’t told her what had happened. “I had to leave because of an emergency. And when I found out I was pregnant, I went home.”

“You could have just come back to our pack,” Mira said. “I would have helped.”

“I wasn’t thinking straight,” I lied.

I didn’t know if Mira believed me, but she nodded. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad to see you again.”

“I’m glad to see you, too. Even if the circumstances are… weird.”

Mira nodded in understanding. “Are you settling in?”

“Yeah,” I said.

I must not have sounded particularly convincing because Mira gave me a skeptical look. “I know all of this has to be a huge shock,” she said. “But this is a great town. And Jackson’s a good guy. I don’t know everything that’s going on, but I know he’s trying to help.”

My mouth went dry. I wanted to tell her the truth about everything, including from back when we were kids. But I didn’t know where to begin, and I was terrified of how she would react when she learned I had slept with her brother. And Mira was the only thing keeping me mildly sane through this bizarre situation, the only person besides my daughter who I wanted to spend any time with. I couldn’t risk her friendship. Not right now.

“It’s not all bad,” I said, nudging her. “After all, I got my best friend back.”

She grinned and gave me a side hug. “And you aren’t getting rid of me that easily this time.”

We’ll see about that , I thought through a forced smile.