Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2), Sam Hall [leveled readers .TXT] 📗

“Enough!” Both of us jumped at the whip crack of Aidan’s voice. “Help her, please.”

Cheryl’s eyes when they returned to me blazed silver. “I could give you the names of these women, but it won’t help. Who had motive to hurt the alpha? Everyone, Paige. People here are either tugged hither and thither by the nix you guys seem intent in pumping out, or they’re the children of those your ancestors rejected. Often, that’s what I wonder about this town. How did it form? Why do we all stick together? Other packs, there’s a lot more movement. It’s you, that’s what we have in common. You’re the glue that keeps us stuck, whether we want it or not. And now you’re home.”

She shoved the photos back to me, and they fanned across the table, a libidinous wallpaper of secrets.

“I take that back, I’m not telling you who they are. It wouldn’t take much for you to ask around and find out, but I don’t out people without their permission. Seems if you wanna put the screws on, your cousin would be a good place to start. Except you can’t, can you?”

Cheryl’s smile was slow, knowing.

“Your aunt, she’s locked Selma down tight.” She raised her fingers, licking the fingertips of each one. “Doesn’t realise it makes her all the more explosive when she lets go though, does she?”

We were dismissed, I felt it, Aidan felt it, so it was no surprise when she got to her feet, collecting the cans and moving to empty them in the sink. I grabbed the pile of printouts and shoved them into my jacket pocket.

“Your problem isn’t working out who killed your dad. Yours is working out who wouldn’t want that?” She slid me a sidelong look as I walked into the kitchen. “So much to be gained by luring you back. Look at my brother, hanging on tenterhooks for the slightest bit of attention. This town, it’s set up to keep the same cycle of dysfunction going on and on and on. Work out who has the most to gain from that, and you’ll have your answer.”

“Paige…” Aidan called out as I marched along the driveway. “Paige!”

I looked down to where his hand had wrapped around my forearm, enough to make him realise what he was doing. He yanked it back, brushing his palm on his jeans, as if that was what it took to dislodge the feel of me.

“I’m sorry. I thought that was gonna be more useful—”

“Is she right?”

“What? Which part?”

“Does everyone in this town have motive to kill Dad? Did everyone…” Tears pricked at my eyes, but I blinked them furiously away. “Did everyone hate him?”

He let out a long sigh, fingers closing, then going limp again.

“You get my dad on the piss? You’d hear some stuff you wouldn’t want to hear. He never got over your mother, especially when she went so young. He blamed your dad for that, was sure that if he had been her mate, she wouldn’t have…”

“Killed herself. That’s what you mean to say, don’t you? Everyone talks about her dying, but that’s what happened, didn’t it?”

“I was just a kid then too, but yeah, that’s the assumption. But, Paige, the alpha, he was a good man. I love my dad, and he’s pushed me hard to step up, to try and find a way into leadership of this town without being caught up in the enforcer pathway, but doing that has shown me something. Your dad kept the town calm, orderly, prosperous. He intervened when he needed to, not just because he could. My dad, he’s a great businessman, has a cutthroat instinct that’s meant he’s become bloody successful, but…” He shook his head slowly. “The more I studied the power structures in this town, the more I wondered if your mum hadn’t made the right decision. Adam kept a lid on all that’s…simmering in Lupindorf, and someone wanted to turn the heat up. That’s who got rid of him.”

I paced back and forth, as if that was going to help me process this information, and Aidan just stood there and watched. I listened to the sound of my feet crunching on the gravel path, the night birds calling, my breath rasping, until finally, Aidan said, “Why don’t we go and get a proper drink?”

“What?”

I froze where I was, looking up at him sideways.

“Let’s go to Stevie’s and smash a few tequilas. It won’t help what you’re going through, but it might help for right now.”

I blinked, suddenly able to feel the bar around me, the close, noisy atmosphere, the slide of tequila shots across the bar. He was right—it wasn’t going to help. I needed… So much rushed to the surface to complete that sentence. The idea was completely seductive, because all my current solutions were lengthy protracted things, and right now, I wanted, needed, simple. I nodded slowly, testing out the idea, and the part of me that was still a teenager, running to Stevie’s bar to hide out from my problems, came to the forefront.

“I’m taking my own car,” I said.

“Of course.”

“This isn’t a date.”

He snorted, then smiled, that golden smile that lulled all your concerns.

“I don’t want a date, Paige. I just want to be able to hang out a bit.”

“I’m texting Mason where I’m going. He might come down. All the guys might come down.”

His smile faltered for a second, but he resituated it determinedly.

“If you decide… If I’m… I’ll need to meet them too.”

“Because you knot for me.” My teeth clamped tight as my eyes dropped down, frustration, the feeling of being a rat in a trap rising and rising. “Fine,” I ground out. “I’ll meet you there.”

Chapter 12

“You knew I was coming?”

When I plonked my butt down on a stool, shots of tequila were racked up and ready to go, Stevie waiting behind the bar.

“Well, there’s been talk…” she said with a mysterious smile. “So it’s true then?” She