The Shifter Romances The Writer (Nocturne Falls Book 6) (22 page)

Roxy woke from the craziest dream she’d ever had—and that was saying something for her.
Active imagination
did not begin to describe her brain when it came to dreams. And if the schizophrenia was actually kicking in, there was no telling what her mind might come up with. She stretched and pushed up to her elbows. She didn’t feel that rested. What time was it? She glanced over at the clock.

A little after ten at night. She sat up some more and realized that although she was on her bed, she wasn’t under the covers and she was still fully dressed.

She sucked in a shuddering breath, and her gut went cold as she remembered her dream had not been a dream at all.

Alex and Delaney had told her they were supernatural creatures. A were-panther and a vampire. Had that been real? Or had her hallucinations taken a sharp turn for the worst?

She had no idea, but the sick feeling in her stomach wasn’t going to go away without some kind of closure. Soft voices reached her from the living room. Delaney and Alex were still here. That was good, right? She could at least go out there and find out what was truth and what was fiction.

At the very least, she’d had some kind of episode and fainted. Then one of them had carried her into her room. Had to be Alex. She couldn’t see pregnant Delaney doing that.

She flipped the light on, went into the bathroom, and splashed some water on her face. She stared at herself for a few minutes in the mirror, trying to make sense of all the games her brain was playing on her, but couldn’t. She finally walked out to the living room.

Delaney was on the couch. Alex was pacing between the dining room and the kitchen. Both of them froze and turned toward her.

Alex looked awful. Like he’d just found out someone had died. He raked a hand through his hair. “How are you feeling?”

Roxy took a breath. “Not really myself.” She went into the kitchen and got a bottle of water out of the fridge. Making eye contact with either of them was proving harder than anticipated. “What happened? Did I faint?”

“Yes,” Delaney said. The mellowness of relief filled her voice. “We were telling you about who we really are and—”

“Crud.” Roxy leaned against the sink. She felt like dipping her head under some cold running water, but that would really be odd. She wasn’t so far gone that she didn’t know that much. “That actually happened. Or this is still one giant hallucination that hasn’t ended.”

“It’s not a hallucination,” Alex said.

She looked in his direction. “You’re telling me this is real. And what happened before I passed out was real.”

“All of it is real. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

She twisted the top off the bottle and took a long drink. The water helped. A little. Maybe this called for something stronger, but she didn’t have any hard alcohol in the house. She carried the bottle over to the chair next to the couch and sat down so she could face Delaney. “You’re a vampire.”

Delaney nodded.

Roxy pointed back at Alex. “And he’s a were-cat.”

“Panther shifter,” Alex corrected. “And yes, I am.”

“Your brother too, I suppose.”

“My entire family.”

Of course they were. She put her water on the coffee table and spoke to Delaney. “And I guess Hugh knows you’re a vampire and he’s okay with that.”

“He’s a vampire too. He’s the one who turned me.”

Naturally. Roxy stared at her. Then burst into laughter. “Okay, you got me. Great joke on the paranormal romance author.”

Delaney didn’t smile. Roxy looked back at Alex. No smile there either. Delaney’s hand on her knee brought Roxy’s attention back around. “It’s not a joke.”

The cold seeped back into Roxy’s gut, and a thin ringing filled her ears. She was either going to faint again or throw up. “I don’t believe you,” she whispered. “Those creatures in my books are just…make believe.”

Delaney shook her head. “No, they’re not. We’re real. This whole town is filled with them. It’s what Nocturne Falls is all about. A haven for super—”

“I need you to leave.” Roxy stared at her hands. Darkness wavered at the edges of her vision. This couldn’t be true. Because it just wasn’t possible that the two people she considered friends had kept something this big from her for so long. And all the while knowing that she’d started to think she was losing her mind.

Alex walked into her line of sight. She kept her gaze on her hands, unable to look at the man she’d tried to take to bed only a few hours before.

“Please, Roxy. We can talk about this and you’ll see—”

“Why didn’t you tell me before now?” She stared at Delaney. “You’re the one who talked me into moving here. Don’t you think Nocturne Falls being a ‘supernatural haven’ should have been on the list of pros you listed? Or cons… I don’t even know right now.”

Delaney twisted her hands together. “We don’t tell people. It’s just not done in most cases. Not that you’re most cases, but…” She sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Alex moved closer. “I wanted to tell you, but—”

“He did,” Delaney cut in. “But I talked him out of it. I didn’t want to add to your stress, and I knew about your mom and—”

“You both need to leave.” Roxy tried to swallow the bitterness coating her tongue. Her best friend hadn’t thought she could handle the truth. That her mental state was so fragile she might have a psychotic break just like her mother if Roxy found out. And that’s actually what had almost happened.

What Delaney—and Alex—had almost caused. Because he was just as much a part of this as Delaney was. He could have told Roxy at any time. Like right after she’d agreed to date him so long as they were up front and honest about everything.

So much for that.

“Please,” Alex said. “Can’t we sit down and start over? Just talk it through? This hasn’t gone down at all like we intended.”

Roxy choked out a harsh laugh. “It sounds to me like you
intended
to keep me in the dark and let me think I’m losing my freaking mind instead of telling me the truth. Would you have even told me if I hadn’t seen you just now?”

He stiffened. “Yes, that’s why Delaney came back with me. We discussed it earlier and decided—”

“What?” Roxy glared at him. “You discussed it and decided? So you two, the two people in the world I consider my closest friends, maybe my only friends, are making decisions behind my back about what I can and can’t know about my new hometown. And my new boy—”

She cut herself off before the word “boyfriend” left her mouth. She was not calling him that now. She pointed toward the door, on the verge of losing it altogether. “Go.”

Delaney stood. “Roxy, please.”

“Get out.” Roxy whispered the words, then cleared her throat and said them again, louder. “Get out now.”

“I’ll be right next door if you need me,” Alex said.

But she was too numb from betrayal to look at him. The door closed and Roxy was alone again.

So very alone.

Alex checked out Roxy’s house as he did every day on his way to work. It had become his routine, the slow roll past. In the last three days, nothing had changed. The blinds stayed closed. The house locked up tight.

There’d been no sign of movement, other than the UPS man bringing packages or food-delivery guys bringing food, and from what he’d seen, all of it got left at the door without waiting for the bell to be answered.

He hadn’t seen Roxy in all that time either. Not even just to catch a glimpse of her getting her mail.

He’d reduced his calls and texts to once a day. She wasn’t responding. And clearly didn’t want to. But at least she’d know he was thinking about her and willing to talk when she was. He hoped she was talking to someone. He knew it wasn’t Delaney. She hadn’t had any more luck than he had.

Roxy had shut them both out.

He’d left flowers (not roses) at her door the first day. Yesterday, he’d mowed her lawn when he’d gotten home from work.

No response to any of it. There wasn’t much else he could do but respect her wishes to be left alone. That didn’t keep him from being heartsick over what had happened. Especially because it was his fault. He should have talked Delaney into telling Roxy the truth sooner. Argued Roxy’s side of it harder.

Or just ignored Delaney and told Roxy the truth right away, consequences be damned.

Now, he had no idea if he’d ever get the chance to talk to her again. If she had been just a neighbor, he could have lived with it. But she was so much more.

She was the woman he’d realized three days ago was his soul mate, something that had since left him with a raw wound. Because if that’s really who Roxy was, why hadn’t he done more to protect her from this? Why hadn’t he listened to his gut and just told her exactly why she wasn’t losing her mind?

His only peace came from knowing that Thomas had been dealt with. At least now Roxy would get her divorce and could do whatever she wanted with her life. Hopefully, she’d be happy. He wanted that much for her.

He turned into the parking lot at the sheriff’s department and headed in, hoping work would distract him from everything he was feeling. But despite having a pretty active morning at the station, mostly because of prep for the Panic Parade, his mind returned to Roxy at every opportunity.

And then, just as he was about to head out on patrol (where he would
not
be driving by Roxy’s house), his mother called. He braced himself with a deep breath before answering. “Hi, Mom. I’m just about to head out, so if this can wait—”

“No, it can’t wait. You live next door to my favorite author and you said nothing to me about this? What is wrong with you? Why are you such a bad son?”

“Whoa, hold up. Who told you—Diego.” Alex closed his eyes and tried not to imagine murdering his brother.

“Yes, Diego, because he is a good boy and knows that this is information his mother would be very interested to hear.”

Alex rapped his fingers on the desk. “For your information, I didn’t tell you because I got her to sign a book for you and I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

A shriek answered him, followed by a barrage of happy Spanish. He grimaced and held the phone away until his mother calmed down. It took a minute. Finally, she spoke to him again. “You are forgiven, my angel. Now
mi hijo
, let me hear all about Miss Roxy St. James. Diego tells me you two are seeing each other, so I have to assume this is the human woman you were telling me about.”

“Yes, that’s who I was talking about, but I’m at work, Mom. I really can’t do this right now. How about I call you later?” Like Christmas.

“Oh no, I’m not going to fall for that. You say you’ll call and then you don’t. I will call
you
later. And you had better answer.”

“I will.” He’d never been so happy his parents were in Tallahassee. Although he’d be okay if they were a little farther away than six hours. Say, Miami.

“Very good. I love you. And I am so proud of you! Roxy St. James! She must be the most perfect woman in the world!”

She was. Just not for him. “I love you too.”

“Be safe out there today.”

“I’m safe every day. Tell Dad I said hi.” He hung up, then watched his screen until it went dark and his own image reflected back at him.

And what a picture it was. Alex Cruz. Sheriff’s deputy. Supernatural. And persona non grata to the most perfect woman in the world.

By the time he arrived home, he was exhausted from work, from the growing weight of what he’d done to Roxy and just as worn down by the inability to make it better. He got out of his car and stood in his driveway, looking at her house for the longest time. There wasn’t anything new or notable about it, and yet he couldn’t make himself stop standing there, hoping she’d walk out that front door and tell him all was forgiven.

It was such a nice scenario the way it played out in his head.

The purr of an engine brought him out of his thoughts. He turned to see why the sound was so close and let out a long sigh. His evening wasn’t going to get any better, but it was right on course for how his life was going.

The car pulling into his driveway was a shiny red Cadillac. And the woman behind the wheel was his mother. She must have left Tallahassee right after she’d talked to him.

Within an hour of being in his house, Alex’s mother had started a load of
his
laundry, made a pitcher of her famous lemonade, filled his freezer with casseroles (out of the first cooler she’d packed), tucked a
tres leches
cake into his fridge (out of the second cooler she’d packed) and was currently making him a dinner of pork loin, rice and beans, and
maduros
.