Hyena Moon (16 page)

Rafe took a drink of his Coke. He was still distant, gaze and focus turned inward. Sometimes talking to Rafe and trying to get to know him felt like trying to slog through a muddy obstacle course. Well, it couldn't get any worse. "Popcorn?" She held the bag out to him.

He looked up at her, startled. Then he grinned, perhaps at the unexpected absurdity of it. "Okay." He chuckled, the sound welling up in the back of his throat. Then he began to laugh outright. Lenore smiled, and then found herself laughing too.

She threw a handful of popcorn at him, but he lunged at her. Lenore shrieked and slithered off the leather couch, landing on her butt with a loud thump. It made her laugh harder. Rafe followed and she grabbed hold of him, going on the offensive. Her fingers found the sensitive parts on his sides and stomach, tickling him along his ribs. He tried to wiggle away and she kept after him, landing on top of him.

He shouted as she caught a particularly sensitive spot, his laughter spiraling higher and louder. Then he moved quicker than she was expecting and Lenore found herself on her back with Rafe on top of her. She squealed as his fingers danced across her stomach and sides. She laughed uncontrollably as he went to work, digging into the sensitive skin beneath her ribs.

Lenore lifted her hips, trying to get some leverage to get out from under him. She saw his eyes widen as she bucked upwards, then she was rolling him over. He crashed into the side of one of the club chairs and she threw herself half on top of him.

"What the hell are you doing to my sister?" Her brother's voice did not sound amused.

She looked over her shoulder at Cormac standing in the doorway. Finn was right behind him. "What does it look like?" She made sure to smile as sweetly as she could.

She caught a glimpse of Rafe out of the corner of her eye. He was frozen in place, a horrified look on his face. Lenore pushed up and away from him. The werehyena made no move, just kept his eyes on her brother.
Good Lord, he looks like Mac is going to eat him
.

Mac flushed at her smart response. Finn was smiling hugely, looking from Rafe to Lenore and then to Cormac. "I think it's pretty obvious there, Mac." Her brother shot a deadly glare at Finn. He held up his hands in a take it easy gesture. "Just good clean fun, that's all." When Mac no longer faced him, Finn winked at her.

"Clean up your mess," her brother growled, glaring at Rafe before disappearing down the hall.

"As you were," Finn said, a smirk on his face. Then he took off after Cormac.

Lenore leaned back against the chair and tried to school her face to seriousness. It was not working. Rafe still hadn't moved and he looked so cute, all wide-eyed and pale. "He's gone now," she whispered.

Rafe blinked, carefully pulling himself away and putting space between the two of them. Lenore bit back a sigh. "It's okay," she assured him, beginning to pick up popcorn pieces from the floor.

He began to do the same. "Your brother doesn't like me much."

Lenore stared at Rafe, surprised at his admission. Mac wasn't one to dislike anyone, not without reason, and Lenore doubted Rafe had given him one. If he had, she doubted he'd still be staying here; Kess certainly wouldn't allow it. She chalked it up to her brother just being his usual overprotective self and not accepting that she was capable of making her own decisions.

She put her hand out to grab a piece of popcorn at the same time that Rafe took hold of it. Their hands met and she saw him flush, the points of his cheeks coloring red. But he didn't take his hand away. Lenore looked into his amber eyes and said, "It's a good thing that I'm not my brother."

Chapter Twenty-One

Vizcaya Museum was really cool. It made Lenore feel like she was back in time, in a more glamorous era. She and Rafe had grabbed the Metro which let them off at the Vizcaya station. They'd crossed Miami Avenue and entered the Vizcaya museum and grounds. They'd been walking around for most of the morning, looking at the beautiful rooms and wandering the maze and gardens. Lenore felt relaxed and happy.

This was one of the few outings that she and Rafe had been on that didn't include her brother or Kess. That was probably because she didn't tell them about it. Or rather, she'd told them about some made up outing that only had a passing acquaintance with the truth. She certainly didn't volunteer that it would be just the two of them.

She knew she should feel bad about it, but she didn't. Rafe was always easier and more relaxed with her when it was just the two of them. Not that she minded; she didn't particularly want to share him with anyone. She and Wyatt had lots of long conversations about Mr. Mysterious but that wasn't the same thing.

Lenore knew her brother would be really mad when he found out—and he always found out somehow--but she couldn't be bothered to worry about it right now. She was here with Rafe. Why he drew her, she had no idea, other than that he was so different from anyone she'd ever met before. And he seemed to need her and she'd never had anyone actually need her. Oh sure, Wyatt needed her in that friend way, but this was different. She couldn't describe or define it; she could only recognize that it was important.

He was important.

Right now, Rafe was staring out at Vizcaya's Stone Barge, his amber eyes slanted against the sun's glare. Lenore took a moment to stare at him. He could have been a marble statue himself, the bones of his face stark and strong. Too bad his hair always hid the high cheekbones and the angular beauty of his face. She supposed she should be grateful--at least with his hair in his face he wasn't attracting the attention of every girl within a five mile radius. Lenore had him all to herself.

He felt her eyes on him and he turned and smiled at her. He always seemed to know when she was looking at him. It made it very hard to observe him in his natural element. Lenore blew a stray strand of hair out of her face, and then grabbed his hand. She wanted to head over to the Secret Garden and have a look there.

They walked in silence. Lenore usually hated quiet. She wasn't used to it. Her immediate and extended family all tended toward the big and loud. The Lodge was quieter now that Cormac had moved out, but whenever there was a family gathering, the dull roar that came with it was actually expected and kind of soothing. True quiet made her fidgety. But with Rafe, it was a comfortable silence, and one that didn't make her crazy. He seemed pretty calm and quiet by nature; she wondered how much of it a defense mechanism due to how he had been raised was.

They wandered along the stone stairways that bordered pocket gardens. They were meandering along another hedge maze when Rafe finally spoke. "So since Kess is dating your brother, I guess you guys are pretty close?"

Lenore darted her eyes to him, surprised. Out of everything he could have asked her, he chose Kess? That was a little weird. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that or why he might be asking. Mac had told her some of what was going on down here, but she'd be the last person he should pump for information about Kess, if that was what he was trying to do. She didn't think Rafe was a spy, but this line of questioning was kind of odd.

"Not really." At his surprised look, she said, "I don't think Kess is close to anybody really, except maybe my brother."

"Oh." Rafe looked down at his feet, obviously thinking about something.

Well, the only way to find out what was going in that gargantuan brain of his was to ask. "Why do you want to know?"

"This is probably going to sound a little out there, but there's something weird about the house. I mean, I've been staying there for nearly a month and I haven't seen any family pictures or anything. And she barely mentions her brother, even though he was the last clan leader. It just seems really strange. I was wondering what happened."

Lenore found them a quiet place where they were less likely to be disturbed. "Didn't your mom tell you anything about Kess' brother?"

Rafe shook his head. "My mom keeps pack business to herself and her inner circle. I knew she hated Sek that he ran Miami, and that was about it. I'd never even heard of Kess until just a few months ago."

Lenore bit her lip. He was right that the house was strange. There were no family pictures anywhere in it that she had seen. At the Lodge, family pictures were in every room: some of all of them, some with just the kids. School and graduation pictures ran up the walls of the main staircase, while extended family like Griff and his sons stood on mantels or sideboards. There were a lot of little touches that told the story of the family that lived in her house. The house in Miami had none of that. It could have been a model home, ready for sale, for all of the personal effects it held. It was kind of creepy now that she thought about it.

Rafe spoke again, finding a seat on the stone wall that overlooked another part of the garden. "I was just wondering if you knew anything about why nobody seems to talk about him. I get why my mom wouldn't be president of his fan club, but it's strange that nobody ever mentions him."

Lenore wiggled closer to him so that their shoulders touched and felt a rush of pleasure when he didn't pull away. She liked being in contact with him. She kept hoping he'd take the hint, maybe move things to the next level, but he was remarkably slow on the uptake. Lenore wondered if she should maybe skywrite I LIKE YOU over the house one day in the hope he would catch the snap.

"I don't know much," she admitted. "And I'm not sure it's really my business to tell you. Most of what I picked up was second hand anyway. But I can tell you why my family didn't like him."

Rafe had turned to face her and she tried not preen beneath his undivided attention. It was unwholesome how good he looked when he was all intense like this. She cleared her throat and tried to drag her mind back to the matter at hand. "Go ahead," Rafe urged a touch of impatience in his voice.

"Back in the winter, Kess' brother came up to the mountains to get her. She'd run away from home and she wound up moving around a lot because he had people looking for her. That's how she wound up in North Carolina. Anyway, when she wouldn't go with him, he kidnapped my brother. He almost killed Mac, but Kess got to them in time. She fought her brother and made him leave her alone."

Rafe was silent for a few minutes while he took in everything she'd said. Lenore waited. "Why'd she run away in the first place? I mean, it seems like she had things pretty good."

Lenore shrugged. "Don't know. They never told me that. I know my mom and dad know and so do my uncle and cousins. I guess they think I'm too young." She made a face at that. She'd been trying to find out--curiosity ran in her family, as did not taking a for an answer--and she'd tried to unearth more about the mystery that was her brother's girlfriend, but nobody slipped up when she was listening. "Either that or it's some kind of were thing that they think I don't need to know about." She tried not to sound jealous over that. "Whatever it was though, I guess it must have been pretty bad for her not to want to go home with him."

Rafe said nothing, just stared out at the gardens, his dark brows slanted down in a glower. She wondered what he was thinking, but thought now might not be the right time to press him for answers. He could be touchy, and she was trying to get better at reading his moods. She didn't want to push him and ruin what had, so far, been a great time.

When he didn't speak for a few minutes, she finally said, "If you're really dying to know, you could always ask her about it. The worst that can happen is she doesn't answer you." She heard the slight hint of annoyance in her voice, but hoped he didn't catch it.

He came out of whatever thoughts were consuming him and focused his attention on her again. He cracked a half-smile, so Lenore figured he hadn't caught the tone in her voice. "You really do believe in the direct approach, don't you?" His voice was affectionate, but also disbelieving. She wondered if the direct approach at his house had ever gotten him in trouble. She thought about the scars on his body and figured it probably had.

She ducked her head, embarrassed. The direct approach had served her well—she had never found a reason not to be direct, actually. Life was always easier when you took ambiguity out of it. But down here she was beginning to discover that sometimes you needed to take the sideways approach and it was like trying to learn a different language.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Come on; let's go check out the Village." He dropped her hand and headed off. Lenore tried to hide her disappointment at the loss of his touch and pushed herself to catch up to his long strides.

"Um, you want to hang on a sec there, ladder legs?" She scrambled up the stairs after him. He looked down at her and laughed, going faster. "Boys," she muttered under her breath.

They walked around the Village, stopping in the Garage and the Dairy Barn, poking their noses into anything that looked remotely entertaining. Lenore stood with her head cocked to one side, trying to make sense of one of the art installations. Could those be a modern artist's version of metal chickens? She had no idea. She turned to find Rafe gone from sight. She should put a bell on him or something.

She wasn't too concerned, figuring she'd find him eventually. She stayed in the area, wandering around looking at things, in case he came back to find her. She'd just settled in comfortably to wait for him, when he came streaking around a corner. He looked paler than usually and he grabbed her upper arm roughly, heaving her to her feet.

"We've got to go." His breathing was rapid and his eyes darted in all directions.

Lenore knew better than to pitch a fit or dig in her heels. "What's going on?" She kept up with him as he pulled her along, looking behind her for whatever might have got him so spooked. She couldn't see anything or anybody that looked suspicious.

Rafe shook his head, his hand still on her arm, leading her towards the station. He kept looking behind them too. They were walking fast, just short of running, so they wouldn't draw too much attention. He gave the big trees—banyans, she remembered Kess calling them—a wide berth, skirting around them. She let him be the lookout, choosing instead to guide their flight so they didn't crash into anyone. She thought she caught the glimpse of a pale face looking out from those trees, but then she had to pay attention to their route.