Wolves at the Door (32 page)

“Make a right here. I want a cheeseburger,” he sa
id at the end of the off ramp.

“Sure. I’ll just get a veggie burger or something.” I seethed over my
unanswered question as I pulled up to the drive-thru window and put in our order.

He tapped the dashboard, waiting for his food. “Is that why
you
did it?”

“Did what?” The car ahead of me moved forward and I took his spot.

Zack avoided my gaze. “Why you kissed Cameron. Was it because
you
wanted to break up?”

I gaped at him, my stupor preventing me from coming up with an intelligible response. The car behind me honked and I moved my car forward again.

“I get the appeal. Cameron’s a good guy. And he’s human,” Zack continued. “No laws to break, no scouts to avoid. You could do worse.”

Was Zack trying to pawn me off on someone else? The drive-thru window opened and I gave some cash to the pale-faced girl wearing a headset. She handed me our food, then I passed it to Zack and eased the car back onto the street.

“Let’s fill up the gas tank so we won’t have to stop again.” His hand disappeared into the food bag then reappeared a second later with a french fry.

I nodded, still unable to speak as I rolled the car along the row of gas pumps. How could I reply to his comments about Cameron? Should I agree with him or tell him the truth — that Cameron could never replace him? That even after what he’d done I still loved him?

Zack climbed out of the Mustang and began working the pump.

I rolled down the window so he could hear me. “We could say the same about Alura. She’s really pretty and your life would be a lot easier being with her.”

He glanced at me for a second, then focused on the pump. “She’s engaged.”

Otherwise she’d be an option for him? I ground my teeth. “You didn’t answer my question. Did you hook up with Gina to break up with me?”

“No. I did it because you
asked
me to.” He turned back to the digital readout on the pump. “Do you want to be with Cameron?”

“No.”

“Okay then,” he said, as if those two words settled everything. They didn’t.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?”

“No, Autumn. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m too pissed off. I can’t even think about it, much less discuss it yet.”

Except that sweeping it all under the rug wouldn’t work if we were both still
upset. But maybe it was just as well we didn’t hash it all out right now. I was still too raw and Zack was bound to make me angrier if he kept acting like a douche. 

He replaced the nozzle and turned to face me. I watched him, scared to hear whatever he was about to say.

“I thought I was driving.”

I let out the breath I hadn’t realized was frozen in my lungs, then crawled over to the passenger side and he got behind the wheel.

“We’ve got more than four hours to go, according to the map.” He glanced at me, eyeing my veggie burger as I adjusted its wrapper. “You look exhausted and it’s not even five yet. We might be better off finding a hotel as soon as we arrive and getting a good night’s sleep. We can get an early start tomorrow and still accomplish just as much but we won’t be tired.”

I
was
tired. “That seems sensible.” I set my own food aside, unwrapped part of his burger and handed it to him.

He snatched it from my outstretched hand. “You made a hotel reservation, right?”

“No. Wasn’t even sure you were coming or what I’d be doing.” I bit into my veggie burger.

Zack concentrated on his
food, lifting it to his mouth and steering with his thighs. He looked like he’d had lots of practice eating and driving. When he’d finished, he handed me his wrapper and started on his fries.

I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a big rig slowly disappearing behind us. No sign of any other cars for miles. The awkward silence was weighing on me. “You think Charles is really dead?”

“I don’t know.” He stared ahead, a tic working in his jaw.

His brain was probably already considering all possibilities. When Daniel had become a clear threat, Zack
had prepared for every scenario. He planned our next step in detail, always coaching me on what to do and what not to do.

“You must have a theory or two.”

“Two,” Zack said, waving his burger at me, the aroma of the meat wafting up my nose. Natural instinct told me to snatch it from his fingers, but good sense won over. I didn’t want to take the time to stop for a replacement burger. “One theory is that Charles is dead. The other is that he’s alive and healing somewhere.”

I had hoped for something a little less obvious. Some insight that came from something I didn’t know. “You read all of the books your dad left for you, right? Did you find anything that explained how to kill a werewolf?”

“No.”

“For all we know, it could require a silver bullet,” I said.

“Maybe.”

Zack drove me batty. Was he keeping information to himself? Not that I could complain if he
was, since I hadn’t yet told him everything about Renzo.

I turned my attention to the scenery as we passed countless windmills, dry patches of desert with lonely far off buildings that looked like sheds, and the occasional clump of wooded areas filled with giant pine trees. But the scenery wasn’t interesting enough to prevent my brain from racing from one obsession to the next.

If I couldn’t prove my innocence to Mr. Collins, my parents would get called back to town. And then there was the stress over whether or not Charles could be waiting for us when we returned. I shuddered to think about him being alive and the revenge he’d want on me after I’d torn him apart.

I needed something to keep myself too occupied to dwell on any of that. “Do you mind if I read a book?”

“Not at all.”

He acted a little too relieved for my taste. I wondered why he bothered coming along if hanging out with me was such a chore, especially when he could be making out with Gina.
I tried not to growl as I dug my e-reader out of my purse.

After reading the same line over and over, I finally gave up actual reading. I couldn’t concentrate on anything with Zack next to me and he wasn’t exactly a chatterbox.
So I pretended to be engrossed in the book while images of him and Gina played in my head over and over.

“Autumn?”

My heart leapt. Did he want to apologize? Beg my forgiveness? Promise to tell Gina off in front of the entire school? “Yes?”

He cast me a quick glance. “That dark sports car has been behind us since we stopped for food — always keeping the same distance.”

My heart rate sped. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily unless I was sure.”

The dark car stayed far enough behind and almost blended with the asphalt. I couldn’t tell the make or model. Possibly blue, but definitely sporty.

“You think it’s Renzo?” I asked.

“With him or Alura, we’d probably be fine. If they catch us, we could say we got back together and decided to celebrate by being tourists. At this point, I think they’re only dangerous if they find out you’re a shape-shifter or that we killed Charles.”

Too late for the former. “What if Charles isn’t dead and that’s him following us?”

“Home or Yosemite, it wouldn’t matter. Wherever he found us, we’d be in for the fight of our lives.”

~~~

Chapter Twenty-seven

“Could you make me any more nervous and paranoid?” I glanced back at the car again. Yep, still there. Zack was right — whichever city Charles attacked us in shouldn’t matter to me. But it did. The idea of being ambushed seemed much scarier away from home where everything was unfamiliar.

“Sorry.” Zack’s eyes left the road long enough to give me an apologetic look. “But I just want to be honest and not keep things from you.”

Like the way I was keeping things from him. Maybe it would be better if Zack and I didn’t talk after all.
I squinted at the screen, trying to make out the words, but I still couldn’t get past the first paragraph. Whatever. Staring at words that I couldn’t focus on sure beat trying to make conversation with Zack.

Now and then, I checked the car behind us. Zack kept his eye on it, too. The hours stretched on and I spent most of the drive looking out my side of the window.

Just after the sun set, the blue car veered into the right lane. Instead of taking the exit, it sped up and closed in. Just when I thought it might just ram right into the back of my Mustang, it switched lanes and roared ahead of us.

As the car passed, it was too dark to tell the color, but by the shape, I’d guess it was Renzo. “Looks like they’re not following us.”

“Or that’s just what he wants us to think. If he pulls over and turns off his lights, we’ll easily miss him as we pass and he can get behind us again.”

Lovely. I slumped in my seat, not bothering to comment. All week I’d looked forward to our weekend getaway. But our break-up drama had followed us and, apparently, so had Renzo.

“We’re almost there. Okay if we stop for food before we find a hotel and check in?”

“Yeah.”

He stopped at the first drive-thru we came to, then hit the road again. As I ate, I checked the info I’d gathered the night before on the hotels.

The sign over the freeway rang a bell somewhere in my subconscious. “This is our exit. It’s hard to tell by the pictures, but the rooms look pretty nice.”

“That’s the beauty of not making a reservation.” Zack signaled, then swerved into the right lane. “If it ends up being a dump, we’ll move on to the next one.”

My boyfriend had been irritating, distant, angry — any number of things — the entire trip, but I loved the way he acted so calm when my nerves were on edge. Otherwise the trip would be miserable.
I hated knowing that no matter what I might learn about my parents, I’d still be mad at them. If I failed and didn’t learn anything at all, I’d likely be even more pissed. Having Zack with me made either scenario a little less awful.

Up the narrow road, the trees gave way to a towering building, which reminded me of a French chateau, out of place in America and far from home. Lit windows glowed from the rooms, some of them partially hidden by trees. The tops of the windows arched, flanked by shutters and the stone exterior reached high up to a sharply pitched roof.

I wondered if the inside would be as charming as the outside.

We weren’t officially in Yosemite, but the area still boasted plenty of vegetation. I opened the door the moment the car stopped moving. “It smells absolutely divine around here.”

He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. “I could get used to this.”

I shot him a hopeful smile. “We could stay another day regardless what we find out tomorrow.”

“It’s probably not a good idea to stay any longer than we need to.” He climbed out of the car and headed toward the hotel entrance.

I followed, not wanting to ask why we shouldn’t stay. Knowing the reason wouldn’t make him any less of an ass.

“I hope it’s not too expensive,” I muttered, although I wasn’t sure why I was worried. My mom’s credit card sang to me from a little compartment in my purse. It’s not like my parents were strapped for cash. Still, I’d had too many years of living frugal to be too extravagant.

Zack continued, passing through the front door and stopping at the front desk, which was more like a long counter. Brochures sat at the end of the glossy, dark surface and framed certificates of excellence hung on the wall nearby.

A small woman looked up from a computer monitor and smiled. “Good evening.”

I lowered my voice, hoping to seem more mature. “We’d like a room please.”

“Do you have a reservation?”

“No,” I replied.

“That’s all right. One bed or two?” she asked, clicking a button on the keyboard.

“Two,” I said, my eyes darting at Zack for his reaction.

His face remained blank.