Chapter Nine

This was going to work. Right?

Silver ripped into the box that held the slightly used phone she'd bought second-hand. All she needed was the tracking app working on it. She already had an eye on a good target. A jacked-up, silver Toyota Tacoma sat in the bar parking lot with a sticker in the back window that read, "Laramie Drinking Club." She'd just needed a local, and hopefully this guy would stick around the territory.

She turned on the phone and set it next to hers, and downloaded the tracking app on the new phone. She signed into it, and at the same time it connected, she deleted the app from her other phone.

God, let there not be a blip on Rook's end.

When it was connected and she could see Rook's icon on there, and hers in the parking lot of Barry's Bar, she checked her surroundings quickly, and then pushed open her door and set the new phone between two gas cans that were strapped into the bed of the truck. When she was satisfied it wouldn't blow out the back, Silver slunk to her car again, got in and pulled out immediately.

Please let that work.

She checked the rearview mirror, but whoever the owner of that truck was hadn't seen her. He wasn't running out of the bar or anything.

Now she could leave.

If she was lucky, she could get a few states away before Rook realized she'd duped him.

She didn't know what she was doing, but she knew she couldn't go back to somewhere she didn't belong.

At a small town stop sign, she flipped the visor down and looked at her pale face in the mirror. She'd aways avoided looking at herself directly, but Owen had changed everything last night when he'd said her scar was okay. She brushed her fingertips against her lips, remembering how it felt to be kissed by a man who really liked her. Two days ago, her entire life had revolved around taking the sting away from her traitor mark. Now? She didn't know how to feel, but she couldn't go on hating herself. She just couldn't live like that any longer.

Where could she go? New York? Amsterdam? Outer space?

Where could she run to that Rook would never be able to hunt her down?

It was a four-way stop, and she inhaled deep, flipped the visor back up and chose a number at random. Ten. She counted in a clockwise direction until she hit ten. Straight it was. She'd already pulled all her money out of the bank in cash.

She'd done this before, only this time she would escape better.

She would be very careful not to get attached to anyone, and she would move around more. No longer than one month at each place would be the plan.

Silver hit the gas. She hadn't spent much time with Owen, but it had changed everything for her. She wanted to see herself the way he had seen her at times. Perhaps someday, if she was good at escaping for long enough, they would meet again. Perhaps if that ever happened, she would be a different kind of woman. Maybe she would understand loyalty to herself, and be worth a damn.

****

Owen was restless.

He stood and paced his singlewide trailer up on Fastlander Crew territory again. He'd damn-near worn a trail into the cheap laminate flooring. He went to the front window and looked out of it again, for no reason. What was he even looking for?

Her. The boar's voice pissed him off.

"Stop!"

The animal quieted, and Owen huffed a breath and made his way back to the couch, turned up the evening news on the television that hung above his fireplace.

The news station showed the shaky cell phone footage of Wreck burning a line into the woods and across the river, and froze the frame just like they had a dozen times already. All it showed was a blur of something big, and dark. The humans around here had no idea what dwelled in these mountains. They thought Damon Daye was dangerous? If any of them knew what Wreck's fire could do, they would build a fence around Damon's Mountains and demand he not let any of his shifters loose.

Why the hell had the Blue Dragon insisted Wreck be a part of their Crew?

Bright side, no one could make out what he was. Not even Owen. It was just a smudgy shadow across the screen.

A knock sounded at the door.

"No!" Owen barked out, and turned the news up louder.

Someone had taken a stupid video of him fighting with Captain, and Silver was in the mix. Why had she gone after Owen? That part he still couldn't work out.

She'd liked him, right? He'd felt it. His animal had felt it, but perhaps she was just a very good actress.

Owen remembered that text from Rook talking about how he missed Silver. The remote shattered in his hand. Shhhit. He frowned down at the shards of plastic. He hadn't meant to do that.

The knock sounded again.

"What?" he roared.

"Don't talk to me like that," Corey yelled, shoving the door open.

"Sorry," he murmured. "I'm having a bad night."

"I have something to say."

He stared at her and blinked slowly. "If this has anything to do with girl feelings, can you aim them at your mate? I'm a little under the weather."

"I have an opinion."

"Would you mind shooting me before you express it?"

Corey shut the door hard behind her and paced to the kitchen, picked up a pan and then put it down. She turned on the water in the sink, then turned it off.

"Can you say it fast so I can get back to my show?"

"The news doesn't expose Wreck. He's too fast for a human camera phone to pick up."

"Fantastic story."

"I don't think Silver is okay," she said suddenly, turning toward him.

The emotional look in her eyes shocked Owen into stillness. "She's probably okay," he murmured.

"That's the thing," Corey whispered thickly. "I don't think she is."

Oh fuck. The look on her face was pulling his boar to the surface.

Owen ran his hand down the scruff on his face and ran it through his hair, set the broken remote pieces onto the coffee table. Well, she had his attention. "Why do you say that?"

"I talked to her, and she was open and raw and vulnerable and I saw her tears, Owen. I saw her face. She's horrible at her job."

"I don't understand."

"She was supposed to come here and gather intel, but she didn't ask us anything damning. And she answered everything I asked. Truthfully. And she showed me the messages Rook sent her, just to throw her own self under the bus, but she scrolled for so long, Owen and her responses weren't there."

"So?"

"So Rook did that on his own. He messaged her relentlessly with no response to encourage that behavior. Like Hallie's ex used to do. And Silver talked about the way you kissed her. I saw your text about how it meant something to you, and she said you kissed her in the bedroom and Owen, if you saw her face…" Her voice broke on the last part. She repeated in a whisper, "If you saw her face."

Owen buried his face in his hands just to escape the turmoil wafting off Corey. She was making the entire singlewide trailer heavy.

"She isn't mine."

"Fine. Say that to yourself as much as you want. But she isn't Rook's either."

"Yes, she is."

"No. No she isn't, Owen. I asked her the right questions and she answered truthfully in some place, and not truthfully in others. She does not belong to him. She hasn't realized it yet, but she belongs to herself." Corey chewed the corner of her lip and rested her hands on her hips. "You kissed her."

"It was a mistake."

Corey pursed her lips and offered him a sad smile. "Lie."

Owen pointed angrily at the television, where they were replaying the cell-phone footage of the fight. This was the part where Silver was launching at him. "If she was mine, why did she attack me?"

"Because you were the most dangerous. Her animal goes for the biggest threat. I could feel it. You were going to kill Captain, and her lion slowed it, and bought everyone time to come to. And what happened when she touched you?"

Owen cracked his knuckles and didn't want to answer.

"What happened?"

"Fuck, Corey, what do you want? You hated her the most. You trusted her the least, and now what? You're her biggest fan? What do you want from me?"

"I want you to answer the question. What happened when she touched you in that fight?"

"She put my animal to sleep."

Corey pointed to his chest. "Your burns look better. Mine still look like shit, but yours look better. Why?"

He shook his head, hating the way she waited for an explanation.

"Why, Owen?" she whispered.

"Because I kissed her."

"If you don't think that means something, you're crazy."

Owen squeezed his fists closed and refused to lift his gaze from the floor as Corey made her way to the door. She stopped before she left and turned to him. "When Hallie was on the run from her ex, I saw the fear. I felt it. I recognize it in Silver. I really don't think she knows what she's doing." She turned to go, but hesitated. "Oh, and just so you know, she changed phones."

With a frown, he lifted his gaze to Ace's mate. "What?"

"Bash has been tracking what she's doing for Lucia. Apparently, Silver got a burner phone and attached her tracking app to it, dropped it in one of the Fuller brother's trucks. He left it in there. Rook is watching a Fuller bar-hop through downtown Laramie currently."

"Where's Silver then?"

Corey shrugged up one shoulder. "My guess? She's running from Rook."

Chills electrified the fine hairs on his body.

Corey let the door close behind her, but Owen lurched to his feet. "Corey!"

"Yeah?" she asked, peeking her head back in.

He swallowed hard. "Can Bash find her?"

A slow smile took her lips. "Bash can find anyone. I already have him on it. If you don't go get Silver, I will."