Shameful by May Dawson
48
West
Legacyand I crouched beside the car at the harbor, where we’d abandoned the Guard’s boat. Rhett was in the driver’s seat, swearing at the wires; Legacy looked worried, but cursing the car was just part of his process.
“I feel like I should express some kind of surprise that you know how to hotwire cars,” Legacy whispered to Rhett. “But really, it’s the kind of skill set I’d expect you tohave.”
“Thanks.” Rhett sounded far too cheerful for a man engaged in a felony.
“She’s not complimenting you,” Isaid.
“How do you know?” he asked. “So far, Legacy seems to like everything aboutme.”
I was in no mood for my brother. “How are we going to track down this vampire?”
“He’s found me twice,” Legacy said calmly. “Crosby was easy. Of course I’d be near my pack. Maybe he didn’t even know who he was looking for at first, maybe Lucas mentioned me and put a target on myback.”
“But for him to find youhere…”
Legacy chewed her lip. “There’s got to be something that he used to find me. Magic, maybe?”
“He’d have to have something of yours.”
The engine roared to life, and Rhett grinned as if he was surprised. He leaned out of the driver’s side and asked, “What if he has your blood?”
Legacy’s eyes widened. She stood and headed for the backseat. “That’s not creepy atall.”
“That would let him track you.” I hadn’t been able to catch his scent anywhere near the harbor.
“I bet he stole a boat,” I said, thinking about the little boat launches in the rear of people’s summer houses. It would be too easy for us to scent and track him down if his only exit points were from the larger docks.
“It’s off season. The owner might not even have reported the theft yet,” Rhett mused.
Rhett and I exchanged a look. I didn’t know how we were going to protect Legacy.
“We’ve got to run far and fast,” I said. “Before Killian realizes we’regone.”
“Yeah. He’s not going to risk his own life on mercy again.”
‘What’re you talking about?” Legacy asked. “What mercy?”
I didn’t want to talk about what Killian did for us before.
“No secrets,” Legacy promptedme.
“I never agreed tothat.”
But Rhett gave in—of course hedid.
“We tried to escape once before. Killian had driven his own boat back to the island. We kind of… took it fromhim.”
“Ohgod.”
“He came after us, but he never told anyone what happened. If he’d called the Guard on us, we’d bedead.”
“Is the Guard coming after usnow?”
“I’d bet onit.”
“Why did you say he wouldn’t risk his life again?” Legacy frowned at the two of us. “I don’t think the two of you appreciatehim.”
Rhett laughed. “Appreciate him? No.”
“Maybe you should,” Legacy said. “The four of us are tied togethernow.”
Tied. She was mine, and my heart pounded a warning in my chest even as I wanted to hope she wanted to be mine. If she chose Rhett, and Rhett alone, I would die. “Tied together? By that damned island?”
She gave me a look that said I should know better, then just repeated, “Tied together.”
“Can you two get in the damned car? You can flirt when we’re on the highway,” Rhettsaid.
I pulled open the passenger door and got in, acutely aware of Legacy sitting behind and across fromme.
“I thought you two didn’t believe in fate anymore.” Rhett groused as we rocketed out of the parkinglot.
“I don’t,” Legacy said, smiling faintly. She rested her hand on Rhett’s shoulder, and his face brightened, almost imperceptibly, the way it always did when she touched him. “I believe inus.”
I wanted that to betrue.
“Just the three of us, or all four of us?” I demanded.
She obviously wanted Rhett and me to fix things with Killian. She liked him too, as much as she liked us, and that made me feel an intense burst of jealousy. Everyone in our pack had loved Killian, before he was sent away. The young men had wanted to be him and the girls had wanted to marryhim.
Killian wouldn’t tell us what he did to get exiled here, but sometimes I wondered if it was because he seemed like he should be the next alpha, far more than Lucas.
I’d been a fierce fighter, but I’d always been in his shadow. And now I was afraid I’d lose her to Killian.
She tucked her hair back behind her ears, looking as if she didn’t want to answer. Rhett glanced at her as if he was hanging on her wordstoo.
Would she choose Rhett andme?
Or just Killian?
“All four of us,” she said softly.
Did she really mean that? Did she think she was going to have the three of us long-term, even if we ever made it off Reject Island?
“Then how come we left Killian behind?” I asked.
Legacy fell quiet and didn’t answer.