Page 60 of Heat Lightning

Best friends.

“You have to swear you won't tell anyone,” I said, looking over my shoulder to make sure the door was closed.

“I can keep a secret.”

“I know. But this is big. You can’t come back from knowing.” Yikes. I was starting to sound like him. “Plus, you’ll probably think I’m going crazy. I think I’m going crazy.”

“Never,” she said, with feeling. “I might suggest a therapist again⁠—”

I snorted.

“—but I’d never think you’re crazy, Max.”

Stuffing a cookie into my own mouth for courage, I began. “So,” I chewed and swallowed, “the night I was dropped off at the clinic.”

Gwen nodded along.

“You asked if I remembered anything about the man who brought me there. I said no, but I lied. I do remember him.”

Her gaze sharpened. “Do you know who he is?”

I shook my head. “He wore a mask and hasn’t told me his name yet. But he saved me from those people.”

“What do you mean he hasn’t told you his name yet? And what did he do?”

I squirmed in my seat, sweaty and uncomfortable. Would Gwen understand? Would she think I was wrong for not turning him in? Would she turn me in for what I’d kept hidden?

Fuck, this wasn’t just about me. I could be giving the Masked Man away, too.

If she didn’t take it well, I’d call and warn him. I’d tell him to get as far away from Plover Bay as possible, and that it was too dangerous for us to speak again. He deserved that much, for saving me.

“I need you to understand that those people at the club were going to hurt me, Gwen. They’d already drugged me and forced a heat on me. I couldn’t move. They deserved… what happened.”

Her gaze was sharp. “Max. If you’re worried I’m going to judge you, I’m not. I don’t need to explain to you the things I’ve seen working at the clinic. I don’t give a fuck about the people who hurt you.”

Her eyes held nothing but conviction. I nodded. Here goes nothing.

“He killed them,” I whispered. “All of the alphas who were going to hurt me. Joey got away, but the rest… he murdered all of them.”

The lack of surprise on her face was a bit shocking. Had she suspected? I didn’t remember how I got to the clinic, but maybe she saw him there? Maybe he’d said something to her?

“And that’s it?” she asked. “That’s the last time you saw him?”

I bit my cheek and shook my head no.

“Tell me everything,” she said.

Leaving out the more embarrassing moments—like the part where I nearly begged him to knot me in the pantry—I filled her in on everything else.

Including our tentative agreement to kill Joey together, swiftly followed by the disastrous way we’d left things.

Now, she was shocked. “Wow,” she said. “I mean, wow. Okay…” She took a steadying breath. “Okay. So. Just to be clear—an alpha wearing a skull mask stalked you for weeks, saved you from being drugged and raped, dropped you off at a shelter, and then two years later broke into your apartment, ordered you to put more clothes on, asked you to help break your unwanted bond by spending a heat together, flirted with you, and then listened to you when you said you wanted to be involved in a revenge murder? Is that it? Did I get all of it?”

I paused. It was quite a lot when she put it like that. “I think that’s about it, yeah. Oh, and he fixed a hole in my wall,” I answered.

She stared at me blankly. “Under normal circumstances, a man doing that would be noteworthy, but I think we can table it for now.”

A beat passed before we burst out laughing.