Page 22 of Wolf

“Started as a taunt, turned into my identity because yeah, I went from lone wolf to pack member.” I flash my teeth and grin. “Just took havin’ the right people around me. Anyway, Steel convinced me. He talked circles around me until I was basically beggin’ to join, can you believe it? He knew what I wanted more than I did. He said I needed to go back to my foster’s until I was eighteen because the cops were probably out lookin’ for me and he wasn’t gonna go to jail for kidnappin’. Once I was old enough to get out, I could come back and he’d let me prospect.”

“Seems like that’s exactly what happened.”

“Yeah.” I shake my head. “Didn’t mean to ramble like that. What I’m sayin’ is, I know what I wanted as a kid who didn’t have nothin’. I wanted sweet stuff. I also wanted fresh stuff. I wanted them crisp apples and bags of juicy baby carrots.”

“Artie will appreciate it. He’s very good with eating his fruits and vegetables.” She rubs my arm, igniting fire with her touch. She lowers her voice. “I saw a bar of good chocolate in there. I assume that’s just for me?”

“Unless a little someone catches you eatin’ it and wants a piece.” I lower my voice to match hers.

“I’ll take it into the bathroom. That’s where I indulge.”

I raise my eyebrows to ask if she indulges in anything else while she’s in there. I know what it’s like to be in a house full of people with nowhere to go for some relief except the bathroom. Even then, it’s no guarantee some asshole won’t pick the lock with a butter knife and walk in while you’re beatin’ your meat.

Julia’s face turns red and she makes a small sound of protest at the suggestion. I’m debating whether to push the issue when there’s a small sound toward the front of the house, a little metallic clunk.

“What was that?” I ask.

Julia half-rises, looking puzzled. “The mail slot. We already got the mail today, though.”

“Maybe he forgot something.”

“Maybe.” She brushes past me on her way to the foyer, trailing her sweet scent.

I turn my attention from her to Artie. He has a finger in his mouth while watching his cartoons. I’ve really come to like the boy. Hard not to, when he’s so sweet and friendly. My thoughts go back to what he said earlier about that asswad Malcolm not being his father. Julia’s never mentioned any other men in her life. But maybe she hooked up with someone when she first left Helena? It gets me thinking.

I’ve done a lot of thinking lately. Unusual for me.

But what if things had turned out differently? If her father hadn’t gotten me thrown in jail? Julia and I would have stayed together all these years. I never would have chased her away. She’d have had my kid by now, maybe two, and there would be little Wolves running around. I never really thought about that stuff at the time because Julia was on the young side, but now, I think I would have liked that.

Instead, what happened, happened. She went off and got herself pregnant by someone then ended up married to that waste of space Malcolm.

The worst part of it is he’s not some bumbling idiot. He’s a lawyer. Smart. Book-smart, anyway. Guys like him are always scheming, always plotting. He didn’t marry Julia because he loved her. He did it because he gained something by doing it, although I’m not sure what. I’m not going to have a civil conversation with the guy to find out.

I notice Julia standing at the edge of the living room. She’s holding something in each hand, an envelope in one and a few folded papers in the other. Her face is pale and her eyes are scared.

“Julia?” I get to my feet, unease instantly gripping me by the back of the neck. “What is that?”

She lets the envelope flutter to the ground. As far as I can tell, it’s blank, without any addresses. The hairs all over my body stand on end. That envelope wouldn’t have gotten through the mail system on its own. Someone else dropped it through the slot.

I run past her and throw the front door open, charge onto the lawn. I spin around, scanning the streets, the yards, for unfamiliar and suspicious faces. It’s a warmer day and the only person outside is an old lady filling up her bird feeders, pouring seed from a bag. There’s no way it was her. Whoever put that envelope, whatever it contains, into the slot, they got out of here fast.

I turn back around to go back into the house. Julia’s standing where I left her, holding the papers. “What are those?” I demand, and snatch them from her hand, thinking it must be a threat, some sort of demand.

The sight of my own face has me reeling. Except, it’s not the me I am now, but the me I was six years ago.

My mugshot.

No way of mistaking that picture for anything else.

I flip to one of the other pages, already knowing what I’m going to see, and I’m proven correct. My arrest record. What I was charged with, how long I went to jail for.

My secret, bared to her eyes through someone else’s actions. I feel a vein in my forehead beginning to throb as my blood pressure rises.

Julia’s looking at me. I look back at her, my vision pulsing with every rapid thump of my heart, and I know there’s nothing I can do to take this back. I can’t call this a sick prank. I can’t pretend I know nothing.

The past is here and I’ve got to face it.

“Now we’re even.” My voice comes out ragged.