“Who’s Amanda Greenaway?” I asked.
“A miracle worker.” Kerry blew out a long, slow breath. “She doesn’t owe me anything.”
I didn’t know what scope of miracles a miracle worker could perform, but I hoped Amanda could at least ease Kerry’s mind. Much more of this and nothing anyone said or did was gonna hold him back.
“Well, Amanda thinks she owes you,” Gigi said. “Take advantage of it and call her.”
He held out for about thirty seconds.
“All right. At the least, maybe she’ll have some ideas we haven’t thought of. I don’t know how to contact her, though.”
“Ask Clem for her number. Oh, wait. She probably hasn’t had time to figure out phones yet.” Gigi bit her lip for a second, then brightened. “Ask him to pass a message along to her. Theyaremarried.”
He nodded, pulled out his phone, and walked toward his bedroom.
Rome trotted up to me and stuck his nose in my hand.
“You’re all better now?” I knelt down to rub the wrinkles between his eyes.
“He’s better,” Jax said as he joined us. “He’s also lucky. I’ve never been able to heal humans, only animals, so I wasn’t sure if it would work to heal a human who shifted into an animal. Anyway, he wants to change back, but I’m making him wait a bit to be sure the bones are knit well enough to withstand a shift.”
Rome nuzzled his face into my hands and made a doggy noise.
“He says,‘That’swhy we weren’t letting Kerry leave at night.’ ” Jax laughed. “Well, at least the damage was controllable this time.”
“Baby, what can we do to help Kerry?” Gigi looped her arm through his. “He has too much time to brood.”
“We need to find something to distract him.” I sank my fingers in Rome’s soft ruff. “Maybe we can ask Josef if they have a nest of something Diabolical that needs cleaned out.”
“Let him blow off steam by blowing things away?” Jax grinned.
“Something like that.”
“I’m more worried about what’s going to happen when his rage runs out. It’s all that’s fueling him right now.” Gigi chewed on her thumb nail.
“Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about his fury tank running dry anytime soon.”
“I’m not so sure, Mira. That much anger takes a lot of energy. Even as powerful as he is, he isn’t eating or sleeping. At least, not well. When he crashes, and he will, he’s going to crash hard.”
“One problem at a time, Gi.” Jax dropped his chin on Gigi’s head. “We’ll keep him busy for now and hope for the best. That’s all we can do.”
28. The Big Guns
Travis
“Mr. Snyder?” My mouth fell open. “The Council is really consideringhimas the traitor?”
Tara, John and I had gathered around Hank and Gina’s dining room table to hear what happened at the latest Council meeting.
“We’re not privy to all the information, of course,” Hank said, “but Helene Chapman feels it’s more of a personal vendetta. Henry Gaines, the Council’s president, is out for Nat’s blood for some reason, and Helene feels he’ll make sure there’s enough evidence against Nat to at least get him arrested.”
“You can’t be serious!” Tara shook her head. “Mr. Snyder is so frail, I keep expecting him to keel over in class any day. No way he could be as active as the traitor would need to be.”
Let the Council chase their tails and persecute an old man. At least it’ll keep the wardens out of our way.
It took me a minute to realize the taint was whispering in my head again. It was fading, but it still kicked up from time to time and darkened my thoughts.
I knew my anger stemmed from grief. Losing my girl was going to haunt me all of my long life. But hating and blaming innocent people wasn’t me—and it wasn’t the guy Maddy knew. Even though she was gone, I couldn’t disappoint her.
