The Better to Bite (Howl #1)(59)

“Silver.” This came from Rafe’s dad. He had Cass’s gun in his hand, and he’d opened the chamber.

There was a rumble from the group. Cass started crying. Between her sobs, she managed, “You bastards! You killed my grandmother!”

Dad’s hold on me was tight. “It’s okay.” He acted like he didn’t even hear Cass’s cries. “It’s just a flesh wound. The bullet nicked you, but you’re going to be just fine.”

The feeling had already started to come back in my arm, and it felt like fifty bees had decided to sting me—all in one place.

“We didn’t kill anyone!” Rafe’s dad shouted back at her. “We don’t hurt anyone, we don’t—”

A woman bent toward me. Pretty, with wide, hazel eyes and a soft face. “I’m a nurse, dear,” she said, “let me take a look.”

Reluctantly, my dad slid back. I’d noticed that Jon had positioned himself in front of Cass, and I wondered…

What will they do to her?

My dad braced his legs apart. “This shit stops now.” Hard, mean, but ice-cold, his voice cut through the rumblings in the room.

Rafe bent next to me and pushed back my hair. “You okay?”I nodded.

“I know what you all are,” my dad snapped. The nurse was wrapping my arm in white gauze. Where’d she gotten that? No, not gauze, the material looked like someone’s torn t-shirt.

I blinked and realized Brent wasn’t wearing a shirt anymore.

“I know, just like I know that one of you is killing in Haven.”

That announcement led to silence. Cassidy’s tears kept falling, but now she looked more broken than enraged.

“Six hikers,” he said. “All dead. We all damn well know that Sissy Hamilton was stalked by a wolf and Helen—”

“They killed her!” Cassidy charged. Okay, so maybe she was still enraged.

My dad’s eyes narrowed on her. “Take her to the station, Jon. Keep her in the conference room until I get back down there.”

I winced when the nurse wrapped my arm a little too tightly. Rafe took my hand.

Jon led Cass out. More like dragged her out.

“She knows about us,” Charles Channing said quietly. “We can’t have the folks in Haven—”

“I’ll deal with her.” Again, my dad’s promise was ice-cold. I didn’t speak, not yet. I figured I’d already done enough with my whole getting shot bit.

My dad glanced down at me. “Heather,” he said to the lady who’d just bandaged me, “take her to the hospital.”

No. I didn’t want to leave him. No way.

When my dad blinked, I realized I’d spoken. I cleared my throat and rose to my feet, with Rafe right beside me. My arm burned. Not bee stings anymore, but more like the skin and muscle had been doused in flame. I hadn’t realized that a bullet would feel so much like fire, but then, I hadn’t ever planned on getting shot, either. “I’m fine.” Maybe. Hopefully. I would be once the pain stopped. At least nothing vital had been hit.

“Take her to the hospital.” His eyes glittered. “I don’t want arguing from you, Anna. I want you safe, and I want you damn well safe now.”

Dad was definitely furious. I was the one who’d been shot. Shouldn’t I get some sympathy from the man who’d accidentally shot his own daughter? Huh?

“I’ve got her, sir,” Rafe said and his hold on me was strong, but careful. His fingers didn’t come close to my wound.

Brent stepped forward, too. “I’ll make sure she gets there safely.”

Wasn’t that sweet. Pity the werewolves hadn’t moved fast enough to take a bullet for me. Maybe next time.

My dad stared at me as a muscle jerked in his jaw. He didn’t speak. Didn’t relent. Fine. Whatever.

I let Rafe and Brent lead me out of that theater.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Rafe muttered, his lips close to my ear.

I shivered. Okay, I wasn’t feeling so well right then. The pain wasn’t lessening up. And what had I been thinking? “That I couldn’t let her kill you.” Again, my normal routine of blurting kicked in, but I was far past the point of monitoring myself.

He glanced down at me in surprise.

Brent made a faint growling sound.

“Either of you,” I whispered.

Heather held the door open for us.

“There’s a killer in this room!” My dad’s voice thundered as we left. “And I’m finding out who he or she is!”

The air hit me. Chilled and carrying the faintest scent of…smoke.

Smoke? We’d only taken a few steps when the sharp odor fully registered.

We all seemed to catch the scent at the same time. Light plumes of smoke rose from the sheriff’s office. Rising slowly, slowly…

A loud boom rocked the night, and the station erupted in a ball of flames.

I screamed then, as loud as I could, and I rushed forward. But Rafe hauled me back.

“No, Anna, no!”

The fire crackled and windows shattered. Orange and red flames flared higher.

“Cass—she’s in there!” Not just her. “Jon and Shirley are inside! We’ve got to help them!”

Brent stared at the flames with a slack jaw. Voices rose behind us as those who’d been in the theater rushed outside.