Best Friends (New Species #15)(54)

She got a bad feeling. “What?”

“The human said he called at least a dozen reporters asking about a shooting at that diner. One reporter already showed up to speak to you.”

She retook her seat and tugged on Snow. He reluctantly sat down next to her again. “What’s so bad about that? I didn’t tell him anything.”

Jaded poured himself more coffee and sat. “You’ve been associated with the NSO. I deal with the press often. They can be relentless. The male couldn’t remember all the ones he contacted. He did, however, give them the names of the waitresses who would have been present at the time he received the call from his sibling. You and Mary Muller always work from the time the diner opens until afternoon, Tuesdays through Saturdays. That was very easy for him to learn from the humans.”

She felt sick. “Mary and I are still in potential danger, then.”

“Here’s the good news. The male spoke to other humans in town while he waited for another opportunity to capture you after his first attack.” Brass paused. “Your friend Mary has earned quite a reputation with the humans regarding her extreme fear of animals. They laughed, he claimed, when he asked if Mary would know our kind. One even shared a story with him about a dog incident at the grocery store.” He shrugged.

Mel knew exactly what he was talking about. “Someone brought their dog shopping. I wasn’t there, but I heard about it. It ran up to Mary to be petted. She thought it was going to bite her, and she started screaming and climbed into her shopping cart. It was a weekend, so a lot of folks were there to see that go down.”

Torrent leaned forward. “How big was this dog?”

“It was a four-pound chihuahua,” she admitted. “They’re these tiny dogs that Mary swears resemble rats. Everyone laughed and she was embarrassed pretty bad. But she wouldn’t let them help her out of the cart until Mrs. Abrams left with her dog.”

Jaded smiled but didn’t laugh. “Once Darren Barrows learned that, he focused solely on you.” Jaded glanced around the table at the other New Species, before holding her gaze again. “Any decent reporter will learn that same information about Mary and dismiss her as someone who wouldn’t associate with our people. We feel the threat to her is so low that it’s not a concern. You’re the one we worry about, Melinda. More reporters could show up. We feel you’re not safe leaving Reservation. You have a reputation for being friendly, and Darren was told you’ve openly admitted to liking New Species.”

She let that sink in. “Please, just call me Mel,” she got out.

Snow released her hand and leaned closer, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. She appreciated his emotional support.

“Mel,” Jaded responded.

She met his gaze.

“You’re in danger of at least being harassed by the press if more come here. That’s the best case. But the NSO have a lot of enemies. Some humans hate us because we’re different. Some fear us. We have religious fanatics targeting us. We almost had a human female burned alive in front of our gates because Zandy worked for the NSO. They wanted to punish her with a horrendous death just for associating with us. None of them even knew at first that she was involved romantically with one of our males until after they had taken her. The only reasonable options to keep you safe are for you to live here until we’re certain the threat has passed, or if you return to Indiana, far from the NSO. We’ll of course pay for you to relocate if that is your choice. We don’t want you to be financially burdened because you defended our males in that diner.”

Snow suddenly released her and stood. “Mel and I need to talk alone.”

The other New Species got to their feet as well.

Jaded addressed Snow. “Are you still angry with Justice for his decision to give Sheriff Cooper the male?”

Mel watched various emotions flash across Snow’s features. She wasn’t upset with the decision, herself. The jerk would serve some time for what he’d done. That’s all that mattered to her.

Snow finally sighed. “I realize how important it is for us to keep good relations with the sheriff and the humans. I don’t like it but I understand. Tell Justice I hold no grudge.”

“Thank you.” Jaded gave him a slight smile. “He’ll be happy to hear that. We all are.”

Snow led her out of the conference room and back to his place without speaking, but he kept a firm hold of her hand.

Mel had some thinking to do…but she was sure she already knew her decision.

*

Snow couldn’t shut his thoughts down. He kept imagining all the danger Mel could face if she returned to her apartment. It was tempting to see if other mates who had been targeted for being associated with New Species would share their stories with her. That might persuade her to stay at Reservation with him.

He realized neither had touched their food at the meeting, as both stood silently in his home. “Are you hungry?”

“A little. That food did look good.”

He softly growled. “I’m sorry. I just took you out of there without thinking about that.”

“We could go downstairs to eat in the cafeteria.”

“The others will want to ask you more questions about human females and sit at our table with us. You were too nice to them before. We won’t have the opportunity to talk alone if we go down there.”