Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(67)

“What kind of relationship did you have with Tony? Your mother’s boyfriend who was murdered. How well did you know him?”

Alicia’s jaw tightened as she stared at the coffee table. Jake wondered if there was more to the story than she had let on.

“Sometimes… sometimes I thought he was trying to be the father I never had. I thought maybe he was planning on marrying my mother.” She shrugged. “I didn’t need a father. Hadn’t had one all those years. And at my age, why now? But at other times”—she looked up at Jake—“he would distance himself as if he was afraid to know me. Like he was afraid for me to know him. Which was probably because he was tied to the Mob.”

“Was Tony ever jealous of your relationship with your mother?” Jake thought that could very well be the case.

Alicia shook her head with conviction. “No. That was the oddest thing. He seemed to appreciate my close relationship with Mom. As if I was good for her. I often wondered why he wouldn’t resent that she and I were such good friends. Instead, he seemed to admire our relationship. I don’t know. Maybe he’d never had a mother or father who was there for him growing up. Or maybe he’d been close to his mom and understood.

“He wasn’t exactly like the other men she dated. They were… never intimate with her like Tony was. He tried to hide his affections for my mother when he was with her around me. But even so, I’d catch a shared kiss. Him holding her hand. A warm embrace. The other men were just… there. Accompanying her. I never saw any sign of affection or intimacy.”

That seemed strange to Jake. “Where are your mother’s things? Did you go through them?”

“In my apartment. She’d had a furnished apartment in Dillon. She didn’t have many personal effects. And mostly at the end, she’d been living with Tony in his condo. I gave away all her clothes to the women’s abuse center. There wasn’t much left. I didn’t really take time to look through her things. I never thought she might have anything incriminating against Mario. I… I haven’t returned to my place for the past month, afraid these men would know I’d lived there, and one of them would be waiting for me to show up. So I’ve just paid the bills and stayed clear of the place.”

That was why Jake dreamed that Alicia was in different beds when they made love in their dream states every night. He looked over at Darien to get his okay for what he was about to do next. Darien nodded, giving him his consent.

“I’ll take you back to your apartment,” Jake said. “We’ll see if we can find anything, evidence, something that will clue us in if there was more of a connection to you than you believe. I have a sneaking hunch that Mario coming after you has more to do with you than your attempt at putting him behind bars. And I halfway suspect when we arrive at your place, it’ll look like a tornado hit it.”

***

The drive to Alicia’s apartment seemed to take forever as Jake chauffeured her in his truck, while Peter and Tom rode in Peter’s Suburban as their backup guard. Pete wore his sheriff’s uniform, although he’d be out of his jurisdiction.

Their presence was more than comforting, especially since Alicia couldn’t take her gun with her since the police still had it. But she was armed with a can of pepper spray.

She’d been alone for so long that she enjoyed the sense of belonging that Jake’s pack members had offered her. She still hadn’t come to complete terms with being mated to Jake forever or all the strange things she was learning about her werewolfism and pack-member politics. She could only swallow the news in little bites.

But the worry of what she might find at her apartment was overshadowed by the concern she might be pregnant. She clenched and unclenched her hands, then finally said, “Can we stop at a drugstore? There’s one in the strip mall on the corner before we reach my apartment.”

She figured if she had to shop at a drugstore in Silver Town, the whole pack might know what she purchased. That was one bad thing about the closeness of a pack, she was learning. And Lelandi had said most of the businesses were werewolf run. Alicia imagined even Lisa, the manager of the lingerie shop, might have told everyone what Jake had bought for her there. Lelandi wouldn’t have, though. Alicia felt Lelandi was one person who wouldn’t give her secrets away. Unless keeping them might harm the pack.

Jake was silent for so long that Alicia thought she’d spoken so softly he hadn’t heard. But with their wolf hearing, she decided that wasn’t it. She assumed he was trying to figure out why she needed to stop at the drugstore.

He finally nodded and grabbed his phone off his belt and punched a button. “Tom? We’re making a stop at a corner drugstore.”

“They don’t need to come inside with us,” Alicia quickly said. She didn’t need the whole world to know what she was up to.

He glanced at her, then said to his brother, “You can wait outside for us. It’ll only take us a minute. Right.” Then he put his phone away. He didn’t say anything for a moment, but she could tell by his furrowed brow that he was bothered by her request. Then he said, “What is it that you need?”

She raised her brows at him. “Is nothing sacred?”

He gave her the wolfish grin that melted her insides to mush. “Not between us. Not now that we’re mates.”

“Ah, so if I wanted to probe into your deepest, most private fantasies or past history, you’d freely tell me about all of it?” she asked.