If she gave up Kendrick, the cubs would be taken. To where and what would happen to them, she didn’t know. She was equally certain that Kendrick could take care of them now, wherever they’d gone.
“I was just so scared,” Addie said. Her voice quavered—not a lie. “I don’t know where I was going. Driving around to clear my head.”
Alvarez pinned her with his dark stare then grudgingly gave her a nod. “Understandable. But I need to ask you to—”
He broke off sharply. Addie went ice-cold as she realized he was staring at her pocket, which was bulging with the money roll Kendrick had handed her.
“Ms. Price,” Alvarez said, voice sharp. “I’m going to ask you now to empty your pockets. Again, you don’t have to comply, but I’m going to ask.”
Addie heaved a sigh. If she didn’t do what he wanted, he could arrest her or at least take her in for questioning, advising she call a lawyer. Not that Addie had one.
She drew a breath, reached into her pocket, and took out the bills. “It’s mine. A friend gave it to me.”
There was no law against carrying around a lot of money. But an underpaid waitress racing down an empty highway with thousands of dollars in her pocket after the diner where she worked had just been shot up didn’t look good.
Alvarez stared hard at the money. Then he looked back at Addie, anger in his eyes.
“Ms. Price, I’d like you to come to the sheriff’s department with me. There are few questions you need to answer.”
No telling her she had a choice this time. Sighing, Addie nodded. At least they didn’t cuff her before they put her into the back of the sheriff’s car and drove away.
* * *
“Dad,” Zane asked Kendrick in their motel room well south of the I-10. “Is Addie going to be our new mom?”
Kendrick glanced down at his youngest son, barely four years old now. Kendrick’s heart constricted. Zane had the look of Eileen, Kendrick’s mate, who’d passed bringing this lad in. The eyes that looked up at him, thought they held the green of the white tiger, were hers.
Kendrick shook his head but kept his voice gentle. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing Addison anymore, son.”
Zane’s eyes filled with distress. “But I like Addie. She gives me pie.”
“I know.” Kendrick’s voice was harder than he meant it to be. “But it’s too dangerous for her to be around us right now. We don’t want Addison getting hurt.”
It had been a hell of a hard thing to unwrap his arms from around her and tell her to go. The sudden joy of her kiss, the taste of her sweetness, the feeling of her body the length of his had awakened a hope he’d not felt in a long, long time.
Grief and pain had consumed him for years, and then Addison had smiled at him, her blue eyes warm. The hot promise of her body had made aching need, long-suppressed, spring to life.
He had to send her to safety, away from the Shifters who’d turned on him, from humans who might find out she’d helped him. From himself.
Zane nodded at Kendrick’s words, but Kendrick knew he didn’t really understand.
Robbie, flipping through channels on the television, the sound muted, did understand. He said nothing though, only his hunched back betraying his unhappiness.
Damn it. Kendrick hadn’t meant for his cubs to be out in the wide world any longer than they had to be. He was supposed to find a new safe place for them, for all his Shifters.
He was working on it, but slowly. Kendrick had hoped he’d find a new site for his Shifters quickly, far from here, possibly in Alaska.
That plan had fallen apart as soon as Kendrick, trying to take his cubs to safety from the collapsing compound last November, had been found by Dylan Morrissey. Dylan was an alpha stronger than any other Kendrick had met, didn’t matter that Dylan had a Collar firmly around his neck.