Half Truths (A Helheim Wolf Pack Tale) (3 page)

Stepping back
from the mirror, she looked over her five-minute-fix and sighed. She still
looked like she’d been dragged out of bed at two in the morning and been forced
to throw on a crumpled uniform from the floor.

When she walked
back into the diner, Vaile was in a corner booth; his head stuck behind a
plastic-coated menu. He looked up before she actually got to the table—his eyes
impassive—before he went back to the menu in his hands. Larissa slid into the
bench seat opposite him and picked up a menu as well. She knew exactly what she
wanted, but looked anyway.

The waitress
came over to them a few minutes later wearing a smile that shouldn’t have been
possible that early in the morning.

‘What can I get
y’all?’ she asked in a friendly, open voice.

‘Coffee. Black,’
Vaile said; folding his menu and placing it back with the others at the end of
the table. Larissa glanced at the waitress to see if she took his gruffness
personally, but her expression was still friendly.

‘And for you,
honey?’ she asked Larissa.

‘I … umm …’ She
glanced behind the counter to see who was working the grill.
‘I’ll have
a cup of coffee with sugar and cream and a slice of cherry pie, thank you.’

When the
waitress turned away, Larissa folded her menu and placed it at the end of the
table. When she looked up, Vaile was staring at her.

‘Cherry pie?’ he
asked, raising a platinum-blond eyebrow.

Her cheeks
flushed. ‘I’m hungry.’ She always ate when she was nervous, and when she was
around Vaile, that seemed to be always.

He grunted and
looked away. ‘You were late to the scene,’ he eventually said, still not
looking at her. His voice was hard—judgemental.

She blushed.
‘I’m not a morning person,’ she mumbled, her cheeks bruising with colour again.
She didn’t know why, but she wanted to make a good impression with Vaile. She’d
seen him around the station for a long time, always wondering why he was alone.
He worked alone, ate alone and left alone every night—long after other cops had
clocked out.

Now she could
kind of see why.

A long period of
absolute silence stretched between them. His eyes were glued to the window,
looking out into the darkness like he could actually make out more than just
the shadows of cars and the woods across the wide stretch of highway in front
of the diner. Sometimes when a car passed, light reflected in his eyes and they
looked blue—not grey—for just that split second until he blinked the colour
away.

The smell of
cherries brought Larissa back to the diner. Her pie was sitting in front of her
now, two forks wrapped in white napkins beside the plate. The waitress was
placing their coffees down onto the table when Larissa glanced between Vaile’s
drink and hers thinking about how poignant that was: hers white and sweet, his
dark and bitter.

‘Anything else I
can get y’all?’ the waitress asked. Not waiting for Vaile’s reply, Larissa told
her no and she left. Sucking in a nervous breath, she unwrapped one of the
forks and took her first bite of warm pie. When she looked up, Vaile was
staring at her again.

‘What’s on your
eyes?’

‘On my … oh,
that.’ She suddenly wanted the earth to open up and swallow her whole. ‘It’s
mascara.’

‘You weren’t
wearing it before,’ he replied, taking a shallow sip from his cup, all the
while keeping her pinned with his grey and blue-flecked gaze.

‘I-I know. I
just put it on in the bathroom.’

‘Why?’ he asked,
not dropping his gaze. She swallowed thickly, her eyes on her fork. She pushed
a bite of pie around the plate wondering whether she should just tell him the
truth or lie to him. Why had she put it on? Part of it was because she felt
naked without her make-up on, and the other part was she wanted to look her
best for him which made no sense at all. He was angry and rough and rude. He
wasn’t anything like the kind of man she would normally be attracted to.

She decided on a
half-truth. ‘I’ve been wearing make-up since I was thirteen. I can’t seem to go
anywhere without it,’ she replied, meeting his eyes. His irises churned slowly;
the colour twisting from grey to blue then back again. Pressing her thumbs into
eyes, she rubbed until she could see red before opening them. All the lack of
sleep was catching up with her.

‘Tired?’

‘Yeah,’ she
sighed.

‘Drink your
coffee,’ he suggested, waving a hand languorously towards her untouched cup.
Propping her fork against the side of her plate, she took the mug in her hands
and took a deep sip. Caffeine and sugar zinged through her bloodstream,
instantly waking her up. She picked up her fork again and took another bite of
pie. Vaile watched her in a way that could only be described as predatory.

Her heart
thumped loudly and impatiently in response. ‘Do you want some pie?’ she asked,
wiping her mouth with her paper napkin and nudging the second fork over to his
side of the table.

‘Are you
married?’

Larissa was
suddenly stock-still. ‘Married?’ she asked eventually, not able to keep the
surprise from her voice. Vaile glanced pointedly down at her left hand.
Larissa’s fingers went to the plain gold band on her ring finger and twisted it
nervously.

‘I’m not
married,’ she replied when she found her voice again.

One of Vaile’s
brows arched. ‘Boyfriend?’

‘No boyfriend.’
She watched for his reaction, focusing on his eyes which seemed to give away
most of his emotions, but saw nothing. ‘So,’ she said, hating having to tread
the waters of silence for any longer than she already had, ‘what do you think
about this murder?’

‘We won’t know
anything more until I can talk to the coroner later on this morning.’

‘He’s going to
pull an all-nighter for us?’

‘For
me
,
he’s going to pull an all-nighter,’ Vaile replied arrogantly.

She didn’t
bother correcting him or fighting him on anything he said. It seemed to her
that Vaile was just one of those men who had to take all the accolades. That
was fine with her—up to a point. If his posturing got in the way of her career,
she’d firmly put him in his place, but until then he could take the credit for
whatever little things he wanted to.

‘I wonder how
Beth is doing,’ she muttered to herself almost incoherently. Thinking about her
career and getting on with life made her think about that poor girl who had
been raped so violently only a couple of days ago.

‘Beth?’ he
asked.

‘The rape
victim,’ Larissa clarified. When he didn’t say anything more, she looked at
him, raising an incredulous eyebrow.

‘What do you
want me to say?’ he snapped at her. She could have sworn she saw his eyes churn
again; the colours bleeding to grey and blue before clearing again. She sat
further back into the booth and crossed her arms under her breasts.

‘That poor girl
had her whole life ahead of her and it was taken away.’

‘She’s not dead,
Grey,’ he replied in a flat, irritated tone.

‘Her virginity
has been stolen by a monster. She certainly feels like her life is over,’ she
snapped back, feeling her anger bubbling in her blood. Men could be so clueless
when it came to women. Of course Beth was still alive, but the thing that made
her different and unique had been stolen from her, and she would never get it
back.

Vaile studied
her carefully from over the top of his coffee cup. ‘Sorry,’ he said softly,
placing his cup back down onto the tabletop. Stunned, Larissa picked up her cup
and took a sip, finding the coffee too cool to drink. Looking down at her pie,
she found her appetite gone too. She pushed the plate away from her and looked
out the window, only seeing her own reflection staring back at her at first.
Her eyes flickered in his direction almost automatically to find that Vaile was
staring at her intently, but when she turned, he looked away.

‘Excuse me,’ he
grumbled, scooting out from behind the table and stalking off towards the back
of the diner. She watched him go, enjoying the view. He was huge; nearly a
whole foot taller than she was and built like a Mack truck. But somehow, he
still managed to move with a smoothness not meant for a man his size.

He was gone for
nearly five minutes when she pulled her purse from her bag to pay for their
drinks and her pie. She left the money on the table and stood up. Looking
around to find him before she left, Larissa saw him come from around the
counter with two more cups in his hand. As he approached, he looked at the
money on the table then at her.

‘Were you
leaving?’ he asked in a rumble.

‘It’s late,’ she
snapped, pulling her handbag onto her shoulder and clutching at the straps.

‘I thought we
could have one more cup of coffee.’

Her eyes darted
down to the cups he was holding. ‘Why?’ she asked stiffly.

He sighed.
‘Because I can be an asshole sometimes and I’m sorry. Please. Sit down. Have
another cup with me.’ Without waiting for her answer, he put a fresh cup down
on her side and slid into the booth. She felt stupid just standing there
looking ready to leave, but not actually going anywhere. With a groan, she put
her bag down and slid back into the booth.

Her coffee was
perfect with just the right amount of sugar and cream. ‘Thank you,’ she said
after her first, very satisfying sip.

‘You’re
welcome,’ he grumbled. A small smile tilted his mouth up in one corner,
revealing a small dimple. See? There were some redeeming features about him.

‘Why don’t you
like working with a partner?’ Larissa blurted without thinking. When she’d first
approached Captain D’Angelo about shadowing Vaile, he’d told her that Vaile
preferred working alone, that he could be very difficult to work with. And
although everyone told her she was crazy for doing it, she still wanted the
assignment.

He cocked a brow
at her, looking at her for a long time before answering. ‘I just prefer working
alone.’ He looked down into his coffee cup. Larissa had almost given up on
getting anymore information from him when he added, ‘Sometimes … sometimes I
don’t know how to act around people,’ he admitted, still staring down into his
coffee cup. His huge shoulders were curled forward, almost like he was ashamed
for admitting that he was a little socially inept. Larissa didn’t see the
problem though. Sometimes she didn’t want to talk to people because they’d
eventually find out who she was, and she didn’t need their pity-filled looks or
the silent
I’m sorrys
in their eyes.

‘We might just
be perfect for each other then,’ she replied wistfully, taking another sip and
enjoying how languorously her coffee slipped down her throat. When she glanced
up, Vaile looked startled. Had she said something wrong? He drained his cup in
one go and stood quickly. His black tee was tight across his broad chest and
wide shoulders. The gun holster he didn’t bother covering with a jacket despite
the snow on the ground outside seemed to almost blend into the colour of his
shirt.

‘I have to go.
I’ll see you down at the station in a few hours,’ he said gruffly.

‘Wait! Vaile!’
she called. But he just walked away. ‘Vaile!’ she stood up soundlessly, but
somehow he knew. He turned around; a hard look of consternation on his fierce,
handsome face.

‘Sorry,’ he
murmured, turning on his heel and stalking out of the diner.

Vaile shrugged into his holster
again; heading up the stairs of central command and making a beeline to his
desk. He was early having only got an hour’s sleep max after he’d got home from
having coffee with Grey that morning. He had just kept replaying her words over
and over in his head.

We might just
be perfect for each other then.

He didn’t know
what she’d meant, and he sure as fuck wasn’t going to hang around to find out.
He’d already allowed her too close. He’d driven back to the pack house with an
angry swarm of wasps in his head, buzzing incessantly. He couldn’t sleep with
her words repeating over and over in his skull. At six A.M., he’d finally just left
the house and come to work. Not that that was going to do him any good. She
would be sitting right next to him in a couple of hours, smelling amazing and
driving him crazy without even trying.

Leaning back
into his chair, he looked over at her desk separated only by one padded wall.
Her desk was as neat and functional as he kept his. There were no pictures of
family or ridiculous trinkets or fucking inspirational quotes. Even her pens
were lined up neatly in one corner. He glanced back at his own desk and told
himself to get his head back in the fucking game.

Turning on his
computer, he waited until it booted up then clicked into his emails. The most
recent email was from Doctor Lee. Vaile got favours from Lee because he was a
skin walker—a rare kind of shape shifter—that only Vaile knew about. They
generally had a bad rep. So in exchange for keeping his mouth shut, Vaile got
special favours from the doc.

Vaile clicked
into it and scrolled through the report. The doc had taken Aaron No Last Name’s
fingerprints and run them through the database, but came up with nothing. So
the kid had kept his nose clean—not even so much as a speeding fine. He
suddenly remembered that Grey had spoken to that girl who had apparently gone
with him to the club. He glanced at the clock on his computer and cursed
silently. Grey wouldn’t be in for another hour and a half, and patience wasn’t
one of Vaile’s virtues.

Pushing out from
behind his desk, he wandered over to the kitchenette and contemplated making
coffee. When he opened up the jar though, the smell instantly reminded him of
last night with Grey. With a growl, he twisted the top back on and stalked
silently back to his desk.