SizzlingInsanity (14 page)

“So you see, I’ve put us all in danger.”

“Shelby, look at us,” Owen said firmly.

She raised her gaze, shocked when she saw nothing but love
and concern in his eyes. She glanced over at Jonty and Sawyer who had identical
looks on their faces.

“Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you come to us? We
didn’t even realize you knew about Garrison being your dad, let alone the rest
of it.”

“Your dad told me shortly before he died. He gave me Mom’s
diary. He told me how my father killed her.”

Sawyer paced back and forth. “Dad had no right telling you
any of that. He could have gotten you killed. Fuck, I can’t believe you were
kidnapped, beaten, and nearly raped.”

“Cade and Connor didn’t hurt me. It wasn’t their fault.”

“Like hell it wasn’t!” Owen yelled. “They took you, held you
against your will. Everything that happened to you was their fault.”

The door opened and all three of her cousins jumped to their
feet.

“And the fact that we were able to get to her so easily is
on the three of you.”

Shelby gasped and looked over at the door to see Connor
standing there, leaning nonchalantly against the door frame.

“You should have protected her better,” he added.

“What the fuck!” Owen yelled as Jonty leaped over to stand
in front of her. Sawyer stepped forward.

“So you’re one of them,” he said in a low voice, his fists
clenching.

Shelby stood and tried to move around Jonty, but he held her
behind him.

Connor ignored her cousins, watching her carefully. “Shelby,
sit down before you fall down.”

“Don’t talk to her,” Owen said.

“Why not?” Connor asked calmly. “I’ve been the one taking
care of her for the last five days. The three of you didn’t even know where she
was. If she was my cousin, I’d protect her like the treasure she is. I would
know exactly where she was every minute of the day. She certainly wouldn’t be
endangering herself by trespassing onto private property and spying on a
senator.”

“Taking care of her?” Sawyer asked. “You kidnapped her. You
allowed someone to attack her.”

Connor’s face darkened. “That will never happen again.”

There was a slight noise behind her and she turned to find
Cade standing there. She swayed from moving too suddenly, the world around her
tilting.

Jonty grabbed her, making her whimper in pain as he touched
her bruised back.

“Careful,” Cade said sharply. “She’s injured.”

Suddenly he was beside her, helping her lie down on her side
on the sofa. He sat next to her, brushing her hair from her face.

Then he went flying away from her, landing on the floor.
Shelby sat up in shock as Owen stood over Cade, his body heaving with fury.

“Don’t you dare fucking touch her,” he snarled.

“Owen, don’t.”

He turned to look at her and she flinched as she saw his
eyes had gone amber. He barely had control over his wolf.

Cade simply sat up and smiled, there was no humor on his
face. “Oh, I plan on touching her. A lot. Every way and everywhere I can.”

Owen roared and reached for him. Shelby stood, needing to
stop them from killing each other, but Jonty held her back.

“Stay out of this, Shelby.”

“They’ll kill each other,” she said worriedly as Cade threw
a punch, catching Owen in the face. Owen took a step back before recovering
quickly and slamming his fist into Cade’s stomach.

“Enough,” Sawyer yelled, stepping between them. “This is
getting us nowhere.” He pushed Owen back when he tried to get to Cade again.

“It’s making me feel a hell of a lot better,” Owen said.

“Me too,” Cade agreed.

“Really?” Shelby asked. “I’m glad it makes you two feel so
much better to hit each other. I mean, as long as you’re both feeling good the
rest of us don’t matter, do we?”

Both men looked guilty.

“Sit down, Shel,” Jonty said, pulling her onto the sofa.

Christ, everything was a complete mess.

“How did you find me?” she asked Connor tiredly. What a mess
she’d made of things and so far she couldn’t see a way out of it.

“We put GPS trackers on your cousins’ vehicles,” he told
her.

“So I never had a chance, huh?”

“You did well at hiding your tracks,” Cade told her. “I was
impressed. It took us a good hour longer than I thought to find you. We thought
you might have gone straight to your cousins. It was smart of you to go into
town and call them instead.”

“You followed me to Jala’s,” she said. “Is she okay?”

“Is that whose apartment it was?” Connor asked. She nodded.
“Don’t worry, we didn’t go inside. We decided to follow you instead.”

“Good, she doesn’t have anything to do with this.” Shelby
clenched her hands together. “Did you tell Garrison what I said? Are you taking
me back to him?”

She was a dead woman. She had no doubt about that.

“They’re not taking you anywhere,” Owen growled.

“Not right now, no.” Connor surprised her by agreeing.
“First, we want some answers to our questions.”

“What makes you think we’re going to just sit here and let
you harass her?” Owen said. “I say we just take them out now.”

“You’re welcome to try,” Connor said. “But I can guarantee
you’ll find we’re not that easy to kill and all you’ll end up doing is injuring
yourself and upsetting Shelby.”

“I don’t want anyone getting hurt,” Shelby agreed. “This is
all my fault, I should be the one to pay the consequences. Please, will you all
just sit down?” She rubbed her forehead.

“Headache?” Jonty asked, massaging the back of her neck.

She sent him a smile of gratitude and closed her eyes for a
moment.

“What kind of consequences are you talking about, Shelby?”
Connor asked. She opened her eyes to find that he and Sawyer had sat. Owen and
Cade were still standing, glaring at each other from across the room. Tension
remained thick but she supposed it was the best they could do. She should count
her blessings they weren’t all trying to kill each other.

“You’ll have to tell Garrison about me, if you haven’t
already.”

“And what do you think will happen when we tell Sam?” Connor
asked with a slight frown.

“He’ll kill me,” she said matter-of-factly.

“What?” Connor and Cade yelled.

“What the hell makes you think he’ll kill you?” Connor
asked.

“Or that we’d ever allow him to touch you?” Cade added.

Shelby stared at them in confusion. “Well, he probably won’t
kill me himself, he’ll get someone else to. He has to, he can’t afford to let
me live. I know too much. I could ruin him.”

Connor ran his hand through his short hair, letting out a
deep breath. “Shelby, I know you somehow think that Sam killed your mom, and
believe me you’ll be telling me that story soon. But even if that is true, even
if Sam was capable of murder, there is no way in hell we would ever allow him
to harm you.”

“Why would you care?” Owen snapped. “You kidnapped her to
protect him.”

“We took her because we thought she was a threat to his
safety. We wanted to question her,” Connor told them.

“Turns out we were right,” Cade said. “But no matter what,
we will still protect her with every breath in our bodies.”

“Why?” Sawyer asked. “Shelby said you’re Garrison’s
bodyguards, it’s your job to protect him. Why would any of us believe you’d
protect Shelby from him?”

“Because our first loyalty is to our mate,” Cade replied.

Her cousins all stared at her in disbelief and she shook her
head. “I’m not your mate.”

“Yes you are, we just haven’t made it official yet,” Connor
countered. “Our wolves know it and so does yours. You’re just in denial.”

“But that ends now,” Cade added. “We are claiming you and
there will be no more running away, no putting yourself in danger. You will
listen to us and you will allow us to protect you.”

“No. No way,” she whispered, even as she knew they were
speaking the truth. Her wolf knew it, but there were too many issues, weren’t
there? “I’m the enemy, remember? I want Garrison dead and you’ve sworn to
protect him.”

“She doesn’t seem to want you. No way are we going to stand
by and let you force her,” Owen snarled.

“Oh believe me, we won’t need to use force,” Cade drawled.

Owen moved forward and Sawyer had to stand and force him
back.

“Cade, shut up,” Connor said. “You’re not helping matters.
Shelby, did you run off because you thought we were going to give you to Sam?”

“I figured you’d tell him what I told you and he’d put two
and two together and realize he’d have to get rid of me.”

Connor sighed. “You need to tell us everything. Why the hell
do you think that Sam killed your mother and that he’d want to kill you?”

She looked over at Sawyer who nodded. “You might as well
tell them all of it, squirt, they don’t seem the type to give up. Maybe it will
help us all figure out how best to deal with this mess.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “This is all my fault. You’ll
all be better off when I’m gone.”

“What the fuck kind of thing is that to say?” Owen snarled.
“Better off without you? That’s bullshit.”

“But it’s what she believes, isn’t it, Shelby?” Connor said.
“You think that you’re a burden to your cousins, that their lives would be
better if you hadn’t come into it. That’s why you were so reckless with your
safety, because you figured it didn’t matter if you died.”

Owen moved swiftly, grabbing Connor by his shirt to pull him
from the chair. “You take that back, my cousin is not a burden and if she died
there would be hell to pay, you hear me?”

“Oh I hear you,” Connor said calmly. “But I’m not the one
you need to convince.”

Owen let him drop back into his chair and he turned to
Shelby.

“Shel?” Jonty asked, squeezing her hand. “You don’t really
believe any of that, do you?”

She shrugged.

“Shelby,” Connor growled sternly. “Speak up.”

She shot him a heated look before staring at her cousins.
Jonty looked concerned, Owen mad, and Sawyer was hiding his emotions behind a
stony mask. She sighed. “All I cause you guys is trouble. You’re not welcome in
the pack because of me, you have to work shitty jobs and live in a crappy house
because of me. It’s even my fault that Uncle Colin died.”

“What?” Sawyer said with shock. “That was an accident.”

“But we wouldn’t have been in the caves if it wasn’t for me.
He was training me. If I hadn’t been around, he would have been somewhere else
that day, he would still be alive.”

A tear tracked down her cheek.

“Oh baby.” Sawyer moved over and sat on her other side,
drawing her in close. “That wasn’t your fault. It was his choice to be there.
We told him he was being too hard on you, but he wouldn’t listen to us. Those
caves weren’t safe and he had no business endangering you like that. There is
no way his death was your fault and I don’t want to hear you blaming yourself
again.”

“Do you really think our lives would be better without you?”
Jonty said. “You brought laughter back into our house. We love you, Shelby.
There is no way we would ever be without you.”

“And it’s Jack’s fault that he couldn’t see past his
prejudices and accept you for who you are,” Owen added, coming to crouch in
front of her. “Not yours.” He took her hands in his, squeezing gently.

“I love you guys.”

They hugged her, telling her how much they loved her.

“So this is why you didn’t tell us about your plans to go
after Senator Garrison?” Sawyer asked. “What were you thinking, Shelby? You
know we would have helped you however we could.”

“I know,” she said, feeling guilty for keeping them in the
dark. “But you would have tried to stop me and you know it.”

Owen snorted. “Damn straight. Do you know how dangerous it
is to spy on a senator? Anything could have happened to you. At the very least
you should have told us after that first time you were caught.”

Connor cleared his throat and they all looked at him.

“Maybe this is the time to start at the beginning,” he said.
“Shelby, you want to tell us why you think Sam killed your mom?”

She took in a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.

“I know Sam Garrison killed my mother, I don’t just think
it.” She glanced around at her cousins.

“Tell them all of it,” Sawyer said. “If they’re being honest
about their feelings for you then you can’t keep things from them. If they’re
lying, if they betray you, then they’re dead men.”

All three of her cousins glared at Cade and Connor, even
even-tempered Jonty. Connor just raised an eyebrow while Cade stared back at
them, looking offended.

“We’re not lying,” Cade said. “It is our right to protect
her and to do that we need to know everything.”

Shelby glared at Connor and Cade. She wished they’d stop
going on about her being their mate. She didn’t have time to think about that
right now. She particularly didn’t want to think about how right it sounded
every time they called her that.

Their mate.

Shelby never expected to have one mate, let alone two. She
was a half-breed. They deserved better than her.

“Shelby?”

She looked up into Connor’s concerned gaze. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m fine. Just deciding where to start.”

“Start at the beginning,” Cade said matter-of-factly.

“Right, why didn’t I think of that?” she said, with some
amusement. “The beginning, well, my mother’s name was Annabeth Miller.”

Connor’s gaze widened and he looked over at Cade.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Connor replied. “Continue.”

She stared at them suspiciously but decided to keep going.
“Anyway, when my mother was in her early twenties, she met Sam Garrison. He was
a real charmer—he made her fall in love with him, even though she realized how
impossible their relationship was. There was no way they could ever be
together, but my mom had blinders on, she was in love and that was all that
mattered.”