Trapp
The smell of the Black Sheep Beanery was familiar, one he could pick out with his eyes closed, regardless of the situation.
He’d not been back to the coffee shop since that disastrous morning when the first crack in his smiling, outward mask appeared.
Grayson’s house had been a refuge, a good place to hide and lick his wounds, and he had given the expensive coffee machine on his brother’s pristine countertops a workout over the course of his stay.
Instead, he’d let his adrenaline carry him, practically stomping his way up the steep hill, remembering too late that Owen lived in the same development and had likely not yet left for work.
By the time he’d reached the center of town, the throbbing behind his eye had become a liability and was only going to get worse the longer he went out without caffeine to soothe it.
He was a fucking fool for thinking anything with her would be different this time around.
He was every bit as idiotic as Grayson often claimed for wanting it to be different.
This is what you get for being so gullible.
Fool you once, shame on her. Fool you twice, almost twenty years later, shame on her again for being the same back-stabbing bitch, but double shame on you for still being hot for it.
Shame on you, shame on your wolf. A whimpering whine came from within. Yeah, you. Fucking idiot.
Trapp braced himself for the hard looks and tight eyes that would greet him in a place where he’d once received nothing but warmth and smiles; for heavy, awkward silence and the cautious, tiptoeing whispers of a town that loved nothing more than gossiping about the Hemming family.
He didn’t bother softening his expression, knowing his scowl was the polar opposite of what was expected from him, that he was completely off-script now, but with the way he felt, he didn’t really care.
“Trapp, oh my stars! I was so worried about you! We haven’t seen you in so long, and then I heard all about that terrible accident! The helicopters went right over our house! And in that weather?!”
He blinked. Xenna was off and running, exclaiming to the goblin on the line beside her to get him a hot coffee, regardless of the orders stacked up in front of them.
Her smile was warm, her eyes full of affection, as if he’d stepped into a rerun, an episode of the Trapp Show from the previous month.
He might have been a gullible simp, but not that gullible.
Trapp did not approach the counter as he might have once, remaining in line, silent. He didn’t need anyone’s special treatment, holding out the cup of house roast the goblin had scurried around the corner to deliver as though it might bite him.
“Plus, you know.” Xenna rolled her eyes, shaking her head, continuing the conversation over the heads of the troll and minotaur ahead of him. “Everything going on with this doctor at the clinic. I feel horrible that you’ve gotten mixed up in her whole mess.”
Trapp froze at the mention of her, his heart thumping. His jaw clenched, his shoulders going rigid, a cold prickle flaring across the back of his neck.
“What are you talking about?”
The sheepwoman’s smile faltered at his flat tone, a missed line, their scripted universe tipping for the space of a second, recovering a moment later.
“Well. Apparently she did a lot of dishing over drinks with Muffy, and you know Muffy can’t keep a secret to save her life.
Whatever happened between the two of you is beside the point; I just think it’s classless to kiss and tell that way.
And then Nif was chatting with one of the moms from the playgroup who said she has a terrible bedside manner.
It’s just a lot of stories with a common denominator; that’s all I’m saying.
I just hope your chief sees through it as the work of a troublemaker.
I can’t believe she’d try to audit you, as if you’re not doing things completely by the book! ”
His eye twitched. Xenna had turned her attention to the minotaur by then, giving Trapp a chance to absorb her rapid-fire disclosures.
“Rourke, what are you bringing to the firefly picnic? Don’t think you can get out of it.”
“Oh, you’re going to acknowledge my presence now? Sexy fireman time is over?”
Trapp couldn’t hear them. There was a rushing in his ears, his wolf whining, whimpering, curling low.
He had won. It was a total, unmitigated victory.
Adriana had made the rookie mistake of trusting the residents of Cambric Creek, like a fool.
Her neighbors, her co-workers — she had trusted them to simply let her exist without dissection.
She had told a story to the wrong person, and had evidently had several stories told about her in return.
Stories were engines; they breathed with life of their own.
People repeated stories because they enjoyed inhabiting them, and with each retelling, the story changed shape, grew uglier, turning a good doctor just trying to do her job and fit into her new town into a pariah, simply because one of the crybaby mothers at the community center play group didn’t like seeing little Gillie-Beth crying from a shot.
The gossip engine that fueled Cambric Creek had completed an Uno reverse on Adi with the exact same savage, unthinking speed it had used on him.
He could slip back into his role with ease, Trapp realized.
All he had to do was deliver the right line, the right smile, always landing his mark, slide right back into that rerun and let the past month slide off his back, revise itself, the same way he’d done to his break-up.
Instead, a white-hot rage shivered up his spine, a red mist spotting before his eyes.
They didn’t know her. They didn’t know the odds she’d overcome, putting that two-room trailer she’d so furiously recounted behind her.
They didn’t know the lion’s den she had entered at Mercycrest, surrounded by vicious wolves like him, who hadn’t hesitated to use the power of his name and his easy charm as weapons against her.
She’d hurt him, had broken his heart and shattered his trust, but he could survive a break-up. What he’d done to her had been far more insidious. He was no different than his grandfather, after all. A cruel bully, acting in ego and pride.
They didn’t know the daily trauma of emergency medicine, the same horrific scenes that played on a loop behind his eyes when his brain wasn’t otherwise occupied, the same tragedies, just in a different setting for her.
It was a terrible thing to be the first on the scene, but Trapp couldn’t pretend that being the one to call time of death over and over again wasn’t surely just as bad.
His wolf was vibrating beneath his skin, threatening to push through his chest, split his bones and spontaneously turn right there in the middle of the coffee shop.
“How dare you.”
The conversation playing out in front of him went silent at his sudden interruption, Xenna’s head raising, eyes going wide as the minotaur glanced back.
“Trapp?”
“How dare you!” he repeated, feeling as though he had gasoline in his veins.
“She’s brand new here! She doesn’t know who to trust. Why is it classless behavior for Dr. Brunelli, but not for Muffy?
You’re right, we all know you shouldn’t trust Muffy as far as you can throw her.
Doesn’t that reflect more on Muffy for being a sewer mouth than the person who was na?ve enough to not expect her confidence would make its way around town like the number three bus? ”
“Trapp, that’s not fair. I’m just telling you what I heard!”
“And what was that?” He scowled, his face twisted up in an expression that had never before appeared on script.
“Gossip you treated as facts? If the mothers in the playgroup want gentle pediatrics, they ought to stop using the urgent care clinic to avoid canceling their nail appointments. And if my charts are being audited, it’s because professional accountability is what keeps you all alive when you drive like idiots or stub your fucking toes. I’m not worried about it. Why are you?”
Xenna’s mouth dropped open. Nif gasped from behind the espresso machine.
“And what does it say about the rest of you?!” He gestured to the counter, to Nif, who’d been glaring since he’d entered, and the wide-eyed goblin between her and Xenna.
“You were real eager to listen to stories about me just the other week, Xenna.” Trapp stepped out of line, shaking his head, his fingers trembling in anger.
“You’re all unbelievable. She’s brand new in town and you’re trying to ruin her reputation before she even fully unpacks.
Anyone who says anything above a whisper under this roof really ought to know what they’re risking. ”
He turned to the door, realizing there was a full line of gaping customers behind him. Trapp dropped the still-full cup of coffee into the trash near the door, missed, hearing the cup bounce off the rim and go splashing to the floor. He didn’t look back. He didn’t care about his reputation anymore.
Adriana was right — if it had been so easily soiled, it wasn’t that clean to start with. He didn’t need to be a hero to the same neighbors who would turn on him on a dime . . . But if this town wanted someone to hate, he was willing to give it to them.
***
Jackson: Hey, I’m here already. Are you inside?
Grayson: Where the fuck are you?
Owen: Hey, did you need me to pick you up from the station?
Grayson: TRAPP
Jackson: For your sake, I hope you’re unconscious in a burning building right now
Owen: Trapp, wake up
Lowell: I don’t know what’s going on but I’m enjoying it
Grayson: You do understand that you’re entirely replaceable, right?
Grayson: I can just as easily have Lowell step up
Grayson: At this point, I might prefer it
Lowell: YES, I ACCEPT
When he woke, hours later, his head throbbing, it was to find a line of missed calls on his phone screen, punctuated with text messages from his brothers.