Chapter Seven
Darcy Might Be a Problem
IMOGEN GALLAGHER
I’d left for town early this morning to go into the office. There was paperwork that needed to be filed for several deals, and I didn’t want to be anywhere near my father just in case he’s gotten wind of what’d happened at the house last night. The less interaction the better. I also don’t want to talk about the engagement or the wedding.
Meredith caught me on the way out and told me not to worry, but that really didn’t help the anxiety pinballing inside my head. My father is ruthless and all I can do is hope to Fate that she really covered up everything as well as she claimed.
She said she’d send someone by the office later this morning with the spell for the outsiders so I wouldn’t have to make up another excuse to leave the house later that day. Which is good. It’s hard to make two trips to town in one day sound plausible.
The Gallagher Group offices are in the heart of downtown Ash Hollow. My father renovated several sections of storefront to use as offices for the business acquisition arm of his development company. I run the company’s day-to-day business. Well, me and my father’s lawyer—Matthew Lincoln, whose office sits right next to mine.
I’m sure in his personal life, Matthew’s a ladies’ man. His thick brown hair is just long enough to have a sexy sweep across his forehead. He’s tall, built, and in his mid-thirties. He also has that square jaw with a cleft that screams big dick energy.
All that separates me and Matthew is a thick soundproof glass wall. My father’s office is on the other side of Matthew’s and then in the front area there’s a secretary’s desk and a sleek contemporary-styled waiting area with a couch.
The secretary—Carol—is rarely at her desk. She’s usually wherever my father is, because he only hires secretaries he can use . She comes in when he works in town, which is maybe once a week if he’s taking a meeting.
From my desk, I catch a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I glance to my left. Matthew’s staring at his computer and has the receiver of his phone tucked between his ear and his shoulder. And he looks...displeased.
Shit.
He makes eye contact with me briefly and jerks his chin, indicating he wants to talk to me. I close the files I’m working on, lock the screen, and head into his office.
He hangs up the phone, takes a deep breath, and looks up at me from his seat behind the massive captain’s desk. “I suppose congratulations are in order, Ms. Gallagher. I had no idea you were even dating anyone.”
That’s because I wasn’t.
My shoulders sink and I nod, pasting on an appropriately fake smile. At least it’s what I think I should show him. I have no idea how much of the “deal” surrounding my engagement with the O’Connor pack alpha my father has shared. Just because Matthew is polite to me doesn’t mean he’s on my side and wouldn’t report on me to my father.
“It moved faster than anyone expected,” I say, careful to keep my voice steady and pleasant.
“Of course. Congratulations again. I have the prenup ready for you to sign.” He watches me with interest, like he’s analyzing each comment. Every breath. Every dart of my gaze. It’s unnerving.
“Oh, yes, right.” A prenuptial agreement hadn’t even crossed my mind, but of course my father would want to make sure that Aiden didn’t have any rights to the family business or wealth. “And thank you, it’s all very exciting.”
My wolf doesn’t exactly speak, but her feelings translate to shouting “lying liar” on repeat. But there’s nothing either of us can do about the situation.
“Are you feeling all right, Ms. Gallagher?”
“Yes, just a little out of sorts. I’m sure it’s the approaching full moon throwing off my equilibrium. You know how it is.”
Matthew doesn’t know I’m a wolf. He doesn’t know the moon does jack shit, but I’m rambling about it like he does. Fuck.
He nods slowly, each action very measured and controlled. “It’s a blood moon coming, you know. Very special. Supposed to last three nights. Between that and a whirlwind engagement and wedding coming right after, I could see you feeling a little out of sorts. Maybe you should take the rest of the day off.”
He doesn’t know, does he? My father wouldn’t have told him we’re wolves, would he? Maybe he just thinks I’m talking about my cycle.
“I have a meeting with your fiancé tomorrow, but if I can go ahead and get your signature now, then I’ll be done after he signs and I can get this wrapped up.” He slides a single sheet of paper across the desk to me along with a pen. “Mr. O’Connor didn’t have any extra specifications for you, so this is just acknowledging that the stipulations and requirements your father wrote into the agreement stand equal for both parties.”
Silence stretches uncomfortably over the few seconds it takes for me to scan the document and scratch my name at the bottom.
“Thank you.” He takes the paper back and puts it on top of a stack to his left.
A heavy thunk shakes the office and Matthew’s eyes widen. His face pales by at least three shades.
My heart pounds in my chest, readying my body to flee, primal instinct warning me of impending danger. My wolf rises close to the surface and I have to fight to hold her back.
I whirl in time to see a very angry Mr. Darcy stomp across the waiting area. His eyes are wild and his body language screams vengeful-gunman.
A cold dread seizes me, making it hard to breathe.
Matthew is out of his seat in a second. He grabs my arm and yanks me around his desk, positioning himself between me and the very angry rancher. Then he leans forward and presses an almost hidden button under the edge of his desk.
Mr. Darcy yanks the heavy glass door of Matthew’s office open. “You fucking bitch!” His scream is laced with rage and pain alike. “You’ve taken everything.” The intensity of his emotions makes my stomach roll. His words strike like physical blows.
Matthew stands straight, blocking me from Darcy’s view completely.
My father did something terrible. I can feel it in the pit of my stomach the same way a person knows when they’re about to vomit.
“Mr. Darcy, I—” Matthew starts.
Darcy slams a file down on the desk. “I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to that bitch hiding behind you. This is what I think about your fucking contract.” He pulls a lighter from his pocket, picks the file back up, and sets the corner ablaze. The contract burns quickly, filling the office with the acrid smell of burnt paper. He drops the burning contract back onto the desk.
Matthew swats the flames with another folder until they stop smoking. “Sir, this is uncalled for.”
“My wife and daughter are dead. My cattle are all dead.”
My heart lurches to a stop in my chest. My breath catches halfway up my throat. Fuck. Dad, what did you do?
“Mr. Darcy, I’m so sor—”
“Be quiet, Miss Gallagher,” Matthew snaps at me with an angry authoritative growl I’m not used to hearing from him. His words sting, but I know better than to go against him even if he’s acting like an unfeeling bastard in the face of this man’s pain. “Mr. Darcy. The police have been called. I would appreciate it if you would remove yourself from this office before they arrive.”
The button. It had to be a remote signal to the police.
“Fuck you,” Darcy spits at Matthew. “You’re all going down for this. They were killed in a hit-and-run your father orchestrated. And then making it look like animals killed my cows. My whole herd! I’ll make you pay for taking everything from me. All of you. The next time you see me will be the last breath you take, you Gallagher bitch.”
His threat sends a shiver down my spine and the weight of his threat is a noose tightening around my neck.
What the hell is my father doing? He shouldn’t have even known that Mr. Darcy had tried to back out of the deal.
Darcy marches out of Matthew’s office the same way he came in, angry, broken, and dangerous. He slams the outside door so hard the glass cracks in one of the front windows.
I release the breath I’d been holding, step out from behind Matthew, and inch toward the doorway.
He pulls his cell from his pocket and holds it to his ear. “We just got a visit from a very pissed-off Mr. Darcy. They weren’t supposed to die.” He pauses a moment and I strain to hear the voice on the other end, but it’s too garbled. “Well, you fucked up. Now fix it.”
I swallow the softball-sized knot growing in my throat. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Not only is this man not fazed at all by what happened, he’s telling someone to, what—finish the job?
“He wasn’t lying, was he?” The question slips out unbidden. I know my father is capable of terrible things. But murder? Over a ranch? Killing innocent women? And Matthew’s involved. Helping.
Matthew’s usually impassive brown eyes flick to meet my gaze. “No. He wasn’t lying. Stay away from him. I don’t need you fucking this up worse by trying to apologize to a man with nothing left to lose.”
“Right. Of course.” I take another step backward, toward the door of his office.
He pins me with an angry glare. “Get back to your house while I deal with this. If something happens to you, your father will make me disappear.”
My bottom lip trembles. I swallow hard and nod.
The front door swings open and I gasp a little, half expecting to see Mr. Darcy standing there with a rifle pointed at my heart. But instead it’s one of my only friends from town, Rachel, with two mega cups of coffee from her café in her hands.
“Hey, hon! I brought you a...” Her voice trails off. Her gaze takes in the cracked office door and our silence and then she frowns. “What happened?”
“Both of you get out. The police will be here shortly and I need to contain this situation.” Matthew bites out the words and I nearly leap the rest of the way out of his office.
I grab my purse from my desk and rush to Rachel’s side, take her arm, and usher her out the door onto the sidewalk. The sheriff’s siren isn’t far away, maybe a couple blocks. “Just keep walking, I’ll tell you in a minute.”
We hurry down the sidewalk, cross at the stoplight, and we’re standing in front of her coffee shop before I can breathe normally again.
Rachel puts a hand on my shoulder. “Babe, what’s going on?”
“My father did something terrible. Something I didn’t think he was capable of and...” I swallow my confession and stare into my friend’s compassionate face. I can’t put her in more danger. “I’m sorry. I can’t pull you into my mess. But if you see Mr. Darcy, I need to hide, okay?”
“Fuck. Gen. What happened?” Rachel scans the sidewalk ahead and behind us, then looks back at me. She’s not scared. “Tell me, right now. I’m perfectly able to take care of myself.”
I hesitate. It’s selfish to pull her into my drama.
“Gen.” The authority and confidence in her voice convinces me.
“He was just in the office. He threatened to kill me. Matthew made me leave, but I’m supposed to be waiting for a delivery and—” Panic swells in my chest, choking off my air.
Meredith is counting on me. I’m not where I’m supposed to be. I have no way of contacting her from here. Those outsider wolves will cause more problems if they don’t get the spell from her—from me.
My surroundings spin and nausea swirls in the pit of my stomach like bathwater going down a drain.
Rachel’s arm goes around my shoulders and she leads me down the alley beside her shop. Then she sits me down on the stoop to her back door.
“Breathe. This is the delivery from Meredith.” She waves a cream-colored envelope in front of my face.
Wait. How?
I finally get the question out. “You know Meredith?”
“Yes, I’ve known Meredith my whole life.” She says it like it’s no big deal.
I take the envelope from her hand and shove it into my hip pocket. “Do you know what it is?” I’m fishing, but I’m not willing to ask her outright.
The corners of Rachel’s mouth turn up. “You mean do I know Meredith’s a witch, and that the envelope contains a spell for a couple of out-of-town werewolves? Yes, I do.”
Holy crap.
Apparently everyone knows more about what’s going on in this town than I do.
“I wish we could’ve let our friendship evolve a bit more naturally, but there are certain advantages to just ripping off the Band-Aid, I suppose.”
I agree with the Band-Aid theory. Quick pain and get over it, versus dragging out the discomfort. Except she kept this from me for years. We’ve been friends since she first opened the shop in town.
“What else do you know?” It’s another baited question, but I might as well see how many Band-Aids she’s willing to rip off today.
“A lot, Gen.” Her words hang in the air between us, like she’s trying to figure out how to break the news to me in a less painful way. She’s been lying to me and I’ve been lying to her about what we are. But it’s hard to blame her for hiding the truth when I’m guilty of the same.
“I’d always hoped I could share with you that I was a witch and that you could’ve chosen to share with me that you’re a wolf when you were ready. But life has thrown some serious curveballs lately and since Meredith had to finagle herself into a situation with your father to keep an eye on Emma, I’ve been one of the few other witches in our court to continue a normal daily routine in town.”
Court. Other witches.
I sit a little straighter and peer up at my friend. Her dark brown hair is pulled up in a messy bun. That’s a normal look for her. She rarely wears it down. She’s dressed in jeans and a cute frilly top. Also normal. I’ve known Rachel for years. We have girls’ night out and get drunk together. We play pool at Kitty’s bar. I get coffee from her shop every single day I’m in Ash Hollow. We go to Denver to shop regularly.
But she never comes to my house, for good reason. And I’ve never been to her place either. In fact, I don’t know where she lives. In town? Out of town?
This is my friend.
Except she’s not who I thought she was. And she’s known about me this whole time...
“Have you known about me the whole time?”
Her lips purse together and her eyes dart to the ground for a second before she meets my gaze again. Her body reeks of guilt and discomfort.
“We’ve always known who the wolves were in this region. I knew what you were as soon as I knew your name, Gen. It’s how we’ve stayed safe and kept the court protected.” Her tone resonates with a calming matter-of-factness.
She turns and sits on the stoop beside me, her shoulder pressing into mine, a centering presence in the middle of her eye-opening revelations.
“I wish it could’ve been different,” she continues, her words soft with regret. “I wish I didn’t have to live behind a lie, but your father and uncle—”
I hold up a hand to halt her words. “Say no more.” My quiet admission is laced with an understanding. “I get it. Dave and Oliver Gallagher aren’t safe for anyone.”
She leans against me, her head finding a resting place on my shoulder, her body a warm and welcome anchor. “They really aren’t. Not even for you, Gen.”
I bark out a cynical laugh. “No. Definitely not for me either.”
She pulls a set of car keys from her pocket and holds them up. The keys glint with an unspoken promise of escape. “Why don’t you take my car to the inn, just in case anyone is looking for you or your car?”
Her words hit me like a splash of cold water, shocking me out of my self-pity. Sensible. Clever. And something I wouldn’t have been able to think of with all the fear and confusion tumbling around in my brain like a dryer full of rocks.
“That’s smart,” I admit, guilt creeping in at my lack of foresight. “I’m really not functioning on all cylinders right now. There’s—” I pause, swallowing the lump in my throat. I want to confide in her about Liam and share the secret I’m carrying. But I can’t. The less people know, the safer he’ll be.
Rachel might already suspect, though she hasn’t given any indication. In this moment, her silence is a gift. “Thank you.”
“When were you going to tell me you got engaged?” She bumps my shoulder and tips her chin at the glittering rock on my finger.
It’s a beautiful ring, but the only thing it symbolizes is a leash around my neck, trapping me in a life I’ll always resent.
“It happened suddenly,” I reply. “My father made a deal with the O’Connor pack alpha and I was the linchpin. The whole reality of it hasn’t really caught up with me yet.” I roll the engagement ring with my finger, pressing my thumb against the stone hard enough to hurt.
“Hold on. So your dad went all medieval on you and offered you up like some blue ribbon rodeo prize? And I know Aiden, he would never stand for something like that. The O’Connor pack has a long history of only mating when true soul mates are found.” A note of disbelief rings in her voice.
I huff out a wistful laugh. If only. I guess she doesn’t know him as well as she thinks.
“Well, he agreed to it. Aiden is the one I’m engaged to, so I would hazard a guess that my father has some sort of leverage over him. He acted the part of a decent man at the dinner last night, but I could sense this arrangement wasn’t his choice either.”
The revelation hangs heavy in the air between us.
An unexpected pang of empathy wells up within me for him. I don’t resent Aiden. It’s my father I resent for thrusting both of us into this unwinnable situation.
Rachel’s eyes widen in shock. “His wife...she only passed away a few years ago in the same accident that claimed his father’s life and put the responsibility of alpha onto Aiden’s shoulders. You guys aren’t fated mates, are you? They’re pretty hard-core about that tradition.”
Just what I needed to hear. A widower who lost his soul mate. The situation couldn’t possibly get any more complex.
“No. We’re not mates.” I snatch the keys from Rachel’s hand. “I need to go.” I rise from the stoop and head toward her car parked inconspicuously in the alley.
“We need to talk more, Gen.”
Halting halfway to the car, I swivel around to face her, my voice unsteady. “I know. I just... I can’t right now.” I hate not being able to tell my friend everything. But my world is crumbling around me. I need a moment alone to catch my breath and figure out my next move.
“When is the wedding? Surely you have a little time. The blood moon is in a few days. How about I take you to Denver for some shopping? You need a wedding dress and probably a lot of other stuff, right? And you need to avoid being in town because of Darcy.”
I give a sigh of resignation and nod my agreement.
Rachel is an eternal optimist. She’s trying to lighten the mood. Distract me. It’s easier to go with it than fight it.
“I’ll be back with your car in a couple hours.” Without waiting for her response, I turn and continue toward the car, trying to shut out the world, at least for a little while.
I can’t think about it anymore. None of it. The witches. The wolves. The death threats. The unraveling of my world.
I thought I knew how to stay safe.
I thought I knew how to survive.
Now I’m not so sure.
Now all the rules are changing and the only person I want to see is the one man I should stay far, far away from.