Teri’s eyes focused again, lighting on Lillian with a narrow look. “What about you?” she asked.
Lillian frowned. “What about me? I just told you that I’m sorry, and I truly meant it.”
“No, I mean—you’re still living at home. When are you going to leave?”
“Oh—Teri, I can’t.” The idea made her feel wistful...but it was impossible. For now, she was stuck.
And actually—Lillian made a quick mental note to call her parents to let them know she’d be out tonight. Her mother would hit the roof, but that was easy to circumvent over the phone. There’d be consequences later on, but she’d have to worry about that later on.
Right now, Teri was looking determined. “Sure you can. You said you were moving back in after the divorce to help Mom and Dad out...but they don’t need any help, really. They’re not sick, or too old to take care of themselves. And it’s been two years. You should have your own place.”
“It’s not that simple, Teri.” Lillian made herself sound firm. “You don’t have all the information.”
Teri frowned. “So tell me the information.”
Lillian shook her head. Teri didn’t need to know all of the sad, sordid details. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Teri accepted that, although her mutinous expression suggested that this wasn’t the last time she’d bring up the subject.
“What are we going to do for dinner?” Lillian asked, to distract her. Teri brightened immediately. Lillian followed her down to the kitchen, determined once again to be happy that her sister was happy. After all, that was enough, wasn’t it? She didn’t need anything more than that.
There was no need to be selfish, after all.
***
It took Cal a while to track any of the mountain lions down.
They weren’t at Oliver’s, the local diner, where he stopped first to have a bite. He nodded at Nina, the waitress and Joel’s new mate, when she served him. “Seen any of Gordon Hennessey’s crowd in here tonight?”
She shook her head. “Not so far. They usually come in later, though. Drinking.”
Cal nodded. “And how’re you? Settling in?”
Nina’s lips curved in a small smile. “Yes, I am. This is a good place to live. Thank you for letting me stay.”
“No one let anyone do anything,” Cal said. “I’m not in charge of who stays and who goes. If you’re happy here, there’s no reason to leave.”
Nina nodded, although Cal got the sense that she might be humoring him.
He didn’t linger, finishing up his sandwich and fries and leaving a good tip behind, before setting out to sniff out some mountain lions.
He tried one of the local seedy bars, and then the other. He checked the lumber yard, where Gordon worked, and then the broken-down house where he and his girlfriend lived. A couple of hours passed, and he had to give up on the idea of confronting Gordon and his crew in public. It was time to take the search further out.
Gordon’s house was near the edge of town, and it was only a short walk to the beginning of the forest that stretched out for miles around. Cal ducked into the trees and shifted as soon as he was out of sight.
It wasn’t hard to pick up a scent. He followed Gordon’s trail from his job at the lumber yard to one of the seedy bars, and then away from the bar toward the edge of town. He lost it at one point on the street—Gordon must’ve been picked up by one of his crew in a car—but followed his instincts and headed out into the forest.
Sure enough, when he got near enough to Gordon’s brother’s cabin, he could hear a raucous noise coming from it, as the local mountain lions partied away the day.
He frowned. There were a good ten mountain lion shifters in the area, but only four or five of them were the sort of troublemaking men who might be the one stalking Lillian. On the other hand, four or five angry shifters was more than Cal would want to deal with out here on his own. He knew his capabilities, both as a talker and as a fighter, and those were long odds.
His leopard growled, We can take them.
Cal’s leopard was sometimes too eager for his own good.
Still, he wasn’t about to just turn around and go home. He shifted to human, walked up to the cabin, and knocked on the door—loudly enough to penetrate the noise.
There was a pause, and then someone yelled something indistinct at someone else, and then the door was yanked open. Gordon Hennessey’s scowling face stared out at him, and then contracted even further into a ferocious frown. “What do you want?”