Heidi leaned closer to me. “Do suicide cults usually have snack tables?”
I shook my head. “No, Heidi. No, they don’t.”
32
FRIENDS
Minutes later, Will, Heidi, and I stood outside with our backs to the brick wall of the warehouse. Will handed me a cup of fruity punch while Heidi munched on a bag of chips from the snack table.
She eyed it. “Not bad.”
Will stared straight ahead, his expression flat. “It’s an anger management support group.”
Heidi stopped her crunching, and I gulped. “Oh.”
Will took a sip from his own cup of punch. The thing looked like a doll’s cup in his enormous paw of a hand. I stared at the grimy wall ahead of us, crates piled up against it, and bit my lip. “Sorry about storming in like that.”
Heidi leaned forward to look around me at Will. She grimaced. “I thought it was a suicide cult.”
“Come again?” He whirled to face her, voice rising in pitch. “You thought it was a what?” His huge eyes grew bigger. “Why? Why would you think that?”
I shrugged. “Well, you have been sneaking off and acting all secretive lately.”
Heidi nodded.
Will rolled his eyes, then pressed them shut. He sucked in a breath, held it for a few seconds, then blew it out.
“Did they teach you that?” Heidi asked.
His eyes flew open, and he shot her a pointed look. “Yes, Heidi. The anger management support group, not cult, did teach me that.”
She curled her lip and popped a chip in her mouth. “Sorry.”
His gaze dropped to me and he sniffed. “You reek of booze.”
“Yeah, well, I ratted out another shifter.” I frowned at my accidental near pun. “Ironically a mouse shifter—get it? Ratted out?”
Will sighed and eyed me with pity.
“So on the plus side, I solved two murders.” My stomach twisted. “But then I told Peter that I was also a shifter, and I’m pretty sure he’s never going to speak to me again.”
I kept my gaze down on the broken cobblestones at my feet, but I could tell by the heavy silence that my friends were exchanging looks over my head.
I huffed. “It’s fine, Will. Go ahead. You can say you told me so. You did and you were right. I should have swum in my current and never helped Peter and Daisy in the first place. And I certainly shouldn’t have kept working for him and developed feelings and then stupidly tried to do the right thing. There’s no point fighting the system—look where it’s gotten me.”
I roughly swiped away the tears that tracked down my cheeks. “I’m right back where I started, only it’s worse because now I’ve lost things that I, like a moron, let myself care about, and to top it off, I’m on Ludolf’s radar.” My shoulders slumped.
“No, Jolene.” Will’s voice came out quieter and softer than I’d ever heard it. “You were right.”
I snapped my head up—now that was startling. I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re sure this isn’t some cult and they’re not brainwashing you?”
He glared at me. “Har har.” Will sighed. “You were braver than I was. I was afraid of hoping for a better life, of working toward it, after I’d lost it all.” He shook his head. “You’re the reason I started going to these stupid meetings. Jolene, you’re turning your life around, doing good work, working on yourself.” He crossed his arms and shrugged. “I thought it was about time I do the same.”
More tears tracked down my cheeks—but this time because I was touched. Maybe it hadn’t all been a waste. Maybe trying to do the right thing and fighting for justice, however the odds were stacked against me, was its own reward—as lame as that sounded. Plus, my friends had noticed. They knew who I was and still loved me.
I wiped my tears away, then looked up at my friend. “So you’re saying I’m an inspiration?”
He shot me a flat look. “Don’t push it, Jolene, this is only my fourth meeting. Annoy me enough and I may still shift and eat your head.”
I grinned through the tears.
Heidi tipped her head and rested it on my shoulder. “You know, Peter liked you for you. It’s not like you were someone else before you told him you were a shifter—it was just a piece of you he didn’t know before. It’s just his dumb prejudices that are making him act like that—and that’s not your fault.”
I leaned my head against hers. “Thanks, girl.”
We stood there in silence for a while, bats winging overhead and faint music from a nearby bar trickling through the night.
Finally, I looked up at my friend. “How long do these meetings last?”
Will drank the rest of his punch, then crumpled the paper cup. “About an hour—when they’re not being crashed by lunatics.” He shot Heidi a pointed look.
She gave him a simpering smile. “Sorry.”
I looked between them. “Want to grab some ramen after?”
Will yanked the warehouse door open and nodded. “Sounds good. I’ll meet you two back at the clinic.” He started inside, then backtracked. “And, Jolene?”
I lifted my chin. “Yeah?”
“The way that cop looks at you, I doubt this is the last you’ll hear from him.”
I nodded, but dropped my eyes, my heart heavy.
“But if it is, it’s his loss.”
I glanced up, and he raised his bushy brows before disappearing inside.
As Heidi and I walked back through the dark alleys to the clinic, I thought over Will’s words. It’d be nice if Peter and I could work through this, but I knew the prejudice against shifters ran deep. Not with everyone, of course. Heidi knew the truth about Will and me and it didn’t bother her a bit. But Peter’s experiences on the force might have given him a different perspective.
Whatever happened, though, I knew how lucky I was to have Will and Heidi in my life. Good friends, even just one or two, really
