Read Online Head Above Water (Gemini: A Black Dog #2) by Hailey Edwards - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Hailey Edwards
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going to grab a water.” Aunt Dot wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. “Can I get you girls anything?”
“No,” Dell and I said in concert.
With a chortle at us like she found us precious, Aunt Dot retreated to her trailer.
Beside me, Dell resumed excavating dirt with her toes. “Do you want me to tell—?”
“No.” I crushed the fabric in my hand. “He’s the last person I want to see right now.”
“What you saw last night…” She dragged her fingers through her hair, leaving it artfully tousled. “You don’t get it. We aren’t like you.” She slapped her chest. “There’s an animal inside us, right under the skin, and if we aren’t careful, it can do horrible things. There’s a reason why packs are ruled by alphas. We need that guiding hand to keep us in line.”
“What I saw last night was a powerful warg tearing into lesser wolves.” After replaying the scene over and over in my head, I remembered why some of them looked familiar. “Those were the wolves Graeson brought with him to Mississippi. They were the ones he said were his best.” I cringed as she wilted before me, but I kept going. “Is that why they’re loyal to him? He’s beaten it into them?”
Dell’s shoulders ratcheted up to her ears. “You don’t understand.”
“No.” I shoved the scrunchie into my pocket to investigate later. “And guess what? That’s because neither you nor Graeson have made any attempt to educate me. He’s doing what he does. He’s blocking me out because he thinks he’s always right.”
“He didn’t want to do it,” she said, lips barely moving.
“Then he shouldn’t have done it.” Problem solved.
Her body shook, close to tears. “You don’t—”
“Don’t tell me that again.” I sighed, exhausted by her defense of him. “It’s a weak excuse, and I’m tired of hearing it.”
I was wrong.
Dell hadn’t been about to cry.
She exploded.
Her hands trembled with rage as she fisted my shirt, lifted me and pinned me to the wall of my trailer. “You said it yourself. Those were Cord’s best wolves. His. Not Bessemer’s. His .” She thumped my head on the metal. “When Cord needed them, they left the pack. They left. He didn’t ask them to. He would never endanger them like that. They lied to him, told him Bessemer gave permission for them to go, and he believed them because he’s still so twisted up on the inside he can’t see straight. By the time they reached Abbeville and he could read the truth for himself, it was too late. The damage had been done.”
An unsettling calm stole over me. “The wolves in the clearing were being punished.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
“It was Bessemer’s idea, wasn’t it?” My throat tightened. “He made Graeson punish those who trusted him.”
“No.” A watery smile. “The wounds he inflicted were healed by sunup.” She dropped me and swiped her fingers under her eyes. “They weren’t ever the targets. Not really.”
Graeson. Bessemer had been gunning for him when he orchestrated the beating of those loyal deserters.
A fragment of doubt lodged itself in my breast. One thing I knew well was how to snuggle up with blame every night like a warm blanket that would tangle around your throat and choke you in your sleep. Graeson blamed himself for his sister’s death. He was so like me in that respect—and yet so unlike me. He was confident, a leader. He never doubted, didn’t hesitate. He acted, not reacted. Even when his first impulse wasn’t the best solution, he still rolled with his gut. And I, being the worst fake girlfriend ever, had leapt to conclusions based on my own sense of morality, without giving him or Dell a chance to explain. I hadn’t spared a single thought for how he was coping after last night, because I hadn’t understood that living with his actions was the true punishment.
Suddenly, the surveillance marathon could wait. “Take me to him.”
* * *
D eep into Chandler
“No,” Dell and I said in concert.
With a chortle at us like she found us precious, Aunt Dot retreated to her trailer.
Beside me, Dell resumed excavating dirt with her toes. “Do you want me to tell—?”
“No.” I crushed the fabric in my hand. “He’s the last person I want to see right now.”
“What you saw last night…” She dragged her fingers through her hair, leaving it artfully tousled. “You don’t get it. We aren’t like you.” She slapped her chest. “There’s an animal inside us, right under the skin, and if we aren’t careful, it can do horrible things. There’s a reason why packs are ruled by alphas. We need that guiding hand to keep us in line.”
“What I saw last night was a powerful warg tearing into lesser wolves.” After replaying the scene over and over in my head, I remembered why some of them looked familiar. “Those were the wolves Graeson brought with him to Mississippi. They were the ones he said were his best.” I cringed as she wilted before me, but I kept going. “Is that why they’re loyal to him? He’s beaten it into them?”
Dell’s shoulders ratcheted up to her ears. “You don’t understand.”
“No.” I shoved the scrunchie into my pocket to investigate later. “And guess what? That’s because neither you nor Graeson have made any attempt to educate me. He’s doing what he does. He’s blocking me out because he thinks he’s always right.”
“He didn’t want to do it,” she said, lips barely moving.
“Then he shouldn’t have done it.” Problem solved.
Her body shook, close to tears. “You don’t—”
“Don’t tell me that again.” I sighed, exhausted by her defense of him. “It’s a weak excuse, and I’m tired of hearing it.”
I was wrong.
Dell hadn’t been about to cry.
She exploded.
Her hands trembled with rage as she fisted my shirt, lifted me and pinned me to the wall of my trailer. “You said it yourself. Those were Cord’s best wolves. His. Not Bessemer’s. His .” She thumped my head on the metal. “When Cord needed them, they left the pack. They left. He didn’t ask them to. He would never endanger them like that. They lied to him, told him Bessemer gave permission for them to go, and he believed them because he’s still so twisted up on the inside he can’t see straight. By the time they reached Abbeville and he could read the truth for himself, it was too late. The damage had been done.”
An unsettling calm stole over me. “The wolves in the clearing were being punished.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
“It was Bessemer’s idea, wasn’t it?” My throat tightened. “He made Graeson punish those who trusted him.”
“No.” A watery smile. “The wounds he inflicted were healed by sunup.” She dropped me and swiped her fingers under her eyes. “They weren’t ever the targets. Not really.”
Graeson. Bessemer had been gunning for him when he orchestrated the beating of those loyal deserters.
A fragment of doubt lodged itself in my breast. One thing I knew well was how to snuggle up with blame every night like a warm blanket that would tangle around your throat and choke you in your sleep. Graeson blamed himself for his sister’s death. He was so like me in that respect—and yet so unlike me. He was confident, a leader. He never doubted, didn’t hesitate. He acted, not reacted. Even when his first impulse wasn’t the best solution, he still rolled with his gut. And I, being the worst fake girlfriend ever, had leapt to conclusions based on my own sense of morality, without giving him or Dell a chance to explain. I hadn’t spared a single thought for how he was coping after last night, because I hadn’t understood that living with his actions was the true punishment.
Suddenly, the surveillance marathon could wait. “Take me to him.”
* * *
D eep into Chandler
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