The Better to Bite Read online

  He smiled fully, and those dimples flashed. “Are you trying to be polite, Anna Lambert?”

  I was, but I could also be very honest. “You’re incredibly good.”

  I thought his face seemed to harden a moment. “It’s just a game,” he said, shrugging. “In life, it doesn’t matter if you’re good on the field.”

  I thought about the screaming students. “It matters to everyone else.”

  He stared at me. Just stared, and it seemed like his gaze saw right into me. “That’s my truck,” he told me as he pointed to the sleek silver ride near the field's gate. “Stay there, give me five minutes to shower in the locker room, and then we’ll hit that party.”

  I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” So I guessed that I was going to the party. Why was I stressing so much?

  But he didn’t leave right away. Instead, his eyes narrowed. “Why do I feel like you’re so different from everyone else that I’ve ever met?”

  Different. “Because I am.” I sure was being honest with him. Strange.

  Another dimpled smile, and he turned away. I headed for his truck and propped my back against the tail-gate. The better to just sit back and watch the cars charge out of the parking lot.

  It didn’t take long for the place to clear. The other team shuffled out of the stadium and crowded onto their bus. There wasn’t much chatter from them or their band, or even their cheerleaders. I guess it was hard to be cheery after a slaughter.

  Their bus rolled away, shooting exhaust into the air, and almost drowning out the sound of a motorcycle.

  Almost, but not quite.

  Rafe drove slowly around the lot. His helmet was on and the visor was down, so I couldn’t see his face. As I stared at him, I straightened up. Was he going to stop? Say something to me? Tell me once more that Brent really wasn’t interested in me?

  But the bike just picked up speed, and he drove away.

  I realized I was almost alone in the lot then, and that—that wasn’t good. My hand shoved into my purse, and I closed my fingers around the mace I’d brought tonight, just in case…and to shut up my dad.

  I stood there, wishing Brent would hurry, and—

  A howl cut through the night. Not close, but floating in the distance. I shivered.

  “It’s gonna be a bad night to be out alone in the woods.”

  That was Cassidy’s voice. I glanced to the right. She’d come toward me, and I hadn’t even heard her approach. I guessed she must move like Granny Helen, all quiet and sneaky.

  “I’m not planning to be alone in the woods,” I told her. No, that definitely wasn’t an item on my to-do list for the night.

  “Good.” She glanced up at the dark sky. A half-moon hung over us. “They’re going to be hungry soon.”

  “You’re creepy, you know that?”

  She frowned at me.

  “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been creepy more than my share of times, too.” Wasn’t that the truth? “But you really need to ease up, or you’re not gonna have any friends.” This was so the speech my dad had given me before we left Chicago. Almost word for word. And he thought I never listened to him.

  “What makes you think that I want friends?” Angry, defensive.

  One of my shoulders lifted, then fell. “Because you’re standing here, talking to me, and because you just spent your Friday night at a football game.” Come on, that screamed wanting friends.

  Her lips snapped closed.

  “Why you’re giving me this BS spiel about the night being dangerous, I don’t know.” I didn’t really care. “But maybe you should just try chilling out.”

  Brent emerged from the shadows of the stadium. He had a duffel bag thrown over his left shoulder.

  “Maybe you should come to the party,” I told her because I’d seen the flicker of uncertainty on her face. “It’s at Brent’s house.”

  She slipped back a step. “My grandmother…she’s the one who told me to come tonight.” She licked her lips. “She wanted me to—”

  “Warn me about the dark?” Brent wasn’t close enough to hear us. A good thing. Maybe I shouldn’t even be trying with Cassidy, but she just reminded me of…me. “You did it. I’m warned. Now we’re heading to the party at Brent’s, and you should come, too.”

  I could see the temptation on her face. She wanted to come. But Cassidy shook her head. “No, she said it wasn’t safe tonight.”

  Right.

  Brent was closing in.

  “Be careful,” Cassidy told me, and then she hurried away.

  I exhaled on a long, hard breath.

  “Problem?” Brent asked, glancing over at Cassidy’s fleeing figure.

  “No.” I smiled. I’m so good at the fake smile these days. “Just a little girl talk.”

  His hair was wet from the shower, and he smelled clean and fresh. No more black paint on his face. Back to being All-American. All-American was growing on me. He walked around me, and opened the truck door. I wasn’t really expecting that gentleman move from him. It was nice. I slid inside and eased onto the leather seat. He slammed the door behind me and hurried around the truck.

  When he turned on the engine, a blast of hard, pounding rock filled the car.

  We both laughed as he turned down the volume. “Sorry,” he told me with a flash of a shy grin. Shy? Him? “I like to get into the mood before a game. The music pumps me up.”

  Then he leaned over me. Real close. I lost that deep breath I’d taken earlier. His mouth was so near to mine that I thought he was going to kiss me.

  But he just grabbed the seatbelt behind me and pulled it over my shoulder and clicked it in place near my waist. “Got to buckle up,” he said.

  The guy was a boy scout. Cute, smart, and law-abiding. When he found out about the whole law-abiding part, my dad would be in heaven.

  I was actually pretty close to that sweet spot myself. Maybe my bad boy days would be over.

  He cranked the truck and pulled out of the empty lot. I didn’t see Cassidy anymore. No telling where she was. But I had the weird feeling she was around, watching me.

  You should’ve come with us.

  “I’m really glad you came to the game,” Brent said, and my gaze darted to his hands as they gripped the steering wheel. Strong hands, tanned. “Even though I got the impression that football wasn’t your sport.”

  I laughed at that. “I don’t actually have a sport.” Thank goodness.

  “Give football a chance,” he told me. “You might be surprised by how much you like something new.” We were on the main road now. I’d looked up his address online so I knew where he lived. We’d have to slip away from this road soon and snake through the woods as we headed up the mountain.

  “You were good,” I said when I realized the silence in the truck had stretched a bit too long. “Like…really good.” Almost steroid good, but a girl wasn’t supposed to say that on a first date, right?

  I saw the white flash of his teeth as he grinned. “Thanks.”

  “Is it always a slaughter like that?” Perhaps slaughter wasn’t the best word, but it was the only thing that sprang to mind.

  He shrugged and steered the truck to the left, toward the darker woods and the twisting roads that waited. “Lately it is.”

  And why is that? “You’re not on steroids, are you?” Oh, crap. The blurting again. I’d really meant to hold that question back until at least the second date.

  But, to my immense relief, Brent just laughed. “Nah, I’m drug free, trust me.”

  “Good to know.” Now Dad wouldn’t have to bust the football team. Maybe.

  His right hand reached out and caught my hand. His thumb brushed over my knuckles. “I like you, Anna.” His deep voice filled the car. A hint of the South flavored his words, rolling them just a little. “You say what you think, don’t you? No holding back with you.”

  Usually people were turned off by that habit, but Brent didn’t seem to be pulling away. “Maybe I should hold back more.”

  He
spared me a brief glance. “Maybe you should let go more.”

  I swallowed and wondered why things suddenly felt so intense. “Wh-what—” I’d just stuttered. So not me. I cleared my throat and tried again. “What happened with you and Valerie? One day you’re the lead VIP couple on campus, and the next you’re not?”

  His hand pulled away from mine. I could so kill a mood when I wanted. It was a talent.

  “It wasn’t quite that sudden. We’d both been changing for a while.”

  From the stilted tone, I got that he didn’t want to keep talking about his ex or their changes. Fine. I could understand that. It wasn’t like I wanted to dish on Valerie for hours, either.

  New topic. “So do you often have parties at your house? I mean, parties that start when you aren’t even there?”

  The truck took a sharp left curve, then a right. My ears were popping a bit as we drove higher up the mountain. I swallowed again to ease the pressure.

  His low laugh came as I’d hoped, and I was happy to hear that sound. He had a good laugh. “During football season, yeah, I do. My place is the un-official hangout.”

  “And your parents don’t mind?” I shook my head. “My dad would flip.”

  “That’s because he’s the sheriff.” Because I was staring at his hands—again—I saw the way they tightened around the steering wheel. “My parents aren’t in town for most of the fall or winter, so it’s no big deal to them where I go or what I do.”

  His words made me sad because I could hear the echo of pain in his voice.

  “They’re divorced,” he said into the silence. “My dad moved away two years ago, and my mom likes to travel with whatever flavor of the week she’s dating.”

  I knew Brent had money—a lot of it. When I’d been on the Internet—I couldn’t help it, I did like to snoop—I'd found some info on his parents. His mom was an ex-actress-slash-model, and his dad had been a guy with old money. Put the two together and what do you get? Parents who didn’t seem to care much for their son.

  “My mom split on us last year,” I confessed to him and my hands fisted in my lap. No, if you’re telling the story, tell it all. “She left, I’d hoped she’d come back but—”

  He glanced at me. “But what?”

  “But then she died.” Was murdered. “She was killed in Chicago.”

  “I’m sorry, Anna.” He sounded it.

  When had this become about me? “Don’t worry about it, I mean—I just…you’re not the only one who knows what it’s like when a parent leaves, okay?” Only in my case, she’d left forever. “You’re not alone.”

  His eyes glittered at me. “No, I’m not.”

  That stare of his seemed to see too much. I looked away, darting a fast glance toward the windshield and—“Brent, watch out!”

  The truck swerved as his hands jerked the wheel.

  I stared with wide eyes as a wolf—a big, dark wolf—raced right toward us. The headlights made the beast’s eyes seem to glow yellow and its jaws hung open, all of its sharp teeth bursting from its mouth.

  Oh, crap, it was gonna hit us.

  “Brent!” I screamed again.

  He yanked the wheel to the left, too hard. I knew it, I knew—the truck wouldn't come out of the swerve this time. Instead, it spun, once, twice, and the world disappeared in a fast blur as we tumbled, sliding over the edge of the road and rolling down the mountain slope into the woods. Pine trees slammed into the truck. The glass shattered in the windshield and rained onto me. I couldn’t scream anymore, my breath was gone.

  My head snapped back, and the last sound I heard was the wolf’s howl.

  Chapter Five

  I opened my eyes to total darkness. Darkness…and pain. I pushed up with my hands, and something hard and sharp—glass?—fell from my fingers.

  My eyes adjusted slowly, and I could make out the smashed interior of Brent’s truck. I turned my head to the left and hissed at the pain that rolled over me.

  A tree had shoved through the windshield and plunged into the driver’s seat.

  My heart stopped then. “Brent!”

  He wasn’t in the seat, thank God, but the glass was everywhere and blood dripped into my eyes. “Brent, where are you?”

  Lost…an image clicked in my mind immediately. I saw Brent’s body, sprawled face down, near some a group of pine trees. Was he moving? Was he alive? I had to get to him!

  The truck was tilted at an angle and the seatbelt bit into my chest. I unhooked it, and my upper body immediately dropped forward and hit the dash. I barely felt the impact. That had to be a bad thing. I should have felt it.

  I tried to shove open my door. Like the windshield, my passenger window had shattered. When I put my hand on the door, tiny pieces of glass cut into me.

  And the damn door wouldn’t open.

  “Brent!”

  If I couldn’t open the door, I’d have to crawl out.

  That was when I realized my legs weren’t moving.

  I could feel my legs, could wiggle my toes, but the dash had shoved inward so much that I was pinned and no matter how much I twisted and turned, I couldn’t pull free. The airbag, now deflated, rested in front of the dash, and it felt like a shroud covering me.

  Have to get out.

  I punched at the bag and the dash. I tried to jerk up my right leg, but it caught on something sharp and my skin tore open.

  No!

  Breath heaving, my gaze darted around the vehicle. There…there! My bag had gotten tangled around the gear shift. I grabbed it, fumbling with slick fingers, and yanked out my phone. I’d call my dad. He’d get me out. Dad to the rescue, again.

  I lifted the phone and saw the glowing screen. Yes, thank you—

  No service.

  There weren’t any freaking bars, and I couldn’t get a dial tone. We’d rolled—I didn’t even know for how long—but we were far away from the road, and my damn phone wasn’t working.

  I screamed then, in rage and fear, as I sat pinned in that truck. I knew no one up on the main road would notice the truck. It was too dark, no lights up there, and we’d gone right over the edge.

  My scream echoed around me, and then I heard the howl.

  The same long, eerie howl that I’d heard before the accident.

  My heart was racing now, racing so hard that my chest ached. My fingers fumbled with my bag once again, and my hearing seemed to become super acute because I could swear that I heard the wolf’s footfalls on the ground. A twig snapped.

  My gaze darted to the left, to the right, and my legs attempted to kick—no dice. I was trapped in there and every time I tried to move, I cut my flesh. If I kicked too much harder, I’d break a leg.

  But what was worse…a broken leg or—

  I could hear the wolf’s breath. Panting.

  I looked to the right, glancing through my broken window, and I saw the wolf’s glowing yellow gaze.

  I threw my phone at the wolf. “Stay away from me!”

  The phone bounced off its head. The wolf growled and stalked closer.

  “Don’t come any closer!” My hand was in my bag—thank God it was pinned with me—and the wolf licked its lips and growled at me. Its body pressed low to the ground as it closed the distance between us.

  I remembered all those missing hikers. Sheriff Brantley. All dead. Yes, oh, yes, there was something to fear in the woods, and that something was coming right at me.

  I blinked, and the wolf vanished.

  What? No, no, that wasn’t possible, it wasn’t—

  The wolf’s head burst through the shattered window, and its teeth snapped, narrowly missing my arm. I yelled even as my left hand came up and I sprayed my mace—I owe you, Dad—right into the wolf’s ugly, yellow eyes.

  The wolf howled again, but this time the howl was full of pain.

  I expected the wolf to back away, and it did, but…smoke rose from the animal’s eyes. The yellow darkened to a gray as I watched. As if the eyes were burning.

  The smoke thicke
ned. The animal howled again, and then it spun away and ran into the darkness.

  I stared after it, stunned. Holy hell. Just…holy hell.

  My gaze turned back to the mace. What was in that can?

  Another twig snapped and in a flash, I had my mace back up. “You stay the hell away from me!” I was the one snarling now. “Or I will spray you until your eyes burn out!” No one was taking a bite out of me.

  Silence.

  The pounding of my heart filled my ears. Wolves weren’t supposed to attack like that, were they? I mean who’d ever heard of a wolf charging a truck, and then following the wreck and attacking the survivors?

  Freaking insane.

  I licked my lips. I could taste fear on my tongue. I didn’t know what I should do. How long would the mace last? Wolves usually ran in packs, right?

  I won’t end up like those hikers…a skull covered by leaves.

  The rasp of my breath hurt my lungs.

  “Anna!”

  I thought I’d imagined the voice at first, but I still called, “Brent?”

  Then hope hit me. He was awake. He’d just been thrown from the truck, maybe knocked out for a moment, he was—

  Rafe appeared just a few feet away. Even in the darkness, I knew it was him, not Brent. He was taller, his shoulders broader, and he was running fast as he raced toward me.

  I dropped the mace. “Rafe!” My eyes wanted to tear but I blinked them away. “Brent…he’s out there, near the pine trees on the right! He was thrown from the truck and, oh, God, a wolf was here! It tried to bite me and—” My words tumbled out too fast. I couldn’t help it. “I sprayed the wolf, and it burned.”

  “Shh…easy.” Rafe was beside the truck now. “If a wolf is around, we damn well don’t want to call the thing back.”

  No, they damn well didn’t.

  “Are you hurt?” He asked me, his face hit with shadows and darkness.

  “Nothing too bad.” Scrapes would heal, the blood would stop. I’d be okay. “I just can’t get out. The door won’t open and my legs are pinned!” Rafe wouldn’t be able to help me. I’d probably need the jaws of life to get out of that truck. I needed to get a grip and think. “You need to get to Brent. Make sure he’s okay. You can check him and then go get help for me.”