Hunting Human - Amanda E. Alvarez [63]
He opened the door. “For what it’s worth, Beth, I am sorry.” He pulled the door shut behind him before she could form a reply.
She paced the room for several minutes, debating what to do. Finally, she reached for the door, testing the knob beneath her palm. It twisted in her hand and the door swung open. He hadn’t locked her in. She stood in the threshold, paralyzed with indecision. She could leave, but even if she made it out of the house, she had no idea where she was.
And Markko was still out there. Waiting. She couldn’t go back to her apartment, not even to get her Jeep.
She slammed the door and turned to the bathroom. For now, at least, she’d have to trust that Mr. Edwards would keep his promise. She had nowhere else to go.
Chapter Fifteen
Beth slung her borrowed lounge pants low on her hips and rolled the sleeves of the sweatshirt up to her forearms, trying to compensate for the fact they were both too small for her. She shoved her feet in her shoes, quickly did up the laces and opened the bathroom door, carefully avoiding her reflection. She’d seen it once already and that was enough. A worn, pale face, with dark circles beneath her eyes had stared back at her. Not something she needed to see before she met the rest of Braden’s family.
Why do I even care?
Why did she care? It wasn’t as though she was meeting her boyfriend’s family; she refused to think of it like that. She forced herself to face what she’d known, at some level, all along. Personal relationships were beyond her reach.
The thought gutted her. It was her own fault. She should never have gotten involved with Braden. She knew with certain dread that the few weeks of normal happiness she’d had with him would haunt her for years. But she was determined to rectify her mistake. Starting with demanding answers to the questions that had descended on her like angry bees while she stood under the roar of the shower.
Braden pushed away from the wall when she entered the bedroom. “Breakfast is ready. I’m sure you’re hungry,” he said, gesturing toward the open door.
“I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers.” She lingered in the doorway of the bathroom and crossed her arms.
He shifted from foot to foot and glanced toward the stairs. Finally, he moved to the chair his father had occupied earlier that morning and slumped into it. “Alright.” He nodded to the bed in front of him and shot her an irritated look when she didn’t move. “For Christ’s sake, Beth, I’m not going to maul you. I said I’d answer your damn questions, just come sit down.”
She considered him for a long moment but finally decided the concession was small enough. “Fine.” She sat across from him and leveled him with a flat stare. “Your father mentioned Markko by name. Implied you thought I was working with him against your family. I want to know why.”
Braden sighed and relaxed into the chair. “The answer to that is complicated. My father wasn’t lying when he said our families had a violent history. The Bolveks…”
“Who?” Beth interrupted.
“Markko’s family,” he explained. “The Bolveks are an old clan, going back generations. Some of the conflict is rooted in mythology.”
“I don’t care about that, I just want the facts.”
“I figured.” He sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. “Look, what happened to you…That used to be a lot more common. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s the Bolveks were at the height of their power. They ran one of the largest crime syndicates in Eastern Europe and, because so much of the region was unstable, they got away with it. Had their hands in everything from human trafficking to arms supply and money laundering. Their criminal activities were bad enough, but the atrocities against humanity, Beth, I can’t even tell you.” He shook his head as if shaking off angry memories. She jerked away when he reached for her hand. “Anyway, their numbers started to surge. Rumors spread that Viktor Bolvek, Markko’s father, was building an army. When rumors of attacks against people began to spread outside the werewolf population, the Council