Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [838]
“Everyone says that in time it won’t hurt so bad. Give it time, and I’ll be able to console myself with happy memories of what I had, not dwell on what I’ve lost.” Jenna blew out a hitched breath as she withdrew her hand from Alex’s loose grasp and picked at the label on her empty beer bottle. “It’s been four years, Alex. Shouldn’t I have some closure by now?”
“Closure,” Alex scoffed. “I’m the wrong one to ask about that. Dad’s only been gone six months, but I don’t think I’ll ever give up hoping to see him walk through the door again. That’s part of the reason why I’m thinking I might …”
Jenna stared at her as the words trailed off. “Might what?”
Alex shrugged. “I guess it’s just that I’ve been wondering lately if things might be better for me if I sold the house and moved on.”
“Move on, as in leave Harmony?”
“As in leave Alaska, Jen.” And hopefully leave behind all of the death that seemed to follow her wherever she ran. Before it had the chance to catch up to her again. “I’m just thinking that maybe I need a fresh start somewhere, that’s all.”
She couldn’t read Jenna’s expression, which seemed trapped somewhere between misery and envy. Before her highly persuasive friend could launch into a counteroffensive argument for why Alex needed to stay, a loud roar of masculine enthusiasm went up from the area of the bar.
“What’s all that about?” Alex asked, unable to tell what was going on with her back to the ruckus. “Did Big Dave’s team win or something?”
“I don’t know, but he and his crew just bellied up to the bar in a hurry.” Jenna glanced back at her then and exhaled a soft curse. “You are my best friend, Alex, and you know I’m damned picky when it comes to my friends. You can’t sit there over a half-eaten slice of pie in the middle of hockey night at Pete’s tavern and casually drop a bomb on me about you’re thinking of moving away. Since when? And why haven’t you talked to me about any of this? I thought as friends we shared everything.”
Not everything, Alex admitted silently. There were some things she wasn’t brave enough to share with anyone. Things about herself and things she’d seen that would label her either mentally unstable or positively deranged. Jenna didn’t even know that Alex’s mom and little brother were murdered, let alone how.
Slaughtered.
Attacked by creatures out of the worst nightmare.
Alex and her father had concocted a more believable lie as they’d made the trip to Alaska to begin their lives without the other, missing half of their family. To anyone who asked, Alex’s mother and kid brother were killed by a drunk driver down in Florida. They had died instantly, painlessly.
Nothing could have been farther from the truth.
Alex had felt guilty for perpetuating the lie, especially to Jenna, but she’d consoled herself that she was only protecting her friend. No one would want to know the horror that Alex and her father witnessed and narrowly escaped. No one would want to think that evil so terrible—so bloodthirsty and violent—could actually exist in the world.
She told herself that she was still protecting Jenna, shielding her friend in much the same way that Alex’s father tried to shield her.
“I’m just thinking about it right now, that’s all,” she murmured, then drank the last sip of her warm beer.
No sooner had she set it down than a platinum-haired waitress came over carrying two fresh ones. The bright pink streak in her bleached-blond hair matched the garish shade of her lipstick, Alex noted, as the young woman bent down to place the chilled bottles on the table.
Alex shook her head. “Oh, wait a second, Annabeth. We already paid our bill and we didn’t order these.”
“I know,” she said, then jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward the bar area. “Someone out front just bought a round for the house.”
Jenna groaned. “If it’s from Big Dave, I’ll pass.”
“Not him,” Annabeth said, grinning broadly, her whole face lit up. “Never saw this guy before