She kicked her boots up on the desk. “Think about it. We always thought he was gunning for you because you infiltrated The Dens and he couldn’t act outside of the game to get back at you. What if that wasn’t the case?”
“I—”
“We could use this against him, Andie.”
Exhaling quietly, I shook my head. “I don’t know how we’d go about that.”
“Tie you up as a sacrifice.”
I snorted.
“Just a fake one, obviously. You could wear a white dress that gapes at the front. And you’d need to scream. It’ll be like King Kong, minus the gorilla and plus a werewolf.”
Laughing to cover my pounding heart, I leaned forward. She was far too close to the truth. If she wanted to use me as a weapon, then Rhona would expect me to bring this to the head team’s attention.
The theory would then spread to the entire tribe. That was a lot of scrutiny on an area that I couldn’t afford questions.
I had to contain this.
Rhona pursed her lips. “You don’t think it’s a good idea?”
More lies. “We can use it. I think there could be something to your theory. My worry is that the tribe could easily misunderstand the matter. I’ve just become head steward, and that information could make them view me in a negative light.”
“Right. I didn’t think about that. You think we only tell the head team?”
“I think that we keep it between us for now. Let’s brainstorm a way to use me to gaping-white-dress effect and take our plan to the head team then.”
“We only have two grids right now. Shouldn’t we throw everything we have at the Luthers?”
“Believe me, I intend to. What do you think they’ll choose today?”
“They beat us in Sandstone last time, so that’s my guess. Don’t see why they wouldn’t.”
Unless we revolutionised our strategy in Sandstone, the grid would belong to the Luthers in a week, so if I were Sascha, Iron would be my pick.
Win the harder grid, finish on the easier battlefield.
Plus, Iron was the Ni Tiaki’s main source of income. Without that money, collecting gear for Water would be nearly impossible. We were already down 25 percent with the loss of Timber a while back.
Stretching, I yawned. “I’m going with Iron.”
“Read any of the journals yet?” she asked.
“Just started last night. More of Mum being in love with Murphy. Can’t say I’m enjoying it.”
Once, I’d raced to devour Mum’s journals. Now, reading them was another chore—and one that made me feel so horrible. But I couldn’t not read the journals either. Aside from Pascal, they were my only clue to the past.
Rhona closed her eyes. “I’m so angry at them. Mum and Dad.”
She’d known her real parents, and perhaps that made their betrayal harder to stomach. Herc and Savannah never let her down in life—not until the end. My mother regularly let me down in life and this last lie was just the straw on the camel’s back. “You have every right to be angry. You were old enough to hear the truth.”
“Do you think after Mum’s death, Dad didn’t want to hurt me more or something?”
“I believe that was a factor. Maybe he didn’t know how to tell us too. Whether that had to do with his fear of the fallout or him trying to find the right time, we won’t ever know.”
A tear slipped over her cheek. “I hate him so much sometimes. I feel like you’re handling it so much better than me.”
I smiled. “Don’t believe what you see on TV, sis.”
Rhona eyed me. “Right. Dad was good at hiding emotions too.”
“What are you doing today?” Probably best if we didn’t linger on that subject either.
“I took your advice,” she said. “I’m working with Gerry and taking over some of the dawn trainings.”
Once Gerry retired, I’d look after the strategy and Rhona would look after the execution of those strategies. Playing to our strengths made sense, and this job gave her responsibility. “Good. You’ll be great at it.”
“People are too afraid of me to mention if I’m bad. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to ruling the world.” She winked, leaving the office.
I scrubbed at my face. “Fuck.”
That was too close.
Rhona wasn’t the only smart steward around. If she thought the exchange with Sascha was weird, others could think the same.
Picking up my phone, I unblocked the number from the other day and dialled.
One ring.
“Andie.”
I shivered at his smooth voice, hating myself for the reaction. “I thought you might be interested to know that your behaviour at the lake was noticed and commented upon. I don’t care if I’m dying, drowning, or being mauled, do not pull that shit again.”
His reply was immediate. “Impossible.”
“This is the part where you make up some Luther bullshit to justify ruining my life, right?”
“I can’t not protect you from life-threatening situations. We are an instinctual race, and in some situations, our wolves take the lead.”
Greyson.
I rolled my eyes. “There’s a new one. Now you’re saying you had to kill Herc. It just happened. Give me a break, Sascha.”
“My life is also tied to yours, as you know.”
“So you say.”
“If a male dies, his female mate must live on to care for any young she has birthed. If a female dies, nature deems the male’s existence unnecessary as he will not sire more children.
Oh, brother.
“You always know what to say to turn me on,” I quipped before hanging up.
His number flashed again, and I declined the call.
A message came through.
Remember.
I will make everything alright again.
Delete and block.
He was pretty fast at texting though. Couldn’t deny that.
Turning to the list of importers, I dialled the top name. Something about it seemed vaguely familiar. Le Spyre.
Kind of fancy.
“Hello, you’re speaking with Evie.”
I double-checked the name. “Sorry, must be a wrong number. I’m looking for Basilia Le Spyre.”
“I’m one of her secretaries.”
One of. “Right. Is she around?”
“Mrs Le Spyre is a very busy woman. Can I ask what this call is in regard to?”
“I wanted to introduce myself as the new CEO of Deception Valley Exports. My father recently passed.”
There was a pause. “Please hold.”
The line was answered a second later. “Yello, this is Mrs Le Spyre.”
“Uh, yello. I’m Andie Thana, the—”
“Yeah, I heard. Nice to meet you and all that.”
How did she hear? This lady sounded young. My age, maybe a little older. “The same to you. I wanted to touch base and let you know that my father recently passed. I’ve taken over the CEO role of our export companies.”
“My sympathies. And empathies. A similar thing happened to me not long ago.”
This lady was eccentric, no doubt about it, but her words were heartfelt. “My sympathies and empathies back to you, Mrs Le Spyre.”