Page 54 of Animal Tamer
Your woman.Nobody corrects him. I don't either.
The trailer smellslike whiskey and Nova's perfume when I step inside. Wren's on my bench wearing one of my henleys—swimming in it, the collar slipping off one shoulder—with a glass in her hands and a blanket over her knees. Jules is sitting on the floor across from her. Nova's claimed my chair with her boots up on the table, one hand resting on her belly.
Wren's eyes find mine the second the door opens. They’re still red-rimmed but steadier.
“Hi,” she says.
“Hi.” I crouch in front of her, careful, my forearms on my knees. “How are you doing?”
“They gave me whiskey and told me stories about thelove triangle in the cantina.” She glances between Jules and Nova. “I don't think they finished the stories.”
“We were building suspense,” Nova says.
“Wren.” I wait until she's looking at me. “I have to go out tonight. After closing. With Silas and Cole and Logan. We're going to take care of the Vance problem.”
The glass stills halfway to her mouth. “Take care of it how?”
“Permanently.”
The word is met with silence. Her throat bobs as she swallows. Her eyes move over my face, searching, and I watch her arrive somewhere that isn't surprise. Like she's been doing the math, she just hadn't said the answer out loud yet.
“Rowe.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “You could go to prison. You could—if anyone saw my car come here, if they connect?—”
“No one will connect anything. This is what we do. What we've done for a long time.” I hold her gaze. “I know you have questions. When I get back, I'll answer every one of them. Who we are. What Seven Sins actually is. Why we came to this town.” My voice roughens. “All of it. You've earned the truth and I want you to have it. But right now, I need you to stay inside this lot, and I need you to trust me for one night.”
She stares at me. The lamp hums.
“He would've done it,” she says quietly. “If I hadn't reached the tray. He wasn't going to stop.”
“I know.”
“And you're going to—” She doesn't finish it.
“Yes.”
A long breath goes out of her. Then, so soft I almost miss it: “Okay.”
Notdon't. Nothow could you. Okay.
Her permission feels monumental. Like maybe she'll accept me—accept us—for who we are.
“Okay,” I echo.
Jules pushes up off the floor and stretches until her spine pops. “Right. Boys work, girls drink. Pregnant company excluded.” She points at Wren. “You're staying with us tonight. Nova's trailer has the good couch, and Silas has a truly unhinged liquor selection. We'll get you warmed up while the men do their chores. And by the time they're back, we’ll have finished planning my wedding and you'll know every embarrassing story about all seven of them.”
“There's a story about Cole and a goat,” Nova says, swinging her boots off my table. “It changes lives.”
Wren huffs out something that's almost a laugh, watery but real, and I stand and memorize her like this—drowning in my shirt, flanked by two women who've decided she's theirs now, alive and safe.
She stops at the door.
“Rowe.”
She presses two fingers to her lips. Blows across them.
“Come back,” she says.
“Always.”
