APEX

Ch. 2: Dangerous Secrets

"It's not forever," she reassured me.

"Could you give me a more specific timeframe? Two weeks? A month?"

"As long as it takes."

"That's not more specific."

"No but it is my answer. Take it or leave it."

"How 'bout I leave it," I said, the petulance having not quite run its course. "How's that?"

Mom side-eyed me. "You're supposed to be an example to your younger siblings, Calla. Given that you're a decade older than them, I would expect you to model maturity and self-sacrifice."

The elevator arrived at the lobby, and I followed my mother out of it. One of her skills was to strut her stuff in stilettos with the grace of a ballet dancer and the speed of an Olympic sprinter. I upped my pace to match her stride. "I wasn't being serious. You know I'll do what you want. Don't I always?"

I may have mumbled that last sentence under my breath and with a certain level of sarcasm that was not lost on Simone.

She laughed. "You do not. And honestly, I don't expect you to. You are your own self—a Luna who radiates Alpha energy, and I love that about you. In this case though..." We exited Apex's sleek lobby and its towering glass atrium. Such a contrast to Crown's nineteenth century brick interior that needed a daily cleaning to sweep away crumbling bits of clay.

Out on the street, our driver, Neil, opened the door for my mother. She motioned me to follow her in, but I shook my head.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "Neil will drop you off at your place. We could all use some sleep. Especially you. You've got a big new job to start tomorrow."

Tomorrow. She wasn't even going to let me have the rest of the week to finish my own projects and pass what couldn't be completed off to my assistants. That realization hit hard. All my energy had been spent to make sure I appeared poised and refreshed, but inside, I was starting to melt like a cheap plastic toy in a microwave. "I promise, I'll go home soon. I just have one errand to run first."

As she pulled away, I ordered a rideshare to come and take me back over the river and into Crown territory's southwestern riverside neighborhood, where a mix of old meatpacking warehouses had been converted into trendy lofts. Neil could have dropped me off there just as easily as my apartment ten minutes away, but I didn't want my mom to know I was planning on spending some of the last precious forgotten hours at a human's home.

My best friend Vicki's roommate answered the door.

"Hi Brett," I said, inviting myself in.

"Calla. I thought you'd be at home with your daylight curtains drawn." He played with the ties of his hoodie, standing in the entryway between the door and the living room like he was suddenly a stranger in his own home. Brett was a sweetheart, and a huge Crown admirer. I'd peeked in his bedroom once and had been unsurprised to find three framed posters mounted above his bed of former Crown Alpha's, including one of my father back in his prime. His pearly white grin shone out of the poster's frame, muscled arms wrapped confidently in front of him. Finn Bardot had been a handsome man and it was easy to see why Brett had gone fan boy over him.

"Change of plans. I texted Vicki on the way over, but she didn't respond. Is she here?"

Brett frowned. "No, and I'm kind of worried about her."

It was too soon to sound the alarm, and yet, the hairs on my arms rose. I'd come here because Vicki knew how to talk me down and reassure me that things would work out. She'd have been a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to lean on. Now, one sentence from Brett and my senses were heightened. Everything shifted.

"Why are you worried? Did something happen?"

Brett motioned for me to sit down. He disappeared into the kitchen and came back a moment later with two coffee-filled mugs. "As you know, she'd been chatting with a guy online for a few weeks. Seemed like things were going well."

"Hang on," I said, coffee mug in hand. "She didn't tell me about any guy."

"Oh," he said and then his eyes grew wide. "Oh! Maybe she didn't...I thought she would have at least mentioned... Well, anyway she was really interested in him and then, yesterday, she planned on going to go see him."

I couldn't believe it. Vicki and I told each other everything. Every man we glanced at for more than five seconds would come up in conversation. Here I was, about to spill about the elevator ride with Rhys, only to find she'd been holding out on me. "Are you saying, she went on a date last night and never came home?"

"She told me it wasn't really a date, but when I asked what that was supposed to mean, she wouldn't say."

I slumped onto the couch, rubbing my sore temples. I should be at my own place. I shouldn't have even woken up for the day yet. "It isn't like her to be so secretive."

"I know. That's why I'm worried."

I brought out my phone. "Does she share her location with you?"

"Yeah, I tried tracking her phone this morning, but it's been turned off."

"It will still show you where the phone's last known location was." I opened the Locate You app.

"Calla..." He placed a hand over my wrist. "What you're about to see...I think maybe it's the reason she didn't tell you about this particular man."

"Why?" I shook off his hand. His warning only made me more curious. "Holy fuck." I stared at the screen in the hopes that Vicki's last location would magically change. This couldn't be accurate.

"See, that's exactly how she thought you'd respond."

"You're goddamned right! Brett, it was a full moon last night. What the hell was she doing there, of all places, during that?"

"It was just a first meeting. Nothing serious was going on or I'm sure she would have told you."

Five minutes ago, I would have believed that. Now? I wasn't so sure. "Do you know who it was?"

"Who what was? The man?"

"Yes, of course, the man. Dear God, what is wrong with you?" Vicki had been gone for the better part of a day and now it turned out she was at a place during a time that would have put her in potential danger. "Who else would I be talking about? Who was he? Do you have his name?"

Brett looked like he wanted the chair he was sitting in to grow teeth and swallow him whole. His cheeks flushed. "She didn't say, exactly."

"If she didn't say exactly, then she said approximately. So, approximately, who was Vicki meeting up with last night?" I turned my phone so that its screen faced Brett.

The Apex Headquarters address lit up on the Locate You app. "And by any chance, does his family run a prominent werewolf enterprise?"

"She wouldn't say his name, but...she did mention Apex several times."

"What about the Rawlings."

"The Rawlings brothers?" Brett's fearful grimace softened into one of unabashed awe. "Do you really imagine she would be meeting up with a Rawlings?"

"I don't know." Gerald Rawlings towering over me, Rhys's brothers eyeing me up and down as they spoke with each other in whispers, Rhys himself, believing all he had to do was push a button to get what he wanted from me.

If my best friend had entered this devil's den, then I was going to have to follow her. "But I swear to God, Brett, I'm going to find out."