“I’m going to need a whole new me. It’s not like I can pack a bag and bring it to dinner. Kintail would know for sure something was up. I did mail some documents and things to you just yesterday, thinking it was past time to do it. And I can fit some things into my purse, but when we get to your place, I’m going to have to go shopping.”
He smiled. “I’ll take you shopping for whatever you want or need.” He thought of texting Candice and seeing if she could run to the store for Elizabeth so she would have what she needed as soon as they got in, but decided against it. Elizabeth would probably want to pick out her own things. “This is really happening, Elizabeth. We’re on the next leg of our journey.” It was his turn for emotions to clog his voice.
“I know,” she said softly. “All right, I’m going to spread my grandmother’s ashes in her rose garden, though I’m going to bring some of her ashes with me to put in a memorial garden for her. Then Sheri’s coming over to have lunch and be with me for a while.”
“Don’t let on about anything. I know she’s your friend, but we have to be careful.”
“I won’t say a word, but she’s going to know something’s wrong if I don’t have her over. I won’t mention going to dinner with a friend until later, in case you don’t get in on time. It might seem odd if I kept delaying the time for dinner.”
“We need to come up with a story about who Amelia is and why she’s meeting with you—” David said.
“I was living in Alaska and met Elizabeth in Yellowknife once,” Amelia said.
David put the call on speakerphone. “Did you get that?”
“Yeah.”
“And I was going to be in the area again and wanted to see her.”
“That should work,” Elizabeth said. “We just need to come up with a reason you were in Yellowknife and how we met.”
“I’ll think about it while I’m flying.”
“All right.” Elizabeth sighed, more a sound of relief than anything else. “Thanks, Amelia. Love you, David.”
“I love you right back.”
“Guess that leaves me out of the running,” another male said.
Elizabeth guessed it was Slade and was so appreciative he’d come too. “Slade?”
“Yeah, sometimes it seems I’m just invisible when it comes to women,” Slade said.
Elizabeth laughed.
Amelia said, “Don’t believe him. He’s charming and irresistible, but he just hasn’t found the woman for him yet.”
Well, Elizabeth wouldn’t be the one, as she had her heart set on David.
Chapter 4
Elizabeth was excited to see David, but nervous about the possibility that they couldn’t pull off their plan without a hitch. She wanted so badly to tell Sheri goodbye and not leave her hanging, but she couldn’t. Not without potentially jeopardizing Sheri and also jeopardizing Elizabeth’s escape attempt, an attempt that could go so wrong in so many ways.
“Mom and Dad want you to come over for lunch instead of me coming over there,” Sheri said over the phone. “But they’ll understand if you’re feeling down about everything.”
“Another time,” Elizabeth said. They’d been really good to her, the only ones who had. Sheri’s brother, Hans, hadn’t been happy with Elizabeth; he was too much of a yes-man when it came to what Kintail wanted, and he didn’t like her interest in an outsider. She wondered how he felt now that David supposedly had a mate. “After all that has gone on—between my grandmother dying”—Elizabeth choked on the words; it was all too raw for her right now—“and David mating some she-wolf, I just can’t.” The lie stuck in her throat.
“Oh, I understand. I’ll be over at—”
“Eleven?”
“Oh, sure, you always like early lunches. See you then,” Sheri said.
Elizabeth didn’t mention spreading her grandmother’s ashes in the rose garden, afraid Sheri’s parents would want to come over too. She figured she would treat it as though it was a spur-of-the-moment idea.
She quickly packed her grandmother’s clothes to give to charity and boxed up canned and packaged food to leave at a food bank. When she dropped them off, she noticed Sheri’s boyfriend, Bentley, following her. Apparently planting the story about David being mated hadn’t been enough to shake her tail. Ignoring him, she returned to the house to clean. When it went on the market, it would be ready. Furnished even, if anyone wanted a furnished home.
As for her own stuff… She bit her lip, having forgotten for a second she’d be leaving everything she ever owned behind. She would have to pay someone else to come and gather all her belongings and give them away too. Maybe Sheri would do it for her. Sheri could even sell them, if she wanted to, and keep the money for her efforts.
Elizabeth had always envisioned packing her car to the roof with all her belongings, but that just wasn’t a viable option. Not if she wanted to slip away before anyone should find out about it.
***
Kintail knew that as soon as Ada Alpine died, Elizabeth would take off. And he was pissed off she hadn’t come to him with the news that Ada had died. In fact, she hadn’t told anyone about it. He had to learn about it when Bentley happened to be running out for doughnuts and saw Elizabeth coming out of one of the funeral homes nearby. How would it look to his people if he couldn’t control them better than that? After that, Kintail sent Bentley to watch her. He called in to tell the pack leader she’d stopped by a charity organization to drop off boxes of stuff.
What stuff? Her grandmother’s clothes?
Why? Why so quickly? The only reason he could come up with was she was planning on leaving. She had to be. He thought of having a man watch at the airport, but they might as well just see what she was up to for now. If Bentley lost her, Kintail would send men to the airport to stop her.
“You know that David Davis has a mate now,” Bentley said.
“That’s what they say.”
“But you don’t believe it.”
“He might have, who knows? I still don’t trust her to stay here with the pack.” He hung up, his mind churning. What was she up to?
A few minutes later, Bentley called back. “Hey, Boss, now she’s dropping off boxes of food at the food pantry.”
“Food?”
“Yeah. Seems like she plans to run. And I was talking to my girlfriend, Sheri, about a funeral service for Elizabeth’s grandmother, and she said that there wouldn’t be one.”