SwitchBack: A Paranormal Werewolf Romance (Knightsbridge Canyon Series Book 1) Read online

  “Oh my gosh. J.R. didn’t see it, did he?” I asked. How horrible!

  “No. Elle put it in a bag before he woke up. But there was a note stuck in its mouth.”

  “A note?” How strange. “I don’t understand.”

  “The note was addressed to you, Ashlee.” Amber’s voice took on a tone that could only be disapproval, but for once I couldn’t read her intent. “Elle took it all down to the police station. You might want to stop by this morning as they have a few questions to ask you.”

  “But – what did it say, Amber?”

  “I don’t know. Elle wouldn’t let me read it. She said it’s best if I don’t worry about it. And then asked me to call. So I did…I’m scared, Ashlee. What is this? This is freaking me out.”

  “I’ll handle it.”

  “You better.”

  I resolved to try, though my record with handling things was no better than fifty-fifty most days.

  I showed up at the station with Will in tow, asking him to wait outside as Elle met me in the new Chief’s office, which used to be hers before she became the city attorney. She handed me a plastic evidence bag with the note inside. It was written with black permanent ink, so even against the dried blood the words were evident.

  It said, I know what you are. I know what you did. Payback’s a bitch and so am I.

  My stomach dropped inside me and I sank into a chair. A cup of water was shoved into my hand and I gulped it down. No natural wolves roamed California, but there were plenty of coyotes, the closest thing. This one had been killed as a message to me.

  “We pulled your file, Ashlee,” Chief Hernandez said in that brittle tone cops use when they are questioning someone they don’t suspect, but want to. “You want to tell us what you think this is about?” Like every good cop, bad cop scenario, someone had to start and it looked like the chief was going on the offensive, giving Elle the conciliatory role.

  “I – I have no idea,” I told him, but I was a horrible liar and I think he knew it.

  “Maybe you know something,” Elle interjected. “You just think you don’t.”

  “Now listen,” Hernandez said. “You got to be straight with us. I’ve read your file, but I want to hear it from your point of view.”

  Now, before I write down what happened, let me assure you that what follows is the real story. The Knightsbridge police force got the same account, just without all the furry parts.

  Chapter 14

  A crisp autumn morning dawned in Knightsbridge. The last of the rising fog was just burning off by the light of the amber sun peeking its way through the clouds and it cast a hazy glow over everything. The leaves had begun to turn and the smells of nature in repose shifted from summer to fall.

  Just past my sixteenth birthday, my body had begun to blossom, a bit late by current standards but that’s common with exercise junkies. Suppresses puberty or something like that. Or maybe it was the change. Who knows, with this thing?

  My metabolism was spiking and I had so much energy to burn that I ended up running just for the meditative aspects of it. I’d finished my early morning climbing run out to the far top of the Canyon – yeah, to the locals it has a capital letter on it, the Canyon – and was taking a break before heading back. I’d found a picnic table that had escaped the moisture of the morning dew and I stretched out on its weathered slats, staring up into the dappled canopy of the sunrise through the spreading walnut tree above me. All was peaceful and quiet out here, even if it wasn’t in the rest of my world.

  I should have known that it was too good to be true.

  The sound of a revving engine broke the silence and I sat up quickly, heart beating faster, my pupils dilating as I focused in on the source of the disturbance. Shane Macdonald sat idling his tuned black Camaro, beaming at me from about twenty yards.

  Shane was a senior at Knightsbridge Christian High, and was also the new standout on our varsity basketball team, having moved to town during the summer. Starting center on defense and point guard on offense, six foot three with a curly mop of auburn that you just wanted to run your fingers through, a stocky broad frame and shoulders, and big hands to palm the ball. He told me he came from a school down in L.A., where he barely ever got off the bench.

  “They were all huge black guys,” he’d joked, and I could see he must have been overshadowed and outmatched – not because they were black, but because despite his aspirations, he just wasn’t as good as he thought he was. Not in a big city like L.A. Now it looked like he was enjoying his Big Fish in a Small Pond status. Our town was mostly white and brown, and let’s face it, Latinos are generally on the shorter side.

  “Hey Amber!” he called. “Wanna ride back to town?”

  I grinned and grabbed my things. I mean, so he’d got my name wrong. Who was I to look a gift horse in the mouth? And when you’re an identical twin, chances are unless people know you really well, they are bound to make that mistake half the time.

  “Hey Shane. It’s Ashlee, not Amber,” I said, leaning down over the open passenger side window and winking at him.

  “God!” he laughed. “You guys are really hard to tell apart.” Dimples puckered his chiseled Hollywood jaw.

  “It’s pretty much impossible since you’ve only been in town what, a couple of months now?” I teased. “Still want to give me a ride? Amber’s probably still snoozing, getting her beauty sleep.” My sister’s idea of the perfect workout was something indoors, with music and a juice bar within reach.

  “Sure, no problem.” He smiled. “But she ought to know, a little less rest and a little more exercise doesn’t seem to be hurting you any.”

  “Oh, she gets her exercise.” I chuckled as I climbed in and belted up. “She just does it through things like cheerleading and being chased by guys like you. I’m the one with the runner’s high addiction.”

  “I’ll have to remember that.” He glanced over, scrutinizing my face as if trying to memorize the differences between us by analyzing my laugh lines.

  “Don’t worry. Even most of our teachers can’t tell us apart.”

  “I guess we should be glad that you and Amber aren’t in the same classes at school. That would be impossible.”

  ”Yeah, we worked that one out years ago.” Different home rooms and class schedules whenever possible. Although in a small town, we still ended up with a lot of the same teachers. We sometimes swapped schedules when we were bored and wanted to liven things up. “Never let ’em see you sweat and always keep ’em guessing,” Mom used to say. I bit back a tear and put a smile on my face. I am so not going there today, I told myself.

  Instead, I took the time to examine Shane’s face as he concentrated on the road. There were quite a few switchbacks coming down the Canyon into the valley and I had to admit, the guy handled the car like a dream.

  “So, I guess Amber told you we’ve got a date tonight.”

  “Uh-huh.” I nodded. “Second date, right?”

  “No. Third,” he responded.

  I winced.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” I told him. What’s a white lie when the truth is a bitch named Amber? Don’t get me wrong, I love my sister. But I don’t even think she’s human sometimes. Like Kim Basinger playing opposite Brad Pitt in Cool World, she rarely spends a day with the rest of us in the third dimension. Speaking of thirds, the third date is when Amber dumps them. She says if a boy’s not the one, she knows it by the third date. She said this when we were like twelve and for the last four years my sister has been nothing if not brutally consistent. I don’t know how she thinks she’ll know he’s the one if she’s never even met a “one” to compare him to, but she seems to think she’s got a handle on it.

  “Yeah,” he continued. “My big sister thinks I’m crazy. Says I’m playing way out of my league.”

  She may be right, I thought to myself. “I don’t think I know your sister.”

  “You won’t, unless you get caught makin’ out on Lover’s Leap. She’s the
new chief ranger up at Knightsbridge Canyon State Park. Ex-Military. You know, the one who usually kicks everyone out just when the fun is starting.”

  “Oh, right…” I remembered now. “Amber says she looks like she’s got a cucumber up her butt and she’s trying to scrape off all the pricklies.”

  Shane broke out in a big belly laugh. “That’s so wrong,” he guffawed “and so right. That would be Jeanetta. My dad calls her the changeling. You know, like a fairy child, only meaner. Mom says it’s a recessive gene from my dad’s side of the family. Jeanetta just says that we’re all suckers programmed by society to be good little consumers.”

  “She may be right,” I said. I was thinking of my twin and her addiction to whatever brand-name thing was in the latest Vogue. “By the way, what are you doing out this way so early in the morning? I thought you lived on the other side of town.”

  “Can you keep a secret?”

  “That depends.”

  “Depends on what?” he countered. This was getting fun.

  “Depends on how good a secret it is.”

  “Oh, it’s good,” he assured me.

  “So, spill.”

  “Promise not to tell your sis.”

  “Promise not to hurt her,” I replied, not entirely joking. After all, she was my sister. In fact, sometimes I thought she was almost me. Other times…not so much.

  “Naw, this is good. Get this, I drove my trailer up to the ranger station and left it parked on the overlook. For once Jeanetta’s ranger status will come in handy, because she said she’d leave the patrol car parked nearby to scare off the townies and catch a ride back home with her creepy boyfriend Sean Gottlieb. She helped me decorate it with Christmas lights, and I had my mom pack us a picnic lunch like they do in the movies. Seafood ceviche, oysters, smoked salmon and capers, the works. I even have a bottle of champagne on ice in the cooler.”

  “Oh my God, that’s so romantic,” I said. And corny. To his face, I oohed and ahhed, but as I was listening to him, I was cringing inside. Here he is, going on about oysters on the half shell and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that besides being allergic to shellfish, Amber was probably going to dump him anyway, third date and all, and she had yet to go out with anyone, and I mean anyone, on a fourth. Oh, she’d say she loved the date afterward, but more like a good anecdote you told to your girlfriends than even for the sentimental value. It just didn’t come with a high enough price tag.

  “What type of champagne?” I interrupted his soliloquy. I gotta spare this guy just a bit of heartache, I thought. He is much too nice for my sister. She eats up nice guys and spits them out for breakfast.

  “Dom Perignon.” I breathed a sigh of relief. At least the alcohol would pass muster, but my sister is truly a brand snob. If you’ve got caviar, which she won’t eat anyway, it better be Beluga. “My parents had a bottle left over from the housewarming. Why?”

  “Um, Shane,” I began. How the hell was I going to break this to him gently?

  “Uh-huh?”

  “I’m afraid that Amber’s allergic to shellfish.” Okay, not so gently. Hey, I don’t do gentle.

  He slammed on the brakes and I was really glad I’d buckled my seatbelt.

  “Are you serious?!” He looked over at me and I gave him a sheepish grin. Then he put his head between his hands and I swear I thought the guy was going to begin crying, but he was only pounding his head on the steering wheel.

  “Sorry,” I said. “But if it’s any consolation,” I added, “I love seafood.”

  Shane began to laugh, but it sounded more like a choked scream.

  “What the hell am I going to do Ashlee?” he said. “I am so stupid, stupid, stupid.” Shane repeated the word “stupid” and punctuated with the head-banging-on-the-steering-wheel routine. “What kind of idiot doesn’t ask if his date likes seafood?” he asked. “I spend all of my money on this one idea and I don’t even have a plan B!”

  “How much are you out?”

  “A hundred bucks!”

  “Seriously?” I marveled. “Damn!”

  “She’s all I think about.”

  Oh shit. I was really going to have to get Amber to let this one down easy. He seemed really head over hind legs. Infatuated, I think is the word.

  “Tell you what…” I made a decision. “Drive by the bank. I’ve got a Christmas club I can cash out and she will never be the wiser. You can buy something else to make the date special. Maybe a nice filet steak and some fruit.”

  “Yeah, but what will I do with all the seafood?”

  “Eh, I’ll take whatever won’t keep,” I told him. “Yum.”

  So, when he pulled up to the bank, I hopped out, sauntering by my on-again-off-again beau Will Stenfield, as he was watering the grass in front of the branch. He glanced at me, then at Shane’s car, and he almost sprayed a passer-by. It was hilarious. Then I watched him seethe as I sauntered back to Shane’s car. Slam and Dunk, Ashlee Scott. Sometimes I really enjoy being a girl. I shoved an envelope of twenties at Shane as I slid into the seat next to him.

  “You know Ashlee, I really appreciate this.”

  “Just remember your promise.”

  “Promise?” he asked. “What promise?”

  Ah, how quickly they forget. I shook my fist at him. “Hurt her, I hurt you. Capisce?”

  “Capisce.” He was kind of adorable when he laughed. Maybe I was gonna have to go out with this one, I thought. Too bad I’m still stuck on Will.

  “Hey, you and that Will fella still goin’ out?” Shane asked me.

  “Not right now. We’re kind of in limbo.”

  “That’s too bad.” He seemed sincere. “So, who’s your plan B?”

  “I haven’t decided,” I said. “Got any ideas?”

  “Who, me? No, but if I think of somebody I’ll run it by you.”

  “Yeah, you do that.” I smiled.

  “Well, here we are.”

  “Yeah, thanks for the ride.”

  “Not a problem. Tell your sister I expect to see her ass jogging up the Canyon one of these mornings.”

  “Yeah, like that’ll ever happen,” I shot back as I watched him drive away. This guy was much too cute for Amber, I mused as I headed up the walk and went in the front door, only to find my twin sister waiting behind it.

  “Shit, you scared me.” I held my hand to my heart as it pounded in my chest. “And what is that crap on your face?” I eyed her. She was wearing one of our mother’s silky robes, which was always creepy, and like me she had her brunette hair back in a pony tail. It was the gunk on her skin that made her look extra-scary.

  “It’s an avocado herbalesque masque if you must know. And don’t try to distract me. Just what do you think you were doing with Shane Macdonald?”

  Crap.

  “You’re probably going to dump him anyway, Miss Third-Date-Termination Clause. And seriously, Sis, if you don’t let him down gently, he might never recover. He’s really got it bad, and he’s a teddy bear. But what do you care?”

  “I don’t.” She flashed me her most feline grin and flounced back through the entryway into the living room forcing me to follow behind her.

  “Amber, it was nothing. I ran out to the Canyon and Shane offered me a ride as I was heading back. No big deal.” What was I apologizing for?

  My family as a whole can be brutally honest, but when she’s got a mad on my sister can be downright vicious. Her voice rose to that superior mothering tone she affected when she really wanted to get my goat. “As you’ve decided to poach off my leftovers again, let me throw you a bone. I was going to cancel on the guy, but since you two seem so chummy, why don’t you be me for the night?”

  “You know,” I said, “thanks, sis. But I’m really not interested. If I ever go out with Shane Macdonald, I want it to be as myself.”

  Amber lifted her index finger as if to say ‘hold that thought,’ then brought the phone that I hadn’t noticed in her hand up to her ear. “Shane. Hey.” Her morning voice took on a
calculatingly manipulative sugary tone. “Hey. It’s Amber. I just want to apologize for doing this on such short notice, but you and me, we’re just not that compatible. Now I know you’re probably disappointed as you were looking forward to our third date, but here’s Ashlee. And she just happens to be free.” She handed me the phone.

  “You are such a bitch,” I hissed at her as I held one hand over the speaker.

  “Grow up, Ashlee,” Amber tossed over her shoulder as she turned and flounced off.

  “Why should I bother, since it seems that you are mature enough for the both of us?”

  Weak, Ash, weak, but I was never as good at the repartee as she was.

  She shrugged and kept walking.

  “Hey…Shane.” While fuming at my sister, I still felt bad for the guy. “I’m sorry Amber did that to you. But the good news is, I’m not allergic to shellfish.”

  And with that, it looked like I had a date.

  My sister spent the rest of the day in bed with a migraine. Serves her right, I thought, if it’s real. Third Date Termination Clause Punishment. And yet, when I looked in on her before running off to volleyball practice, she was tossing and turning with cold sweats and fever. I put our tiff aside and went in to comfort her.

  “Don’t go, Ash,” she said, her eyes unnaturally bright in the room’s dimness. I could see her pupils dilated so far her irises seemed almost black, a deep shiny obsidian.

  “I wish Mom were here,” I told her as I stroked her hair, so like my own. “She was always so much better at this.”

  Amber grabbed my wrist with surprising strength. “Ashlee, don’t go!”

  “Oh come on, Amber,” I said suspiciously. “You’re not going anyway, and the guy bought a hundred bucks of seafood for you. Don’t be like that. I’m sorry you got a migraine.”

  “I’m not being like anything,” she said, angry. “I just have a bad feeling about this, that’s all.”

  For some reason this pushed my buttons and pissed me off more than it should have. Amber was always trying to control me and my life, and now she just wasn’t going to let me enjoy myself out of some twisted passive-aggressive impulse, I figured.