Cursed (Howl, #6) Read online

  Emma burst into laughter. “Can you picture it? He’d probably end up wearing a purple outfit with a feather hat and a cane. Oh, my God. I think you gave me the funniest Halloween costume idea! I know Halloween isn’t for another seven months or something, but I’m really excited about it now.”

  As Samara and Emma headed for their lockers, which were side by side, Ashley Everest and Brielle Morris headed over to them.

  “Emma? We need to talk to you,” Ashley said in a low voice.

  “Okay, then. Talk,” Emma said, as she turned her locker combination.

  “We thought you might want to talk to us alone,” Brielle said, motioning to Samara. “We don’t want to say anything that might embarrass you in front of your friend.”

  “Anything you have to say in front of me, you can say in front of Samara, too,” Emma said, not even bothering to glance in their direction.

  Samara raised her eyebrows, surprised by her best friend’s sudden change in attitude. She knew that Emma had felt like she had less in common with Ashley and Brielle ever since she’d became a werewolf, but she normally didn’t do anything that might upset the popular girls. Doing that had the potential to destroy Emma’s own popularity, which she had always valued.

  “Okay, fine, we’ll be upfront with you. Are you dating Colby Jack?” Ashley asked, eyeing Emma for a reaction.

  “I’m not sure that’s really any of your business,” Emma said, casually, “But for the record, yes. Yes, I am dating Colby Jack. Do either of you have a problem with that?” She turned around and glared at them.

  Samara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Even though she knew that Emma and Colby were involved, the truth was, she hadn’t expected her best friend to ever admit it aloud at school. Colby might have gained some popularity of his own ever since Samara had given him his makeover, but some of the kids at school still saw him as Colby Jack—the same goofy, dorky kid he’d always been, and that was the type of guy who Emma always avoided dating.

  “Well, hello! It’s Colby Jack! Of course we have a problem with it,” Brielle said, her voice taking on a shrill tone. “I think it’s time for us to do an intervention.”

  “We know you’ve been having a rough year, especially since Jason died, but there are far better guys in the dating pool than Colby Jack.” Ashley said his name like it was some sort of venereal disease or a deadly virus, rather than an actual human being.

  “Actually, girls, there aren’t any guys in the dating pool who are better than Colby Jack,” Emma replied, shaking her head. A wide grin crossed her lips as she went on. “He’s the cutest, sweetest, most generous person I’ve ever met. No one I’ve ever been with has ever made me feel this way before. He gives me butterflies. Every morning, he tells me I’m beautiful. If he had to swim through a tank of sharks to rescue me, he probably would. So, no ladies, there aren’t any guys out there who I’d rather be with, and this intervention, as you call it, isn’t going to work. I am truly, madly in love with Colby Jack.”

  Ashley rolled her eyes at Emma. “Um, that’s probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t know who would give that kid the time of day, let alone say all of those nice things about him. You must be sick or something.”

  “If you ever come to your senses, just let us know,” Brielle said, rolling her eyes, too. “And we were just wondering . . . Is Colby Jack the reason you stopped throwing your awesome parties?”

  “Although I have to agree that my parties were pretty awesome, the fact that I’m no longer throwing them has nothing to do with Colby Jack,” Emma replied, shaking her head. “To be honest, girls, I’m over the parties. I’m also over being your friends. There are more important things in life than being popular. Of course, you wouldn’t know anything about that. All you care about is yourselves. I hope you don’t miss out on a great guy just because you’re too afraid to date outside of your popular kid ‘dating pool’.” Rolling her eyes, she linked arms with Samara. “Come on, let’s go to class.”

  “I’m really proud of you, Em,” Samara said with a smile. “It’s about time you stood up to them like that.”

  As they reached their classroom, Colby came running towards them. “I heard the news!” He was beaming.

  “What news is that?” Emma asked, glancing at him.

  “That you and me are officially together, as far as our peers know,” Colby said with a grin. “You know what that means, right?”

  “Wow, word travels fast in this school.” Emma laughed. “No, what does it mean, Colby Jack?”

  “It means I get to do this.” Colby wrapped his arms around her waist, pressed his lips against hers, and dipped her right there in the middle of the hallway.

  Samara smiled. All was good in Colby-and-Emma land.

  *

  Samara was sitting in health class when the police officer came to her classroom.

  “Samara McKinley?” he asked.

  “Yes, that’s me,” Samara replied, a nervous feeling washing over her.

  “I need you to come with me, please,” the police officer said.

  Grabbing her tote bag and books, Samara made her way across the classroom. A few students made whistling sounds at her as she left.

  “What’s going on?” Samara questioned, even though she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know the answer. What if she was getting arrested for Lilly and Jason’s deaths now? Maybe they had somehow figured out that Josh wasn’t the one who had done it, and she was the next suspect in line.

  “Detective Scotts would like to meet with you. He has some questions,” the police officer responded. “I’ll drive you down to the station so he can interview you. If you would like to call your parents or a lawyer, now is the time to do so.”

  Samara hesitated. Even though she really wanted her parents there, she knew that it was probably a bad idea to ask them to come. She hadn’t exactly told them that there was a rule in the werewolf world that they weren’t allowed to mention her being a werewolf. Even though she liked to think that they had enough common sense to not say anything, she also didn’t want to take any chances.

  A lawyer was probably a safer bet, but . . . calling a lawyer would make it seem like she was guilty. That was the last thing Samara needed at this point.

  “I’d like to call my husband, if that’s okay,” Samara told the police officer.

  He glanced over at her, eyeing her curiously. “Aren’t you a little young to be married?”

  She shrugged. “My parents signed a court waiver. It’s legal to get married at sixteen.” Shouldn’t he know this? It seemed like it should be a police officer’s job to know the law.

  “Yes, you may call him,” the police officer replied, shrugging his shoulders. He led her outside, and Samara texted Luke to meet her at the police station.

  He answered her quickly. Okay, I’ll be there in five minutes.

  Samara breathed a small sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen at the police station, but on the bright side, she wasn’t going to be there all alone.

  Chapter 13

  “It’s nice to see you again, Samara,” Detective Scotts said, once they were settled in his office at the police station.

  “It’s nice to see you, too,” Samara replied quietly. Of course she wasn’t going to admit the truth—which was that she hadn’t wanted to see his face ever again. And to be fair, he was nice for a detective. It just made her nervous to know what sorts of questions he had for her this time.

  Don’t worry too much. I don’t think they’re going to arrest you today even if they suspect you of anything. And if they do suspect you, we can always take off somewhere, Luke told her through mind-speak. He squeezed her hand from his place at the investigation table next to her.

  I don’t want to take off somewhere, Samara replied. What about my family? I would never be able to see them again, not without making them accessories.

  They can always come with us, Luke pointed out.

  It see
ms unfair to make them have to uproot their whole lives just because of me, Samara replied, holding in the sigh she wanted to let out.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard about all of the chaos that took place this weekend,” Detective Scotts told her. “Josh Masterson was arrested for the murders of Lilly Phillips and Jason Masterson, and then he escaped from jail.”

  “Yes, I heard about that,” Samara replied. She wanted to point out that there was no physical evidence in the case, but she couldn’t tell Detective Scotts that without admitting that she knew who had really killed Lilly and Jason.

  Detective Scotts glanced over at her with a small smile. “I know that you and Josh have been very close over the past few months. He’s a good friend of your cousin Kyle, who you’ve also been close to lately, correct?”

  Samara nodded. Her goal was to tell the truth about as much as she could, without actually telling him everything she knew.

  “You wouldn’t happen to know where Josh escaped to, would you?” Detective Scotts asked.

  “No, I don’t know,” Samara replied. “I haven’t seen or talked to him since before he was arrested.”

  “Now, you and I both know that isn’t true now, is it, Samara?” Detective Scotts questioned, raising one eyebrow at her. “Did Josh not call you when he was first taken to jail?”

  “Oh, umm, yes—” Samara replied, realizing that she hadn’t thought about the phone call that Josh had made to her when he’d first been taken to jail. She hoped that the detective wouldn’t think she was dishonest, because it had been something she had totally forgotten about.

  “And did you not offer to pay his bail? Of two million dollars?” Detective Scotts asked, staring at her with wide eyes.

  “Well, yes,” Samara started to say, but before she could say anything else, the detective interrupted her again.

  “That’s what I thought,” Detective Scotts said with a smile. “You see, our prison records all phone calls which are made from inmates. We don’t normally listen to them, but it comes in handy for cases like this.” Pausing for a moment, he asked, “Now, why don’t you tell me where a girl your age would come up with two million dollars to pay someone’s bail.”

  Samara licked her lips. “Well, it’s a long story, but . . . I recently inherited a lot of money from my grandfather.”

  “I see. Are you positive that’s where the money came from?” Detective Scotts asked. “You didn’t make it illegally?”

  Samara shook her head. “No, it was totally legal.”

  “I think I might need to confirm that with one of your family members. Someone besides your husband,” Detective Scotts said, his eyes darting over at Luke and then back to Samara. “Can you write down a number where I might be able to reach your mother or father?” He handed her a Post-it note and a blue ballpoint pen.

  Hesitantly, Samara scribbled down her mom’s phone number. She was going to tell Detective Scotts that her mom had no idea about the money that she’d inherited, but Samara knew that saying that would only make her look even more suspicious—and there was a chance that she might be able to get ahold of her mom before the detective did.

  “Okay, now the bigger question I have for you is this. Why would you be willing to spend two million dollars of your inheritance to bail Josh Masterson out of jail?” Detective Scotts asked, staring at Samara intently. “Obviously you didn’t do it for love, considering you’re married to someone else.” He motioned to Luke. “So, tell me, Samara. What would compel you to want to bail out someone who’s being charged with murder? Do you know why his bail was set so high? So no one would bail him out because he’s considered dangerous!” Detective Scotts laughed frustratedly.

  “The last time I checked, Detective, it’s not illegal to post someone’s bail for them,” Luke pointed out, narrowing his eyes at the detective.

  Detective Scotts turned to look at Luke. “No, you’re right, it isn’t a crime. But due to the nature of the crime—and more importantly, knowing that Samara was at one point on our suspect list—you can’t blame me for finding it peculiar that she would want to bail him out.”

  “I wanted to bail him out because he’s my friend,” Samara replied, shaking her head. “You might think Josh is dangerous, but he’s never done anything to make me think he could be. He’s a good kid. He’s my cousin’s best friend, so I thought I would be helping both of them out by bailing him out of jail.” Hesitantly, she added, “And to be honest with you, I’m not convinced that Josh was the one who committed the crime.”

  Detective Scotts raised his eyebrows and stood up. He paced across the room a few times, holding his chin in his hand, before glancing over at her. “Are you saying that based on his character alone?”

  Samara shook her head. “I’m saying that because Josh was with us at the time of Jason’s murder.” Unsure if she should say it aloud, she also added, “And when Jason was alive, he confessed to murdering Lilly.”

  Detective Scotts met her gaze. “If this is true—that Jason confessed to murdering Lilly—why didn’t you let us know?”

  “I was going to let you know,” Samara replied quietly. “Before I had the chance to tell you, though, Jason was killed, too.” She shrugged. “At that point, it didn’t seem like it really mattered any more that Jason was the one who did it because he was gone, too.”

  Detective Scotts looked at her and sighed. “If what you’re saying is true, why would Josh Masterson’s family place the blame on him?”

  “Easy,” Luke spoke up. “They’re protecting Jason. See, Detective, Jason has always been their favorite son. I don’t know if they really believe that Josh killed him or if they just wanted to protect Jason’s name—even now that he’s gone—because they knew he killed Lilly, but they’re making false accusations. That’s all this is.”

  Sitting back down in his seat at the investigation table and rubbing his temples, Detective Scotts admitted, “We don’t have a lot of evidence against Josh. We were hoping that we would be able to get the truth out of him, but we wanted to contain him because his own parents told us that he was the one who committed the crime. But if what you’re saying is true, this is reason enough for us to let him go.” He paused before adding, “He made things worse for himself as it is. Escaping from prison is a crime in itself, but it doesn’t carry as heavy a sentence as two murders would.”

  Samara felt a feeling of relief beginning to wash over her. It seemed like the detective genuinely believed the information they were feeding him. This had to be good news for Josh.

  Detective Scotts glanced up at Samara. “Do you happen to know where Josh is hiding out? Since he hasn’t lived with his family in quite some time now, it only seems logical that he must be staying with a friend. Have you seen him?”

  Samara shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen him. My cousin hasn’t seen him, either. We don’t know where Josh is.” It was actually kind of unusual that they had yet to hear from him. It made her wonder if there was a chance that maybe Josh wasn’t even in the area anymore. What if he had fled to somewhere else? She hoped that, wherever he was, Josh would let them know soon. Samara was beginning to worry about him.

  Detective Scotts sighed. “I suppose we’re done here for now. If you do, by chance, get wind of where Josh is, please let us know. Be aware that harboring a suspect is a crime.”

  “We’ll let you know if we hear from him,” Samara replied. She wasn’t even sure if she was lying at this point; if the only charge Josh might be facing was escaping from prison, it might be better for him to turn himself in now than to keep hiding out.

  “Thank you,” Detective Scotts replied. “I’ll be in touch if I have any further questions.”

  Samara nodded before rising to her feet and following Luke out of the investigation room. Once they were in the hall, Luke turned to her. “Where do you think Josh is?”

  “I was just wondering the same exact thing,” Samara replied. She shrugged. “Hopefully we’ll hear from him soon.”

  �
�Yeah, hopefully,” Luke replied.

  *

  “Hey, Mom, it’s me,” Samara said into the phone. “Can you call me back as soon as you get this? I know you’re away, so you’re probably dealing with more important things right now, but I really need to talk to you, okay? Bye.” She hit the end button her cell phone and sighed. It was the fourth message she had left her mom since she’d spoken to Detective Scotts, but she hadn’t gotten a call back from either of her parents yet. It was beginning to get frustrating.

  It was Tuesday evening, and the pack was holding a meeting in their usual spot. Even though Samara knew that she shouldn’t, she couldn’t help but feel on edge the whole time. She kept expecting Darren Jackson—and Declan and the Vyka—to come onto their territory.

  “Seth, is there anything going on with your pin right now?” Samara questioned, turning towards her brother.

  Seth shook his head. “No, it’s red and not changing colors at all. I guess there’s no one nearby.”

  Kyle frowned. “Well, that’s not what my watch is telling me.” He took it off and handed it to Samara. “See, it says two. That must mean there are two enemies nearby.”

  Samara frowned. “Unless that’s not really what the watch is telling us. It wouldn’t make any sense for it to contradict what Seth’s pin is saying.”

  Silas spoke up next. “I think I have an idea of what it could mean,” he said quietly. “Think about it. Yesterday, all day long, it said three. Ever since I saw Kyle at school this morning, the watch said two. Do you think that maybe it could be counting down the days?”

  “Counting down the days until what, though, I wonder,” Samara said, tapping her shoe against the rocks and dirt. “It sounds like a logical reason, but we need to figure out what’s going to happen in one day if that’s the case.”

  “I have no clue what it could be trying to tell us,” Kyle replied with a shrug.

  “Hmm.” Samara murmured. She glanced over at her brother and Penelope, who were unusually quiet tonight. “Are the two of you okay?”