Chapter 213

Judy’s POV

“Who do you think she’s talking to?” Nan asked in a whisper. “Or about?”

I shrugged.

It was strange that she was having a secret conversation behind the gym. Just as we were about to step away, she came around the corner and froze upon seeing us.

“Judy,” she gasped and then her eyes went to Nan. “And Nan. Uh… hi. What are you girls doing here?”

I looked at Nan and then back at Sammy.

“We were just heading to the gym, and I thought I heard your voice. We just came to check it out.

Her cheeks flushed and she seemed to be looking anywhere but at us.

“We didn’t hear anything,” Nan was quick to interject. “We just got here. Were you on the phone?”

She nodded.

“Yeah,” she said. “I was just talking to family. I have to go though. I’ll see you girls later.”

Without another word she brushed past us and ran off, leaving us staring after her with dumbfounded expressions. I looked at Nan and her confused expression mirrored mine. After a moment of standing in place, silent, we decided to go into the gym. It wasn’t busy, thankfully. A few from my combat class were using the weight machine and with respectful head nods in our direction, they continued to do what they were doing without bothering either of us.

Nan immediately gravitated towards the treadmill while I went towards the closest weight machine so I could still talk to her while doing my workout. Despite that Nan was petite in size, she had always been athletic. She played various sports in middle and high school, including track, which was one of her favorites. So, I wasn’t surprised when she immediately set the treadmill for the highest setting and started to sprint.

“Maybe she got back together with her boyfriend, and she’s embarrassed about it?” Nan said after a while. I knew both our minds were still fixed on Sammy and that mysterious phone call.

“It didn’t sound like a boyfriend,” I told her with a frown. “It sounded as she said…a family member. Accept it appeared they were asking her to do something she didn’t want to do.”

Figuring this out shouldn’t be hard for me considering I was in Gamma training. It was my job to be able to find out these things with ease and if I couldn’t, that’d be embarrassing.

“Maybe they want her to get back together with her boyfriend,” Nan suggested. “He was an Alpha right?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, but he didn’t take on the role of an Alpha. He was in the Gamma competition which meant he wanted to be a part of the Elite Force.”

“Do we even know who he is?” Nan asked with a frown.

“She never told us a name, no.”

“He definitely exists though… right?” Nan asked, her brows furrowed.

The fact that she could sprint as fast as she was and hold up a conversation along with facial expressions was impressive.

“Sammy wouldn’t lie to us… would she?” I asked. But even as I asked that question, I wasn’t so sure. I mean, she was snooping around my personal bedroom and hiding phone conversations from us. It was weird behavior, and I had a feeling maybe Sammy was lying to us… or at least hiding something she didn’t want us to know. It gave me an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“I don’t know,” Nan said softly. “I’m a little worried that maybe we are being deceived.”

We both fell silent as we continued our workout routine and after an hour, we were both panting and sore, but we felt better.

Nan finally slowed down the treadmill and started to walk while I lowered the amount of weight I was doing.

“Maybe we should talk to her again,” I suggested. “Or at least keep an eye on her.”

Nan nodded in agreement.

She glanced at her watch and sighed as she turned off the treadmill and hopped off.

“I have to get to work. Will you be okay if I leave?” She asked.

I nodded.

“Yeah, Taylor is picking me up in a few minutes. I have to work tonight too. I promised Matt I wouldn’t bail on him tonight,” I told her as I sat up on the bench. “Call me later, okay?”

She nodded as she grabbed her belongings and hurried out of the gym.

I stayed for a little longer before I called it a day and packed up my own things.

As I reached the parking lot, I saw the familiar car that Beta Taylor usually drove parked out front. There wasn’t any sign of Sammy, so I assumed she wasn’t riding with us, which was fine because I wanted to go straight to the Villa anyway. Plus, I still wasn’t sure how I was feeling towards Sammy so maybe it was good that I was gaining some space from her.

I was about to walk towards the backseat, but then the front passenger door opened, and I froze for a moment. I walked over to the door and peeked in, only to see Gavin seated in the driver’s seat. I raised my brows as I got into the car.

“Hey,” I said to him. “Where’s Beta Taylor?”

“He had something to do,” Gavin said, his eyes scanning me briefly as he waited for me to buckle my belt.

“Erik couldn’t pick me up?” I asked. Erik was my typical driver at the mansion, so when Taylor couldn’t pick me up from school, it was usually Erik.

Gavin narrowed his eyes at me.

“Do you have a problem with me picking you up?” He asked, raising his brows.

I snapped a look at him.

“No, of course not. I’m just wondering why you went out of your way,” I told him.

We hadn’t spoken since our date last night and things were a little weird. The date was incredible, and things ended well, but I wasn’t really sure where we stood anymore. Were we still being casual? Or were we more now? I wanted to ask him what he thought, but I decided to keep my mouth shut for right now.

“It wasn’t out of my way,” he murmured, almost defensively. “I was passing by and figured I’d pick you up on my way home.”

I raised my brows.

“You were passing by?” I asked, suspiciously.

As I looked at his side profile, I noticed how tense he was. I suddenly had the urge to reach over to him and touch him, giving him some type of comfort. His knuckles were turning white as he clutched the steering wheel, and my brows furrowed when I saw his biceps tensing.

I opened my mouth to say something, but his words stopped me immediately.

“My mother wants us over for dinner this evening.”

My heart stopped as I turned to look at him, my eyes wide and my mouth practically on the ground.

“What?” I asked, not sure I heard him correctly.

He sighed, his knuckles tightening even more around the steering wheel.

“She insists that we got to her place for dinner this evening,” he told me. “Don’t overthink it… she saw us out last night and now she wants to know you.”

“Your mother wants to know me?” I asked my jaw nearly on the ground. “Why?” From the couple of encounters that I’ve had with his mother, they weren’t good.

“Are you forgetting what the purpose of our arrangement was to begin with?” He asked, his eyes fixed on the road in front of him. “To get my mother off my back with the whole marriage thing. She thinks we are in a committed relationship, and she wants to get to know you better. Make amends for the times she was rude to you. Her words.”

“And you believe her?” I asked, raising my brows; he wasn’t that naive… was he? “I mean, she’s been spending all this time with Daisy. Will she be there too?”

“No,” he said, his expression darkening. “She won’t be there. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Though he said I didn’t have to worry, I was extremely worried. What was the real reason his mother wanted to meet with me tonight? I had trouble believing it was because she wanted to get to know me better. Not after my recent encounters with her.

“I don’t have anything to wear,” I told him.

I knew I would have to dress nicely if I were to meet with his mother this evening for dinner. It was known that the former Luna lived in a gorgeous manor in a secluded area of the pack and only those invited were allowed to go there.

“I’ll take care of it,” he murmured. “I already have someone shopping.”

My stomach knotted.

I didn’t like this, but I wasn’t going to argue so I nodded and stared out the window, trying to think about how tonight was going to go. This was the last thing I wanted for the evening. I had to study and tutor Matt, not prepare for dinner from hell with a Landry.

Just then, my phone went off, bringing me out of my thoughts. I dug around my bag until I found my phone and I pulled it out, glancing at the screen.

I saw Nan’s name flash across the screen.

It was a text message… actually it was a picture message.

I opened the image, and my heart immediately stopped.

It was a picture of Sammy… and she was talking to Ethan.