Deadly Deals

“Isa,” Roane beckoned to me in a fresh, civil tone which told me he was about to ask for a favor. “We've got a shipment coming in tonight from a perspective supplier. Gus will be riding shot-gun with me out back so I’ll need you to close up on your own.”
“No big deal,” I answered, keeping my lingering attitude toward him from my voice. No way was I going to give him that sort of satisfaction. “Besides, it’ll probably be dead by then.” Of course in retrospect, I really wish I hadn’t chosen those exact words.
“Great,” Roane’s lop-sided smile made his cheek dimple and his green eyes glint mischievously, which made parts of my body tingle. “I owe you one.”
His kiss on my cheek was disappointingly chaste and I chastised myself for noticing the difference. “You owe me much more than that,” I countered in a steady voice, but Roane had already moved on to something else. I doubt he’d heard a word I’d said. Or he chose to ignore the truth.
Ours hadn’t always been a volatile relationship. In the beginning all I got to experience was the side of him I wanted to see; the compassionate, loving Irishman. It wasn't until I tried to leave and go back home that the alpha of his beast began challenging for control. I love the man Roane is, but fear what he can become.
Once upon a time in the not-so-distant past, Roane surprised me with a small velvet box, the perfect size to house an engagement ring, which is exactly what I thought it was. But, it wasn't a ring, it was a necklace – but it was even more than that. It was a .45 caliber, pure silver bullet, wrapped in wire as you would wrap a crystal, suspended from a silver chain. Pure silver is the only substance that can incapacitate a skinwalker. In lieu of a ring and a commitment, Roane had proposed to me the ways and means to subdue his beast. An escape. A way out that I've never removed since that day.