Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
That wasn’t much of a shocker. It hadn’t seemed logical to Bailey that Dayna could have truly moved on in a matter of days.
“She told him she should never have hopped back in his bed; that it was a mistake; that she still had feelings for Deke. Gerard was devastated. I didn’t know until he texted me while I was in the car with her.” Therese stood, gun still in hand, and pocketed her phone. “I asked her why the hell she’d leave him behind. You know what she said?”
Well, obviously not.
“She’d changed her mind about going back to Australia so soon.” Sucking in her cheeks, Therese shook her head. “See, she thought she still had a shot of being with Deke. Yup, she believed that there was no chance you and him would imprint all the way; that it was only a matter of time before the process regressed and he was free of you.”
“She hoped to then slide in and ‘comfort’ him, I’m guessing.”
Therese’s hand clenched the butt of her gun. “I’ve been furious with her several times in my life. But hearing her say she wasn’t prepared to let him go, that he loved her but didn’t see it, that she wouldn’t leave until she’d made him see it …” Cheeks reddening with anger, Therese ground her teeth. “She intended to make him hers for good this time. Everything I’d done would have been for nothing if she’d succeeded. Well, now she can’t have him. And I’m not going to let you do it either.”
“Just how do you think you can ensure that?”
“Sell you to extremists. They’ll do with you what they will.” Therese smiled. “They’re scheduled to collect you later. I arranged it all this morning when I bought this delightful gun from them along with some nifty darts. They’re always happy to sell shift-suppressant drugs.”
This woman so needed to have her asshole stapled shut. “Do they know you’re a shifter?”
“Of course not. They think this building houses humans and that I discovered you’re a lone shifter in hiding.”
“And however will you manage to get me out of here without anyone seeing?”
“In that, of course.” She gestured to a plastic, wheeled waste container that was most certainly big enough for a person to fit in. “As soon as your buyer turns up, I’ll wheel you out, and then you’ll be on your way.”
Her fingers smarting from fiddling with the knot, Bailey took a moment to flex them. Just a little longer and it would be undone. “People will look for me.”
“Oh definitely, since they’ll want to make you pay for Dayna’s murder.” She smirked. “They won’t find you, though.”
“Deke won’t for one moment believe I did it. Neither will anyone else who knows me well.”
“Maybe not.” She shrugged one shoulder. “It won’t really matter, though. You’ll still be gone.”
“And you’ll be dead for what you did.”
Therese snorted. “No one will know I had anything to do with it.”
“Gerard will. It won’t be hard for him to figure it out.”
“He won’t care what happens to you. He hates you for hurting Dayna at the Tavern.”
“But he’ll care that you hurt her, so what makes you think he won’t give you up?”
Therese flicked her hand. “He can’t blab all without exposing his own part in our plan. He’ll never do that. Besides, I don’t think he’ll be that bothered to find her dead, considering she’d broken his heart all over again.”
Bailey cocked her head. “And you really think that Deke will just fall into your arms if I’m not in the picture?”
“Maybe not straight away, but eventually.”
God, the woman was literally delusional where Deke has concerned. Her insistence that she could have him might sound idiotic to others, but Therese truly believed every word she spoke. She so needed to believe he could one day be hers that she’d swallow anything anyone told her that would give her hope. It was almost sad.
“I’ll be there for him while he’s hurting from the reversal of the imprinting process, I’ll—”
“Achieve nothing,” Bailey finished. “He’s known you pretty much all his life. If he wanted you, he’d have done something about it by now.”
Therese’s cheeks went crimson. “Gerard heard him say—”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure you can trust Gerard’s word. He told lies to Dayna to get his way,” Bailey reminded her. “You think he wouldn’t have done the same to you?”
“He didn’t lie to me. No way.”
Bailey’s pulse skipped as the rope around her wrists loosened enough that she’d be able to shake it off. Boom. “Whatever. Believe what you want. But I’m telling you, this whole thing was a waste of time. Nothing will come of it. Deke won’t be yours. Ever.”
“Maybe not,” said Therese. “But at least you’ll be dead. I’m assuming the extremists will kill you—they might have other plans, to be fair.”