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)
“I won’t end up in their hands. I can assure you of that.”
Therese snickered. “Oh, you can? And how’s that?”
“Because I know something you don’t.” Bailey let out a distinctive hiss—a call that went answered. Dozens of snakes who were secretly nesting there zipped out of the shadows and lunged at Therese. She cursed and squealed and kicked out, but they were undeterred as they pounced and bit and lurched at her. Their venom wouldn’t kill a shifter, but it would sure hurt them.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Bailey shook off the rope loosely curled around her wrists and then worked on the knots binding her ankles to the chair. In the meantime, Therese shot at the snakes once, twice, three times. Only one dart hit home. She kept pulling the trigger even though she was clearly out of ammo.
Lovely.
Her ankles free, Bailey pushed to her feet and knocked down the chair. She snapped off one wooden leg as she let out another hiss—this one lower, calmer. The snakes melted away, and a panting Therese glared at her.
Bailey just smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you. Not straight away, anyway. After the little attacks you arranged, I owe you some serious pain. And I have to be honest, Therese, I’m going to genuinely enjoy subjecting your ass to it.”
Deke clenched the steering wheel as battle-adrenaline fizzed through him—another emotion that wasn’t his own. But it didn’t surge through him like her anger had done. This was more like a gentle flutter of sensation.
“You all right?” asked Tate, riding shotgun. “You just went stiff as a board.”
Deke swallowed. “I felt her again. For the slightest moment, I felt pure battle adrenaline.”
“She’s likely fighting,” Havana piped up from the backseat. “Bailey will never roll over and take anyone’s shit. You know that.”
Cursing, Deke pressed his foot harder on the pedal. An electric sense of urgency seemed to run through each and every vein in his body and heat his blood to unbearable levels.
His cat was in a blind panic. Like Deke, he knew their mate was strong and fierce. Both man and animal were confident in her ability to take care of herself. But none of that dimmed their fear for her.
“You know,” began Aspen from beside her Alpha female, “I’m surprised Therese managed to get Bailey out of the building so easily all while covering her tracks so well. I mean, Gerard was the mastermind behind everything other than the extremist attacks—she didn’t even pass on suggestions for how they should scare Bailey; only advised them via who she sent to hire them to ‘be creative.’ Yet, she made her final move fluidly and quickly, outsmarting us all, and even squeezed in a lethal attack on Dayna.”
“I don’t think the attack on Dayna was planned,” said Camden, holding his mate’s hand. “But given that Therese had a tranq gun and a scrambler on her person, not to mention another mode of transport ready to roll, her abduction of Bailey was definitely top of her schedule.”
“Yup,” said Aspen. “And despite having such a small window of time to make everything happen, Therese achieved it. I wouldn’t have thought she …”
Deke didn’t hear the rest of what Aspen said, becoming lost in his own thoughts as his instincts stirred in unease. He and his cat froze as understanding slapped them. “Fuck.” He eased his foot of the pedal and, seeing his opportunity, did an about turn with a screech of tires.
Tate planted a palm on his window to brace himself. “What the hell are you doing?”
“She isn’t at the bar,” Deke told him, speeding back down the road. “Tell Luke and the others to stay en route there to be sure, but I’ll bet my ass she’s not.”
Havana leaned forward, frowning. “What? Why?”
“She’s still at our goddamn building somewhere.” It would explain every damn thing.
“How can that be possible?” asked Tate, texting someone—probably the others who were heading for Liberty.
“Because Aspen’s right,” said Deke. “It all went too smoothly, too quickly. It took precious moments out of what time Therese had to switch off the cameras and spritz a scrambler trail as well as disable Bailey, yet she pulled it all off and managed to get Bailey out of the building and drive off with her—all without being seen. How? Her car hasn’t moved, and Finley didn’t see an unfamiliar vehicle enter or exit the lot, let alone any car park in the alley where the scrambler’s scent-trail end.”
“Extremists could have snuck past our enforcers and collected them,” Tate suggested.
“Collected Bailey, sure. But Therese would have no reason to go with them, would she? She could have stayed behind. It would have made the most sense.” Knowing that Isaiah was still at the building, Deke contacted him using the car’s built-in Bluetooth system. “I want door-to-door searches to be done of the complex. I think Bailey’s still in there somewhere with Therese. Find her.”