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“It’s not him. He has no reason to come back.”
“Yes, he does. You. You’re the only thing that matters to him.”
“No one ever mattered to Paxton. He was not a normal person. Oh, he was ‘nice.’ Ran errands for his mom. Supported and advised others. Was always quick to offer a helping hand. He acted good, but it was a front. He earned people’s trust so that they’d never suspect what lurked beneath the surface. Never suspect he was a pathological liar who got a twisted kick out of hurting people.”
“He was fucked up, yeah, but he wouldn’t have hurt you.”
Bree closed her hand around the necklace. “He came to see me the day before he left. He told me that if he had any sense, he’d kill me right then.”
Alex almost rocked back on his heels. “He talked about killing you? He said that?” A growl vibrated his chest. “He couldn’t have meant it.”
“He meant it. He didn’t look at me and see his true mate. I don’t think he even saw a person. He saw a weakness. And he wanted rid of it. But he decided against killing me. He left instead.”
A curse flew out of Alex’s mouth. “You should have told me.” The phone in his pocket beeped. He pulled it out and tapped on the screen with his thumbs. Pocketing the cell, he said, “That was a text message from Luke. He picked Calvin up from his apartment and now has him in Vinnie’s spare bedroom.”
“Good. I’d like to talk to him.”
“Bree—”
“It wasn’t a request, Alex. Don’t push me right now.”
“You’re better off staying here. I’ll call Elle and ask her to come sit with you.”
Bree sighed and joined her hands together. “Okay, we need to make it clear right now how you should act when you feel like dishing out orders to me. Step one: Hesitate before you decide to throw your metaphorical dick around. Step two: Hesitate again, reminding yourself just how useless it would be to exert authority over me. Step three: repeat the first two steps at least once. If all else fails, go play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded pistol, because it’ll save me the trouble of shooting you in the face.”
Moments ticked by as Alex simply stared at her, never once blinking. Then a heavy breath left him. “Fine, we’ll go together. But here’s what you need to understand. If he did this, he’s not going to admit it. He’s going to lie his ass off. And his best way of pleading innocence? Blaming it on the person who shares his scent.
“He’ll spread that shit around so that people will believe it wasn’t him. Everyone will be whispering about how Paxton’s back, which is gonna send his parents into a tailspin. In other words, this is going to be a massive clusterfuck. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to sit this part out while you brace yourself for what’s to come.”
She folded her arms, giving him a blank look. “Yeah, I’m still going.”
He gave her a tight nod. “All right. We’ll go question Calvin. But, baby girl, you need to face that—shit as it is—Paxton could be back.” He squeezed the side of her neck. “I won’t let him hurt you. Tell me you know that.”
“I know that,” she said. “I won’t let him hurt me either.”
His eyes gleamed with what could have been approval. “No, you won’t,” he agreed.
Walking into Vinnie’s living room, Alex tipped his chin at his uncle, who greeted both him and Bree with a curt nod of the head. Vinnie wasn’t wearing his usual charming smile designed to put people at ease. He was all ruthless Alpha in that moment. Alex’s beast approved, because something needed to be done about this shit.
“Calvin’s inside the spare bedroom with Luke,” said Vinnie, getting right down to the matter.
“Has anyone questioned him?” asked Alex.
“Not yet.” Vinnie folded his arms. “Maybe you could tell me exactly what’s going on.”
Bree unclenched her fist, showing the Alpha the necklace. “Bernadette once gave me a necklace just like this …”
Alex remained quiet as she told Vinnie the whole story, not trusting that the Alpha wouldn’t berate her for keeping all this to herself. Yeah, okay, he got that there wasn’t much going on at first; that it just seemed like Bernadette was being a bitch. But still, he didn’t like that he was only learning of it now.
Taking the necklace, Vinnie examined it. “And you think Calvin’s behind the recent activity?”
“His scent was in my kitchen just now,” she pointed out. “And he was at my house the night before I noticed the necklace had mysteriously found its way to the windowsill.”
“You don’t think it could have been Paxton?” Vinnie asked, his tone careful. “You don’t think that’s a remote possibility?”
