“Thatisbad,” I breathe. There is no emotion as she states she murdered her mom. If she did that so easily, it would be a breeze to kill me.
“Fortunately, I found your letters. You mentioned your dad’s name.” She smiles, and I vaguely remember doing that. “I knew where the letters came from, so I packed up, changed my last name, and moved. Your dad is popular. He’s always in the media. It wasn’t hard to find him.”
“Did you meet Brian before you saw him at the restaurant?” My brain is spinning.
“I met him after I got a job working for your dad. Before I saw you.” She smiles, and I want to throw up. “I thought Reginald would be a wonderful man like you described.” I sigh. “He wasn’t very nice. He hit on me every day. I slept with Brian to get closer to you. I thought you would come to see your dad. WhenI learned you never see him, I had to find a way to meet you in person.” I glance at her hair. “This…” She touches the strands. “I didn’t know what you looked like until I came to the restaurant. Do you like it?”
“Well, yeah.” I point to my head and remember the couple of times I waited on her at work. If I only knew then what would happen today.
“Right,” she laughs manically. “I thought your dad would accept me if I looked more like you.” I raise my eyebrows. “He did look at me differently. I decided to be super nice to him and do whatever he wants. His attitude changed, and now he takes me everywhere with him. He does important work, so it makes sense that he’s stressed.”
“Why are you here? How did you find me?” I ask. She would definitely notice if I took out my phone.
“Now that your family is mine, we don’t need you.” She smiles sweetly. “He found out where you are and I saw the address on your dad’s desk. Reginald still loves you, and I can’t have that. I heard Brian talking to him. They were planning to come here to convince you to come home.”
“Listen, you can have them. I don’t want to come back.”
“You might change your mind,” she says.
“No.” I shake my head rapidly. “I promise. I won’t.”
“I can’t allow the chance,” she says, taking a step.
“Jenni…Jenica, I swear, I don’t want anything to do with them.” I hold my hands up and step backwards. “You can leave here and be with them.” I circle to the left, and she follows. If I can get back to the door, maybe I can run. “I hate my father.” She hisses, and I grit my teeth. “I’m not the person he wants. I think he wants you.” I keep my disgust from showing on my face. “Brian chose you over me. We never even had sex.” She grins, and I move steadily backwards toward the open door. “See, he must love you.”
“Then why were they discussing coming here?” she asks, narrowing her eyes. The gun doesn’t waver as she follows me.
“I took something.” I’m going to be pissed if I get shot before I can turn into a jaguar and spend my life enjoying my mates. “My father wants a picture.”
“Where is it?” She pauses, and I stop in the entryway.
“Upstairs.” It would be great if she let me get it, but I know my luck is running out.
“He’ll love me even more if I take it to him,” she says softly, smiling dreamily.
“Yes. I’ll get it for you.” I’ve ignored the fear threading through my body until her smile grows.
“Tell me exactly where it is. I’ll get it after I kill you.” I don’t like that plan. My heart skips frantically as lights shine through the door. I didn’t think about how she would react when Rylee showed up. “Who is it?” She shuffles forward, stabbing the air with her gun.
“No one.” I cringe.
“Make them go away,” she snarls.
“Okay.” I have no idea what to do. “I can call her.”
“Do it. Make an excuse.” Her eyes dart around the room as I pull out my phone. My fingers are numb, but I scroll to Rylee’s number.
“Hey.”
“Why are you calling me when I can see you in the doorway?”
“I’m not feeling well. I’m afraid. I’ll have to call off our scary movie night.” Rylee knows I hate scary movies.
“What’s going on?” she whispers.
“You can turn around. The lights are hurting my eyes. My head is pounding.” Jenica looks from me to the window and back, her body swaying back and forth.
“Who is it?” Rylee asks, and the lights swerve away. “Your father? Brian?”
