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Demi’s eyes went wide, and her breathing turned fast and shaky.
Putting a hand to her roiling stomach, Raini turned to him. “Maddox—”
“She’s your sister, I know,” he said, not moving his gaze from said sister. “But she could help you here, Raini. She could tell us all what we need to know to keep you safe. She won’t, though. Not even to help herself.”
Fuck if he wasn’t right, which was why Raini’s demon saw no issue with putting Demi through any of the torment that Maddox had planned.
“You’re thinking Jolene or your parents will stop me,” he said to Demi. “They won’t. They can’t. And you shouldn’t want to see them go toe-to-toe with someone who is both the mate and anchor of your own sister.”
Demi’s mouth fell open. “M-mate?” she whispered brokenly.
“Yes.”
Demi squeezed her eyes shut, her face lined with pain. A pain that no doubt stemmed from envy, because Raini now officially had exactly what Demi most wanted.
“Maybe she’s unable to talk about who took her,” Evangeline suggested. “Maybe she’s under some kind of silencing spell or something.”
Maddox pursed his lips. “Perhaps. There’s only one way to find out.” His eyes narrowed, and a loud gasp of surprise left Demi.
Her upper body knifing up, Demi shook her head wildly. “Get out of my head! Get out!” She looked at Jolene. “Make him stop.”
The Prime stared down at her, unmoved. “We gave you the chance to talk. All you had to do was answer our questions. You refused.”
“Mom, make him get out of my head!” Demi appealed.
Her expression pained, Evangeline squeezed Demi’s hand. “It’s better this way, really. You won’t have to say aloud whatever you’re holding inside, but we’ll still have the answers we need.”
“It’ll be over soon,” Lachlan soothed.
Demi flung herself back on the bed and went back to staring at the ceiling, pointedly ignoring anyone’s attempt to talk with her.
Finally, Maddox made a “hmm” sound and scraped his hand over his jaw.
“What did you see?” Raini asked him.
“Many things,” he replied, his tone casual, his eyes cold. “She didn’t know that Dwain and Harmony weren’t mates. Not until a few days before she should have gone on her cruise. He confessed everything—how Harmony was only playing a part, how he’d been boycotting Urban Ink, how he wanted to get a little payback.”
Lachlan swore beneath his breath. “That rat bastard,” he said, taking the words right out of Raini’s mouth.
“At first, Demi was angry,” said Maddox, staring at the stubbornly silent imp. “She hated that you mattered enough for him to orchestrate this. On a side note, Harmony has gone traveling—she has no knowledge of any of this. Demi, however, knew everything. She had no plans to tell anyone what she’d learned, though. She thought it only fitting that you suffer a little.”
Raini silently winced because, yeah, that hurt.
Demi rolled over to give everyone her back, and curled into the fetal position.
“Then, what?” Jolene pushed.
“She had every intention of going on her cruise as planned, but then she was drugged and taken,” said Maddox. “When she woke, she was in the cellar of a cabin, and someone had put some sort of block on her mind that prevented her from receiving or sending telepathic messages. Her captor came to see her daily and leave her food. They also drugged her this morning—it’s the last thing she remembers before waking here.”
Her arms folded, Raini asked, “Who was her captor?”
“Dwain. Or so somebody would like us to believe. Her memories of her captor have been modified.”
Stiffening, Demi peeked at him over her shoulder.
“How can you tell?” Raini asked him.
“It’s much like watching a movie that has very poor special effects surrounding one character,” replied Maddox. “I’m assuming that her memories were tampered with while she was drugged, because she has no recollection of it happening. It was a very professional job, but the alterations to her memories are easy to spot because they aren’t holding—she doesn’t want to believe that Dwain would harm her; her gut won’t accept what she remembers. Her gut is right not to. It wasn’t Dwain; it was someone else.”
“Maybe all her memories of what happened are false,” Evangeline suggested. “Maybe the whole thing was planted in her head.”
Maddox shook his head. “The only thing here that is false is Dwain’s presence.”
Demi sat up again. “So if it wasn’t Dwain, where is Dwain?”
“We don’t know. He went missing, like you.” Jolene turned to Maddox. “Can you clear away the edits that were made to her memories; can you restore them to what they were?”
“Yes,” replied Maddox. “But it will take time. And it may hurt her a little.” Not that the thought of that bothered him. His demon would relish it. But it was clear that Raini balked at it. She shouldn’t, because … “Demi was overjoyed when she heard that I didn’t seem to want to bond with you, Raini. She thought of it as karma; that it was only fair that you didn’t have your anchor around if she couldn’t have hers.”
