AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You bet your ass I am.”
Chapter Thirty-One
It wasn’t Timothy Deerling waiting for us when we got to the main floor. As Wilder had predicted, the police had arrived instead. But not the real police.
“Sheriff McGraw.” I nodded curtly when we got back into the main worship area. I was still holding the pelt. I wouldn’t let it go again until I had it back on pack land.
He heaved a sigh that carried all the weight of the world on it and holstered the weapon he was carrying. “Miss McQueen. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. You mind telling me what the Sam hell it is you think you’re up to? Robbing the church?” He gestured to the fur.
“This doesn’t belong to anyone.”
“I think Pastor Deerling would beg to differ.”
“Let’s not play dumb here, Sheriff. One of your deputies was all too willing to do this same thing to me last night, and I think he did it with your blessing. So if you could cut the bullshit, I’d appreciate it.”
If anything, it looked like he was reconsidering going for his gun.
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about. But if you’d like to file a formal complaint, I’d be glad to take you both down to the station. You can fill out the form while we book you for trespassing, destruction of property and criminal mischief. Oh, and theft.”
“This. Doesn’t. Belong. To him.” I snarled.
“If the girl wants that old smelly rug so bad, she’s welcome to it. It makes me sick to look at it anyway.” Deerling’s voice came from the back of the room. It was so sweet and smooth I wasn’t surprised at his popularity in the church. The serpent in the Garden of Eden probably fooled Eve with a voice like that.
“Does it make you sick because you remember what you did to get it? How did you manage to keep her alive the whole time? That’s what I want to know. Were you shooting her up with adrenaline? Or did you have her so sedated she didn’t know what was happening?” I shook my head, answering my own question. “No, if she’d been sedated, she might have shifted back. You couldn’t risk that. There’s no trophy in it for you if she’s human. Only crazy people hang human skins from their rec room walls.”
I was shouting in the general direction of his voice, but he appeared out of the darkness, strolling down the center aisle of the church looking as well-groomed and tidy as he did in his video. Deerling was like an evil Ken doll who only came out of his packaging when people needed to see him in public. Like a weird android or something.
Man, if that had been the reality of it, I might have been relieved. Killer AI would be so much less repulsive to my mind than knowing a human being had been able to do this to another person.
Plus a robot could be put down by taking out his power source.
Though, I supposed, a human could be stopped the same way. It was just a bit bloodier.
“Human skins? My goodness, Sheriff, she does have an imagination on her, doesn’t she? Signs of a mental and emotional unbalance, I’d say. I’d recommend a psyche evaluation when you take her into custody. She could be a danger to herself or others.” He smirked at me.
Wilder hadn’t spoken since Timothy appeared, but I felt him now, close at my back. His presence alone calmed the flare-up of nerves I was feeling.
So Deerling and the sheriff wanted to play dumb? Fine. My boyfriend was a lawyer, my sister worked for an FBI task force, and my uncle was a goddamn king. I’d been raised to outsmart assholes like these.
As far as I could tell, neither of the men had realized the cameras were rolling. They were mounted far enough away from the pulpit the ready lights wouldn’t be obvious, and the crowd-facing camera was hidden so well even I didn’t know where it was.
If I could keep them focused on us long enough to get even a flimsy confession, that would be my best-case scenario.
“Was she pretty?” I held the fur up. “Did she have red hair, like your kids?”
Deerling stopped walking. His smirk faded.
Maybe I should have built up to the secret-family card, but I was in no mood to play games anymore. If he wanted to pretend I was crazy, I’d show him how crazy I could get.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do. Six super cute kids. Beautiful mother. I bet the woman this fur came from looked a lot like her. I bet it made you mad, seeing a werewolf who looked so much like someone you loved, isn’t that right? How dare an animal make you feel things only a woman could? Was that it, Tim?” I used a dismissive nickname, hoping it would show him how little of my respect he was entitled to. “Maybe you had urges you didn’t like. Did you lust after her, the werewolf bitch?” I shook the fur at him, and he recoiled from me like I’d spit in his face.
This was working, but I didn’t know if it was enough to make him speak. I had to get him mad enough to lose control. So angry he would stop thinking and start shouting senseless threats.
I needed him to be so mad he got stupid.
“I know you like tying them up. That’s what you had them do to me. Did you tie her up so she couldn’t move, couldn’t fight you? Did you touch her?” Tears streamed down my cheeks, but I ignored them. I was disgusted by the thought of what he might have done to this woman, but the honest-to-God truth was my imagination had its limits, and those limits stopped short of what the real horrors probably were.
