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And it was definitely time she got herself out of this particular pickle.
She blinked several times to clear her fuzzy vision and then lifted her head, inwardly wincing as her stiff neck cracked. Ow.
The sound made the female sat near the opposite wall look up from her cell phone. “You woke sooner than I thought you would.” She didn’t sound too concerned about that.
She should be. Because she was in for a world of hurt.
“Oh, I wouldn’t bother trying to free yourself—that rope is shifter-resistant.”
But hopefully not Bailey-resistant. She rolled her throbbing neck and then glanced around, taking in the stacks of chairs, tables, and other various things. It was a storage room, she realized. One she recognized. “We’re still in our apartment building.” It was the other half of the basement.
“Yup. No one really comes in here unless they need to get something out of storage. It isn’t worth screaming, by the way. As you know, every room in the complex is soundproof.” Therese pointed at her phone. “That’s why I need to watch the damn CCTV footage to know what’s going on outside. Someone noticed the cameras were off and switched them back on. I hacked into the security system; I’m good with technology.”
Well, how lovely for her.
“Don’t count on anyone coming here to look for you. They won’t assume you’re hiding here,” Therese added, idly stroking a hand over the tranquilizer gun on her lap.
Bailey frowned as she repeated, “Hiding?”
“When they find Dayna dead, they’re going to conclude it was you and that you then faked your own kidnapping and ran off.”
Whoa, back up. “You killed Dayna?”
“Of course not. But she was as good as dead when I left her after our little argument, so she’ll have croaked by now.”
And apparently Therese felt that that wouldn’t make her responsible for the woman’s death. Huh.
“You’re not wondering why you’re bound to a chair?”
“I suppose I am a little curious.”
Therese crossed one leg over the other. “You know, back when I was a kid, I was teased a lot for being latent. Like it was my fault. Like it was a weakness on my part rather than a simple error of nature.”
Shifters did tend to be assholes toward those who were latent.
“The only friend I had was Dayna. She never really saw me as an equal, though. I was more of her sidekick; always in her shadow. Dominant and beautiful, she cast a big shadow. I didn’t really mind. I’m not a person who feels the need to stand out.” Therese’s jaw hardened. “But I did mind that she made a move on the only guy I had any interest in.”
“Deke,” Bailey easily guessed. It had to be him. Why else would Therese have come for her?
“He was one of the people who didn’t tease me. If he caught anyone giving me crap, he intervened and chased them off.” Therese lightly drummed her fingers on her thigh.
Ah, the glows of hero worship.
“Dayna knew how much I liked him,” said Therese, “but she came onto him anyway. I was upset and angry and felt betrayed. And she just … waved it off. Said I’d never land him anyway so what did it matter?”
Bailey remained silent, subtly working to untie the rope securing her wrists together. It was not gonna be a quick process. Not when the knot was tight and she had Therese’s eyes on her.
“I was delighted when she left for Australia. I thought he’d be free of her. But they made that damn vow,” Therese said through her teeth. “She wanted me to ‘look out’ for him while she was gone. What she really meant was that she wanted me to spy on him. I was, of course, happy to help.”
Bailey could guess why. “You could tell her whatever you wanted her to believe; poison her mind against him.”
“I tried. It didn’t work well.” Therese pressed her lips together. “She had too much faith in Deke to believe that the ‘rumors’ I claimed I’d heard of him bedding other women could possibly be true. But I thought it would only be a matter of time before she and Deke parted. Except … weeks became months, and months became years. It was maddening for both of us.”
Bailey felt her brow pinch. “Us?”
“Me and Gerard. He loves her. Really loves her. He wanted another chance with her. But he couldn’t talk her into detaching herself from Deke. We needed to do something.”
“What did you do?” Not that Bailey really cared, but keeping Therese focused on telling her story—which she seemed relieved to be able to do, as if she’d held it in for what felt like too long—meant she wasn’t paying too much attention to Bailey’s movements.
“Little things at first. We would each tell her that we saw him having drinks with human women or leaving bars with them. She was skeptical, though. She called up a few other pride mates to ask if they’d noticed Deke hanging with other females. They, of course, said no.” Therese curled her fingers into a fist. “We needed to have what looked like concrete proof that he had other women in his life.”
