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“I do, yes.” But as yet, Deke had no way to prove it. There were no instances of other pride members having their profiles cloned, so there was nothing else to hack; no more trails to follow.
“How come you didn’t call me and let me know what happened?” The demand was softly spoken, but it was a demand all the same. And it got his back up.
“This isn’t some minor thing, Deke.”
True, but he hadn’t wanted to contact her for the same reason he’d hesitated to answer her call. Besides … “It is compared to what’s currently going on in your life—you recently lost your great-uncle. Plus, the profile has been deleted and so the whole thing is over now.”
She leaned forward. “Do you have any suspects?”
No, he didn’t. But that wasn’t something that Deke could or would share with anyone outside the Alphas’ immediate circle. They always kept such speculations private, no matter the scenario. It wasn’t fair to publicly label someone a suspect unless you had a strong case. It could also be dangerous, since some pride mates would target said suspects even if there was no proof of guilt.
He lifted his glass to his mouth. “You know I can’t tell you that.” He took a swig of his juice.
“Oh come on, who am I going to tell?”
“Therese, for one. Who’d then tell everyone else.” She was one of the pride’s most notorious gossips.
“I’ll keep it to myself, I promise.” Dayna doodled a cross over her heart with her fingertip.
He gave her a pointed look. “This is need-to-know info. You don’t need to know,” he stated, calm and firm.
She let out a put-out sound. “Well, that’s rude. And unfair.”
He felt his mouth tighten. “What’s unfair is that you’re asking me to give you information that my Alphas have trusted me to keep private.” And he didn’t fucking appreciate that she’d expect him to go against his word; that she didn’t respect how seriously he took his position.
She sighed, her shoulders drooping, her face falling. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Apology accepted. Now can we talk about something else? We haven’t spoken in weeks. How are you?”
Her expression softened. “I’m fine. What about you? Is the touch-hunger any better?”
With the exception of the ever-present restlessness, it hadn’t been too bad after what happened between him and Bailey. But it had increasingly worsened as the days went by, and now he was back to being a walking hard-on. “No.”
A shifty expression crossed Dayna’s face, and the muscles there tightened. “Gerard mentioned that there was a short period where it eased a little. I’m guessing that means you had sex recently,” she said, her voice so flat he would have missed the note of jealousy there if he hadn’t known her so well.
His cat bristled, feeling she had no right to her possessiveness after being gone for so long. Deke didn’t disagree. Especially since she hadn’t been celibate herself when in his physical condition.
In the beginning, he’d felt jealous knowing that other men were touching her. But over time, it had bothered him less and less until, now, it didn’t affect him at all.
“I’m right, aren’t I?” she pushed.
Instead of responding, Deke took another swig of his juice.
Dayna’s chin inched up. “Who was she? Someone in the pride?”
He sighed. “Let’s not do this, Dayna.”
“I’m simply curious.”
“You’re always ‘simply curious.’ Then you’re always upset if I satisfy that curiosity, and you go weeks without speaking to me. So let’s not go into detail.”
“I just want to know if she’s from the pride.”
Tough. Because he didn’t want to talk to her about Bailey or what happened between them. He felt … weirdly protective of the memory. Even a little possessive of it. He wanted to keep it all to himself. “What difference does it make?”
“I’d prefer to know before I return if one of my pride mates have been …” She trailed off and swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t want to be the only person who didn’t know.”
“I get it.” And if he wasn’t intending to pull out of the promise he’d made to Dayna, he might have told her. “But I’d rather not get into it.”
“So she is from the pride.”
“Jesus, Dayna, can we talk about something else?”
A pinched look came over her face. “My friends will tell me if you don’t.”
He only shrugged. Her friends didn’t know shit. And he couldn’t imagine Bailey sharing it with her or anyone else except for maybe Havana and Aspen.
Dayna gave him a wounded look. “How do you think it makes me feel that I heard about the fake profile from Therese instead of you?”
“How do you think it makes me feel that you have your friends keep tabs on me?” he shot back.
She pressed her lips tightly shut.
“We can either bicker, or we can talk. I’d rather we talked. You haven’t even mentioned Evan. He’s usually the first topic you hit. How is he?”
