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Austen raised his shoulders as much as the cuffs would allow. “Extremists get offers like that a lot. Not all the people who come to us hate shifters. They usually just have beef with one in particular; they want revenge, or for a point to be made.”
And extremists didn’t need to be convinced to do violence against shifters, Deke knew. “Why did he send you after Bailey?”
“He didn’t say. Just said he had a ‘friend’ who felt that a certain shifter needed to be given a right good scare. He wasn’t bothered how I did it, and he was fine with her receiving a little pain, but he didn’t want her dead. He told me her name and where to find her. He never mentioned she was a snake,” Austen grumbled.
“His name?” Aspen demanded through her teeth.
“He didn’t give me one,” Austen told her. “Or tell me anything about his friend, so I can’t tell you who sent him.”
The bearcat sidled up to her mate, keeping her gaze glued to the human. “What did he look like?”
“Average height. Bald. Stocky.” Austen paused. “He paid me, insisted I don’t delay in striking at the shifter, and then he left. That’s it. There’s nothing else to tell.”
Tate cocked his head, his gaze probing as it bore into the human. “You’re not even sorry, are you? You’re about to die, but you don’t regret what you did.”
Austen sneered. “Why would I? You’re abominations. You don’t belong in this world. You should be caged like the animals you are.”
Blair frowned. “I’ve never understood why humans think they’re so much better than every species on this planet. I mean, really, what’s so special about you? Because I don’t see it. You call us monsters, but the truth is there’s no race on this earth that’s as destructive as humanity.”
Austen’s face reddened. “At least we’re not the creations of Satan.”
Vinnie flicked his eyes up to the ceiling. “Oh, Lord.”
Bailey moved to stand in front of the human. “Out of interest, how much were you paid to come at me?”
“A hundred dollars,” replied Austen. “But I’d have done it for free, really.”
“For free, huh?” One of her slow, dangerous smiles took over her face. “Yeah, later it’s going to be literally impossible for me to feel bad that my snake bit your dick.”
“What?”
“If you have one, that is.” Then Bailey shifted.
The last to leave the interrogation room an hour later, Bailey closed the door and inhaled deeply. She felt marginally better. Calmer. Could think clearer.
Oh, she still felt the hot burn of anger in her blood. But it had lost its steely grip on her emotional state. Well, getting a little revenge always did a wonderful job of improving her mood and clearing her mind.
It wasn’t only her snake who’d had some fun with Austen. They’d all given him some special attention. Deke had done as promised and beaten the human bloody before her snake finished him off.
“You really think it wasn’t the jackals who hired him?” asked Havana, clearly unconvinced.
“It’s not their style,” said Bailey.
Sighing, the Alpha female walked alongside her as they all returned to the kitchen. “You’re right in that, but I’m not ready to dismiss them as suspects.”
“It could have been Roman hoping to sic our pride on the jackals,” Alex mused. “If the pack is wiped out, his problems are solved.”
Blair’s brows arched. “That’s a possibility. From what I remember of him, he isn’t bald or stocky like the guy who was at the bar. He is average height, though. He could have shaved his head and added some padding to his clothes to make himself look bigger.”
Havana shook her head. “He’s an asshole—no doubt about it. But he wouldn’t arrange for someone to hurt Bailey like that. Stage a failed attack, yeah. But he wouldn’t go any further than that. He wouldn’t give someone permission to put her through pain.”
“I agree.” Aspen twisted her mouth. “It could be someone doing a little tit-for-tat. Jackson was attacked in the street. His brothers want to make the culprit pay.”
Bailey felt her nose wrinkle. “None of them are bald, stocky, and average height. I guess they could have asked someone to go seek out an extremist-for-hire on their behalf, though.”
“So could Ginny,” Havana pointed out. “She isn’t swimming in cash, but she could have scrounged up a hundred dollars.”
As people began to speculate around her, Bailey sighed. She didn’t want to discuss it anymore. She wanted to go home and shower—neither she nor her mamba had any chance of truly calming until they were no longer breathing in the astringent scent of acid.
She announced she was leaving, which quickly led to a bunch of people insisting on escorting her back to her building. It was … touching. They knew she didn’t need that many guards, just as they knew she likely wouldn’t be attacked twice in one night. Still, they wanted to escort her home safely all the same.
