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“Ah.” Bailey sighed at him. “We should have thought to check other platforms.”
“I don’t have profiles on other platforms for anyone to clone,” he pointed out.
“Doesn’t mean he couldn’t use all your info to create one in your name.” Bailey turned back to Journee. “Zing’s a dating website, right?”
“Ask him,” the human sassed. “He knows all about it.”
Bailey rubbed at the side of her neck. “Yeah, the thing he is … he actually doesn’t.”
Journee’s face scrunched up. “What?”
“We should go somewhere and talk,” Deke suggested.
The human’s spine snapped straight. “If you’ve got something you want to say, say it here and now so I can go home and forget I ever came across your profile.”
Fine. “I’m not the person you’ve been talking to. You were catfished, as they say.”
Her smile was all mockery. “Yeah. Right.” She looked at Bailey. “Don’t buy this pack of bullshit. He just doesn’t want you to know he’s been talking to another woman while with you.”
“He’s telling the truth,” said Bailey, her expression unusually somber. “Someone else came here recently claiming they were having an online relationship with Deke on NetherVille. We don’t know who cloned his profile on there, but I’m betting it’s the same person who’s been talking to you.”
Journee glanced from him to Bailey, her eyes narrowing.
“Seriously,” Deke told her. “It wasn’t me.”
Journee’s hand slid from her hip. “It has to be you, I—”
“You said I asked you to come here?” he double-checked.
She nodded. “Yes. You told me where you live. You asked me to come visit you this morning. Said to be here at eight, so here I am.”
“And does it make sense to you that I would do that? That I would invite you here when I obviously already have a woman in my life?”
Her mouth bobbed open and shut. “I don’t …”
“Surely I’d have asked you to meet me somewhere else. Somewhere there was no chance of you and Bailey running into each other.” He paused, giving her a moment to fully consider it. “Why would I take that risk?”
Journee crossed her arms. “I have no idea. It turns out I don’t know you as well as I thought I did.” But there wasn’t as much snark in her voice now. She didn’t yet fully believe him, but the seed of doubt was firmly planted.
“The truth is, you don’t know me at all, because we didn’t once exchange a single message,” he upheld.
She fished her cell out of her purse. “I’m going to call you. I want to see if your phone rings.”
He waited in silence as she dialed. His shifter hearing easily picked up the rhythmic ringing. He pulled out his own cell and then held it up so she could clearly see that her phone was not whatsoever trying to connect with his own.
She swiped her thumb over the screen of her cell, eyeing him uncertainly. “You could have a second phone.”
“But I don’t. Have you spoken to who you believe is me on the phone?”
“Many times.”
“And does my voice sound the same?”
She licked her lips, hesitating. “You could have faked it.”
That was a “no.” “But why would I? What would be the point, if I planned to meet you one day?”
Averting her gaze, she stuffed her hands in her coat pockets.
Bailey cut in, “You’ve been in contact with someone pretending to be Deke. Someone who sent you here knowing that what you’d discover would hurt you.”
Journee swallowed. “This is for real?”
“Unfortunately, yes, it is,” Bailey replied. “And it would really help if you could answer some questions for us. We want to find this guy and deal with him.”
After long moments, the human finally nodded. “All right.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tate cursed a blue streak. “We need to find out who this asshole is.”
“Working on it,” said Bailey, pissed beyond belief, her eyes on her computer as she worked to tackle the password for the dating website.
After their short conversation with Journee—who unfortunately had no info that could help them track their culprit—Bailey and Deke had headed straight to her apartment. She’d settled at her desk as he texted the Alphas and Betas, who promptly appeared. They’d all gathered behind her with Deke, who’d quickly filled them in.
Positively fuming on his behalf, Bailey wanted to rant her ass off. But that wasn’t what he needed from her. Not right then. No, he needed her to be calm and use the skills she possessed that could help him. So she’d tucked in her anger and channeled it, using it to fuel her focus.
“There could be more profiles out there, couldn’t there?” asked Luke, the same hard edge in his voice that could be heard in that of the others.
“Yes,” said Deke, the word a whip. “Whoever’s doing this could be having several online relationships while posing as me.”
“He pretty much ended this relationship himself, didn’t he?” said Havana, her heels clicking the hardwood floor as she paced back and forth. “He sent her here. He wanted you to know about her.”
