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I blinked rapidly as I processed. It hadn’t been about sex and drugs for my dad. It had been about power. Everything had always been about power.
“You used my money to steal people’s power?” The realization sank in, and I was shocked.
“I didn’t have any funds of my own; Jameson made sure of that. It was so fucking convenient that your mother died when she did, leaving you all her heard-earned cash. The law can be a bitch, but since you were a minor, I had the means as your father to use it.”
I stared at my dad, horrified. I couldn’t believe it.
“Why?” I asked again, my voice barely more than a breath.
“Why the fuck not? Power, pumpkin. If you have it, the world belongs to you. It won’t be long until this one does.” He waved his hand around him, and I assumed he meant LA. “I was driven out of the city by that jackass of an alpha, but I’m back now, and I’m going to make this place mine, the way it was always meant to be.”
“You won’t get away with it,” I said.
“No? All I need is the amulet and the alpha, and I’m there.”
“You can’t kill Jameson.”
“Oh, I won’t,” Dad said. “I’ll just take his power, like I’ve taken everyone else’s. Then you can have him again. He’ll be human, but they can be fun, too.” He grinned at me, and it was a sly grin.
“You’ll never find the amulet,” I said.
I nearly added that he wouldn’t find Jameson, either, since the alpha wouldn’t come for me. He hated me. At least he was safe. I hadn’t taken his city from him by lying to him on top of everything else he’d already lost.
I ached after what I’d done. My heart broke into a thousand pieces thinking about the look on Jameson’s face, the stony expression, the coldness in his eyes when he’d looked at me, not as his mate, but as someone who’d double-crossed him.
The pain that came with that memory was so severe, I doubled over.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Dad asked.
“Nothing,” I muttered. Tears squeezed out of my eyes. “You’re not getting what you’re looking for, and that’s all that matters.”
I searched for my bond with Jameson. He’d thrown up a block between us. I hadn’t even known he could do something like that, but what did I know about love and fated mates? And now, when I found the bond and tugged at it, he was there, but he wasn’t listening. He wanted nothing to do with me. It was like a brick wall between us. Iknewhe was on the other side. I could still feel him. I just couldn’t reach him.
I didn’t blame him.
“I’ll find it,” Dad said. “I didn’t think you would give it to me, but I wanted to give you a chance. I’ll just use one of my own to help me now.”
I frowned, and the roller door opened.
A tall woman with marble skin and pitch-black hair walked in—a juxtaposition Snow White, the villain, not the victim, the damsel whocausedthe distress. She had a strange way of moving, like she was a puppet on a string.
“This is Xantha,” Dad said. “She has a way of getting things out of people. Be it information, their beast, or their magic… she’ll get what I need.”
“Hello, sweetheart,” Xantha spoke in a voice that sounded like it was a bad recording. Something was very wrong with this woman. “If you work with me, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You’re just going to hurt everyone else,” I said.
She laughed, and it sounded like the recording got stuck, replaying her laughter three or four times before it stopped.
“It’s not your job to worry about the others,” she said. “You just worry about yourself.”
She kneeled before me. Darkness crept onto my skin, and it was icy cold, like ice water had been poured over me. I broke out in goosebumps and tried to get away from her, but my body was stiff and aching like I was frozen.
Her hand shot out, lightning fast, and she grabbed my chin, jerking my head toward her. My eyes locked on hers, and they opened up into a bottomless pit, and I felt like I was falling, falling, falling.
22
JAMESON
