AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How long have you had him on a leash?” Zara asked, bouncing to the front of her chair. Cuckoo didn’t answer, but the proud jut of her chin that enhanced her cleavage told Zara all she needed to know. “It’s you. Caine isn’t following Raven because he’s waiting for his time to strike. He’s following Raven because you’ve got him wrapped tight. It’s you… isn’t it? You’ve had him watching Raven, reporting back to you with everything. You told him to come into Purdy’s and threaten Raven in front of me because, why? You wanted to see what I was like? Wanted to see what I would do?”
“I assumed that you would whimper and hide under the bed. You can’t imagine how annoyed I was when it brought you closer to my man.”
“Your man,” Zara said and almost wanted to laugh, but she settled for slouching instead. “Yes, he’s your man, if the qualification is the duration of obsession. My God, you’re so narcissistic that you wouldn’t even stalk him yourself. Why waste your own time when you can waste someone else’s? You’ve got Caine putting his own life on hold to do what you’re too lazy or busy to do. How the hell do you get a guy to do something like that and for years no less?”
“He has an obsessive personality,” Cuckoo said. “And he’s pathetic, serious self-esteem issues. He believes that I think more of him for being so ridiculous. He honestly thinks we have some kind of relationship, that I value him.”
“But you don’t. He’s worthless to you.”
“His worth is what he tells me about Raven’s life. You can’t imagine how overjoyed I was when I found out his absurd keeper was dead,” Cuckoo gasped in joy and opened her hands on the arm of the chair that rocked in motion with her excitement. Zara bit back her own fury. Art’s death wasn’t something to be happy about, except for Cuckoo who’d seen it as an opportunity. “The stage was set… but you just wouldn’t go away.”
“You sent Caine to me every time. You told him to call Grant and offer protection after the Purdy’s raid. You sent him to that bar to pick me up. It wasn’t Grant that wanted me in Sutcliffe’s house. It was you. You’ve been watching us since the beginning.”
Coming close to the desk, Cuckoo bent over and decreased her volume. “I have been watching Raven since long before either of you knew the other existed.”
“And Caine just follows your orders.”
“The best part about it is, I don’t have to be in his physical company,” Cuckoo boasted. “He does his work and reports to me by email or telephone. He has to be where Raven is.”
“And that’s nowhere near you,” Zara said, her jibe earning an eye roll. Cuckoo was an even more despicable person than she’d initially thought.
“A few sexy words, a quick flash on a webcam, he’s putty. He has no mind of his own; he’s a drone who does as he’s told.”
“You told him to come to me last night, to cause friction between Raven and me.”
“Raven and I haven’t had much alone time recently. I didn’t want Caine around, so I made sure he stayed on you. Caine’s loathing of Raven is real. I don’t want them in the same room together with me, it would become a pissing contest. Caine doesn’t know how to control himself, he’s a lunatic when it comes to Raven.”
Sure because the guy had been conditioned by this wench who used sex to take over his existence. “You’ve had Caine watch me when he can’t get to Raven. Why? Wouldn’t it have been easier to kill me?”
“It may have come to that, but watching Raven destroy you would have been much more fun. He will leave you eventually, and I plan to be there to see it. Caine had to stay close, I had to know when Raven was ready. Without his uncle to restrain him, it was only a matter of time before he emerged. Once he returned to missions, I knew that would be our time to be together. I’m sorry, Zara. You can’t get between us.”
She wasn’t sorry, but Zara wasn’t dubious about Cuckoo’s delusions. They would never come true. “You think that I’ll be Caine, that one day I’m going to walk in on you two fucking in my bed?”
“He did put me in your apartment. It’s poetic. I had hoped that last night would be the night, that’s why I sent Caine to watch that blasted house of his.”
The manor would put a kink in any stalker’s plans because the best they could do was watch from a distance, and it would be quite a distance because the manor was covered by heat detectors, motion sensors. Every toy Falcon had ever built was guarding their home.
“But Raven left you unsatisfied,” Zara said, pleased that she’d been the one to receive his satisfaction. “So you sent Caine in to stir up the pot.”
“He will leave you—”
“You keep saying that and yet here I am, completely unconvinced.”
“I love him and he loves me,” Cuckoo said.
It was a shame that Mischa seemed as certain as Zara felt. Only one of them could be right. “And you’re just using Caine. You’d flush him if Raven did come back to you.”
“When Raven does come back to me, he’ll take care of any unfinished business Caine and I have. Taking out the trash, as you put it.”
“Maverick,” Zara said. This woman had no compassion, no ability to feel. She had used Caine for years, and if she did achieve her goal—which Zara knew she wouldn’t—she planned to have her new boyfriend put a bullet in the old one. To Cuckoo it was clean and simple. Caine wouldn’t see it that way, and neither would Brodie. “You’ve used Caine for years, you plan to terminate him when he’s no longer of use…”
Cuckoo was not dissuaded from her position. They were at an impasse and enjoyed their stalemate for a few seconds before Cuckoo spoke up with a toss of her hair. “Now I have given you something. You must return the gesture.”
Zara hadn’t made any deal; Cuckoo had spoken on her own. One positive quality most narcissists shared was loving the sound of their own apparent righteousness. It made fact-finding easier when the mark started spilling details all on their own.
“Sorry, Raven has a mind of his own, and I don’t auction off sexual favors from my boyfriend to women who have interesting information. I can’t make his dick dance for you.”
Cuckoo exhaled unimpressed impatience. “I don’t need you to tell me how to arouse him. I’ve done it more times than you have.”
