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“What are you doing? Let go of my legs.” He looked relaxed, but his arm was like a steel bar. I’d known shifters were strong, but he was immovable. Instantly, our situation had gone from conversation to confrontation.
“We need to have a chat first, darlin’.” He patted a leg in a manner that was too familiar, as if he were used to bestowing such liberties on a regular basis to women he didn’t know. I suspected he was. His arrogance didn’t seem unearned.
“Don’t call me darlin’, and I don’t need to chat with you at all. I have a pack that’s going to be looking for me.” It was still light out and, from the sunlight streaming in the window, not much past noon.
“Really? Because that’s not what I’ve been hearing around.”
It was one thing to know Groza wanted me dead, that she wanted me out of the pack at all costs—it was quite another to hear it from a man I didn’t know who’d just dragged me out of a closet. It wasn’t only insulting but a possible deathblow to my leverage in a negotiation in which I was already under-armed.
“Are you so gullible you believe every rumor you hear? You’re not getting reliable information.” Groza might hate me, but the rest of the pack still wanted me. Well, at least most of them did, and if you cut the head off the snake, I’d be sitting pretty.
“I’ve been called many things, but never gullible. Now, we are going to have a chat.” He still had a muscular arm draped over my legs.
I guessed we were going to have a chat.
“Then chat away,Kicks.”
I leaned back, crossing my arms and making it as clear as day I didn’t care what he said. I’d let him speak because I had to, but that was it.
“It would be easier for me and all involved if you didn’t tell anyone what Magnum did today,” he said.
Was he insane? He had to be. Why would I keep this secret?
“I’ve been gone for hours. It’s going to take me…” I had zero idea where I was. “I don’t even know how long to get home. They’re going to know something happened to me.” If I was a normal member of the pack, it would be different. But I was the guide. Someone showed up to haunt my stoop almost hourly. It was almost as if they got crazy if they couldn’t find me for more than an hour.
He shrugged. “Say you got lost.”
Like that would be the end of it. He clearly wasn’t used to being questioned, and it probably had nothing to do with being an alpha. I doubted he’d ever been pushed by anyone. He’dprobably come out of the womb issuing demands, and the nurses had fallen in line.
Except for me. I had no plans to follow any of this man’s orders. I knew where they’d lead.
“Why would I do that?” Instead of my agreeing, being smart about it, I could hear my voice getting shrill, as if I were trying to pick a fight with him. Like some sort of defense mechanism that was built into my feminine DNA told me this man was even more dangerous than my kidnapper. His thug might break my bones, but if I gave this man an inch, I’d be self-destructing.
“Because if you don’t, Duncan will have the right to kill Magnum for harming a guide in his pack’s protection. What Magnum did was stupid, but I won’t allow anyone to kill him when there was no real harm done. If he tries, we’ll truly have a problem.”
He was still speaking calmly, his tone pleasant enough, but I could sense the steel in his words, the conviction of his belief. If he said no one was going to touch Magnum, no one would be touching him.
For a fleeting second, I wondered what it would be like to have a man like him at your back. I’d imagine that Magnum wouldn’t have been wandering around looking for scraps of wood for his cottage. No, if this man said he had you, you were covered. Whatever he was, there was obviously a loyal streak that went down to the bone.
Andboom. That was how fast people probably fell in behind him. He’d never be that loyal to me anyway. Not. Me. I was a human, after all. Guide or not, that made me different.
“You said my pack wouldn’t be looking for me, and now you’re claiming Duncan would come and kill Magnum? Which am I supposed to believe?”
He smiled, as if he shouldn’t have to explain this to me. “There’s convenience and then there’s the optics. Adisappearance would be easier. They could claim you left of your own volition. But if you were to go back crying the victim? Stirring up problems and getting everyone worked up?”
“Crying the victim? Magnum hit me over the head, tied me up, and shoved me in a closet. He could’ve killed me, and now I have to protect him and… What did you call it?Cry the victim? I’ve never cried the victim in my life. Now get off me.” I was nearly screaming by the time I stopped speaking.
This was the way he spoke to someone he needed a favor from? He was lucky he was holding my legs, which made striking him awkward, or I might’ve actually punched him.
He had the nerve to laugh softly, but didn’t let go of me. “I didn’t actually take you for that type, but I had to make sure.”
“Wow, thank you. I’m so honored you don’t see me as a walking victim.” I crossed my arms, looking about the room, too mad to give him my full attention.
“Look, I’m sorry about what he did,” he said, switching back to his smooth delivery. “You have every right to be upset, but it’s better for everyone if we keep it between ourselves.”
This guy was a psycho of the first degree. I never should’ve argued with him. I must be as insane as he was. I should’ve yessed him to death and hurried my way out of here.
“Fine. I won’t say a word.”
