Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
“Yeah, because the kidnapped girl should be polite to the people holding her. Sure thing.” She looked back to the door where Zach disappeared. Was he trying to play on her sympathy? Did he think looking like a hurt boy would bring her around?
“Well, you weren’t exactly polite to the men guarding you, were you? So it feels like you’re a bit nasty to everyone.” Lacey frowned and moved to the corner of the room. She opened the door to the closet. “Come on, kitty. I don’t think she wants you in here. Will you let me pick you up?”
The cat hissed and retreated.
Lacey sighed. “Someone found her out in the woods starved and obviously abused. She likes dark, small places. She’s also pregnant, so I have to worry if she’ll let me close enough to help with the kittens when they come. And now I have to deal with you. I’ll get her out of here. I wouldn’t want her abused further.”
“Why would I abuse a cat?” Devi asked.
Lacey shrugged. “Well, I watched you tear apart a person you supposedly loved, so I thought perhaps a cat would be a way to take out your frustrations. You seem to do that a lot.”
“You don’t know me, lady.”
“Don’t I? I know the reports. I know you were a thoughtless child more interested in throwing a tantrum than honoring the people you say you love.”
Oh, this was what she needed. A stranger to tell her what a shit person she was. “I am not a child, and I’m not the one who kidnapped a person. I’m a fucking victim like I always am.”
“Boohoo, love,” Lacey said almost absently. “It’s your fault you’re here, though I doubt you’ll take any accountability.”
This woman was deranged. “Accountability for my own kidnapping?”
“Oh, I think you should take accountability for most of what happened. Not the Huisman rubbish. He’s pure evil, but you gave him the way in,” Lacey pointed out.
“Excuse me?”
Lacey stopped and seemed to decide whether or not she wanted to continue. “Did you or did you not ditch your bodyguard?”
“You know I did.”
“And how did that work out for you?” Lacey asked, an elegant brow arched over her eyes as she turned Devi’s way. “Because let me play out a couple of scenarios for you. If you had been with Landon when you walked into the club, he could have taken out Lena and her crew. At the very least he would have realized something was happening and called in the troops.”
Guilt twisted inside her because Lacey wasn’t wrong. “I didn’t think anyone was coming for me.”
“Zach didn’t warn you?”
“He didn’t call me. He talked to my cousins. They went to my parents, and I got the bodyguard.” He hadn’t talked to her at all.
“So your parents love you and your cousins love you and Zach…”
She would only let this woman go so far. “Don’t you say it.”
“I don’t have to. We both know the truth. You’re the beloved daughter of a tight-knit family who wants you to be safe, and you repay them by getting someone shot.”
“I didn’t shoot my aunt.”
“Didn’t you?” Lacey seemed determined to poke every wound. “I mean I know you didn’t pull the trigger but—again—what if you hadn’t ditched your guard and they hadn’t been able to use you to gain entrance to the club? I read the reports. Your team thinks they’re safe from hackers, but I’m quite good. What would have happened?”
“They would have waited for Eve and Kala to come out and they would have shot her there.”
Lacey’s head shook. “That is not the most likely scenario. It’s the one that takes the blame off you.”
“Fine. What’s the likely scenario?” Devi asked, not wanting to hear it.
“Well, the most likely one is that Eve McKay and the young Miss Taggart would have still been in the club when it opened and Lena wouldn’t have been able to get in once people started showing up. Another scenario, they do get inside but they only have Eve. They need her then. They needed someone or something to force that badger you call a cousin to comply. Eve would have worked. So then she is unharmed and tossed on the plane and sent to Virginia instead of fighting for her life and potentially losing a great deal of lung capacity, but it’s all right since you were feeling… How were you feeling?”
Angry. Alone. Stubborn. She’d stood in that dumb bathroom and she’d needed to find some freedom, needed to show everyone that she wasn’t this target because Zach Reed didn’t love her. She wanted her parents to hate him. Her mom worried about him, didn’t believe he would ever truly hurt his team and wanted to wait for more of what she called intel.
Devi heard her brother’s girlfriend talk about Zach and how good he was.