“The jig’s up, Katie.”
My heart turns over at his words.
Fuck. I should have run.
I watch as Katie does her best to get out of this situation. It won’t do her any good. The minute she opened the door, it clicked. On the surface, thanks to hair dye and colored contacts, she looks nothing like Beth, but once my brain had made the connection, I could see it. Beth is skinnier and less curvy than Katie, but their facial expressions, the lines of their face, and the mannerisms are so similar, I could kick myself for not noticing sooner. It’s no fucking wonder that I hadn’t seen eyes like hers before. The fuckers weren’t even real! The first real peace I’ve had all day is when I handcuffed her to my arm. She won’t be getting out of this shit anytime soon.
“Hand me the keys, Katie.”
“I told you I’m not—”
“Drop the fucking act. In case the handcuffs didn’t clue you in, sweetness, I’m not buying. Now hand me your fucking house key.”
She looks at me. If looks could kill, I’d be toe-up, six feet under, pushing up daisies. She slams the key in my hand.
“Sabre, Latch, go check the rest of the house. Find Beth,” I order, tossing the key to them. I barely look at them, my eyes are glued to… Katie. Jesus, everything she told me was a lie.
“Bethie’s not here,” she announces with a look of pure triumph, which irritates the fuck out of me.
“Then we’ll find her, sweetness. Just like I found you. Fuck, you can’t even keep your lies straight. I’m sure there’s something here that will lead us to her.”
Something flashes in her eyes, which aren’t green anymore. They’re more gray, and it’s irritating how much more I like that, even when it hits me that the emotion in her eyes right now is hurt. What the fuck does she have to be hurt over? I didn’t lie to her and I sure as hell didn’t sneak out on her.
“You won’t find a thing. We’re good at hiding from Colin and Matthew. You aren’t the first assholes he’s sent after us,” she growls, jerking against the handcuffs.
“Jesus, you’re so fucking out of your head. Do you have any brains in there? Sorry, sweetness, we’re not here on behalf of the fucking Donahues. Your sister nearly destroyed my brother. The only reason we’re here is revenge.”
Her body jerks as if she took a heavy blow. My eyes jerk up to hers and the pain in her gray eyes is huge. I see it and I’m pretty sure I could glimpse into her soul, then it’s just gone.
“Your brother is a fucking asshole. I have plenty of brains.”
“Whatever you say,” I tell her, tired of the conversation. I can’t believe the woman who I spent one of the best fucking nights of my life with is Beth’s sister. I can’t believe she has Donahue blood, and the thing that really, really pisses me off the most right now is that my dick is hard and already wanting another night with her, even while she’s standing there with hate coming off of her in waves at the mention of Skull.
“Nothing in here, Torch man, it’s been cleaned out,” Sabre says, returning.
“Told you,” Katie hisses.
“Check her bags,” I tell him, ignoring her—which was a mistake. I was looking over the property wondering if something here might give away some clue as to where Beth might be, when I hear a weird noise. I turn back around to see Katie stomping something. When she moves her leg I can see the broken pieces of her cellphone.
“Whoopsie,” she says, then flips me off. “Guess I got a few more fucking brains than you were planning on.”
How can a bitch piss me off and then turn me on all at the same time? I’m going to fucking set her ass on fire later tonight. The thought only makes my cock throb harder.
“Cute, honey, but quit trying to mess with the big dogs,” I tell her, bending down to pick up the ruined phone—and yeah, I might have jerked her arm a little harder. “I can get everything I need to know right off your SIM card,” I tell her, already sifting through the broken pieces to get to the part that contains the things I need to get her account info.
“Golly gee, Torch, I know I don’t have any brains or anything, but did you know they make burn phones that don’t even use SIM cards these days?” she asks in a saccharin-sweet voice that makes my hand itch to show her who’s in charge.
“Katie, I’m warning you…”
“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. You’ve ceased to exist now,” she says, not bothering to look at me and, instead, peering off in the distance over my shoulder.
Her words serve as a dare, and I’ll pick up the challenge. Oh, she’ll know I exist… and soon.