Ryne snorted and shook his head. “Typical of the bitch.”
Silently, Elise agreed, but kept her comments to herself. “Marla and Rose were planning to kill me, so when I got a chance, I ran. Rose tackled me and we rolled down the ravine. She died in the fall and now Marla’s gone off to get some stuff so that she can kill me by herself. I’ve been trying to get away, but, as you can see, I haven’t made it very far.” Elise carefully avoided mentioning how Marla had been using Ryne as a scapegoat. Remembering that Ryne had been described as hot-headed and impulsive, she thought she’d avoid getting him all worked up.
“Rose was in on this plan?” He sounded sceptical.
“I was surprised too, but she had a gun pointed at me.”
“Humph, it’s always the quiet ones you have to watch.” Ryne rubbed his chin and appeared lost in thought.
The silence stretched between them and Elise began to wonder if Ryne even remembered she was there. “Umm... Can I ask you a question?” He looked at her with raised brows. “Did you... I mean, a couple of weeks ago, were you over at Marla’s?” She shrank under his gaze, cursing herself for asking the question even as the words left her mouth. Hopefully, it wouldn’t set him off.
“Yeah. I was there.”
“Oh.” Elise answered in a small voice, averting her eyes. The man beside her had threatened and attacked Marla. While she had no love for the woman, she wasn’t comfortable around a man who would hit a female. What if she made him angry? Would he strike out at her too?
“And I hit her...once. I know that’s what you want to ask.” Ryne made the statement blandly as he scanned the woods around them. “Do you want to know why?”
“Well, I suppose. If you want to tell me, that is.” Elise wondered what possible reason he could give.
“Before the challenge—you know about that?” She nodded. “Well, Marla and I were...together. Originally, she was Kane’s girl and around him she would put on this helpless female act, playing up to his need to be the protector, but when Kane wasn’t looking, she showed me her true colours. She was the ‘bad’ girl with a bit of an attitude and I found that appealing for some reason, so I worked hard to steal her away from him. I didn’t feel guilty about it, since I knew she was playing him along and he’d never really be happy with her. In a way, I was rescuing him from his own blind stupidity. It was only later that I found out she was stringing me along, too.
“Marla’s a master manipulator and without even realizing it, she had me eating out of her hand. She knew my weaknesses and played on them; got me to challenge Kane because of some cock and bull story about him sabotaging Zack’s truck. Damn, I can’t believe I was such an idiot.” He ran his hands through his hair and shook his head in obvious self-disgust. “Anyway, long story short, Kane won. I was embarrassed and left the area. Marla refused to come with me, of course, and that was when I realized that, like Kane, I never really knew her. I’d only seen the image she wanted me to see.
“Unfortunately, the depths of my stupidity hadn’t been reached yet. Before I left, I gave her all my photographs to sell with the promise that she’d forward the money to me.”
“I’ve seen one of your pictures. You’re quite talented.” Elise interjected.
Ryne gave her a half smile. “Thanks. I was going to use the proceeds to establish a new pack. Imagine my surprise when I called Bastian’s Gallery and found that all but one of my works had been sold, even though, surprisingly enough, there was no money in my account. It turns out she’d kept it all.
“So I came back to town looking for my money and she laughed, saying she’d already spent it and there was no way I’d ever get it back from her. To top it all off, there was also this sports car that I owned—I only used it once in a while—and I’d left it with her to sell. Rather than taking it to a proper dealership where there’d be a fast turnover, she had it sitting at some little out of the way garage where it will probably never sell, because she wanted to still have use of it.
“All my money, my heart, even my status with the pack—she took it all from me. Everything I had was gone and she just laughed in my face. I grabbed her by the arms and shook her. She spat in my face and I lost it; I slapped her. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I won’t hide it either.”
Elise was quiet for a moment, then reached out her hand and squeezed his shoulder. “I’m sorry she did that to you. If it makes you feel any better, you’re not her only victim. She’s driven a major wedge between Kane and me. I was foolish enough to listen to her too.”