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game, she had no doubt she d have been violated. I wasn t raped.
Stone eyed her, uncertainty clouding the air, and her heart sank. He had the look
of a man who was immovable as a mountain. Let s just start at the beginning and we ll
see how the interview ends.
Elly kept her squirrel s snarl at bay. Fine. She took a deep, cleansing breath.
Stone plucked a tissue from the table and held it out to her. She waved it away. She
wasn t going to cry. She had to do her best to convince the gorilla that she was fine.
Fine. Or he d never tell her where to find Deuce. Even if he was in jail, she wanted,
needed, to see him.
See that he was whole and well and hers&
Letting her eyes drift closed, she opened the door to her memories, allowed them
to rush forward.
It was the seventeenth What s today?
Twenty-eighth.
Wow. She whispered the word. Time flies when you re getting the shit beat
out of you, huh? She chuckled then, blinked her tears back. Okay, the seventeenth. I d
gone to bed early. I was opening the library the next day. She waved a hand.
Anyway. I don t know how long I slept, but I woke up to the muzzle of a gun pressed
against my forehead.
The powder clinging to the pistol had overwhelmed her senses.
Metal s cold, you know? Chilly. So, a gun to the head, and I went with him.
Quiet. It s very, very quiet when you re kidnapped. I d never known that. It s like you
suddenly can t hear anything but your heart and the man with the gun. An
involuntary shiver overtook her. I don t know how long I was in the car. An hour? It
could have been five minutes.
Could you recognize your kidnapper if you saw him again?
She nodded. I can describe every man that hit me. Every. One. That guy
backhanded me when he took me out of the car. I think I struggled then. It d finally
occurred to me that there were no sirens blaring, no police chasing us. I was alone.
Alone until Deuce. Alone until he d gotten her out of hell and then they d taken
him from her.
What happened next? Stone was writing on a notepad, a small recorder resting
beside the pad of paper. Funny, she didn t remember him pulling that stuff out.
But it didn t matter. What mattered was getting through the retelling and then
she d see Deuce. She was convinced that if she just gave them what they wanted, they d
let her see the lion. She d prove to them he was a good guy and her uncle could get him
released and&
Elly spoke about the first house, then the next, and the next, and on and on until
she got to when she d met Deuce.
You re lying. Stone s expression was understanding yet sad.
She shook her head. No. She wasn t. She just didn t want to talk about what
they d shared. It d been dirty, yet& yet not. I m not. Not really. I m telling what I want
to tell and the rest doesn t matter because I wasn t raped.
Okay. He nodded with slow deliberation. Maybe not raped, but sexually
assaulted. Your situation left you vulnerable and he took advantage. He glanced at his
notes. I think I have enough for now. Let s get the doc in here and
Another shake of her head. No, you don t understand. You don t get it. I want to
see Deuce. Take me to him.
I ll be right back.
Stone didn t return.
Chapter Three
There s listening and then there s listening. So, listen (not listen) and then do
whatever the hell you want. What are they gonna do? Spank you? Wait, that might be
fun& Maya O Connell, Prima of the Ridgeville Pride, who isn t really listening.
One month later&
Deuce was an easygoing guy. Not the type of lion to gut first, ask questions later.
That was Brute s job. The man, one of the Ridgeville Prima s guards, had become
especially touchy since his mate, Elise, got pregnant.
No, Deuce wasn t quite that bad. At least, not until today.
He d had enough.
Enough of the council s vague answers.
Enough of Stone dodging him and his calls. He d practically chased the man
across the country.
Deuce had been their do-boy fed them information and had been in deep with
Freedom for almost a year. And they kept giving him the runaround when it came to
Elly.
Fuck. That.
Deuce stomped through the forest, following the path that had been worn into
the ground from the constant comings and goings.
Ricker, Ridgeville pride member and ex-tracker for the council, had setup a
training program in Ridgeville. With the increased aggression of Freedom and attacks
from the Humans for Shifter Extermination, the Ridgeville Prime had agreed that males
across the country needed to be trained in combat. The main training location was deep
in Ridgeville s forest.
And luckily for Deuce, Ricker had a special guest instructor for the week: Stone
Redd.
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