“Is that the truth?”
Sweet Jesus. “Yes,” I say, swallowing.
“You wouldn’t lie to me, my pretty angel, would you?” His finger trails down over my jaw and down to my neck.
“No,” I whisper, feeling nervous.
“Do you trust me?”
What is going on? “Yes.”
“Good.”
With a sudden movement, his hand is around my throat and he’s shoving me under the water. It happens so fast, I don’t even get a split second to fight. Hot water swirls around my face and up my nose. I squirm and fight. I claw at his arm, my heart races and fear swells in my chest. I’ve never been so scared in my life, and at the realization that he’s trying to drown me, I start fighting harder than I’ve ever fought.
I kick, claw, bite, scratch, and do anything I can to get him to let me up. Black spots appear in my vision, and I know that I’m going to pass out soon. I’m going to die. I start to scream and water fills my lungs, and before I can think a second more, Dax launches me up and out of the water. He releases my neck and his hand curls into my hair as he pulls me close to his face. He’s panting and angry, nostrils flaring, eyes wide and terrifying. I’m coughing, trying to get the water from my lungs.
“What is wrong with you?” I scream, but his hand only tightens further, until my scalp burns with the pressure.
“You are what’s wrong with me, my lying, cheating little bitch.”
He knows.
Oh god. He knows.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I cough.
With a feral growl, he jerks me right up out of the bath and drags me, naked and dripping, into the living area of the hotel. Then, releasing me, he walks over to my purse, pulls out my gun and points it at me. My heart stops and I can’t think. I can’t do anything but stare in complete horror at him.
He knows.
“Get dressed,” he orders.
“Dax, please,” I beg.
“I will shoot you—do not fuckin’ doubt it. Now get dressed.”
I do as he asks. I get dressed, and I do it quickly. The moment I’m dressed, he shoves the gun into his pants, grabs my things and then storms over, taking my arm and pulling me towards the door. “You scream, and I swear to you, I will shoot every fuckin’ person in this place without so much as a thought. You’ll have to live with that for the rest of your miserable fuckin’ life. Are we clear?”
Oh god.
Oh, no.
“Yes,” I whisper, my voice so shaky I can’t get it to work.
“Good.”
He leads me out of the hotel, and I don’t scream. Dax will do exactly what he says he’ll do, and I’m not going to be the reason innocent people die.
The moment we’re in his truck, he reaches into the glove compartment and pulls out another gun and some handcuffs. “Put them on. You try to run, I’ll murder everyone you love until you return.”
I do as he asks. I put the cuffs on.
Still trembling, still in complete shock, I say, “What . . . what is happening?”
He starts driving, and only then does he talk. Only then does he finally spill exactly what it is he’s doing right now. I’ve figured out enough to know that he’s worked out I’m not on his side, but just how much he knows, I don’t fully grasp yet.
“We’re going back to my place where your little biker club is currently digging up Bennett’s body and removing it. They’re also freeing over fifty girls that I’ve placed there. They think you’re distracting me. They think they’ve finally won. They’re about to find out how wrong they are.”
Oh god.
Oh. My. God.
I’m going to vomit. Everything spins, and my heart tries to piece together exactly what he’s telling me right now, because what he’s saying is he knows the plan exactly. How the fuck does he know that?
“How?” I whisper.
He laughs, shaking his head. “You don’t think I’m stupid, do you? I mean, clearly you fuckin’ do because you have been playin’ me for months, but the thing about me, sweetheart, is that I don’t get played.”
I won’t vomit.
I’ll keep it together.
Come on, Waverly.
You’re strong.
“I know who you are. I know that they sent you in to get information. I’ve known that all along. You didn’t honestly believe that I’d trust they would walk away and never look into what I was doing again, did you? I knew damn well Alarick wasn’t going to give up that easily. I honestly can’t believe he’s so fucking stupid.”
No.
No, no, no, no.
“I’ve been playing just as hard as you’ve been playing. You see, Bennett wasn’t my only cop friend. No, a man with my stature has far more people in higher places. I know about your little plan, and I’ve done one better for you all . . .”
I don’t want to hear it.
I don’t want to know.
This isn’t happening.
Please, god, tell me this isn’t happening.
“I’m going to make them all pay, you see.”
“How?” I ask again, desperate.
He laughs, low and bitter. “Alarick doesn’t know it, but he’s got a rat. A dirty fuckin’ rat that’s been feeding me information. If only he’d looked closer to home a little earlier, he might have seen that one of his own was sharing. How else did I know what I know? Surely he would have pieced that together. He didn’t. Anyway, that little rat has been relaying everything, and that allowed me to come up with the perfect plan.”
He glances at the clock in the truck, and smiles.
A low vicious smile.
“In fact, in about twenty minutes, the police are going to arrive on my property. They’re going to find a group of bikers that have a bunch of girls, girls who have been taken. They’re going to find a few of them with a dead fuckin’ cop. They’re going to arrest the lot of them and
