Page 81 of Too Lethal to Love

Evangeline’s lips twisted. “You always got off without having to work hard like the rest of us, all because someone died.”

Rage and disbelief seeped from Beth’s pores like the snot mixing with Evangeline’s tears. “You think I benefited every time I buried a boyfriend?”

“Let’s count the ways. Exempt from senior year finals. Carte blanche to miss school. Prom queen, even though your date was dead. Isn’t sympathy the reason you got that sweet college internship? Because your boyfriend, who beat cancer and then died in a car accident helping you, had a father at the National Health Agency who pulled strings.”

“No.” Tears assaulted Beth’s eyes. “It wasn’t like that.” But clearly the gossips thought she relished the attention. For years, she’d been trying to figure out why the universe chose to punish her. Rolling her shoulders, she shrugged off the nagging uncertainty for good. She hadn’t done a damn thing except endure abuse from hateful, jealous women. All because she’d been the recipient of well-intentioned sympathy from people who cared.

Evangeline wiped her nose on her sleeve. “The whole town saw exactly what you were—a sympathy whore. You didn’t deserve the advantages you stole from me.”

“Advantages? Like a stupid homecoming crown?” The absurdity wrenched a strangled laugh from Beth’s throat. “You think I basked in the spoils of death?”

“You must have because as soon as I made things tough, you finally struggled. How did it feel not having everything handed to you?”

“You crazy fucking…” The thugs held Beth back again from hurling herself at Evangeline. “You told me Danny’s murder was my fault because I’d broken up with him and went on that dating site.”

Mascara mixed with Evangeline’s tears. “It was your fault. Danny should have never taken you back after the horrible argument you guys had. You didn’t deserve a second chance. Ideserved a chance with him. You stole what I wanted. Again.”

The tears Beth couldn’t fight any longer boiled over into stark disbelief. “Christ, Evangeline, I always knew you werethe jealous type, but I never thought you’d purposefully hurt me.”

“Didn’t you hear what I said? I didn’t plan for him to take things so far.” She tilted her head to the stalker. “He was supposed to give you the kind of attention you wouldn’t benefit from. The kind that upended your perfect, merry life. It scared the shit out of me when he shot Danny. I had to ask Henry to help me find a job in another country, so I’d be far away in case I was connected to the murder.”

A hysterical laugh seared Beth’s throat. “You should have stayed there.”

“That was my plan, but he…” she gestured to the enforcer as the van turned a corner. “He came to Dubai. In a meeting with the CEO of my company and Henry Richardson, I was told that if I didn’t come home and give them information about you, they’d kill me.”

The enforcer smiled. “I don’t just like to grab and go when I’m snatching someone. I like to find their vulnerability and drive it home so when we meet face to face, they understand what the stakes are. Our intel alerted us to your budding relationship with Kane Darren. Your friend told us about your curse. And then she gave us the perfect way not just to scare you but to track your whereabouts.” He nodded at Evangeline. “I appreciate your cooperation. Do understand that it pains me to have to kill you.”

Beth ignored Evangeline’s cries. “Not if I do it first, and then I’ll kill Henry Richardson.” She curled her fingers into her palm. White-hot pain shot through her injured wrist, but it had nothing on what she’d inflict on Richardson if she ever saw him again.

Her stalker leaned forward and reached out his hand. “I’ll take care of Richardson for you, querida.”

The enforcer slapped it back. “Remember what happened last time you acted on your own? I told you to be patient andwait for me to come to the States to claim her the right way, but you went off half-cocked in an alley with a gun you didn’t know how to use and botched it up.”

Snippets from that alley flashed through her mind. The paralyzing fear the moment before she and Danny were attacked. The vicious, agonizing crack of her bone. The distant, desperate sound of Danny calling her name. The gunshot. Her scream. All because he wanted to… “Claim me.”

There was only one man she’d let claim her.

The stalker swayed as he stared at her breasts. “I couldn’t wait to make you mine.”

Beth cringed at his sick, unfocused eyes. “And kidnapping is how you chose to woo me?”

His body rocked to the side as the van veered to the right. “You’ll come to love me eventually. I’m incredibly wealthy. I have a beautiful home in Mexico fit for a queen with everything you could ever want.”

Beth snorted. She already had everything she desired. “Ain’t I lucky that a well-off psycho fell for me.”

The enforcer shot across the van and slapped her across the face. “Enough insults.”

Beth’s head snapped to the side. Pain rioted up her nose and down her jaw.

The stalker grabbed his brother’s arm. “Did you forget your promise to usemildcoercion to get her to talk?”

“Mild?” Beth lifted her bound hands to her cheek. “I’m pretty sure my wrist is broken.” She was also pretty sure the devil brothers didn’t feel any brotherly love for one another.

Her stalker bowed his head. “I’m sorry,mi querida. My brother tends to get carried away. Once you give him the information about Triple X, you’ll be all mine, and he won’t touch you again.”

The enforcer reached across Evangeline and fisted hisbrother’s shirt. “Your drive-by yesterday screwed up my operation to snatch her. Instead, we had to resort to taking the backup plan.Now that the old bat has been rescued, your woman is our only source of intel. I’ll get that information however I choose.”

Sweat beaded the stalker’s forehead. “It’s not my fault her boyfriend rescued Dr. Sable. I mean her ex-boyfriend. Kane Darren will die for touching what’s mine.”

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