Page 119 of The Twilight Theft

Blondie grunted, using her gun hand to help pull the statue out of its hiding spot. She muttered, “Dancing around each other. Who says shit like that?”

Wait. What? Was she talking about me and Drew? He’d said that to me—that we were dancing around each other—Thursday night. Before he kissed me.

She cradled the bird in her arms, the gun no longer pointed at me. “Heavy little guy, isn’t it?”

“What are you going to do with it?”

How did she know it was there? She hadn’t wandered the shop searching for it. She’d known I was there. And how had she gotten in the back door?

Noahhadset us up.

To what end? So I’d find the letter and take it to Scarlett? He’d called her. Why leave a letter?

An arm snapped around Vanessa’s torso, and she dropped the bird with a thud. As she sucked in a breath to scream, another hand clamped over her mouth.

I rolled to the side, putting the counter between me and her flailing gun. More grunts sounded, but I kept my head down like I’d been trained.

“You son of a—” wailed Vanessa.

“Let go of the gun.” Rav cut her off, in that calm yet irritated voice he always had. No wonder Emmett was slow—he’d gotten backup. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“And you won’t,” she grunted. Was she seriously trying to fight him?

Rav didn’t make a noise, but Vanessa squealed.

“You can come out now,” said Emmett.

My muscles relaxed and I knelt, massaging above my left knee. “Thanks guys.”

Neither of my teammates wore protective gear, so their faces would be on camera if anything was working. That added an extra step for the evening. We’d have to scrub the cameras if they were recording.

“Who sent you?” asked Emmett.

Vanessa squirmed in Rav’s grip. “Screw you.”

I flexed my leg as I approached them. The brace wasn’t enough for tonight. I should have actually iced it, rather than trying to walk off the injury.

Vanessa shook her head, swishing her mane around, and took a deep breath. “You have no justification for holding me.”

Rav, looking more ominous than usual in the shadows behind Vanessa, said, “And yet, here we are.”

“Do you have your zip ties?” Emmett asked me.

“In my pack.” I rounded the counter and dug into the side compartment where I carried small accessories.

“Don’t you dare,” snarled Vanessa.

“It was Noah, wasn’t it?” I said. Who else knew we’d be there?

“That double-crossing prick!” She threw her head back violently.

Rav easily dodged out of the way.

Next, she turned her venom on me. “Drew’s a trained manipulator. You know that, right? It’s been so deeply ingrained in his psyche he’s incapable of doing anything authentic.” She grimaced as the zip ties tightened. “Lines like how he can’t think when he’s around you or making the fucking Beef Wellington. It was all to get you in bed, nothing more.”

I knew all this. Deep inside, I’d wanted to be wrong. I’d wanted him to want me. The real me. The—

Wait.

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