Page 56 of Held By a Monster

Whether or not we had proof, when I got out of here she was going with me. I wouldn’t risk my brother’s happiness.

She had to be his mate. He behaved with her the same way I did with Kendal.

Kendal.

Her face was etched in my memory, the smell of her seemed to fill my nostrils and the taste of her flooded my mouth with saliva.

I heard the outer door slide open, but didn’t raise my head. A sour, burnt smell pushed Kendal’s sweet scent from my nose and made me irrationally angry. I looked up, surprised to see a single man.

They usually came in pairs or packs.

I guessed he was late middle-aged, judging by the gray in his hair and mustache. Thin-framed glasses sat low on his nose, making me wonder if they were needed or just an attempt to appear smarter.

Though not overly heavy, he seemed doughy. Soft everywhere. The sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up to his elbows, revealing overly hairy forearms. His lips pressed into a thin line.

“You have cost me a lot of time and money with the foolish attempt at running away.”

I stood to my full height and got close enough to the barrier between us that my breath fogged the glass.

“Do you expect me to apologize?”

He didn’t shrink back or flinch. This was a man who held actual power. Who went through the world believing himself to be invincible because of the influence and money he held.

He snorted. “No. I didn’t breed you to be weak. I do, however, expect you to tell me where the rest are. Their swift retrieval will spare you and them considerable pain.”

It was then that it dawned on me that his shirt was blue, his slacks and shoes neat and polished. This was Mr. Blue.

“Do you know they call you Mr. Blue?”

That widened his eyes. He quicklyrecovered. “Who?”

“All of Society that knows about you.” I curled my hands into fists, letting my claws sink into my palms so I didn’t strike out. We’d learned long ago that it was useless. The walls that contained us were several thicknesses of bulletproof glass. We’d all broken a claw trying to get through it.

“So you found Society.” He sighed andcluckedhis tongue. “I wish you hadn’t done that, but it speaks to the intelligence and strategy we bred into you. It does make our operation more complicated, but nothing our partners can’t handle.”

“You mean the fae council member who is working with you?”

That stiffened his muscles. I could almost see the gears of his mind working behind his eyes. Trying to figure out how much we knew and how we’d gained the information so fast.

I hoped spilling that little of what we knew would get him to make a mistake. The need to deny was usually strong among powerful humans when they’d been caught.

When he simply smirked and left I upgraded the amount of threat I thought he posed. This man was no stranger to shady deals and navigating deeper waters. To so easily dismiss what we had uncovered, he must be powerful indeed.

Only a few minutes after he left, Isabelle appeared. My ears popped as she came toward me. She was grinning.

“I don’t know what you said to him, but boy, is he pissed! He’s in his office right now yelling at someone so loud that the entire floor can hear him.”

“I’m glad he’s more rattled than he appeared.”

“Oh yeah, you definitely shook him. Everybody is trying to scatter before they become an easy target for his anger. I’m going to use his focus on whatever went wrong to search his office.”

“What? You can’t do that. You’ll be caught.”

“No, I won’t. Nobody dares to go in there when he hasn’t invited them. I heard him call for his helicopter, so as soon as he’s left the building I’ll slip in and out. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.”

“Easy … what?”

She shook her head and brought her clipboard up as my ears popped again. She made a couple of check marks on the paper, winked at me, and left.

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