Page 34 of Prey for You

I sat in a conference room in the very tall office building of Sam’s fancy-ass lawyers. I was seated directly across a table from a camera, two attorneys, a secretary taking notes, and my husband…

Sam and I had met eyes more than once, but we’d talked on the video call about this the night before. We couldn’t let anyone pick up our connection. Ineededto avoid his eyes. They needed to think I was wary of him.

So, instead, the skin on my neck prickled with goosebumps every time his gaze dropped to my boobs.

“What agreement had you and Mr. Priestley reached regarding your death?”

I almost grinned. This lawyer waslovingme, because I kept answering every question as if Sam was a different man from Cain. “Sam was extremely worried about me after I told him what I planned. He tried to talk me out of it—and warned me that he knew what these kinds of men were like. He wanted me to ghost them all.”

Next to me, Jeremy glared. Turned out my lawyers weren’t allowed to interrupt or ask clarifying questions during a deposition. The only thing they could do was note an objection. And mostly there was nothing to which they could object. These were valid questions, and I answered honestly. AboutSam.

The heat from Jeremy’sgaze—clearly wishing to throttle me—didn’t cause me goosebumps at all. Just waves of nausea.

“Miss Reynolds, was there ever a time in which you felt you were in danger from Mr. Priestley?”

I snorted. “A priest—I mean, minister? No. I wanted to jump his bones. He was hot. And we had a lot of shared experiences.” Alarm jangled through me—I didn’t want to draw attention to Sam’s criminal history. “I liked him. He wasn’t pushy. We even went on a date.”

“Oh? How did that go?”

I grimaced. “I left early—but not because he scared me. The opposite. I was worried I was scaringhim.”

I couldn’t resist a single, swift glance at Sam. Tried to make it look like my eyes passed over him while I was looking at the other lawyer. But adrenalin bolted through me when I found him hiding a smile behind his hand and his eyes warm and amused.

“I want you to thinkveryclearly, Miss Reynolds—if you need time to consider this, it’s fine: Was there ever a time when you were present with Mr. Priestley that he intimidated you, or his actions felt inappropriate, or frightening? Was he ever aggressive or threatening? Anything like that?”

Sam grabbing my wrist and pinning me up against the wall—

“No,” I said quickly. Easily. Casually. “He was a complete gentleman. Probably the nicest guy I’ve ever sort-of dated.”

The attorney nodded and tried not to smile, but I couldn’t miss that Sam’s legal team grew more and more relaxed in direct relation to how tense and bristling our guys became.

I felt relieved when it was done. I hadn’t said anything to hurt Sam—mainly because his lawyers did their best to avoid any questions that painted Sam asCain.So I had to be very careful to keep my face straight and serious when I was told that I could leave. I leaned forward to push the chair back from the table and caught Sam’s gaze dart to the small v of cleavage in the very modest button-down and suit-jacket I was wearing.

That thrum of heat behind my navel became a flood. Aware that the camera was still rolling, I worked to keep my face straight. But I bit my lip when I had my back turned—until I looked up to find Jeremy standing, holding the door open for me, his face a tense mask of fury.

He launched into me the moment we stepped into the empty hallway.

“What thefuckwas that?!” he snapped as we followed the legal team towards the exit. “Seriously, Bridget. Are you playing games? Do you think it’sfunnyto make our jobs harder?”

“I was under oath, Jeremy,” I sighed, staring at Derek’s back. He and his assistant walked ahead of us and were clearly listening, but trying to pretend they weren’t.

“That doesn’t mean youofferthings that will help them!”

“I didn’t offer anything good.”Lies.“I’m just being compliant, like you said. They asked about Sam, I told them.”

Jeremy stopped walking and turned on me, his hands on his hips, pushing his suit jacket back. I caught a glimpse of the concealed holster strapped to his ribs—did he do that on purpose, or did he just not care?

“I know you, Bridget,” he hissed, leaning in close, his eyes flashing with anger. “You were getting akickout of that.” He pointed back towards the room. “Grow up.”

My own anger flared when he talked down to me like I was a child. So I leaned right back into his face and put a finger to his chest. “This legal system isfucked up.It gets manipulatedconstantly.I’ve watched my father play the system countless times. Don’t act like there’s something sacred going on here just because the system doesn’t suit you right now. If you people really cared, monsters likehimwouldn’t get to live out the rest of their lives with three square meals a day.”

It wasn’tentirelyfair to align Jeremy with the plea deal my father had been given. He’d been too low ranking at the time to be involved in the legal proceedings, and only brought in years later when there was a perceived threat against me. He was boots on the ground at the time. He’d had nothing to do with the team who convicted my father. But we’d talked about this before. He knew how I felt about it.

Jeremy’s eyes narrowed a little, but his expression softened. “Bridge, Sam isn’t your Dad.”

I snorted. “You don’t need to tell me that.”

“No, I mean…” he sighed, dropping his head for a moment, then looked back towards the room before facing off with me again. “Here’s the thing: I know this is all…triggering.Geraldwarned me this might be uncomfortable for you. I hadn’t thought about that—with the other cases, I mean. I’m trying, okay? But I need you to work with me.”

---