Page 154 of Just One Bite
“It did take convincing with an added charm. But you know her, she’s very ambitious. I think you underestimate how jealousy and envy can change a person. How … watching someone getting all the things you want can put a sour taste in your mouth after a while. Or when that someone comes in to pilfer everything you have for themselves. For me, it took years, for her … just a couple weeks of watching you dominate. You got into the company on the first try. Instantly noticed for your natural talents. Then you get the lead for the first- and second-year company. That’s when she really started to come around. She worked so hard for all of it, thought she’d have the lead.”
I never suspected her. We spent hours together daily. She practiced just as much as me and was always around assisting the director. There was no indication. Not one frown or slipup. I thought she was happy for me.
“Naturally, we are in the same circle, so she opened up to me. Night after night. Drink after drink. It was so easy to do. Little doses of the charm. I could get her to do almost anything.”
My head throbs as I lace the pieces together.
He needed me alone.
“It was you. All of it was you.”
“Olivia. It’s going to be okay. Just stay calm.”
“Parker. I’m on a train. It’s Cane.”
“Don’t tell me you figured it out.”
I keep careful watch on Cane’s hands. He’s got on his expensive rings and a gold watch, but no weapons.
“No. I … didn’t have all the parts, but some things didn’t make sense.”
My throat is dry, and I close my eyes as a wave of dizziness runs over me. I’m warm and growing warmer by the second.
Why would Aster and Barrett, who had everything they needed, put theirnecks on the line to mess with Parker? It never matched up. There were holes, but I didn’t want to see them. Or I never gave myself time to think of them because I didn’t understand the danger. I didn’t think any of them were capable of this.
“It always had to be someone with a better reason. Someone who hated Parker enough. Someone … psychotic enough to drug someone and then threaten my sister. That was you. You framed Aster and Barrett.”
“They never suspected it. And Aster and Barrett may be filthy rich, but they never had it in them. I dreamed of coming to Doxlothia. Surely, people there would finally match my ambitions. But most of them think too small. They’re not willing to get their hands dirty. Not like this. Sure, they’ll blackmail or launch smear campaigns. Do anything else, really, but stuff like this is … beneath them. They wouldn’t even commit to slipping a date drug in your drink. No that was ‘too far.’ Instead, they opted for some brainless idea to get you drunk. Like you were going to just drink with them. Aster took all the drinks himself.”
My chest tightens. “You … had Octavia drug me at the party.”
His canine teeth peek out when he smiles. “Didn’t even need to be there. I was hoping you’d get marked by someone else. Anyone other than Parker. He’d be devastated, hopefully never talk to you again and then … you just had to be a linked mate.”
“Baby. Talk to me.”
“I’m here. Cane has me on a train. It’s hot. I feel sick.”
“I had to wake up seeing Parker’s name as the news spread. Do you have any idea how many times my father called me about it? Every day I had to hear my father’s berating.”
His whole family is obsessed with Parker. There must be history there. I take in a labored breath. The air from my lungs is hot in my throat.
“He wasn’t … happy. I had to think of something else. Aster and Barrett never would have thought about entering you in The Hunt if I hadn’t suggested it. They just wanted to do the framing, but I wanted it to hurt.”
The train is moving fast, but that’s not what’s making me dizzy. My limbs are heavy, and sweat is running down my back.
“What’s happening to me?”
“We’re quite a distance away from your mate. You’re probably feeling a headache. The heat of a fever. Your whole body is aching. I was disappointedto hear Parker was able to complete his bond with you, but that just opened the door to my greatest plan. Mates have to be together once a bond is first completed … if not, they become very, very sick. I imagine it’s worse as a human. No regenerative cells to slow the process. We’re on a one-way trip to the city. I’m not sure you’ll even make it before your brain is fried from the fever.”
I’m too delirious to register the full weight of his words, but I hear him loud and clear. Cane doesn’t intend for me to get off this train alive. I try to wiggle my hands free, but my body is growing weaker by the second.
“Why do you hate Parker so much?”
“Haven’t you been listening? Because he always gets what he wants!” Cane’s yell echoes between us, and I flinch. Nothing but the sound of the train’s wheel hitting the tracks follows. We must be in a rear car away from the public.
He leans forward in his chair, skimming my cheek.
“You know, I saw you first. That day in the courtyard while you and your sisters were looking for your house assignments. When I saw you … saw your eyes, I imagined all the ways I could make you mine. I would have tried to talk to you if he wasn’t always around. I tried to play nice with the smear campaign against you and your sisters, but that only made Parker want to protect you more. I would have even given you up to be marked by someone else if it meanthewouldn’t have you.”
