Page 100 of Betrayed in Blood
I only spareda second to watch Devon race down the hall after Jasper. Then I turned my attention to April, who had been a bit shell-shocked, but she recovered quickly and stared at me with venom.
“What are you doing here?” April spat and moved into a standard martial arts pose. Was she kidding?
“I came for Mom.” I could have asked if she’d been the one sending texts about my father, but we didn’t have all night, so I went with the simplest answer.
She risked a quick glance down the hall to the master suite.
“Oh, don’t bother. Mom’s not there anymore.”
“How dare you come in here and kidnap her. I knew you were nuts, but you won’t get away with this.”
“How dare you prevent her from leaving the house. And from all appearances, she looks drugged.” When April didn’t respond, I added, “Or has she been mesmerized?”
April laughed. “Please. That’s not a real thing.”
“Really? And how would you know?”
“Because Jasper told me.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it.
“You don’t know anything, Cressa. Mom has been depressed since you had Dad killed. Completely despondent.”
“That’s a lie, and you know it. First, I didn’t have Christopher killed. Lorenzo Venizi had him killed, and Jasper should know that. Second, Mom had an escape plan to leave Christopher because of the dangerous people he did business with and his constant cheating.”
“He never.”
“I don’t have time for this. We’re leaving, and you’re going with us.”
She attacked. Her kick came faster than I expected since I wasn’t expecting it at all. It was simple enough to block. Most of my defensive moves came automatically now. Daily training will do that for a person.
April didn’t stop. She apparently had her own set of offensive moves, most likely taught by Jasper or the local dojo. I was more curious about when she began her training. After Christopher’s death or when Jasper began grooming her for whatever he had in mind?
I had to admit, she had game, but she had nothing on my skills. I didn’t want to hurt her. Not if I didn’t have to, so all I did was block her strikes and kicks, waiting for her to tire herself out. But that could take more time than they had.
I was deciding on which defensive move would be the least damaging when she stopped and slowly moved to find a better position to come at me. The hallway was wider than most homes but still too narrow to offer many options.
Her eyes flashed as she looked past me and smiled. Hell. Why not just tell me there’s someone behind me without saying it? I moved in quick as a snake and kicked her in her midsection, which launched her several feet backward where she landed on the soft carpeting.
I twisted around to see Jasper racing toward us, a gun in his hand. I’d heard several gunshots, but if there was any chatter from Sergi, he was keeping it localized to the various team leaders. Had we lost anyone to a gunshot? Probably not. We were wearing armored vests, and the vamps had recently fed. They’d heal quickly.
Time slowed as I stared at the barrel of the gun. The asshole was going to shoot me. Had that been their plan the whole time?
Jasper pulled the trigger.
I blinked.
I was in the coffee house in San Francisco. Why did I always end up here? Well, to be honest, I usually ended up here when Colantha was in control of the construct.
Devon had once told me that Colantha always took him to a classy pub in a Dublin hotel. She never took me there, but I was going to make it a point to request it the next time I had the opportunity.
I picked up my latte and stared at my guests over the rim of the cup. After taking a quick sip—it was too hot to drink—I set the cup down and observed their expressions. They’d spent the first minute twisting their heads around as they took in the coffee shop. Then, after April screamed for another minute, only stopping when Jasper yelled at her to shut up, they stared at each other and rather comically turned their heads as one to stare at me.
“What the hell was that?” Jasper bellowed. He wanted to be in control, and he played the game to pretend he was, but the shadow of fear in the back of his eyes, or maybe it was the dull glow of his beast, told me he was scared shitless.
Then he tried to move. He couldn’t. Not even his arms. “What are you doing? What kind of magic is this?”
I chuckled then April screamed again in a vain attempt to attract someone’s attention.
