Page 42 of Mate For Hire (For Hire 3)

Declan nodded. “I’ll explain, Gerard. You can let go of all of your guilt over leaving Kelly to die alone.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you never left your mate. She died, just as you said. And I suspect as you remember, you didn’t bond with her. If you had, you wouldn’t have survived this long.”

Gerard released Lachelle’s hand for the first time since they arrived and walked over to Kelly. He narrowed his eyes, studying her beautiful face. She raised her chin in obvious defiance.

“I don’t understand you, Declan,” Gerard said. “She’s standing right here in front of us.”

“No, she’s not.”

Now Lachelle was confused.

“That person in front of you isn’t your Kelly. The original Kelly died.”

The present Kelly paled.

“In fact…” Declan made a show of using a dish of water one of his men brought to him and then dried his hands. He strode to Kelly and jerked her chin even higher. She shrieked as he seemed to poke her in the eye. Everyone in the room gasped.

“Get off me, you bastard!” She fought to get free, but the men held on with ease.

Declan turned to face the room, and on the tip of the finger he held up was none other than a contact lens. Lachelle blinked at Kelly. Sure enough, now one of her eyes was green, not silver. Exclamations of shock rippled around the room.

“She’s human,” Declan explained. “My investigations have found that Patrick Sevelle funded a lab where experiments have been conducted over the years on shifters.”

“Oh my God!” Janessa cried out horrified. The news floored Lachelle as well.

“This man again?” one of the council members said. “It’s a good thing he’s dead. But what does this mean? If he experimented on shifters, why are her eyes green? And what does that have to do with the real Kelly?”

“This person is human.” Declan let this news sink in. “I’m only guessing at the details—and we can question her later—but it may be that when Patrick learned what the scientists he employed could do with shifters, he hatched a plan. He would compromise our family’s authority by working from the inside.

“The scientists gave this woman just enough shifter DNA from the real Kelly Durante to make her smell like the real Kelly. My guess is she’s also had plastic surgery for the right look. He taught her all of the history between Gerard and Kelly and then sent her out to make her grand appearance before Gerard.

“With the story about being abandoned to die alone, Patrick depended on Gerard being so wracked with guilt, he wouldn’t recall that he had shared his story with Patrick and filled in what Patrick didn’t already know about the civil war and their actions during that time.”

Everyone in the room sat stunned. Lachelle couldn’t have guessed in a million years what Declan shared. Sure, she knew Kelly lied, but for the ruse to go this far? It was too much. She found herself grateful that the evil Patrick was dead, and one of the council members said so.

“This is unprecedented,” the councilman said. “We can’t hand her over to the humans for prosecution for her crimes.”

“Can’t we?” Declan frowned at the fake Kelly, and she glared him down.

Lachelle realized the same thing Patrick had done with Gerard he did with Kelly. He placed her in the position of police commander. Maybe he wanted to use Gerard and discovered Gerard was too damaged. Then again, he might have thought so far ahead that Gerard was simply a step in this master plan.

“I say we punish her by our own laws,” one of Declan’s men suggested.

“I’m human,” Kelly shouted. “You have no right to do anything with me!”

Fake Kelly worried about being killed like Patrick. Declan was home despite human fear and distrust. She didn’t have much hope.

“Are you?” Declan grinned. “You have shifter DNA running around in your body. If the humans do a test…”

Fake Kelly cried out in terror.

“We’re still ironing out how humans and shifters will live together in this world. I’m guessing they’ll start asking questions about you, looking into your background. They’ll wonder how you were able to become a police commander.”

Lachelle caught on to where Declan was going. “She was put in her position, like Gerard was.”

“I went to school,” Fake Kelly claimed, but she was so red now with embarrassment, Lachelle didn’t believe it.

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