Page 86 of Shockproof

Especially when you take into account how long she’s been betraying the people she works for.

My second swipes the answer key and places the call on speaker.

“Good afternoon, the oh-so famous Slater Wahl…” a deep voice nefariously greets. “I wish I could say it was nice to finally make your acquaintance.” His pause is too brief to retort during. “But it’s not.”

Mentally, I scrutinize everything I possibly can.

His tone.

His speech patterns.

His inflections.

I don’t recognize any of them.

The clearness of the call.

The volume.

The background noises.

Of the latter, I hear very few.

Maybe a car?

Maybe wind?

Lots of wind?

“You have something that belongs to me,” the male casually continues as my eyes cut to Britt, “andIhave something that belongs to you.”

“Slatttteerrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!” screams Arley with enough force to literally drop me to my knees.

No.

No…

No!

It’s not possible!

He can’t have her!

I didn’t let that happen!

It’s gotta be a recording!

Or a fake!

Or…Or…

Not that!

Anything but that!

“Thank you for that. You can put her gag back in.”

Gag?!

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