Bait novel 185

Chapter 185

Jonas

James slams the door shut behind him and freezes when he sees me standing against the wall in front of him. We stare at each other and he’s the first to look away. He sighs and tries to get to the stairs. I stop him and he squares his shoulders to

meet my gaze.

“What?”

“You didn’t have to ask her that,”

“I did. Maybe you should have asked her that. I don’t understand how you can let her bring his family around. A reminder that she was never yours to begin with. All of this is just a sick twisted stroke of fate,” he growls.

“There is no fucking way you’re this fucking lost, James. She lost her mate,”

“So did you and you watched that bitch stomp Eve’s mother to death,” he growls at me.

“She’s your Queen. Don’t talk about her like that. She did it to protect me,”

“So protect her and get rid of them,” he turns around to leave.

“Why does it bother you?” I ask. He stops before getting to the stairway that leads upstairs. “Why did you come to check on her?”

“Mackenzie doesn’t fucking care about her. Jacob is used to the life she’s provided for him. That girl is nothing but an object to them, Jo. The same way she is to the old man. You should listen to the way they talk about her when she’s not around. He does and says what she wants. She belongs to us now. It was the wolves who betrayed her and sold her to us. Remember that,”

“Again, why do you care?”

“Because she’s your mate, Asshole,” he growls. “I see the way you look at her. You never once looked at Evie like that. Eve was a fucking idea to you. Something our parents fucked your head up with. This girl dies and what do I have left? Nothing. We’re all fucked.

“She’s going to get herself killed, Jonas. That thing is going to take her or kill her. We have nothing else to ground us. I fucking hate you, but I don’t hate her. This is the only common ground we have, brother. I don’t care how you stop her. Impregnate her, lock her up, paralyze her. I don’t care, but do it before she has everything she needs,”

He turns around and stomps up the stairs.

“He needs a fucking life,” I shake my head. I turn around to find Perry standing in the door with a smirk on her face.

“I agree,” she nods. “You do any of those things and I’ll hog–tie you and drag you around this entire property with the spaceship,”

“I’d deserve that,” I laugh. “You left me alone all night,”

“I’m sorry,” she steps out and takes my hand. “I wasn’t in a good headspace,”

“The only reason why I don’t take you over my lap,” I nip at her ear playfully. “I think I can help him get those Lycans back. We can trade them for the gorgons in our basement,”

“Jonas, you’re a fucking genius,” she jumps on me. I pick her up and take her into her study, locking the door behind me.

“Tell me what you found,” I set her down and then glare at her when I see she didn’t eat the ravioli I made for her. “Did you

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Chapter 183

not like it?”

“I loved it,” she says and takes it.

You have a microwave in here?”

“Yeah,” she laughs.

“I can make you breakfast,

“I can also make myself breakfast. I can have Valentina make me breakfast,”

“Right away, my lady,” a voice comes from behind the door.

“What the fuck? Wait, no,” Perry rushes to the door and pulls it open. “She’s gone. Where did she even come from? It’s not the first time she has done that. She brought me a Nos last night and I had whispered it to myself,”

“Her hearing is more advanced than anyone anywhere. She’s mute. She can also see shit from far far away. It’s kind of creepy but cool. I’m going to put a planetarium here for her. She’s an astrophysicist,”

“I love her even more now. Ah!” she squeaks and smacks my arm. “You should have told me sooner. I actually have a gift for you. Do you guys do Thanksgiving presents?”

“No one does that. That’s not a thing,” I laugh. She’s having a manic attack after the shit storm from yesterday. Fuck. That. Fucking. Wraith. Asshole. She’s been doing so well.

“Well, it’s gonna be my thing this year,” she declares and goes over to the bookshelf closest to her desk. “And you get yours early,”

“A book?” I ask when she spins around with a black leather–bound book in her hands. It’s thicker than it should be.

“Open it,” she all but shoves it in my face.

I take it and open it up. Inside, in the crappiest script I’ve ever seen are the words, Questions I have About Space. I flip the page and yellow stars fly out at me. Starry Night is painted on the page with borders around it where the stars go and the little origami folds that make the stars pop out when I flip the page. The first question is, What the fuck even are stars?

“Perry, did you make me a journal?” I look up at her.

“That’s what I did during arts and crafts when I was in the looney bin,” she shrugs. “I was actually going to give it to you for Christmas but I wasn’t going to last that long. I didn’t even last until Thanksgiving,”

“Are you disappointed in yourself because of that?” I look through the pages to find that it’s completely filled. She made me a

eyes. “Are you okay?” journal to add to my shark one. When I look up she can’t even look me in the

“Yeah,” she nods. “I’m a little embarrassed,”

“You shouldn’t be,” I set the book down and pull her into me. She growls, rolling her eyes, and then pulls away to fall into her chair.

“I know, but I am. Even your brother is laughing at me and he’s an idiot,”

“We will always agree on that. Tell me what’s going on,”

“You were right. It’s not him,” she lets out a sigh of relief. “He used an old program to hack the servers in the mansion the gold was collected from as well as the computers. It was sloppy, but he fucking got me,”

“Okay, now what?”

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Chapter 183

“I continue. I was never going to stop. Maybe it would have gotten a little more urgent. I don’t know, she blinks away her

unshed tears.

“I think it should be a little more urgent, Perry. He’s trying to get to you and this shows just how far he’s willing to go to fuck with your head to get you to slip up. I’m not usually the one who sees the worst in people, but if you’ve taught me anything. It’s that this is only going to get worse,”

“What do you want me to do? My hands are tied. I don’t have the manpower for this,”

“I’ve been thinking,”

“Oh, shit. Is this, opposite day? Are you going to suggest something fucked up?” she jumps up wrapping her arms around my waist tightly.

“You know who would kill to get her hands on an insane amount of science shit like whatever the fuck the wraith has going on?”

“The soon–to–be Vampire Queen?” her eyes light up like nothing I’ve ever seen before. “Jonas, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,”

“Show her the trackers. Get her into those servers. We’ll see what she thinks of what we find down there,”

“Push come to shove, we set the Kings on her after we delete the Wraith and all of our crimes from history,” she adds.

“That’s a lot more diabolical than what came out of my mouth,” I look down at her. She grins leaning in to bump her forehead against my chest.

“You’d do that for me?” she asks.

“I’d tie him up on a pillar so you can villain monologue like you always do. Then set his ass on fire so we listen to his screams until he dies. I’d even record it for you so can watch it when you get all sad and shit. Allegedly,”

“That’s so fucked,” she laughs and jumps to wrap her legs around me. “I want you to know that you’re going to make me clingy. You’ll have no one else to blame but yourself,”

“You’re in luck. I’ve never blamed anything on anyone else, but myself. And having you cling to me all the fucking time is becoming a little bit of a fantasy of mine. I think the only thing you actually infected me with is delusion,”

The her eyes

way

focus on me is tantalizing. Perry isn’t ever going to be able to say those three little words and I think I’m okay with that. I don’t need to hear them. It doesn’t fucking matter if she can admit it or not. I know she does. I need this

shit with the wraith done. I can’t risk that asshole driving her feral again. I don’t want a repeat of last night. Whatever it takes. He’s dead.

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