Wolf Untamed (SWAT - Special Wolf Alpha Team #11) - Paige Tyler Page 0,103

covered in bandages and almost every finger had gauze wrapped around it. Even though the material was heavily layered, spots of blood had seeped through most of them. What the hell had he been doing to himself?

It was hard to miss how pale and sallow his skin was. There were purple smudges under his eyes, like he hadn’t slept in a week. He was sweating, too, and she briefly wondered if he was sick. Both mentally and physically. When he started mumbling to himself about it being hard to control so many people, Bree was sure she’d been right about the mental illness part at least.

It must have been a full five minutes before Dave turned away from the window and walked over to regard her with an expression that made her stomach twist and roll so much, she thought she might be sick.

“I’ve gotten everything started over there, so that should give us time to talk,” he announced.

She flinched back in the chair as far as she could when he reached for her, which wasn’t very far. Dave snorted a little, stepping closer to untie the gag from behind her head. She heard Brandon grunt in anger. Knowing he was as scared of what Dave was going to do as she was made Bree more terrified.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she shouted as soon as the gag was out of her mouth. “I have a restraining order against you. You can’t kidnap us like this. You aren’t supposed to be within two hundred feet of Brandon or me.”

It probably wasn’t the most intelligent way to start the conversation, considering she’d already decided her ex-husband had lost his grip on reality. But surprisingly, Dave remained rather calm in the face of her rant.

“Now, why would you go and get a restraining order?” he asked, looking almost hurt as he crossed his arms over his chest. “How are we ever going to work through our issues if we can’t be in the same room?”

Bree stared, not sure how to deal with this rational, yet delusional version of her ex. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Dave, we aren’t getting back together—ever. Even if we ignore the fact that I divorced you and that you kidnapped us, there’s still the part where you’ve been stalking me. Not to mention the way you attacked Diego the other night.”

Dave’s lip curled at the mention of Diego, and she charged on before he could become fixated on the wrong part of this.

“Worse, I found out you’ve not only been stealing, but that people are dying because of you. After all that, how could you think getting back together was a possibility?”

Bree expected him to blow up at her, or at least deny everything she’d said. Instead, he looked like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Actually, I’ve never stolen anything. I got other people to do it for me. So, if anyone died, it was their fault. Not mine.”

Bree thought Dave was trying to play with her head and confuse her again, but when his expression never changed, she realized he was telling the truth. Or at least thought he was.

“What do you mean, you got other people to do it for you?” she asked slowly, trying to work through that while keeping in mind she was likely dealing with someone who was mentally unstable. “Did you hire people to steal for you?”

“No, I didn’t hire them.” He was silent, as if considering whether he should explain what he meant by that. Finally, he shrugged. “I wasn’t planning to tell you this, but if we’re going to get back together, I guess I should. My ability will be important to both of our futures, so there’s no reason not to tell you.”

Bree barely kept from rolling her eyes at the way her ex made it sound like he’d gained a comic-book superpower. It was enough to keep her from pointing out once again there was no way in hell they were ever going to be together again.

“What kind of ability?” she prodded. “Are you talking about something you learned in prison?”

“Yeah,” he said. “My cellmate, Will, had it and I got it from him. When we first met, he told me that he could control people and make them do what he wanted. I thought he was full of shit at first, but then I saw him do it. He’d get other inmates to give