Wolf Untamed (SWAT - Special Wolf Alpha Team #11) - Paige Tyler Page 0,105
too many people, but before she could get the words out, Dave continued.
“I did all of this for us,” he said, spinning away from the window to look at her. “So we could have the money we need to leave here and start fresh. We’ll get it right this time. Just the three of us. And the people I’ve been stealing from have so much effing money, they aren’t going to miss it.”
Bree’s head spun as she tried to keep up with her ex’s view of reality. Then again, he’d eaten someone, so she supposed it was a given that his perception was screwed up.
“Dave,” she said, keeping her voice soft and even. Right now, her ex-husband had suddenly become someone she didn’t want to set off. “I suppose I can understand what you mean about you and Hobbs stealing from the banks and maybe the jewelry stores, but you were stealing from your own company’s clients, too. Priceless works of art, family heirlooms, collections that took some of these people a lifetime to put together. Of course, that stuff is going to be missed.”
It was Dave’s turn to stare. Or, more precisely, to look at her like she was stupid. “My own company’s clients? What are you talking about? I wouldn’t know a Rembrandt from a paint-by-number, and I’d never steal from my own company’s clients.”
After everything he’d already confessed to, she was supposed to believe he’d grown a conscience and decided ripping off his employer’s clients was more than he was willing to cop to? “I found Ken Reed’s notes. He knew you were breaking into his clients’ homes and stealing from them. He knew it was you. That’s why you killed him.”
Dave stared at her, managing to actually look stunned. “I never stole anything from Ken’s clients. I wouldn’t do that to the best friend I ever had. And I certainly didn’t kill him. I’ve never killed anyone.” He must have realized the obvious fallacy in that last part because he shrugged. “Okay, sure there was that guy I killed to get myself locked up in the first place, and then my cellmate, and those baggage handlers from the airport I sent on a suicide mission to kill your cop boyfriend. But that’s it. I had nothing to do with Ken’s death.”
Bree wanted to point out how incredibly coincidental it was that Ken had ended up dead the day after figuring out Dave and Ernest Hobbs were involved in stealing half of Dallas blind, but something else Dave had said registered, stabbing into her like a sharp knife.
“What do you mean you sent people to kill Diego?” she demanded. “He never said anything about that.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Dave said, wiping the back of his hand across his sweat-soaked forehead. “None of this stuff you’re talking about matters. Not now. The three of us are together, and after the guards from the Federal Reserve I’m controlling drive those trucks out of there, we’ll have enough money to go somewhere far away from here. Somewhere we can rekindle the love you’ve let us lose.”
She might have been distracted by the thought that baggage handlers had tried to kill Diego and he hadn’t told her, but Dave’s words got her attention.
“Dave, I’m not in love with you,” she said. “I haven’t been in love with you for a very long time and I’m never going to be in love with you in the future, so you can drop any plans you have for rekindling anything. I’m not going anywhere with you and neither is Brandon.”
She expected an angry outburst from her ex this time for sure, but that wasn’t what she got.
“Oh, you and Brandon will be going with me,” he said flatly, his expression ice cold. “And we’ll rekindle anything I damn well want whether you do your part voluntarily or not. I’d prefer not to mark you with my blood and control you, but I will if I have to. At least until you decide it’s better to love me of your own free will. And trust me, you’ll want to decide that quickly. You don’t want to know what I could make Brandon do while you watch.”
Bree was too stunned by his threat to reply. From the corner of her eye, she saw Brandon was just as terrified. The thought that he could make her son do anything he wanted scared the hell out of her.
Before Bree could come up with something to say to calm Dave