Page 36 of Truthfinder’s Promise
“Yes,” he acknowledged.
“Then how do you think you are going to come with me? Oh, it’s fine, Julian,” she said, switching to an empty, air-headed voice, “just ignore my Shifter friend. Yes, don’t worry, I’m still totally willing to listen to anything you have to say. No, Jensen completely forgives you for kidnapping him.”
“I’m suggesting you put me on a leash.”
“What?”
“Elijah wanted two things out of me: to understand how Shifter healing worked, and to break me. He wanted the Shifter version of a trained German Shepard. I’m guessing Julian knows that you and your friends took down Elijah’s compound. He’s already going to be wondering what happened to me. How hard do you think it will be for him to learn you took a ‘dog’ home with you? The easiest thing to do is pretend Elijah succeeded in breaking me, and you’re my new master.”
“That’s sick.”
“It’s practical.”
“And you’re okay with playing broken?”
“If it’s my best chance of getting Natalie back? Yes.”
She mulled it over. “There’s one more thing you should take into consideration,” she said. “When I told you Julian was obsessed with me, I meant it literally. There is every likelihood he found you in the first place because you were involved with me.”
“I’ve already considered that. I don’t blame you for it.”
How generous of you. “Neither do I. But even if it’s not the case, Julian’s likely aware that I was involved with you, that you know me. If he knows I took you out of Blackthorn Manor, he isn’t going to trust that you wouldn’t have revealed who you are to me, hoping for support. I can get around that, but I’m going to have to say some unpleasant things.”
“Like what?”
“Like pretending I knew exactly what you were all along. Like pretending maybe I was in the market for a Shifter from the beginning.”
“You think you can make him believe that?”
“Please. I convinced the whole of Aspect Society, including my own mother, that I was an empty-headed idiot for most of my life. Convincing Julian I’m as ruthless as my mother was, as he is? He’d love nothing more than for that to be true.”
