Page 88 of Truthfinder’s Promise

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Waiting was hell. Meredith had spent the entire day waiting. Waiting to finalize plans, waiting to see if anything went wrong at the last minute, waiting for the evening to come. About the only part she hadn’t spent waiting was the two hours Val had dragged her outside for self-defense basics, during which Meredith learned she was naturally adept at only one self-defense move: driving the heel of her palm into someone’s nose with great enthusiasm.

Now she sat in her car at Winter Forest Park, Jensen a white wolf in the seat beside her, and waited for Julian to arrive, contemplating how useless a well-placed heel-to-nose strike was likely to be if she found herself in actual trouble.

She shifted in her seat, convinced that something had gone wrong and Julian wouldn’t show, when an SUV pulled into the lot and parked one space down from her car. The back passenger-side door opened and Julian stepped out, wearing a black suit with a light blue dress shirt. Thank the goddess she’d gone with the silver dress. The possibility they might match had been upsetting on an oddly visceral level.

She got out, a quick glance through the SUV’s front windows showing the same two thralls who’d come to the house yesterday to collect the necklace. She held her door open and Jensen leaped across the console to land on the worn asphalt. Julian’s gaze dipped to the wolf, snagging on the black and silver fabric tied around Jensen’s throat.

“What is that?”

Meredith beamed at him. “A bowtie. You did say evening wear. I thought it would be a shame if he didn’t match the dress code.”

The bowtie had actually been Jensen’s idea because, as he’d put it, “What says ‘whipped’ more than a Shifter in a tie?”

Julian’s lips curled in distaste. “Your mutt goes in the back.”

She walked to the back with Jensen and kept a smile on her face by promising herself that this was the last time she would ever fake what she felt or who she was. One way or another, for better or worse, she was done after tonight.

The SUV was a compact model, with one row of back passenger seats and a small cargo area behind that. She opened the back hatch and Jensen jumped inside. He barely fit. The space wasn’t wide enough in the back for him to lie down, and not tall enough for him to fully sit up. He had to half crouch, the tips of his ears folding over where they squished against the roof.

She had a million reasons to want to break Julian Astor’s nose. But somehow Jensen’s discomfort was the one currently coaxing her blood to an angry simmer. She closed him in carefully and took her place in the backseat. When Julian slid in next to her and his hand settled proprietarily on her thigh, that simmer turned into a boiling rage.

His words from the cafe came back to her. You’re mine.

She wasn’t his. She would never be his.

No one else touches what’s mine.

Oh, but Jensen had. He’d touched every inch of her last night, kissed every inch of her. The memory of it let her smile when instinct told her to cringe, let her relax beneath Julian’s hand. He might make her uncomfortable, but he wouldn’t do anything to her here. Not in a car. Not with witnesses, even if those witnesses were a Shifter and two thralls.

Julian liked control too much. He would want her in a room, in a bed, away from anyone who might be persuaded to help her.

She looked out the window, watching the street signs pass by until they came to the edge of the disorientation spell, its magic licking over her. The car drove on, and the spell took her fully in its grasp.

Meredith startled when something licked her hand. Jensen, trying to comfort her. Something was wrong. She sat in the backseat of a car, driving through dense forest, the road unfamiliar. She had no idea where she was.

Even as she realized it, the thought tried to slip away from her, the soft magic that blanketed the forest like a mist shushing the thoughts in her mind. She relaxed and leaned her head back against the seat. Her eyes fluttered shut.

There was no need to worry about where she was.

Where she was. Where was she?

Her eyes slammed wide open, panic arcing through her even as the soporific effect of the magic saturating the forest tried to lull her back into complacency. Disorientation had her full in its grasp, and she struggled to summon her Aspect through the sleepy fog in her brain.

“There’s no point in fighting it,” Julian said in a bored tone. “You won’t remember anything.” He didn’t sound sleepy or confused, and she realized the magic affecting her was not affecting him.

She focused on her Aspect, on the need to…do something with it. What did she need to do?

Julian gave a soft laugh as the magic all around fought to lull her back to sleep. Jensen growled in response and licked at her neck, her face.

“Keep that thing in the back or I’ll do it for you.” The bite in Julian’s voice brought her fully awake. She turned her head, registering his disgust. She’d seen an expression just like it on his face at one of her mother’s parties years ago, when another guest had bumped into a waitress, causing her to bobble her tray and spill champagne on Julian’s shoes.

He’d told the terrified waitress she needed to learn poise, and he’d immobilized her in a ramrod stiff posture, the tray held aloft above her shoulders. The thing about Julian’s Aspect? It forced your body into the position he desired—it didn’t hold it for you. Your body, your muscles, did the work, and would continue to do so long past the point where you could have forced yourself to maintain the position on your own.

The tray the waitress had been holding, laden with drinks, had probably weighed between seven and ten pounds. Though it might not sound like a lot, she’d held it up for the remaining six hours of the party. Julian hadn’t even remembered to release her at the end. She’d been released when he’d left and she was no longer in the range of his magic. Then she’d collapsed. The tray had fallen first and she’d landed on broken glass and spilled champagne.

Meredith’s mother had fired her and told the rest of the staff to get her out of her house. Meredith had caught her on the way out, given her all the cash she’d had in the house and told her she was sorry. The woman had told her to piss off, but she was smart—she’d taken the money.