Conrad was shaking his head as if he was trying to say she was a piece of work.
Rianne Aberdeen was an unpleasant person, but she was also smart, and her psychological warfare was reaching new heights. She’d fucked with the minds of a few of her high school classmates when they had gotten on her bad side. She definitely had a bullying personality that had literally bitten her in the ass while hunting vampires when one had literally sunk his fangs into her ass one time.
I snorted at the memory.
“You think this is funny,” she snarled.
I hung up on her again. No more talk. It was time to take off the gloves. When we faced off in West Virginia, I was pregnant and couldn’t bash her head into a wall.
Excitement exploded in my belly as I called for George.
“You are not going down there,” Conrad said. “The sheriff will take care of her.”
I plastered on a tight expression. “No. Rianne is mine to deal with.”
Footsteps clamored down the hall from the back bedrooms before George came in, freshly showered and dressed in casual attire. “What’s going on?”
“Rianne is at the diner, holding Jordyn and everybody else who was there hostage,” I said. “I need you to watch the babies, please.”
George’s dark eyebrows disappeared into his thick hairline. “Sure. But do you think it’s wise to engage Rianne? I heard everything she said.”
Gotta love vamp hearing.
“If I don’t go, Rianne will hurt Jordyn. I’m not sure what happened to Rebekah.”
Conrad was on his phone. “Rebekah isn’t answering.”
So much for her astute shifter skills.
While my sister was intelligent, it was her ego that drove her actions. Her bravado had gotten her into trouble many times before. But I wasn’t willing to risk Jordyn’s life by not taking Rianne seriously. She had changed since she joined my grandmother and Adam. In several ways her behavior was beginning to remind me of Roman Brown and the head games he liked to play with Sam. Regardless, I wasn’t foolish enough to believe Rianne didn’t have something up her sleeve.
The reporter was a ploy. He had to be.
“We need to confirm she’s here alone and doesn’t have an army of Intech goons with her,” I said, as if I was coming up with an excuse not to go. But I had to be smart. I had too much to lose. She could be using Jordyn to draw me out for several other reasons—like my grandmother, for one.
George and Conrad talked about a plan while I changed into fighting clothes and collected my daggers. I had no problem stabbing Rianne to save Jordyn’s life.
28
LAYLA
As Conrad drove down the mountain road, we could see the sleepy town in the distance as the coastline blipped by to our left. Wispy clouds skated across the sky, intermittently blocking the sun, and whitecaps broke over the ocean’s surface.
I bounced my foot and adjusted the air conditioner vents on the dashboard in front of me. Sweat coated my skin, my heart didn’t know whether to beat rapidly or stop abruptly, and nausea was churning inside me like a fast-moving tornado.
Other than the occasional tourist stopping at the diner as they passed through town, the area was clear of any enemy vampires or strange humans who didn’t belong. The sheriff and his men had done a thorough sweep alongside the residents.
I picked at a nail, my mind spinning and my nerves rocking and rolling as I dipped into a memory of the stormy day when I’d been locked in a room at Intech and squared off with Rianne. I replayed bits and pieces of our provoking and tense conversation.
“In whose universe do you think we can become an exact replica of someone like Sam? We might have similarities to the bloodsuckers in our genetic makeup, but we don’t carry the gene,” I said.
Rianne mashed her lips into a thin line. “You’re not the scientist here.”
I could only speak for myself, but I didn’t carry the gene, according to the tests run by Dr. Vieira. I wasn’t sure about Rianne or even Jordyn. As siblings, we shared about 50 percent of the same genetic coding. And just because I had the right blood type to get pregnant by a vampire, that didn’t mean Rianne and Jordyn did. Truth be told, Rianne and Jordyn had more traits from our mother—brown hair and eyes and the same shaped nose. As for me, I resembled my dad with auburn hair, blue eyes, and freckles. If I was a gambler like my uncle Ray had been, I would bet Jordyn and Rianne probably had more of the vampire DNA markers than I did.
“Once you go down that route, there’s no turning back. You’ll never be human again. Are you sure that’s what you want?” I asked in an even tone.
She stuck out her chin, that defiant side of her rearing its ugly head. “I’ve never wanted anything more. Think about it, sis. Immortality. Powers to control the weather.” She waved her hand at the window. “The ability to compel someone. The list goes on. But the best part? I would have the power and strength to fight Sam on an even playing field.”
