Shea steadied herself then stalked closer to the third man. She needed to take control of the situation. The man in charge could have valuable information that might help them. The first being how he had come by that call.
“Let’s see what’s under the hood, shall we?” Shea grabbed the hood and yanked, revealing a face she had never thought to see again.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
She retreated in horror. “Griffin.”
This was impossible. He was dead. She’d found his body, along with two others in a bantum nest in the Badlands. She still had nightmares about that scene. There was no way he’d survived. This had to be a sick hallucination her mind had dreamed up, because the fact that he was standing here breathing shouldn’t be happening.
Griffin met her gaze with a sardonic expression. Gone was the handsome face and smile that had charmed her for so long, blinding her to the selfish person at his heart. Now, he had scars running from temple to jaw on his left side—a mass of twisted, pale, lumps surrounding an eye that was milky white with a red dot in the middle.
That wasn’t all. The veins under his skin were visible, a dark red and black creating a faint tracery pattern that ate away at the unnatural white of his skin, mostly around his temples and neck.
He didn’t look like her overly charming first love. That person’s face had still contained the softness of a boy used to getting his way in most everything. It was sad, but Shea thought that she preferred this version of Griffin. At least now he couldn’t easily hide behind a mask of pretty lies.
Her gaze moved over his face, searching for the bits of Griffin she still recognized. The expression in his eyes was where she found the most similarities. That same greed she remembered, but this time tempered with patience, a trait he’d never had in abundance.
“Hello, lover,” Griffin said when no one spoke, his attention solely on her. For him, it was as if the others didn’t exist.
A cold feeling stole through Shea. She steeled herself against that dread and forced herself to meet Griffin’s gaze with a blank expression. She couldn’t let him know the twin feelings of guilt and relief his death had caused her, or how those same feelings struggled inside her now.
He was a user, plain and simple. If she gave him any wiggle room, he would waste no time capitalizing on her weakness.
Trenton glanced at her as if checking her reaction to his words. She gave the slightest shake of her head. She couldn’t get into this now.
He settled back, letting her take the lead as Braden considered Griffin with a tilted head.
Reece was the first to recover his equilibrium. “I thought you said he was dead.”
“He was. He is,” Shea said, correcting herself, her gaze locked on the man wearing her former lover’s face.
Her hands clenched as she realized this was the person she’d seen watching from the shadows when the golden eagles had attacked their camp at Airabel. She’d assumed she was seeing things then, imagining ghosts that weren’t there. Turned out he hadn’t been quite the figment she’d thought.
Griffin gave a moue of dismay. “Such harsh words.” His expression shifted, the emotion melting away leaving him looking cruel and cold. “But then, I’d expect as much from the woman who abandoned me to the Badlands’ tender mercies.”
The words were enough to knock Shea out of her horrified stupor.
A mistake. How unexpected of Griffin. Especially since that wasn’t what happened. Not by a long shot.
Her expression calmed and she gave Griffin a faint smile that barely touched her face. “Is that the lie you’re telling yourself these days?”
Because it was a lie. But then, Griffin had always been quite good at lying, especially to himself.
She didn’t know how he’d survived that nest, or whose body she had found, but she had no doubt he’d been responsible for everything.
“Tell me, Griffin. Did our friends walk into that nest willingly or did you betray them like you did the rest of us?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
He stared at her, his thoughts carefully hidden. She could see him considering his options, the best way to manipulate her or her companions. She knew that look. She’d seen it many times before. Strange, that she’d never put it together with his actions.
Perhaps she’d grown from that foolish girl willing to be led around by her heart.
“I see you’ve gotten more waspish since I’ve been away,” Griffin said.
Shea’s scowl could have scalded water.
“Come lover, give me the welcome you’ve longed for.” He gave her a dark smile. It was that smug expression that caused the thin tendrils of control in Shea to snap.
Her cheeks creased in a smile, her eyes light and sparkling, some of the former Shea in her expression. She stepped closer as his smile widened, assuming a sure victory.
