Teddy slides across three lanes of traffic to swerve onto the next exit.
“I have more information,” Kylie says.“About Allen and Lucky Lou’s plans.”
“Can it wait?”I want to kill Maisy’s father.It goes against everything I vowed as a doctor, and I don’t care.If he hurt Maisy, he won’t live long.
He didn’t count on his daughter having friends.Or a werebear who’s crazy about her.
The only reason I’d spare him is if Maisy asks me to.But I will make it clear to everyone that I will destroy worlds for her.
“You’re gonna want to hear this.It’s from texts between Lucky Lou and Allen.They took Maisy to settle a debt between them, and here’s what they plan to do…”
ChapterEight
Maisy
I huddle on the hotel bed, my head in my hands.Allen left shortly after dropping the bombshell, leaving me under the guard of the two thugs who picked me up in Bad Bear.
It’s after one am, and I’m still groggy, but I can’t sleep.
I felt well enough to take a shower and change into theI heart Vegasshirt my dad brought me.I figured I might as well do what I can to feel like myself.
In the morning, I’m going to marry a mobster unless I do something.
I need to think clearly to figure out a way out of this.Allen said he owes someone named Lucky Lou money, and in exchange for cancelling his debt, Lucky Lou wants to marry unlucky me.
“Don’t trust atoms,” I whisper a joke to myself.“They make up everything.”
It doesn’t help.
Like always, I imagine what it would be like to deliver that joke to Matthias.What he would tell me to do in this fucked up situation?
Run.
But how?Can I somehow trick the guys outside the door into leaving?Or letting me get by?Maybe if I set a little fire near a fire alarm sensor, then it would trip the alarm for the building and the firemen would come.I scan the ceiling, spotting what looks like a sprinkler.That could work…except I have no matches.
Maybe I could bum a cigarette from one of the guards?I definitely smelled stale cigarettes on them.
I draw in a breath, trying to work up the nerve.I’m the girl who gets flustered when the hot town doctor walks into the cafe and orders coffee.Am I really capable of flirting with the low-lifes outside the door to convince them to give me a cigarette?I’m not Missy.I’m no actress.And even if I do convince them, I don’t smoke!I’d probably gag and choke when he lit it for me, giving my scheme away.
But it’s the only idea I’ve come up with so far, so I’ll have to go with it.
I force myself to my feet and paste what I hope is a friendly smile on my face.
Just as I reach for the door handle, though, I hear the sound of a heavy thud, like a body got slammed against the wall.
I gasp, jumping back.
Another thud.
Is that good or bad?
The door bursts open.I swallow a scream.
Then I realize my fantasy has become reality, and Matthias is here.I blink.Maybe it’s the sedative.Why would he be here?How did he find me?
“Maisy.”He strides toward me, looking so big and dangerous, I can’t believe he’s real.
“Matthias?Is that you?”Shock turns to relief, and I burst into tears.
