“Briony, focus! I can’t understand you until you turn human again,” Mary pleased.
Briony shuddered all over and then, with visible effort, forced herself back into human form.
“When they brought him back, he looked and smelled different.” She met Mary’s gaze. “They do something at that hospital. They take the baby away and replace it with a different one. That’s why they drug the mothers and snatch the baby before we can scent them; so we won’t know that they’re giving us a different baby when we come back.”
Tears ran down her face again. “I know you think that I’m crazy, but I’m telling the truth.”
“I don’t think you’re crazy,” Mary said. “I just don’t know how to prove that you’re right.”
DNA tests had been done in the past, and they’d come back showing that the mothers had the right babies. Or had they? She wondered. Who did the DNA tests? Who had taken the blood or saliva samples that were used for the DNA tests? Those could have been taken from the original baby, and used for the tests.
If only she could ask Jarrod. If only Jarrod wasn’t a horrible, horrible liar and a heartbreaker and a horrible, horrible liar.
No, this wasn’t about her any more. Jarrod had lied to her yet again and broken her heart, but that was small potatoes compared to the horror of women’s babies being stolen from and replaced by…who? What?
“I’m going to call Constance and tell her that you’re able to speak now,” she said wearily. “Maybe she’ll know what to do.
* * * * *
Jarrod, standing outside the door of Regina’s suite, had reached the end of his rope. Mary was refusing to speak to him or even see him, and it was driving him insane. He missed Mary desperately. He missed her laugh, he missed her smile, he missed the way she looked at him and made him feel like the sexiest guy on Earth. He missed burying himself in her sweet, soft body.
He was getting surly and snappish and he couldn’t think straight.
And he would do whatever it took to find out what had caused this sudden change, even if it meant speaking to the most annoying woman on the planet. Personally, he’d rather be in a Death Match than be in the same room as Regina, but if this is what it took to fix the problem with Mary, then by God, he’d not only be in the same room as Regina, he’d talk to her.
“You think Regina is going to tell you anything?” Craig asked Jarrod. His expression was glum and his shoulders slumped. Angela wasn’t talking to him either.
“Trust me, I’ll make her talk. I’m highly motivated.” He pounded on her door and, when she didn’t open it, he stuck the key in the doorknob lock and opened the door. Apparently she’d forgotten that he owned this house and had keys to every room.
He and Craig walked in. Regina’s suite had what had once been called a drawing room, and she was sitting on the couch, frowning at her laptop.
She started when they walked in.
“You aren’t allowed to come in without being invited!” she said indignantly. “Seriously, it’s in all the etiquette books.”
Jarrod ignored her, walking toward her until scooted back on the couch with an alarmed look. Craig stood several feet away, arms folded across his chest, his expression grim.
“I need to know why Mary isn’t talking to me,” Jarrod said. “And I know you know. So tell me.”
Regina avoided his eyes.
His tone went deadly. “I’m not screwing around here, Regina.”
She glanced up at him fearfully, meeting his eyes and then looking away. “You can’t make me talk.”
“I can and I will.”
“You’d never hit a girl.” Then doubt flickered in her eyes. “Would you?”
“No, Regina,” he said with exaggerated patience in his voice. “I’d never lay paw or fang on a woman. I can do much better than that. I’m taking away your cell phone, your laptop, your nonfat yogurt, and all of your makeup unless you talk.”
“You…” she stared at him, speechless with horror.
“Full fat yogurt, Regina. No makeup. Oh, and your straightening iron and your hair gloss. Gone.”
“You’re an animal!” she cried, appalled. “A beast!”
He just looked at her. “Uh, yeah. Obviously.”
