Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Halting near his front door, Deke sighed. Unreal.
“You need to chase these things out of the building,” snapped Vera. “If you don’t, I’ll make sure you’re the one who’s thrown out.”
A creepy smile slowly crept onto Bailey’s face. Like seriously creepy. One that was freakishly wide but didn’t reach her eyes. No, her eyes looked dead.
Not good. He’d seen the mamba bite people in the past while wearing that very expression.
He began heading toward them just as Vera’s scowl faltered at the sight of Bailey’s smile. She tightened the belt of her robe and took a nervous step back.
She should be nervous. No shifter took kindly to someone threatening to chase them out of their territory—whether it be an apartment, a stretch of land, or a cardboard box. But one who’d once been a loner like Bailey would be even more territorial, because they’d spent years moving from home to home, never quite settling … until now. They would not let anyone take their personal slice of territory from them.
Reaching the mamba, Deke began shepherding her toward her apartment even as he said, “Vera, go inside.” He swiped the keys from Bailey’s hand. She didn’t react. Didn’t even look at him. Her gaze was fixed on her neighbor.
“Try to have me evicted if you’d like,” said Bailey, her voice dangerously calm, her words coming out slow and flat.
Having unlocked her front door, he tried urging her inside, but her attention was still fixed on Vera.
“It would be a mistake, of course,” Bailey told her. “Because it’s not the full-blooded snakes you need to worry about. They’re not the only ones who can travel through the vents.”
Vera swallowed hard and retreated into her home.
Deke ushered Bailey into her own apartment, kicking her door shut behind him. “You were thinking of biting her, weren’t you?”
“It crossed my mind. She would have deserved it.” Bailey tossed her purse on an amethyst-colored armchair that matched the camel-back sofa. “No one gets to take my home from me.”
“You can relax. She won’t really try to have you evicted. She probably just thought that the threat would light a fire under your ass.” He placed her set of keys on the black glass coffee table. “The fact is, you do need to get the full-blooded snakes out of the building. They can’t nest in your apartment.”
“I don’t have any here.”
“There’s one right over there on top of the bookcase.”
She flapped a hand. “That’s just Clive. He comes and goes every now and then. That’s not nesting. Hey, do me a solid and take your mom’s dish with you when you go.” She pointed toward the kitchen area. “It’s on the countertop. I don’t know why she keeps bringing me food, but it’s weirding me out.” She rolled her shoulders. “Make it stop.”
Deke stared at her for a moment. He hadn’t thought there was anything that could truly ruffle Bailey. Oh, she often freaked whenever Blair dislocated her joints, but Bailey was also morbidly fascinated by it. The displays of kindness from his mother, however? Yeah, they actually made her uncomfortable.
Amused, he said, “Now that’s just ungrateful. She’s doing a very nice thing.”
“Exactly. It’s weird.”
He felt his mouth curve. “So there is something that gets to you. Nice gestures.”
Her lips flattened. “You need to stop smiling like that.”
“Like what?”
“All smug and superior.” Bailey didn’t care that he apparently felt he was oh-so-much better than her. But her serpent? That was a whole other matter. “It makes my snake want to eat your head.”
“Why just my head?”
“I don’t know. That’s her business.”
“Her business?”
Bailey shrugged. “I don’t question her motivations or interfere with her choices.” Her mamba granted her that same courtesy. They had each other’s back, no matter what.
“Maybe you should interfere.”
“I don’t see why.” Her snake always had shit covered.
“Maybe because she lunges at people and tries to bite them,” he sniped.
Ooh, she did like it when he got all snarky. She knew his surliness partly came from the touch-hunger—it was clear to sense that it had a firm grip on him. His cheeks were flushed, his pupils were dilated, his muscles were bunched, and he was exuding a restless energy.
“Like me, for instance,” he added. “She’s come at me more than once.”
“Well, maybe if you didn’t call her Hissy Elliot—”
“It’s just a pet name.”
“—she’d leave you alone. I say ‘maybe.’ Probably not, though. She doesn’t like you being near me.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“She’s protective of me. You hate me. Ergo …”
His frown deepened. “I don’t hate you. There are times I want to shake you so bad it actually takes my breath away. But I don’t hate you. Actually, it’s the other way around. You loathe me.”
“No, I don’t. I wouldn’t waste that kind of emotional energy on you.”
“Waste? Oh, well, that’s very—” Pain smacked into Deke’s head like a thunderclap, making his vision go gray around the edges. Fuck, fuck, fuck. His cat lurched up to shoulder some of the pain, moodily baring his teeth at Bailey, blaming her. Unfair, yeah, but the feline didn’t care.