Chapter 35: Nothing Left to Hide

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If I snuck out of the room, would any of them have noticed? I had considered it a few times since we arrived. They'd purposely trapped me in a cage around their bodies, on our way back to the pack house, so that I couldn't escape. I cursed Vincent for paying attention so damn much. He knew me a little too well. Both a curse and a blessing in disguise.

Speaking of the devil, Vincent snapped his fingers in front of my face before I could finish planning my second escape attempt. The urgency in them warned me to focus. But all the staring from the rest of the group didn't motivate me to heed his warning. In fact, I was about ready to go through with my second escape attempt as soon as I measured out the closest exit.

"So, let me get this straight," he said, all-too calmly, "You've had a location all this time?"

"Well, not exactly—" I murmured.

He went on, ignoring my comment, "And you didn't tell me?"

"Haha . . . well, I mean, you didn't ask?" My nervous laughter bled into the silence. Vincent shot me a glare. "Okay okay, it kind of slipped my mind for a while. And, well um, Amaury and I talked about it a long time ago, in my defense."

"I'm sorry, you and Amaury . . . talked?" Bennett inquired.

Just then, I realized my mistake. Shit, Vincent and I had just talked about telling them. This was horrible timing for my blabber mouth to fuck it all up. I looked to Vincent for help. A look Mariah certainly didn't miss by a long shot. He pinched the bridge of his nose and I grimaced.

"So, to our understanding, Amaury didn't just give you his wolf. You've also been in contact with him, is what you're saying," Mariah stated, matter-of-factly. "And you knew, didn't you?" Mariah narrowed her eyes at Vincent whose face remained passive.

"I did," he confirmed.

She frowned. "And you've known this for how long?"

"Not as long as you're thinking. I only found out recently. Quite the shocker, you could probably imagine," he responded, sarcasm fusing into his words.

"When the hell were you going to tell us then?"

"Soon," he said.

Mariah's right eyebrow twitched. More than likely annoyed by Vincent's nonchalant attitude. She opened her mouth to argue but Claudia butted in, quietly, "Wait, I don't understand. So, Amaury's not dead?" Her eyes shifted around the room, awaiting an explanation.

"No, no, he is"—I wrung my hands together and sighed—"it's a little complicated to explain. But he's not alive. That's for certain. He's alive in there though. Has been for a while now." I pointed to my head and poked the side of it.

"Oh," Claudia mouthed, her eyes lowering to the floor.

"Your eyes," Mariah said, turning to me, "they glowed. And you were talking to yourself. Was that him?" My gaze dropped to my feet as I nodded.

"Well shit, this has been an interesting afternoon. . . I mean, if Amaury's not completely dead, then that changes a lot of things," Dimitri folded his arms, muttering. He then grunted when Dylan elbowed him in his ribcage. I guess Dimitri wasn't wrong. That did change a lot.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing for Amaury's presence to be aired out in the open. It might even gauge the true suspect's interest. After all, if they knew the job wasn't done (even though Amaury died that night) they'd be on high alert. Possibly worried that they'd already been found out. Or that's what I hoped. The only thing I had to worry about was becoming a target. Amaury was a direct connection to me, so I'd need to be taken out of the picture.

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