Page 75 of Isabelle’s Forbidden Love

Orlando nodded. “Yes. But at the time I didn’t know she had a lover. I found out earlier today. But that’s not important right now.”

Samson nodded, his expression serious, then he snapped his gaze to Gabriel. “What is Thomas saying?”

Gabriel still held his cell phone in his hand, and stared at Samson, all blood draining from his face. “Cooper told Thomas that Isabelle left HQ about ten minutes ago to meet with Nelson Sarduni, because he claimed he found something that would clear Orlando of the two murders.”

Orlando’s heart stopped beating and it felt as if a dozen sharp daggers were being driven into his heart to chop it to bits. “Oh God, no! He’s got her. It’s all my fault.” He felt as if somebody was choking him, squeezing every last breath from his lungs.

40

Isabelle glared at Nelson. With silver chains, he’d shackled her hands and legs to metal rings anchored to a stone wall. They were in an old building somewhere near the water, though she wasn’t sure where exactly, because he’d thrown a hood over her head when he’d lifted her out of the trunk of his car.

“So, you’re Dennis LaRuson.”

“Yes,” he admitted, something akin to pride coloring his voice. “Thank you for letting me know that Ines was about to reveal my identity. That annoying goody-two-shoes always stuck her nose into things that weren’t her business. I should have gotten rid of her back then. But it’s not too late: once I’m done with you and Orlando, I’ll take care of her. No loose ends this time.”

It appeared that Nelson was in the mood to chat. She had to keep him talking and stall him until somebody noticed that she was in danger. She could only hope that Cooper would find it suspicious when she wasn’t calling him to keep him apprised of what was happening. With some luck, he would start looking for her. But how long would that take? An hour? Two? Longer? How long could she keep Nelson talking?

“Why Hong and Jessica? Why did you pick them? If that’s taking revenge on Orlando, then you’re not doing it right. He didn’t even know them.”

“I couldn’t have Orlando instantly get wind of what I was doing. No, it had to be somebody that he seemingly had no connection to. Otherwise, all the little breadcrumbs I laid out would have been too obvious, and everybody would have guessed what was going on.” He stepped a little closer, his mouth now twisting into a snarl. “But you had to steal evidence! That letter addressed to Orlando was in Hong’s place for a reason. You had to misappropriate evidence!”

“Yeah, evidence you planted!”

With the back of his hand, Nelson slapped her across the face, but she barely felt the pain, already numb from the continuous pain the silver chains caused her wrists and ankles. At least, he’d taken the silver chain off that had held the gag in place.

“Do you have any idea about the consequences of your actions?” he ground out. “Not having the letter with Orlando’s name meant I couldn’t instantly pin it on him. And you know what I had to do because of you? I had to kill Jessica, so that there would be a direct link to Orlando. That’s on you!”

Isabelle wasn’t surprised that he blamed her. That’s what cowards did. And Nelson was a coward, forever blaming others for his failures. “Oh, no, don’t you try to push the blame on me! You’re the killer. And despite all the opportunities you had to plant evidence and try to make Orlando the fall guy, you failed.”

He punched her again, this time harder.

Isabelle tasted blood running from her nose. “Considering how little you know about police work, let me take a guess at how you managed to get the job with Donnelly: mind control?”

Nelson scoffed. “And Donnelly ate it all up. He really believed that he was the one who lured me away from Seattle PD. He didn’t even do a background check! The idiot thought I’d already done one, just because I told him so. No fingerprinting necessary. And he even thought it was his idea to suggest me as liaison between the police and Scanguards. It couldn’t have been any easier if I’d tried.”

“Is that how you got Margarite to cheat on Orlando? ‘Cause that would be a definite step down. There’s no woman on earth who’d take you once she’s had Orlando. As if you could—”

The next blow whipped her head to the side so fast that she heard her spine crack. But she turned her head back to him and faced him. He would never be able to break her, no matter how scared she was.

“Margarite loved me!” he growled, flashing his fangs, his eyes glaring red with fury now. “She always loved me. And then that fucking ogre shows up in her life. If anybody used mind control on Margarite then it was Orlando. Because she didn’t love him! He tricked her! Made her weak. But when I was finally back, she remembered what we had together. And she came back to me!” He laughed. “And by then, I was just as strong as him. I could fight him, and I would have, but Margarite, she knew there was another way to bring him down.”

Isabelle didn’t interrupt his tirade. The longer he talked, the better for her. She needed to buy all the time she could get.

“We were so close to being free of them all. And then Orlando killed her! Sucked her dry and tossed her away like a toy he was done playing with. He’s a fucking monster! He killed his blood-bonded mate! What vampire does that? Orlando is evil through and through. There isn’t a single good thing left in him.”

There was something about Nelson’s words that gave her pause. He was accusing Orlando of Margarite’s murder, which Orlando himself had confessed to, but he hadn’t mentioned her five family members. What had Nelson said? That he and Margarite had been so close to being free? Free of whom? Just Orlando? Or her family too?

Isabelle took an educated guess. “Margarite didn’t just want to be free of Orlando, did she? She also wanted to be free of her family, didn’t she?” She searched Nelson’s eyes for a sign that she was on the right track. “You killed Margarite’s family. And you were planning to pin the murders on Orlando.”

A sinister chuckle rolled over Nelson’s lips. “Oh, no, I can’t take the credit for that.”

Isabelle’s heart sank. So, Orlando had killed the entire family after all.

“No, Margarite did it all by herself. I was so proud of her.”

Margarite had killed her own flesh and blood? Her parents? Her siblings? Her grandmother? What kind of person was capable of such evil?

“That’s how she wanted it,” Nelson continued, undeterred. “We were perfect for each other.”