Page 20 of Bearnapped at the Altar

“How did he say that with a straight face?” Tegan rolled her eyes. “I got perp walked out of the office with a security escort.”

“It was unethical for her to be an employee and a contestant on the show while I pursued her,” Gideon continued.

Tegan groaned. “Oh, give me a break. What does he know about ethics?”

“Do you have a message for the assailant?” another reporter asked.

“Absolutely.” Gideon looked directly down the barrel of the camera lens and growled. “You won’t get away with this. Tegan Reynolds is my mate, and I fully intend to claim her.”

Tegan flipped off the screen in response. “You’ll never lay a dirty paw on me, beast.”

“Think you can pull up that evidence?” Bellamy asked. “I should be able to access your phone records from my system.”

“Not creepy at all. Let me check my email. I send myself notes when I need to remember something. The app on my phone wasn’t working anymore because I needed an upgrade. I’d been too lazy to go get a new phone. But it makes it easier to search…fuck.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’ve been wiped clean.” She pushed the laptop toward us. “I’m a bit of a digital hoarder, as you can probably see from the amount of tabs I leave open. I like to keep emails, so I can reference old conversations. But there are only like ten emails there. Not even a full page. I’ve had this email account for years. There should be thousands.”

All that was left were some ecommerce emails.

“Wait,” I said. “There’s an email from Gideon.”

Chapter

Nine

Tegan

“Is it a new email?” Barrett asked.

My fingers trembled over the keyboard. It had been left unmarked, which in my chaotic filing system, meant that it was important, or recently received.

I had saved a ton of emails from Wild Adventures and Silverclaw Associates. Or at least, I used to have them. But never any from Gideon himself. He had staff to take care of tasks like that.

Tegan,

You probably think this is some cute game. You got away from me once, and I don’t plan on letting it happen again. Show this to the beast who stole you from me. Let him know that I am coming for you.

Yours,

Gideon

P.S. This email will be removed from the server, just like all those others you had kept about our company. I will find you, and all will go according to plan.

Barrett put his hand on my shoulder, and electricity rocketed through my already shocked body.

“Are you okay?” His voice had a delicious rumble to it. It was something I never knew I craved. I wanted him to take me in his arms and tell me it would be okay. That this nightmare would end. But he couldn’t. Not yet.

I shook my head.

“I’m scared.” My voice was barely more than a whisper.

“As long as you’re with me, you’re safe.”

Bellamy grunted. “They’ve got top-notch security on the Moonlight Mates.” He shook his head, tapping the keys harder, like he would be able to convince the password to work by force. “They’re hiding something.”

“Larrie will only know what Gideon wants her to. He has her eating out of his hand. I’m not sure what their agreement was, but I’m familiar with how he operates. Don’t waste your time with the show. Go straight to Silverclaw Enterprises.” My heart was pounding. “I always hoped I was overreacting. That it couldn’t possibly be this bad, and maybe it really was a coincidence that Gideon showed up on Moonlight Mates and just happened to pick me. But it’s worse than I thought, and it’s freaking me out. I don’t know how to fix it.”

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