Page 141 of Daddies' Captive

That smile dropped. Although she didn’t keep the shocked look for long. Smart. She was intelligent. Even if she was a bitch.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t put any vodka in her drinks.”

“No?” Grady asked, leaning back in his chair. He didn’t have to look behind him to know that Steele was there.

Backing him up.

Always backing him up.

“No. And if that’s what she said then she’s a liar as well as a pill pusher.”

“What makes you think she’s a pill pusher?” Steele asked.

She turned her gaze to him, obviously liking his attention.

Okay, he was going to revise that thought about her being intelligent.

“When I got her handbag, a bottle of pills fell out. I picked them up. They looked like some strong painkillers.”

“They are,” Grady confirmed. “She has an old injury that she sometimes has to take painkillers for.”

“Well, maybe she got addicted to them. That happens.” She gave them a look of fake sympathy. “Poor Effie.”

“Effie isn’t addicted to her painkillers,” Grady told her. “And she knows better than to drink alcohol with them. Because it says on the bottle not to and Effie is a rule follower.” Mostly. “Actually, Effie doesn’t drink at all beyond some Baileys at Christmas.”

“If that’s what she told you—”

“She didn’t tell us jack shit, woman,” Steele snarled.

Okay, Steele was about to lose it.

“You set her up,” Grady accused her. “You saw those pills in her handbag, read the label. Then you saw her take them, and when she told you that she didn’t want any alcohol in her drinks, you put some in them anyway.”

“You have no proof of that.”

Now the bitch had smartened up. Her face was pale.

“Actually, we do. Got Nate, who witnessed Effie telling you no booze, and we have you on camera, putting fucking booze in her drinks!” Steele thundered.

She jumped with a squeal. Yeah, she’d never encountered Steele like this. Mostly because Steele had never had much to do with her.

How she ever thought she was going to catch Steele’s eye, Grady had no idea.

“But . . . how?”

“I had other cameras installed,” Grady told her. “I’m just not very trusting.”

“Thank fuck,” Steele said. “Now, go gather whatever shit you have here because you ain’t never coming back. Lex is gonna go with you to make sure you don’t grab anything you’re not supposed to. And to make sure you fucking leave. Don’t ever let me see you here again.”

That’s when a calculating look came over her face.

And the real Lucy appeared.

“Are you threatening me?” she asked. “Because that would be a very bad thing.”

Turning, he took in Steele’s smile. Which wasn’t a smile at all, but a promise. And if the stupid bitch didn’t realize that . . .

“Go. Now,” Grady snarled.

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