AwayFromtheSun by Austina Love Page A

crazy. Did you use your special powers to seduce Gage and Trip? Is that what you were trying to do here with my sister’s man?”
    Shye scowled. “Your sister’s man?”
    “ Phft ! Like you didn’t know.”
    “I didn’t…until now.”
    “Well imagine that,” La said with a haughty laugh. “Shye Halayi not knowing something. And here I thought you had it all figured out. Me and Gage…Nata and Pike. You’ve surprised me, Shye. I had you pegged as a cunning vixen when all along you were nothing but a simple little Indian girl using your magic spells on the town.”
    “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Shye snarled, enraged over her insults. The urge to attack engulfed her. Every nerve in her body sparked to life and the adrenaline spiked, making her tremble inside.
    La stepped forward and brought her hand down on Shye’s face with unexpected force. “You think you can just run around taking all the men, don’t you? Are they all drawn to your mysterious Indian allure or do you have to cast a love potion on them by using some old stick? Honestly, I don’t know what Gage ever saw in you.”
    “More than he ever saw in you.” Shye licked the blood from her broken lip.
    “I’ve waited a long time to see you on your knees.” La’s eyes shone with malevolence. “Twenty years I watched the man I loved wait for you. Then when you finally breezed back into town, you rejected him. Did you think you could do better? Do you think that lowlife rebel is a better man? He’s nothing but the brother of a pathetic cop.”
    “You don’t know the meaning of love,” Shye spat.
    Her remark drew another belt on the face from La. “You’d be amazed at what I know. We did your boyfriend a favor by planning Ty’s death…spared him the disgrace of an incompetent brother.”
    “You?” She felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her.
    “La! Shut the hell up!” Pike bellowed.
    “No! We have her now and I am sick of looking like the dumb blonde! I played that role long enough.”
    Shye’s mind began to blur. What is actually going down here? She shook her head to clear her thoughts.
    “You think all those stupid men had enough brains to plan this out?” La let out a short, cynical laugh. “They don’t have enough combined intelligence to screw in a light bulb. I am the one who planned Ty’s death. No man dumps me and gets away with it. But I knew it would take a little help to keep everyone’s eyes off me.” She knelt down in front of Shye and got in her face. “Everyone wants something…and I found the perfect scapegoats to carry out my plan. Carter wanted power…he thought he’d be mayor one day.” She laughed again and evil lurked in her voice. “Pike wanted money and my sister. Pike was an easy mark…he hated the Viper brothers and couldn’t wait to steal Natayla away from Trip. Gage had been more of a challenge because he was in love with you. But once the others were on board, he joined us, too. He just couldn’t resist the almighty dollar.”
    Shye slunk back on her haunches—utterly stunned by this cold, hard disclosure. The targets had shifted so many times in this scheme that it was mindboggling.
    Still, she wasn’t going down without a fight. It was time to shift the focus once more. “Looks like your sister still has a hot spot for my man…maybe she’s using her bag of tricks just to get a story. I doubt that either of you are capable of loving one man. After all, she seemed quite excited about taking a ride on Trip’s bike.”
    Pike shot Natayla a heated glare. “What’s she talking about?”
    Natayla shook her head and let out a contemptuous laugh. “Oh nothing, I was trying to work Viper over to see if he’d slip up. Two witnesses are better than one when presenting a story of this magnitude.” She placed a hand on Pike’s face. “You know that I am terrified of riding motorcycles and would never get on one. And you should know by now that I am long over Trip