“Itfuckingis. If we don’t get Isobella back to the tenth century soon, we won’texist. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty attached to my life. Especially now I have Annabelle.”
Oui,he understood the urgency. It tugged at him, too. Isobella’s destiny was to be the mate of his tenth-century ancestors, Edmond and Aubert Montagne. She was their many times great grandmother. The consequences of hernotgoing, he couldn’t bear thinking about, but… “She’s our mate, Gabriel. Melinda is our mate.”
His phone went silent for a moment. “Merde.That changes things.”
“Oui.”
“D’accord.Keep me informed. Whatever you do, wherever you go, I want to know about it. And whatever you need, it’s yours. We’ll work this out.”
The tension eased from Pierre’s shoulders. “Merci,brother.”
He ended the call. One thing for certain, they couldn’t stay here. The Faucherians had plenty of soldiers. This one may have failed, but the next one they sent might not.
He itched to return to his mate, but there was something he needed to do first. In Melinda’s apartment, he snatched a tea towel from a hook in the kitchen, wrapped it around his hand and grabbed a knife. From beneath the sink, he took a bottle of cleaning fluid.
Blood was already congealing on the body as Pierre entered the second bedroom. As Louis had said, the tattoo on the dead man’s neck confirmed him as a Faucherian.Connards.But he didn’t have time to dwell on all the trouble they caused his kind.
Melinda’s screens lay on the floor, all of them dark and all smashed. The towers each had several bullet holes in them. Had Cordelia sent the Faucherians to destroy any evidence Melinda might have? Including Melinda herself? If so, what had prompted her to send them now?
His gums throbbed and his canines threatened to punch through, but he resisted the pull of his wolf. He must be certain the dead man had done the job. If someone discovered the body before Laurent could get here, it wouldn’t take long for the police to pull the footage from the security cameras which, along with Melinda’s computers, would be taken in as evidence.
The security logs in the building were easy enough to wipe, to hide their presence over the last few weeks. He’d have to get onto that soon, but there was still Melinda’s feed in her flat to contend with. There was no camera in this room, and no recording of Louis’ part shift when he killed the Faucherian—thank fuck—but there would be of them entering the apartment. Who knew what other incriminating information she might have on her hard drives? Things about her clients and what she did for a living that Melinda wouldn’t want discovered.
Using the tea towel to prevent leaving prints, he ripped off the casings of all four towers, located the hard drives in each of them and plunged the knife through them multiple times, just to be sure. Satisfied his destruction would render them in operable, he tucked her phone into his pocket and using the cleaning fluid, wiped down the alarm cover and battery, removing any print or DNA Louis might have left behind.
In her bedroom, still using the tea towel, he dug around in her closet for an overnight bag, and tossed a few clothes in it. She couldn’t stay here. Not anymore. From her dresser, he selected under garments—plain and utilitarian, except for a set of barely there red lace. He fingered the material, imagining her in nothing but these, then shoved them in the bag. With any luck, he might get to see them on her.
In her bedside drawer, her passport—in the name of Mei Lin Lee—and…Putain.He stared at the small, purple, egg-shaped vibrator with a curling tail and the matching remote. Before he could second guess his decision, he snatched up the vibrator andits remote and slipped them into the pocket of his sweats. Her passport went into the bag, as did her phone.
A noise from beneath the bed had him freezing. He sniffed the air. Feline. Melinda’s cat. From the hours of footage they’d watched of Melinda, she had an attachment to her furry companion.Merde.
He found two shopping bags under the sink and filled them with tins of cat food, cat bowls, a bag of cat litter and the litter tray from the bathroom after emptying it onto the floor. The ginger tabby put up a hell of a fight, yowling, scratching and biting as he grabbed it by the scruff, hauled it out from under Melinda’s bed and shoved it in the cat carrier he’d found on top of the water heater in the bathroom. The cat knew he was a predator, even if Melinda didn’t.
As an afterthought, he grabbed Melinda’s teapot, which he wrapped in a clean tea towel, and her tins of jasmine tea, and loaded them into the shopping bag with the cat supplies. After tonight, she was going to need her tea. He snatched her purse off the sofa and shoved the tea towel in the shopping bag. Pierre wasn’t taking the chance of leaving any trace behind. With one last check of Melinda’s apartment, he headed back to theirs.
Chapter Ten
Melinda glared at Louis through eyes puffy and red from crying as he blocked her from leaving. The sight of him, sleep tousled and naked from the waist up, a dark brush of hair trailing down washboard abs disappearing as a thin line beneath low slung gray sweats, almost derailed her line of thinking. He didn’t understand. She had to get back to her apartment. Make sure the bulletshaddestroyed her hard drives. And check on Manchu. Her poor baby was probably frightened out of his mind. Then… She blocked the image of the man on the floor, the blood, that threatened to overwhelm her. She didn’t know what she was going to do.
Louis shook his head at her, his easygoing smile gone, his lips pressed together in a determined line. “You can’t go back in there,mon amour.It’s not safe.”
“I have to go back in. I have to…”
Pierre entered the room, also naked from the waist up. Also wearing gray sweats that left little to the imagination. And she could imagine a lot. Especially knowing he was, without a doubt, going commando.
In one hand, he had two shopping bags and her backpack. In the other, her cat carrier, with a hissing and snarling Manchu inside.
Melinda dropped her laptop on the table and crouched in front of the cat carrier. “Manchu.”
Amber eyes fixed on her for a second, then he hissed and spun away.
“Melinda, I’ve made sure your hard drives aren’t salvageable.” Pierre turned to his twin. “I wiped down your prints, Louis, but we can’t stay here.” His dark gaze swung her way, no less resolute than Louis’. “And neither can you,mon amour.”
Pierre had checked on her hard drives? It confirmed what she already knew. There was only one reason someone would do that. Melinda rose from her knees, unwilling to be at a disadvantage. “You know I’m a hacker.”
Louis and Pierre shared a look, some sort of silent communication passing between them.
Pierre set the cat carrier and the bags down. “We like to know who we share a building with. People in our line of business always do. It’s a habit.”
