Page 52 of Isabelle’s Forbidden Love

Surprised, Cooper took his eyes off the road for a moment and stared at Samson. “What?”

Samson’s chest heaved as if the mere act of breathing was causing him pain. “He slaughtered his blood-bonded mate and her entire family in Montreal over forty years ago. Trust me when I tell you he did this.”

“Fuck!” Cooper cursed.

No wonder Samson was worried about his daughter, and acted irrationally. But did Orlando’s past automatically mean that he also killed Hong and Jessica? As much as Cooper wanted to reiterate his doubts, he didn’t dare to. Samson was liable to rip his head off.

“We’ll be there in a few minutes,” Cooper said instead and followed the directions the GPS was giving him.

A short while later, he stopped in front of a 1950s two-story house in a row of similar houses. The second SUV stopped on the opposite side of the street, and Benjamin, Amaury, and Haven were already exiting the car. Samson got out too, and Cooper turned off the engine, before following him.

There was still light in the house, despite the late hour. Like the trained team they were, Benjamin and Amaury went toward the back of the house, while Cooper picked the lock of the front door. Samson watched him. Haven stayed back near the garage to catch anybody who might slip past them.

When the lock was open, Cooper cast a look over his shoulder and nodded at Samson, indicating that he was ready. On Samson’s command, Cooper swung the door open, and they rushed inside. He could hear faint sounds from the back of the house, indicating that his colleagues had managed to open the door from the backyard into the house.

Cooper stalked upstairs, while Samson checked the first room on the left, and the others rushed in from the backyard. Cooper did a quick sweep of the upstairs rooms, three small bedrooms and a bathroom, all empty. A shriek came from downstairs, and Cooper hurried back down to where the commotion was happening.

When he entered the living room, he found all his colleagues assembled there, where a frightened woman in her late forties was huddled in a corner of the sofa.

Samson shot him a look, but didn’t have to say what he wanted to know.

“Nobody’s upstairs,” Cooper said quickly. He glanced at the others, but their facial expressions already gave him the answer. Neither Isabelle nor Orlando were there.

Samson made another step closer to the frightened resident. “Did she give you her cell phone so you could lead us in the wrong direction?”

“Cell phone?” the woman shrieked. “Please, I didn’t do anything. I have no money.”

“We don’t want your money,” Samson ground out.

“Samson,” Amaury said with a calm voice and put a hand on his friend’s forearm. “You’re frightening her.” He nodded at the woman. “I assure you, we’re only here because we’re looking for my friend’s daughter.”

“Search for her cell phone. It must be here,” Samson barked.

Cooper had a better idea, and pulled out his own cell phone. He tapped on Isabelle’s number. A moment later the phone rang. He followed the sound and walked into the hallway, where he opened a closet in which a row of jackets and coats hung. It took him only a few seconds to find Isabelle’s phone in one of the pockets of a coat.

He disconnected the call and walked back into the living room. He handed the phone to Samson. “She must have slipped it in this woman’s coat to lead us to the wrong neighborhood.”

“Damn it!” Samson cursed.

“We trained her too well,” Amaury said. Then he turned to his son Benjamin and lowered his voice. “Wipe her memory and meet us outside.”

He ushered Samson out, and Cooper followed them. Outside, they waited for Benjamin, when Samson’s phone chimed, and he picked it up.

“Thomas?”

Samson put the call on speaker phone.

“Isabelle just logged into our system. She’s using Damian’s networked computer.”

Benjamin joined them, and listened to the call like the rest of them.

“At his home?”

“Yes.”

“We’re on our way.” Samson disconnected the call and stared at Amaury. “Why the fuck would Damian let her do that without calling us?”

“He’s not,” Benjamin interrupted. “Damian isn’t at home. He and Naomi are at the Mezzanine for a pre-birthday party. I was gonna go there, but with all this going on…”