Page 62 of Isabelle’s Forbidden Love

“He came back, didn’t he?” he asked.

“Yes. But he was different.”

“Different how?”

“He came back as a vampire. But now you and Margarite were married, blood-bonded, and—”

“Do you know where he went after Margarite’s death?” he interrupted, because he didn’t want Ines to get into more details about Margarite in front of Isabelle. It was something she had to hear out of his own mouth, not that of a stranger.

“No. He just disappeared.”

“You’ve met LaRuson face-to-face?” Orlando asked.

“Oh, yes.”

He pushed back his pain and got to the reason why he’d come to speak to Ines. “Do you have any photos of him, maybe a photo Margarite kept of him?”

Ines sighed. “I packed everything from that time away. There are boxes and boxes of things, mementos, photos. I haven’t looked at them in decades, but I couldn’t bring myself to destroy them. I don’t know if there are any photos of LaRuson, but there may well be.”

“You have those boxes here?” Orlando asked, finally seeing a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

“I keep everything in a storage unit.”

“Where?”

“In Alameda.”

Orlando exchanged a look with Isabelle.

“We could bring them here for Ines to look through,” Isabelle suggested.

“Would that be okay?” Orlando asked.

“Of course. Let me get the address for you.” She rose and rummaged through a drawer, then came back and handed him a bill from a storage facility as well as a key. “But you can’t go there yourself. You need to send your friend.”

“Why?”

“There’s no area where you can take cover. It’s an outside storage unit. You’ll be exposed to the sun.”

“I can just—”

“No,” Isabelle interrupted and put a hand on his arm. “Ines is right. I’ll go. And you’ll stay here with Ines while I get the boxes. Can you tell me how to identify what I should bring?”

“All boxes say Montreal on them. Bring them back. But it’ll take me a few hours to go through them. There’s no need for you both to stay here once I have the boxes. I have a cell phone. I can send you the photo in a text message—if there even is a photo.”

“All right,” Isabelle said and rose.

“Be careful,” Orlando urged her as she walked toward the foyer.

“I should be back in about an hour and a half, maybe two, depending on traffic.”

“All right.” He kissed her, before she went into the garage to get back in the car.

Orlando turned back and noticed Ines watching him.

“You’re in love with her,” she stated.

“Yes.” He walked back toward the living room.