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“It was probably just one of the cats knocking something over, but I want to check in with West,” I told her, scrolling to his number.
She nodded. “I’m going to grab a jumper,” she said, gesturing towards her bedroom door. I nodded, and she headed down the hallway.
“West.”
“It’s Davenport. Everything okay with you guys?”
“Everything’s fine out here. I’m just checking on the door guards. Why?”
“We heard a noise upstairs. I’ve checked all the rooms, but there’s no sign of any—” I broke off as Tory screamed, my heart leaping into my chest.
“Davenport? Jack, what the fuck?” West’s voice was panicked, but I ignored him and raced down the hallway with Wesley at my heels. I reached the door and threw it open, bursting in with my pistol ready. Tory had turned the light on and stood in the middle of the bedroom. As we came in, she whirled around and threw herself into my arms, tears streaming down her face.
“Jack, I can’t...”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, wrapping my free arm around her, the other hand still holding my pistol as I swung around the room looking for what had scared her. It took a moment, but then I saw it.
There, in the middle of her bed, lay a ginger cat, its fur bright against the dark grey of her sheets. Its face was twisted in a strange expression, and its eyes were staring blindly up at the ceiling. Next to it lay a piece of paper, the words formed with newspaper cut outs.
THE HOLY FIRE WILL BURN YOU FROM THE INSIDE.
I lowered the gun and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her out into the hallway, nearly colliding with West as he came barrelling down the corridor.
“What happened?” he demanded, pulling up short. Tory didn’t move, just sobbed into my shoulder. I gestured towards the bedroom and West stalked inside. When he came back out, his face was pale.
“There’s more,” he said quietly.
Tory pulled her face away and looked up at him. “More?” she asked, her voice wavering.
He nodded. “I’m so sorry, my lady. We just found another two outside. It looks as though they were poisoned.”
“No...”
My heart broke at the pain in her voice, and I pulled her close, looking at West. “He was here. He was in the house.”
West nodded. His face was like thunder, but his voice was controlled as he ordered, “Get her and Wesley in the safe room now. We’re going out to hunt.”
Six
WEST
Anintruderinthehouse. How the fuck had they got past us? We had this damn place locked down tight. My mind buzzed as I ran through all the protocols we had in place, searching for a flaw, a weakness, but I couldn’t find one. I barked orders at Davenport as I headed down the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. I was absolutely livid, mainly at myself. How the hell had this bastard got past us? What had I missed? As we crashed into the hallway, Zayn met us at the door with the rest of the patrol. They were top quality security agents, but for this hunt, I needed them out of the way.
“Hawkes, Butler, you take downstairs. Fraser and Calder, you’re upstairs. Lady has gone to the safe room with Price. I want this place swept clean, do you get me?”
“Sir.”
“And on no account are you to allow Lady Victoria to leave the safe room until I return. No matter what.”
They dispersed instantly, and for a moment I felt gratitude that I had men under my command who followed orders without complaint or argument—unlike my priests who seemed determined to let their hearts and cocks get in the way of their jobs. I stifled my rising anger at Davenport and turned to Zayn.
“Have you found any food about the place?”
“Nothing. The intruder might have just left the poisoned food outside, and the cat in Tory’s bedroom just wandered in and collapsed when it got up there, but I’m not convinced.”
“Why not?” Davenport queried.
“If they’d just left small piles of food about the place for the cats to find, I would have expected to find other creatures, like hedgehogs, rats, or even a badger or fox, but there’s nothing. That points to the intruder feeding the poison directly to the cats. They must have come into the house.”
