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“You’re protecting those bastards?”
I shrugged him off and stepped back, arms hugged around myself. The surge of adrenaline at seeing Brien had worn off. I was tired and hungry and just…done.
“I don’t know,” I said, hard-voiced.
His ice-green eyes narrowed. “You’re good.”
“What d’you mean?”
“I can sense your emotions, but they’re faint, like you have them behind a locked door. Still, I can tell you’re lying to me. What I don’t know is why.”
“Well, you’re wrong. I don’t know where I was.” That much was the truth. “When they brought me to their nest, I was blindfolded, and again when they took me to the Le Dahlia Noir. All I know is that I was somewhere in Quebec—the province, not the city. Maybe an hour from the club? When they let us outside, I saw vineyards.”
“When they let you outside?” The blue rimming his irises flared again.
I lifted a shoulder. “You know, for exercise.”
And sunshine. It had been the highlight of my day. The thing that had kept me going.
“Sweet Lilith.”
My stomach growled. I couldn’t have come up with a better distraction, because Brien scowled.
“You’re hungry. They didn’t feed you, either?”
I rubbed my palms up and down my bare arms. “I wasn’t hungry.”
Not after Madame Z had appeared around sunset to dress me. I’d known then that I’d be auctioned off that night. “In fact,” she’d informed me, “you’re the main attraction.”
“Sit.” Brien pointed at the couch. “I’ll order some food from the kitchen.”
My hackles raised. No one ordered me around. But I was exhausted, mentally and physically—that part was no act.
I sat.
4
BRIEN
Something was…off.
Now that the fury hazing my brain had cleared, I could tell that Twilight had lost weight since I’d last seen her. Too much weight.
Yeah, she’d been wiry, but not like this. In Montreal, she’d been high-energy, taut-bodied. Now she looked like a strong wind would level her.
What had they done to her?
Her stomach growled again.
Okay. This I could fix.
The chateau had come with a chef for the human and dhampir employees. I texted a soldier to have the chef put a tray together for her, then rounded the couch and crouched on my haunches in front of her.
“I ordered you some food—it should be here in a few minutes. Meanwhile, I’m going to take a shower.” I wrapped my fingers around her nape, caressing her jaw with my thumb. “Don’t try to run—you’ll just piss me off. There’s a guard in the hall and more outside.”
She sliced me anare-you-kidding?look through those tip-tilted feline eyes. “When I leave, it won’t be at night.”
Ah, that was my Lainey Q. I dropped a kiss on her insolent mouth and released her chin. “You won’t be leaving at all,Twilight.”
