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“I am the housekeeper here,” she informed me in English. “Do you have need of anything else?”
I shook my head. “No, thanks. This should be enough.”
She didn’t return my smile. “I’ll return when you have finished.”
Which meant they were observing me through a hidden camera. I cast an involuntary look around. Had they watched me change? Then I mentally shrugged. I didn’t mind being naked in front of other people, although I’d rather it be on my terms.
I folded my arms over my chest. “When I’m done eating, I want to go outside.”
The housekeeper inclined her head. “Of course.”
As soon as the door closed behind her, I fell on the food. When I’d eaten my fill, I brushed my teeth and laced on the Prada high-tops, then set a pink baseball cap on my head and went to the door, prepared to make a nuisance of myself until they let me out.
But as I reached the door, it opened, and I was greeted by a tall man in a royal blue Maritime Syndicate uniform with a silver shark embroidered on the lapel. “Good afternoon, miss. I’m here to take you outside.”
“Awesome.” I grinned up at him. “I’m ready.”
He, at least, returned my smile. Then his lips pressed into a thin line, like he’d been ordered not to engage with me.
He waved a hand for me to proceed him down the hall. “This way.”
6
BRIEN
“Régis asked about Jules,” I told Cain and Talon. “At the auction last night. He said he’s heard rumors that he’s not well.”
We’d gathered in my suite at the chateau after the final meeting with Régis. I hadn’t seen Twilight yet that night, but according to Avril, she’d eaten three substantial meals and spent most of the day outside, walking through the vineyards and swimming in the chateau pool.
“Fuck.” Cain’s lean, almost-pretty face darkened. He rose from a leather armchair to prowl restlessly around the parlor. “I thought we’d have more time.”
“I told him it wasn’t true, of course, but—” I sank into the armchair Cain had abandoned.
Talon was sprawled on the couch across from me, arms folded behind his head. He appeared relaxed, but I knew his analytical mind would be sifting through the implications.
“Someone in the syndicate must’ve leaked it,” said Cain. “There’s no other explanation.”
“Yeah.” My mouth tightened.
Jules had been going steadily downhill ever since my mother had been staked in the woods near the castle. No witnesses and no weapon left behind. Just a ruby bracelet, her gold mate-ceremony ring, and a pile of ashes.
My father was a vicious SOB, but my mother had been his other half. They’d ruled as a pair, unusual in the syndicate world, but they’d shared such a close bond it was as if they spoke with one mind.
He’d thrown everything he had into finding who had sent her to her final grave. People had been bribed. Tortured. Murdered.
But her slayer had never been identified.
Meanwhile, I’d taken over running the syndicate—temporarily, I’d believed.
However, something in my father had broken. All he thought about was avenging my mother’s death, and when he’d been unable to find her killer, his health had deteriorated.
Then, a few months ago he’d attacked Gwen. Cain and Talon had helped me spirit the body out of the castle and bury it deep in the forest. The official story was that she’d slipped off a cliff, hit her head and drowned. My father’s lieutenant, Prosper, had paid a visit to Gwen’s parents to keep them from asking questions, and I’d followed up with a large cash “gift.”
One death, we could cover up, but not two. I had to do something about my father, and soon. But it was tricky.
Jules was my sire. Stake him, and the hierarchy might turn on me. To a vampire, staking your own sire is a taboo you didn’t break.
I hadn’t even wanted to come on this fucking trip but Prosper had said I couldn’t insult Régis by cancelling at the last minute. He’d keep an eye on things, he told me. So I’d gone, even though I wasn’t sure whose side Prosper was on these days.
