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I scowled. The woman had me twisting on her strings like a demented marionette when I should be focused on my father and consolidating my power in the syndicate.
Cain’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. “Jasper says Twilight is at the Bite Club with a few of the other ladies. You want me to tell him to confine her to her suite?”
“No. Let her stay.” What was the point in keeping her locked up? She’d be safe enough with the other thralls. “But make sure she doesn’t go anywhere else.”
Cain nodded and sent a text, then pocketed the phone. “So about Jules…” He glanced at Talon, who took over.
“He’s worse, Brien. In just a week—” He shook his head.
“I know,” I said. “He forgot that he agreed to the trip to Quebec City—and then he went for me. I would’ve staked him if Prosper hadn’t stopped me.”
“Sweet Lilith,” muttered Talon. “That would’ve blown everything sky-high.”
“Yeah,” I said grimly.
“Or maybe it would’ve been a good thing,” said Cain. “We’ve been covering for Jules for too long.”
“Because he’s Brien’s sire,” Talon reminded him.
Cain heaved a breath. “Then let’s contact SI, let them handle it. Much as I hate to bring them into our private business—”
Talon shook his head. “Jules hasn’t been off-island for months. We’d have to give a slayer free run of the castle. They’d use the opportunity to get all the intel they can on us.”
“Forget it,” I said. “I’ll be damned if I’ll let one of those bastards on my island.”
Cain opened his mouth, then closed it again.
“What?” I asked.
“Twilight’s a slayer,” he said. “Maybe we should use her.”
“No. She’s not a part of this, understand?”
“But—”
I gave him a hard stare and he shrugged and subsided.
“Unless they sent her,” Talon said. “I know she says they kicked her out, but that’s what she would say, isn’t it? Tattoo or no tattoo.”
I shook my head. Yeah, I thought Twilight was hiding something, but... “How would she have known I’d be at the auction? Régis didn’t invite me until that night. And other than you guys, no one but Jules and Prosper even knew I was going to be in Quebec City.”
“Avril knew,” Talon said. “And the three thralls we took with us.”
“Not until the night before we left,” I returned.
Talon moved a big shoulder. “Prosper could’ve told someone. Or Jules, for that matter.”
“Still,” said Cain, “Brien has a point. Even if SI somehow found out he was planning to go to Quebec, how in Hades could they have predicted he’d be at that auction? No, if Twilight is still a slayer, her target was probably someone in the Quebec City Syndicate—like Nazaire. If anyone needs snuffed, it’s him.”
Talon lifted his brows. “If that’s true, you threw a wrench into the works by buying the woman.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “She could still be a member of SI—I’ll give you that much. But the rest doesn’t add up. If Nazaire had bought her, she’d have been fucked. She had no weapons and no way to contact anyone. A blood slave has no rights, no protection. He could’ve turned her into a fucking blood addict and no one would’ve stepped in to save her. I know SI expects their operatives to work independently, but if she was there to slay someone, she would’ve had to be a cross between Houdini and a ninja.”
“Why don’t we offer her a deal?” Cain asked. “One last job—her freedom in return for staking Jules. If she’s here to slay him anyway, even better—all we have to do is allow her access to Jules. Best-case scenario, she succeeds, and you become primus. And if something goes wrong, she takes the fall, not you.”
My hands were around his throat before I’d realized I’d moved. “I said, ‘She’s. Not. A. Part. Of. This.’”
Cain’s pale eyes widened. He dropped his gaze and raised his hands in surrender. “Got it. Sure.”
