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I went from startled to elated so fast my heart lurched. “Loïc?”
“Don’t call our baby Loïc,” he said more clearly. “That guy’s a dick.”
Valor’s laugh was ragged, and he leaned down to kiss Loïc so fast that we bonked heads, since I was doing the same.
“Water?” Jack asked, holding out a travel mug we’d had waiting.
“Please.” He reached for the mug, but his hands shook so badly, I took the mug and helped him with it.
Loïc groaned. His eyes still weren’t open all the way. “Is this a hangover or am I sick?”
“Someone drugged you at the club,” Valor said gently.
“I was at Martine’s again, and this whole life was a dream. Then Jack dropped through the ceiling and rescued me.”
“You’ve had a rough day…day and a half,” Jack replied.
“Jack? What…why are you here?” Loïc tried to sit up, but then collapsed back onto his blanket. “Why do I smellstraw?”
“You insisted on coming down here,” Valor said. He slid an arm under Loïc’s shoulders and eased him into a sitting position.
“Oh, fuck. Surprise. There’s a secret wine cellar in the bedroom.” His voice rasped like he’d smoked a pack of cigarettes over the past hour.
“With a jail cell.”
“I swear I’m not a serial killer. The one murder was enough for me.” He closed his eyes like they pained him. “It’s like the dog kennels at Martine’s.”
“Why is it here?” Valor asked. “It must freak you out.”
“No. The kennel leaked, and it was cold, but it was also safe. Martine wouldn’t dirty her shoes in straw, and she would never send men to visit me somewhere so…uncouth.” He half-smiled, like it was a good memory. “How did we end up down here?”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Valor asked.
“The ultrasound.” He sat up straighter. “The ultrasound this morning.”
“That was a day and a half ago. Maybe two days by now.”
“I’ve been stuck with Martine that long?”
“It wasn’t all a flashback,” Jack said carefully. “You and Valor went out dancing because Tarryn was hanging out with your sister-in-law.”
“We went out dancing? Did you say I was drugged?”
“Maybe this is too soon,” I interrupted before anyone could say more.
“I love that you want to protect me,ma jolie, but I want to hear it now.” He took the mug from me and drank more water. His face was carefully neutral. “Did I black out? Did I hurt someone?”
“No, you didn’t hurt anyone,” Jack assured him.
“So, what’s everyone tiptoeing around about?”
“Some weird guys came in,” Valor said, as if he were remembering the scene like a movie playing frame by frame. “We noticed them right away because they didn’t fit in. There was a bachelorette party there, and we were keeping an eye out for them.”
“Dieu—your face! Was there a fight? Did I get knocked unconscious?”
“No.” The one word strangled off the next ones, and Valor struggled to compose himself. “They drugged you. They tried to take you.”
“Takeme?” Loïc asked, frowning.
