by J. C. Mells
Chapter 3
Catrionella Toussaint-Monsignac crossed the street and climbed into the older, slightly outdated, model Mercedes-Benz parked and waiting for her.
“What took you so long, Cat? Did he give you any trouble? I can take care of him, sis, if you need me to.”
“No, my darling,” Cat said, squeezing her brother’s arm gently as he started up the engine. “He was no trouble at all. I wasn’t able to upload the files though, unfortunately.”
“What? You said it would work. Why do you never listen to me? We should’ve just killed him.” Claude’s voice came out as a petulant whine. “What’s Uncle Henri going to say now? You should’ve let me take care of the human Retinue, Catty-cakes.”
Cat’s head snapped around to face her brother.
“You’re not to touch him, Claude. Do you hear me? This isn’t going to be another one of your… accidents… that will need to be cleaned up. There will be no chainsaw, no axe, no nail-gun – or any other power tool that I can’t think of at the moment. Do you understand, Claude?”
“You like him, don’t you?” Claude said in a low, menacing, voice. “This is going to be like Quentin all over again, isn’t it?”
“How many times did I tell you that I was not interested in your bodyguard, my love,” Cat said soothingly as she tenderly tucked a strand of white-blond hair behind his ear.
“I saw the way Quentin looked at you…”
“Yes, but I never looked at him the same way, did I?”
“Liar!” Claude screamed; spittle from his mouth hitting the windshield in front of him; his knuckles white against the steering wheel.
“Calm down, my darling,” Cat said in a mollifying tone. “You have nothing to worry about, my love. It’s you and me, just like it’s always been – like it always will be. Take a deep breath and focus on the road, okay?”
“You’ll never leave me, will you Cat?”
“No, never my love.”
Stroking the top of his thigh that was nearest to her, Cat began to relax her tensed body as soon as she saw her brother’s begin to do the same.
“How are we going to get the files, Catty-cakes?”
“Don’t you worry about that, my darling. I’ll think of something. I always do, don’t I?”
“Yeah, you do,” Claude said, his lips forming a smile for the first time since she entered the car.
As Claude negotiated the lighter traffic along the Westside Highway, Cat thought about Moused’s dinner invitation for tomorrow. It wouldn’t be easy getting away from Claude – not impossible though.
No matter what her Uncle said, a House that was rumored to be experimenting with such advanced neuromechanical technologies had to be able to develop something that could help Claude. Her uncle might be a strong disbeliever and her brother might not know exactly what files she was after – but Cat was a woman determined. Claude’s obsession with her, as well as his dismemberment fetish, had grown much, much worse over the last decade or so.
And it was all her fault.
If only she hadn’t asked for his help when she was married off to that disgusting old pervert a century ago. Albert Monsignac was Claude’s first kill – and he did it for her. She thought it his first and last. It wasn’t until they’d both been Turned by their Uncle in order to preserve the bloodline of the Family, that she found out Claude had developed urges he was unable to control. Her brother was a deranged killer and their uncle had given him immortality. It was all her fault.
Yes, the Segher technology was her absolute last hope to ‘fix’ her psychotic brother. No overly-smart, extremely astute, devilishly cute and completely adorable computer hacker was going to stand in her way. Not if she could help it.
“I need you to do something very important for me tomorrow, Claude. I need you to stay with Uncle Henri all day and keep a careful eye on him. Can you do that for me?”
“Why? Where are you going to be, Catty?”
“I have to go meet with some people about how I can get those files from the Seghers. I’ll be gone for most of the day and won’t be home until really late, okay?”
“Why can’t I come with you?”
“You know why, my love. You don’t do well in social settings and I really need to make sure I treat these people with kid gloves, understand? I also really need you to keep an eye on Uncle. You know how he gets around the holidays and I want to make sure he’s not alone.”
“Is he going with you?” Claude’s menacing tone had returned.
“Who, the Ret? No, no, take a deep breath. It’ll be boring and long and I’ll miss you every minute of the day, I promise.”
“If I find out you’re lying to me, Catty-cakes, I won’t just cut off his head, but I’ll take yours too. You know that, right?”
“I know that, brother dear. I know that very well.”
And a very Merry Christmas to me, Cat thought as the car finally pulled up outside the Toussaint Family’s brownstone.
THE END
Interested to know how it all started? Read PIERCED, Book 1 of the Pierced Series. Available from Amazon.com.