by Zoey Marcel
“Thanks. You, too.” Chanel hung up and let the floodgates open as she flung herself onto her pillow and cried. She heard footsteps coming from down the hall and recognized them as Cory’s.
“Hey, cookie cutter. How was your girl time with Claire? Oh no, you’re crying. Baby, what’s wrong?”
“I’m a horrible person!” she wailed into the covers.
“Ah, come on now. You ain’t that bad. Your good looks make up for it,” he teased, climbing onto the bed with her and rubbing her trembling shoulders. “What’s bothering you?”
“Jill slept with her fiancé because I kept pushing her to so Ben would give her a divorce when he found out about it.” She waited for Cory’s judgment. He would pummel her fanny and then cuss her out of the house for being the queen of bitches.
“That was wrong of you, Chanel, but I don’t see how you’re to blame for a choice she made.”
“She’s devastated over what she did.”
“Well, good. Serves her right. Ben’s gonna be crushed when he finds out.”
Chanel bawled onto the comforter and pounded her fist against the mattress. “It’s not her fault, damn it. She’s heartbroken because I stuck my nose where it didn’t belong. I already hurt Ben at Sally’s Christmas party when I made up all that crap about Jill and her fiancé.”
“Come again?” Cory lay down next to her with his chin resting on the tops of his folded hands. “You lied to Ben about Jill cheating on him?”
Chanel whimpered her misery onto the blanket beneath her. “Yes. And now she has and she feels terrible. I have to apologize to him for lying to him and then he’s going to find out from Jill that she did cheat on him.”
“Yeah, that’s rough. Wow. You and your sister sure are pieces of work. Good thing you have strong men who know how to handle you.”
She raised her head slightly when a sudden epiphany hit her. “Unless I don’t even bother telling him about my lie, since doing so would be pointless when Jill’s just going to confess her sins to him.”
Cory gave her a reproving look. “Chanel.”
“I know.” Her eyes squeezed shut. “I’m going to tell him. Just please don’t tell Dawson about this. He still thinks I’m that same sweet girl from back when we were in high school.”
“I know what you are, honey.”
She gasped, shooting a startled glance over her shoulder when she saw Dawson walk in.
“You have your selfish tendencies. We all do, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re still that same sweet girl I fell in love with back in high school.”
Her heart warmed at his affectionate words, though she hardly felt she deserved them. “Thank you. I have to go and apologize to Ben right away. I’ll make dinner when I get back.”
“We’ll order takeout tonight,” Dawson offered.
Cory hopped up with her. “I’ll drive you. Brad doesn’t want us leaving you alone and I don’t blame him.”
“I’ll come, too,” said Dawson.
Chanel’s determination was high, but her feet felt like lead on the way to the truck. With the exceptions of her parents making her apologize to her sister after they squabbled when they were kids and the times Lucius demanded her remorse, she’d never really apologized to anyone else in her life. After the way she’d treated Ben all these years, having to admit she lied to him and humble herself enough to admit she was in the wrong would be hard—very hard.
Chapter Eighteen:
Amends
Ben Easton was in his office eating dinner when she arrived. He sat behind his desk and his best friend, Neil Banks, had a chair pulled up to the side of his desk as they conversed and ate their sandwiches.
Chanel took a deep breath, finding courage somehow absent in the extra oxygen she took in. Should she say hi or get straight to the point? Perhaps a friendlier greeting. “What’s up, bro?” No, that more closely resembled a line Neil would use and it would sound ridiculous coming from her.
Fortunately, the sheriff noticed her standing in the doorway and ended her internal dilemma. “Chanel, come in. What brings you here?”
“Was it my awesome face?” Neil joked.
At least she thought he was kidding. The man was pretty fond of himself, so one could never be too sure.
“I don’t remember whether or not I thanked you for giving me a ride home from the Taylors’ back in January,” she said.
Ben smiled. “You did. You kind of mumbled it as you were getting out of the truck, but I heard you.”
“Be no longer haunted by your nonexistent negligence,” Neil teased, pulling a silver flask from the pocket in the jacket of his suit.
Ben tapped his fingernails against the top of his desk as he eyed Neil with suspicion. “Neil, I sincerely hope you’re not drinking alcohol in a police station.”
Neil paused before a perverted little grin played upon his face as his lips moved back to the rim. “Why don’t you test my breath later and see.”
Ben rolled his eyes and let his focus return to Chanel. “Was that all you wanted?”
“No. I wanted to...” Crap, the words wouldn’t come. He looked like he was having a good time with Neil. Ben was actually smiling. Something she hadn’t seen since before Jill left him. Happiness looked good on him. How could she dash that to hell with her bad news?
Ben stared at her, waiting patiently for her to speak.
“How is your sandwich?” Well, this was going smoothly.
His lips twitched with mild amusement. “It’s good. Thanks.”
“So you’re working tonight?” Good lord, where had she suddenly picked up Cory’s eloquence? Just because she was nervous—
“Well, if I’m not then I must be an idiot for putting on my uniform and coming down here just to eat my dinner,” Ben quipped with a grin.
Neil laughed. “That’s some serious dedication there, bro.”
Chanel forced a smile before becoming serious again. “Neil, would you give us a minute?”
“Sure.” He wiped his mouth on his napkin and left the room.
Ben’s eyes followed him out before returning to her face. He folded his arms. “I take it you didn’t come down here just to see if I was working and ask about my sandwich.”
She shook her head, suddenly wishing the quality of his sandwich was really her most pressing concern at the moment. “Do you remember back in December at Sally’s Christmas party when I...harassed you?”
He stiffened, eyes remaining glued to her face. “Vaguely.”
“Well, I may have exaggerated when...”
Brad’s stern voice floated to the forefront of her memory followed by the promise of her own. “No more lies, Chanel.”
“No more lies.”
“I said some things that weren’t true. Jill never said any of those things about you. She never said she loved Joe more or that he was better in bed.”
Ben’s face softened for a minute before becoming like stone. “Why did you tell me she had?”
“I was trying to help her get the divorce she wanted from you. That wasn’t the only lie I told you that night. Jill didn’t...I lied when I said that she cheated on you back then. She was faithful to you.”
His head didn’t move, but his eyes flew upward, almost in alarm. “What?”
Neil burst into the office again. “Oh my god!”
Ben didn’t scold him, which was a bit of a surprise.
Chanel shook her head, eyes darting away from her brother-in-law. “I’m so sorry. I never should’ve said that. I was just trying to stand up for my sister’s right to her freedom. I know what it’s like to feel trapped and controlled and I didn’t want that for her. My intentions were good, but I messed everything up and I’m so sorry.”
Ben dragged his fingers down his face, looking as though he’d suddenly been given a test he hadn’t studied for.
“She’s coming here in a few weeks if you want to talk with her.”
He shot a look of astonishment at her and she saw his eyes
briefly flicker to Neil, who stood behind her. Ben covered his forehead and eyes with an open hand.
“Jill’s coming?” Neil breathed her name like it was sacred in his mouth.
Chanel glanced back at him and nodded. “I’m not sure which date yet. She’s just waiting until the snow is completely melted.”
His eyes were hopeful and awestruck before they became lit with concern when they darted back to Ben. “What does this mean for—”
“Nothing,” Ben snapped, face reappearing from behind his hand, though he wouldn’t look at his best friend. “Get out.”
“Ben.” The sheriff’s name was uttered with the same reverence Neil had spoken Jill’s name with.
“I said get out.” Ben raised his voice, only looking at him long enough to glower at him before his eyes retreated.
The pain that passed through Neil’s eyes as he quietly left the sheriff’s office reflected the same devastation Chanel had experienced in the shower back in January when her cowboys discovered the bite mark Lucius had left on her and sent her away. Seeing the same desolation in Neil’s eyes just now made her realize that he was in love with Ben, whether the sheriff realized it or not.
With the joyful way he’d responded when he learned Jill would be coming to town in a few short weeks, Chanel realized that Neil loved her sister, too. Perhaps she’d been correct when she suspected that he’d followed Ben and Jill to Temptation after they got married and moved there simply to be near them.
Ben heaved a heavy sigh, looking angry, stressed, and miserable—the last reactions she expected from him upon hearing the woman she suspected he still loved was coming to see him.
“Shit. It’s been three months. Why the hell didn’t you say something sooner?”
“I’m very sorry.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re sorry,” he bit out, “because the night you said that was the worst night of my life. I’ve spent every day and night since then thinking that Jill betrayed me.”
Judging by the hurt and anger written on his face, Chanel guessed her sister would probably get her divorce once she told Ben what she did. “I’m so sorry.”
She turned to leave, not knowing what else to do, but Ben’s voice stopped her. “Wait. You said ‘back then.’”
Chanel stiffened, heart going erratic. She hadn’t meant to rat Jill out. It wasn’t her place to inform Ben of what had happened. She reluctantly turned to face him again. “Back then what?”
“You said Jill hadn’t cheated on me back then.”
Son of a bitch, where was her poker face?
“Has she since then?”
She looked up at the ceiling and exhaled deeply. “She was going to tell you herself.”
Ben seemed to be looking off into another realm as he rested his loose fist against his chin.
“But it’s not like she’s ever done that before. It was a one-time thing and she feels horrible for it. She was crying her eyes out when I talked to her on the phone earlier.”
Ben didn’t say anything.
Chanel’s eyes burned as she headed toward the door. “I’m so sorry about all this.”
“Chanel.” His eyes lifted to look at her when she turned back to face him. “Did she really cry?”
She nodded, watching his eyes soften and possibly moisten, though no tears fell. “Jill’s not the ice queen you always thought she was. She talked about you while I was visiting her back in December, too.”
“What did she say?” He didn’t look at her this time.
“She said you were her favorite mistake.”
Ben’s face warmed, likely with memories, and his lips pulled back into the smallest of smiles, but the fondness was never heard more clearly.
Chanel turned to leave, this time unhindered. Her heart still felt heavy, but now it beat with the faintest of hope that somehow everything would be all right eventually. It would just take time.
* * * *
Brad gave Chanel another night to make her choice. Cory had told him earlier about her troubling conversation on the phone with her sister and how she’d apologized on her own to Ben. Brad was proud of her for humbling herself and making amends, but aside from thanking him for allowing her to wait until tomorrow night to reach a decision, she seemed depressed and unwilling to talk, so he let her be.
She was on his mind all night while he was at work. He’d never argued with anyone in the past when he heard them refer to her as the town bitch, but the more Brad got to know her, the more he knew he’d have to knock anyone flat on their asses if they ever dared to call her that again. She was a good person. A little messed up perhaps, but beneath that bitchy exterior, Chanel had a good heart.
Brad found his boss, Joaquin, standing out on the balcony in the dark after the club had closed. Brad joined him and rested his forearms on the railing.
“The answer is still no,” Joaquin said without looking at him.
Brad sighed. “I never said anything.”
“You were planning to. Didn’t you come out here to ask the same question you’ve been harassing me about these past few days?”
“Tell me how to kill Lucius.”
“My answer is still no.”
Brad glanced down into the courtyard below, fingers curling up and tightening against his palm. “I understand you have a sense of loyalty to your kind, but he’s only part vampire and Chanel’s in danger.”
“And if for some reason you fail to succeed in your assassination attempt and he discovers where you learned the secret to his demise, who do you think he will come after? I would tell you if I knew I would be the target of his retaliation, but he wouldn’t come after me. He would go after Claire.”
Brad raised his head, staring past the black sky overhead with a frustrated sigh. “Damn it, Joaquin. I gave Chanel my word I wouldn’t claim her without her permission. The only other way is to kill Lucius. He’s not going to find out that you’re the one who told me. He’ll be dead.”
Joaquin finally looked at him, eyes like knives as his voice rushed out cold like a northern river in early spring. “You fool, do you suppose killing a vampire is the end of his existence? The corpse may turn to dust, but the blood demon that possessed it lives on in hell. You said he claimed Chanel. The union is eternal. Death won’t be the end of it. He’ll keep coming for her no matter what.”
“We won’t let that happen. With him dead, she’ll agree to let me bite her.”
The vampire’s head turned and the courtyard beyond became his focal point again. “Even if she does, if you’re wrong about you and your brothers being her soul mates, the connection Lucius has with her will still stand. He’ll read her mind and learn that you asked me for help. I’m not putting Claire at risk.”
“Not even to save the woman of a friend?”
Joaquin shot him a warning. “Don’t play the friendship card. My mates come first. You know that.”
Brad knew it was pointless to persist, but it irked him that his friend withheld valuable information from him. “When we brought Chanel in here to you half dead and you heard that it was Lucius who’d done it, for a split second there was a look in your eyes like you knew him.”
Joaquin stiffened, eyelids lowering slightly over his eyes as his attention remained steadfast in front of him. “Whether or not I know Lucius doesn’t concern you. Let’s just say that he was banished from Temptation back in the nineteenth century.”
This surprised Brad. “I didn’t realize you lived here back then.”
“I did for a while.”
“And nobody ever questioned the fact that you’re still alive and look like you’re in your thirties?”
“I moved away for well over a century. By the time I returned, the original human residents of the town had long since died off and the majority of immortals had moved away and others moved in. Most people don’t remember a face they saw over a hundred years ago unless you give them a reason to.”
“You remembered Lucius.”
Joaquin’s s
omber tone was shrouded in hostility. “He’s not someone you forget.”
“Why was he banished from Temptation?”
“Because he’s corrupt.”
“I thought this town was started by outlaws.”
Joaquin’s voice became thick with darkness. “Trust me, there’s a big difference between a human outlaw and a half demon, half wolf who enjoys inflicting anguish.”
“I thought that was a popular demonic trait.”
“It is, but different individuals have different reasons for behaving the way they do. I know of a dire wolf who preyed on fear and a were tiger who craved the sense of power being a hunter gave him. But Lucius is driven by chaos. He has no twisted laws he follows or dark religion he adheres to. The only law he knows is destruction. He will kill simply for the sake of creating turmoil. He’s made women and children weep simply to witness their suffering. There are chaos demons who feed off negative emotions, but Lucius isn’t a chaotic empathic vampire. He’s part sanguinary vampire. Blood should be his primary drive, but it’s only secondary. He lives to cause strife and inflict torment simply because he can. The only type of human I can compare him to to give you a watered-down idea of what he is would be to compare him to a human serial killer.”
Brad listened in silence. “Is he the reason vampires and demons are no longer allowed here in Temptation?”
“No.”
“Who is, then?”
Joaquin paused for a moment, the recollection vivid in his gray eyes as he stared straight ahead. “Nicolai.” He turned to leave. “Bite Chanel at your own risk. You know how to kill vampires and werewolves. Don’t ask for my help again. I won’t put Claire’s life on the line for anyone.”
Brad watched him leave, wondering if Joaquin had dropped some sort of hint when he mentioned the part about vampires and werewolves. He lingered outdoors in the chilly night air and finally reached into his jacket pocket for the slave collar he’d held onto for Chanel. She’d look utterly stunning in it. The jewels shimmered like brilliant stones of fire in the moonlight.
“Where did you get that collar?”
Brad turned to see Dakarai approaching. “It belonged to one of my ancestors. According to my family, three men fell for a woman and made her theirs. They gave her this collar and it’s been handed down through the family ever since.”