by Nancy Gideon
* * * * *
After what could have been minutes or hours, debilitating fear warping her judgment, the sound of the door lock brought Amber to combative alertness on the couch. Her hand curled about the shard in readiness. But instead of Brady, a youthful face peered in.
“Ms. James?” He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “Do you remember me?”
She didn’t remember the dark hair, but the intense readiness was all Terriot. “You’re Rico’s younger brother.” Her relief gusted audibly.
“Yes, ma’am. The baby of the family. Unless you’re settled in real comfortable here, come with me, quick and quiet.”
Amber leapt up to join him at the door. “How did you get in?” she whispered as he checked the hall.
“I’ve been in for some time. Shhh. Stay close and hurry before Rico comes charging in and ruins everything.”
Rico’s alive! He’s here!
Anticipation lighting up every nerve ending, Amber trotted in the lanky prince’s shadow, sticking tight, her fingers gripping the back of his shirt as her lifeline.
The feel of muggy night air on her face was as much a surprise as another tall figure looming up in the darkness just outside the side door. Her savior made quick introductions.
“Our brother, Turow. He’ll take you the rest of the way.”
Amber hugged her young rescuer, tight. “Thank you. Be careful. You don’t know what he is.”
“Yes, I do,” he vowed as he slipped back inside and shut the door.
“Ma’am,” Turow Terriot murmured with a calm efficiency, “not a sound.”
When she nodded, he gripped her elbow, leading her at a fast jog through the gloom. Heart pounding, breath chugging, she barely felt the graze of bamboo shoots against her cheek, her focus on the high fence ahead, nearly hidden in the shadow of an ancient oak. Finger to his lips, Turow stepped away from her and with a seemingly effortless jump, balanced between the spearlike fleur de lis.
As she reached for his hand, another gripped her arm from behind, jerking her around to face two of Brady’s black-garbed guards. One raised his weapon to take aim at the crouching Terriot prince while the other began dragging her, struggling in desperate silence, back toward her prison.
A sudden groan pulled her attention back to the armed man, now lying sprawled and motionless in the grass. Before her captor could react, a large hand reached from the darkness behind him, gripping his face to halt any outcry as a brutal twist broke his neck. Released, Amber stumbled back as the dead man fell, revealing Rico Terriot behind him.
“Go!”
His fierce whisper set her in motion, jogging the last few steps to the fence where Turow caught her upstretched hands to hoist her up and over, leaping down lightly beside her onto the age-buckled sidewalk. Rico landed soundless beside them, lagging slightly behind to watch for possible pursuit as Turow rushed her across the wide avenue, staying out of the pools of light, racing toward the low silhouette of a vehicle a block away. The passenger door opened. A familiar figure pushed the front seat forward so she could scramble into the back. There was no time for exchange of words or touch as she settled into the darkness while the two brothers embraced and bumped brows.
“Just couldn’t wait here, could you?” Turow chastised quietly.
“Not my style.” A flash of Rico’s smile then his soft vow. “I owe you.”
“No problem.”
“Keep the little guy safe,” Colin whispered to Turow with a wave as Rico climbed in front and quietly shut the door. Turow faded back into the shadows to silently disappear.
Coming apart at the jagged seams, Amber choked out, “Evie?”
“We’re taking you to her.” That promise from Oscar’s father who shared the backseat and, unbeknownst to him, a child with her.
“Auguste?”
Rico’s quiet answer from the front. He didn’t turn around. “He didn’t make it.”
Both relieved and devastated, Amber James let go and sobbed.
Chapter 25
Detective Alain Babineau and his family were tucked away in an exclusive gated neighborhood funded by Terriot money. Their king wanted to insure his half-sister and nephew’s safety, and Babineau couldn’t in good conscience argue. They’d gone from an affordable little home with a carport and microscopic yard across from Oscar’s school, to a privacy-fenced two-story on a double lot. A basketball hoop completed the smooth-surfaced double drive leading to a triple bay garage. The perfect place to hide in plain sight. The middle garage door rose and quickly concealed car and occupants.
Drained and weak from the awful events of the day, Amber needed the assist from the backseat. Rico’s firm hand on her arm lifted her out onto wobbly legs and remained while she found her balance. Hard to do when he held himself purposefully away. She didn’t understand his distance. And she didn’t understand why he showed no outward signs of the terrible injuries he’d endured. Why wouldn’t he talk to her? Or even look at her?
“Rico,” she began in soft entreaty.
The door to the house opened.
“Mama!”
A blonde missile streaked down off the step and collided with a flailing of arms and legs, nearly bowling her over. Amber buried her face in the freshly washed hair and just breathed her in with a wild relief as Mia walked into Colin’s embrace on the other side of the car.
“Evie, baby, are you okay?”
“They killed Uncle Augie.”
“I know, baby.”
“And Rico almost died.”
Amber glanced up at his expressionless front, asking silently for an explanation. Almost died.
“She saved my life,” he stated solemnly.
“Me and Colin and Detective Babineau and . . . all of us.” Evie’s voice trailed off to nothing.
“Mostly you,” Rico corrected. “And I kept my promise.”
Bright blue eyes overflowed happily. “Yes, you did.”
“We gotta go.”
His terse announcement confused Amber. “Go?” She didn’t ask where, willing to follow him anywhere at this point.
“You’re not safe here. Mia’s going with you.”
Mia pulled out of Colin’s arms to regard them both suspiciously. “What do you mean?” Colin tried to soothe her with the stroke of his hand, but she pushed it away. “Colin?”
“We can’t do what we need to if we’re worrying about you.”
She stared at him, mouth dropping. “Us helpless little girls? Colin Terriot, if you think I’m going to—”
“Yes, I do and you are. Right now. Your ride’s waiting to take you to Tahoe. Kendra and Sylvia will get you settled in. We’ve already cleared it with Cale.”
“A nice safe, watched room where I can’t get into any trouble? Me being an enemy and all, that viper at your family’s bosom,” Mia sneered. “Thanks, but I’m not leaving. I don’t run from a fight.”
“You will this time.” His low growl set her back a step. “You’ll go and you’ll keep our child safe. And she’ll go,” he pointed at Amber, “and keep her child safe. And we won’t do something stupid, like die, because we’re distracted thinking about you here, in danger. No argument.”
Their stares held for a long, tense moment then Mia stepped back with a gruff, “I’ll get my things,” and strode into the house. Colin wheeled away, circling the car, dropping behind the wheel with a slam of the door.
A startled Amber glanced at Rico. He looked no less intractable when he began with a quiet forcefulness, “This is on me. I left you both when I’d sworn to keep you safe. I’m responsible for your brother’s death. This ends now. Don’t fight me over this.”
Amber’s shoulders rose and fell. “I don’t have any fight left. Baby, go get your stuff.”
Looking worriedly between them, Evie did as told, hurrying back inside the Babineaus’ house to leave them standing miles apart while only feet away from one another.
“It’s not your fault,” Amber began.
“No, it never is. Bad shit just tends to happen when I’m involved.” He turned aside. A pause, then his gaze canted up again, long slits that glittered dangerously. “Did he hurt you?”
“Only when he told me you were dead.”
“Amber.”
“I thought you were d-d-dead.”
The fragile tremor in her voice brought them together, each holding tight to the one good thing they’d ever known. Just as quickly, he pulled away as Mia then Evie returned to the garage.
“We’ll be back in a bit,” Rico told Babineau who stood in the doorway with his arm about their damp-eyed sister. Alain was looking at Amber James as if really seeing her for the first time in the glare of garage light. The detective’s mouth sagged open as Rico held down the seat so she then Evie could climb in back before he wedged in with them. Mia settled silently in front next to Colin, not looking at him. He put the car in gear and rumbled out onto the street then into a night darker than any had predicted.
No one spoke at first during the fast trip to the tarmac. Rico tried to focus on the grim deeds they’d attend to this night, but the soft scent of the pair beside him undercut that necessary attention.
He could feel Amber’s hurt and perplexed study but denied himself a look her way. Just that quick embrace in the garage had his system revved to the point of piston-blowing overload. Instinct rumbled, a pacing, prowling, feral beast. To have her, claim her, make her his forever. Something she didn’t need or want that scared her half to death. He got that. Staring long and hard at that damaged door, he inwardly cringed as the memory of her panicked cries stabbed the message home. She wasn’t ready for the commitment he’d come to need as desperately as his next breath, and maybe never would be considering what that bastard Brady had done to her. He had to get her far away, someplace safe from her past and from the future he was desperate to force upon her.
The only thing holding those ferocious demands at bay was the feel of Evangeline tucked against his side, her head resting on his chest as she slept, an effective barrier between his basic wants and the object of them. Evie trusted him. She’d believed him when he’d said he’d protect them, and so he would, even from the danger he now presented. Maybe the dark plans they’d made for this night would satisfy that craving to act without thought to consequences. Perhaps violence would purge the wildness from his heart so he could finish courting Amber gently when he returned home. Because letting these two precious individuals go was now impossible.
The light brush of her fingertips tracing the fresh scar on his brow ignited the slow-burning pilot light that, once ignited, would become an uncontrollable fever in his brain. Knowing he should pull away, he leaned instead into the tenderness of her touch that stroked through his hair, behind his ear until her palm fit to his clenched jaw. He pushed into the inviting warmth of her hand, eyes closing, drawing in her unique fragrance. Tasting it as her thumb rubbed across his lips, with his kiss, with a lick, with the unintentionally sharp nip that drew blood on the fleshy pad.
Amber gasped, but instead of jerking away, she pushed past his teeth to the wet loll of his tongue, and a teasing suction that had her respiration as ragged as his own. Leaning across her daughter, she drew his head close enough for her lips to find his other cheek, sketching a kiss across it to whisper in his ear, “It wasn’t you. I wasn’t afraid of you. I’m sorry I hurt you with what I said.”
He went still, not even breathing when she added, “I love you, Rico Terriot. I trust my life and everything I love to you.”
All the lonely anguish of a lifetime shuddered from him with those words.
Amber cupped his whiskered chin, turning him toward her to kiss him with druggingly deep conviction interrupted by a wry remark from the front seat.
“Is it hot in here, or is it just me?”
Rico slanted a look at the rearview to catch his brother’s provoking smirk then grinned as Mia gave her mate a not so light swat and a crisp, “Eyes on the road, hot stuff.”
* * * * *
A sleek helicopter sat like a crouching bird of prey on the tarmac. Evie’s excitement distracted from tension thickening as the moment of separation approached. The three ladies waited for their males to retrieve scant belongings from the trunk then followed them to the craft that would wrest them from where they wanted to remain.
Colin slid open the door to stow their gear then reeled back with an, “Oh, shit! Sorry!”
Seconds later, a disheveled Turow Terriot and an equally mussed redhead climbed out. Colin looked between his dark glower and Sylvia Terriot’s contented smile and grinned at his brother.
“Excuse the hell outta me for the interruption, but I admire your strength under pressure to get the job done.”
“Me, too,” Sylvia purred. “Otherwise, I’d have had him kill you. Hello, gorgeous.” She stepped up boldly to pull Colin’s head down for a scorching kiss that went on long enough for Mia’s stare to become slightly murderous. Finally, the redhead stepped back, rubbing her quickly applied lip gloss from his smile before addressing his mate. “Keeping him on a short leash?”
“I don’t need to.”
Sylvia laughed and turned to the other Terriot. “Hello, Rico.”
“Hey, Syl.” He scooped her up for a firm squeeze, smiling fondly when she rubbed his chin.
“I like this. Very . . .” She made a growly noise then looked to mother and child. “And you’re Amber and Evie.” She patted Rico’s chest. “Good choice. I’ll make sure they’re taken care of for you. And you two,” she charged both brothers, “keep him in one piece for me.”
“We will, Sylvie,” Colin promised. His hand eased across Mia’s squared shoulders before he added, “And don’t let this one tangle with our family, because they’d lose. Precious cargo on board.”
Green eyes went wide. Sylvia smacked her mate’s hard belly. “Need to know!”
“Sorry,” Turow mumbled. “I’m not a gossipy kinda guy. We’d best say our good-byes. We’ve been here too long already.”
Sylvia grinned up at him. “I didn’t hear you complaining.”
An uncharacteristic grin dazzled. “And you never will.”
Their passionate embrace had his brothers looking to their own partners, Colin crushing Mia close, kissing her until there wasn’t an ounce of fight in her when he murmured, “I’ll miss knowing you have my back. You’re the reason I breathe. Don’t forget that. Not ever.”
Unable to frame a reply, dark eyes sparkling with emotion, Mia touched his cheek, grabbed her bag, and climbed aboard the chopper. Leaving Rico to the last good-bye.
An arm about each of them, Rico hugged tight, kissing one brow then the other. “I’ll see you soon.”
He couldn’t manage more than that, so he picked up Evie’s bag, stowed it on the helicopter and helped them climb in, securing the door behind them.
The three brothers stood shoulder to shoulder watching the dreams they’d die to protect glide away from them with a sudden hard push of air. Then Colin smacked their shoulders with a fierce, “Let’s get this party started.”
* * * * *
The first minutes of the ride were silent as each female dealt with her own parting sorrow. Then Sylvia regarded Mia, an amused smile flirting across her lips.
“Son or daughter?”
“Son.” Mia’s attitude couldn’t help softening. “Abel Daniel Terriot.”
The significance of the name didn’t escape Sylvia. She murmured, “Good for you, Colin.” Then her attention sharpened. “A boy. A Guedry carrying the Terriot heir? Cale must be apoplectic!”
“I don’t particularly care what Cale is or isn’t.”
A warm chuckle. “And that’s why Colin loves you.” Her attention shifted to mother and child. “But it doesn’t explain you and Rico. Welcome to the family. I see you come with one ready-made.”
“We’re not part of the family. I-I just lost my brother. He was the last of mine.”
Sylvia instantly softened. “I’m sorry. I kn
ow how awful that feels.” She glanced at Mia. “We both do. But that doesn’t mean we three can’t be sisters. Let me be your House tour guide for this evening. Things in Tahoe are . . . complicated. ‘Family’ is a rather loose term applied to a prison camp that’s just had its doors opened for the first time under Cale’s regime. A good thing and, still, a dangerous thing you’ll need to understand if you’re going to survive on our mountain.”
* * * * *
A sleek limo met their helicopter on the Terriot’s private landing pad. An exhausted Evie dragged her eyes open to a popping diameter as they stepped into the luxurious interior.
“Better than the shuttle bus at the airport,” Sylvia confided as she settled into the long leather seat with a sigh for the short ride to the family compound.
“Mama, is that a bar?” Evie whispered in awe.
“All that’s missing is the stripper pole.” Mia sized up the huge space, imagining the randy Terriot princes enjoying themselves. Her own, in particular.
Sylvia chuckled. “Lap dances are safer.”
Behind a hidden gate, well-lit streets revealed a resort-like community of chalet-style homes nestled into lush pines. Sylvia pointed to one in passing. “That’s where Row and I live when we’re not in Vegas or Pahrump.” Evie snickered. Sylvia joined in. “I know. Right? That’s why I got the helicopter. I’m learning to fly it in the spring.”
“It’s yours?” Evie gasped.
A wink. “Being a princess has its perks. The best one being the prince. But remember, not all of them are created equally exceptional to our three.”
They pulled up in front of a dormitory-style building where the vehicle doors were opened for them.
“Sorry. Short notice,” Sylvia apologized. “We didn’t have time to ready appropriate places for you, so you’ll be staying in their rooms. This is the unmated male dorm, so once you’re tucked inside, stay there until I come get you in the morning.”
“You sound like you know your way around.”
She grinned at Mia’s muttered jab. “Indeed, I do. But remember, my name has always been Terriot and yours is not, no matter whose mark you wear. So be careful of the others.”