Prince of Fools
Page 31
“So, tell me, make me understand, because I don’t.”
Slowly, carefully, he laid out what he and his brothers had discussed with Cale. What he’d learned about the North’s plan to annihilate his clan, about their uncertainty over who they could trust, about the youngest prince’s dangerous masquerade under the nose of the demon who’d tormented her dreams. And while he didn’t mention his meeting with her brother because of the uncertain way it had ended, Rico went on to describe Cale’s determination to protect his people even while they celebrated as a distraction to anyone watching.
For as they’d drank and danced, and even as they’d loved, Terriot families were being evacuated from their mountain compound, quickly, quietly and without fanfare, under the guise of tourist groups on chartered buses. Most would go to safe havens in Reno and Las Vegas where they’d remain under the radar using aliases Kip would manufacture for them. Their queen and the royal families would travel to a small casino/winery on the Nevada/California border that Sylvia Terriot had turned into a secluded, high-tech fortress once owned by their traitorous brother James. And Cale, with his personal guards and a few brave volunteers, would remain at their compound pretending it was business as usual, anticipating an attack that may or may not come.
“Where will we go?”
Rico flinched at her flatly delivered question. “With Sylvia. She’ll take care of you, Evie, Mia and Colin’s sisters. His mother refused to leave. Syl’s strong and capable, and I wouldn’t want to mess with her. She’ll protect you.”
He tried to smile reassuringly, but Amber turned away. She pushed off his lap, restoring her modesty with a quick, silent efficiency.
“Amber, I love you. I’m doing this for you and Evie.”
“No,” she told him with a curt certainty, “you’re doing this for you. If it had anything to do with us, you would have talked to me before you made our decision for us. We’ll go pack. You go do . . . what you need to do.”
* * * * *
Swiping at the betraying dampness on her cheeks, Amber ducked into the ladies’ room to clean up the mess she’d made of their future and came face-to-face with Mia’s mascara-streaked reflection in the mirror. Colin’s mate turned toward her to bitterly state, “I see you’re being packed away as fragile merchandise, too. That arrogant son-of-a-bitch is going to get himself killed without me. What good is a nice, s-s-safe future going to be without him in it?”
Amber opened her arms, and they clung together in like misery while Mia continued to argue in heartbroken fury.
“It’s a stupid, reckless man plan! They think no one is going to notice that we’re gone, that if they tuck us out of sight, they can act like self-indulgent savages, with no one caring if they live or die? That we’ll sacrifice them for their greater good? What greater good doesn’t have them in it?”
“None.”
The intrusion of Colin’s low, rumbling voice had them turning toward where he stood just inside the doorway.
“You can’t come in here!”
He smiled at his outraged mate. “I’ve been in here before on behalf of other weepy females.”
His confidence lit Mia’s already smoldering temper. “I don’t want to hear about other females. I want you to go away!”
“No, you don’t. You want to hear me apologize for being a self-indulgent savage who doesn’t appreciate what a fine female he has to stand at his side.”
She sniffed, eying him suspiciously. “So? What if I do?”
“I’d say I’d better start apologizing, if Amber doesn’t mind.” He nodded toward the main room. “I think I saw my equally repentant brother heading in that direction.”
Amber didn’t let the door hit her on the hurried way out.
* * * * *
Since his new mate seemed to have disappeared, Rico dragged himself to where Evie sat alone, preparing to deliver the grim news. The look in the glimmering blue eyes that lifted to his said she’d already heard from Colin’s sisters and was equally unwilling to accept what was in their best interest.
“You need us.”
He smiled at her statement as he went down on one knee. “Yes, I do. More than you’ll ever know.”
“Then why are you being so stupid?”
He laughed at her bluntness. “Old habit, I guess. Evie, I’m just trying to keep you safe.”
“What can you do that my mama hasn’t been doing since before I was born?” At his blink, she continued with fierce pride. “My mom has protected me, and tried to protect Uncle Augie, every day of my life. She’s smart and strong and brave and willing to do anything, sacrifice anything, when she loves someone. I’ve seen her back down my grandpa and those men who had you, but I’ve only seen her afraid twice—when Uncle Augie said you’d been hurt and when you sent us here without you. She’s not afraid of danger. She’s afraid—”
Rico waited for her to finish, and when she didn’t, gently prodded, “Of what?”
A quiet voice answered from behind him. “Not being there when someone I love needs me.”
When he turned, Amber fit her palm to his cheek, stroking tenderly as she continued. “She’s wrong. I’ve been hiding all my life from things that scared me, from things that might harm us. Until you. You scared me to death because I couldn’t have you unless I faced all those things. When I thought I’d lost you, I realized that nothing, nothing except Evie’s safety, could be more terrifying than that. I’m not afraid of what you’re facing or of what might be waiting in New Orleans. I’m ready to go up against Brady if I need to. What I can’t do is let you go alone. Don’t do that to us, Rico.”
“Amber—”
“Uncle Rico?” When he glanced over, Rico found Colin’s oldest sister, Lucy, standing awkwardly at his side, murmuring, “Sorry to interrupt, but we’re about to leave, and I wanted to say thank you.”
“For what?”
She bent to hug him tightly about the neck. “It was you. I didn’t remember until Colin told me this morning. You were the one who jumped in that day when I was little. I remember the water being so cold and deep and being so scared, and then I saw your face and felt your arm around me, and I held on to you like this and you saved me. You saved me. Everyone thought it was Colin, but it was you. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You were safe. That was the only thing that mattered.” Yet he clung to her words as tightly as she had his neck that day.
“Thank you. You’re my hero.” She bussed a kiss against his reddening cheek and gave another squeeze before hurrying to join her family.
Evie asked, amazed, “Why didn’t you tell them it was you?”
Rico let his breath out in a small, mystified laugh. “Because my brother needed to be their hero more than I did.”
“Well, you’re mine, and you always will be.” Evie punctuated that claim with a tight hug.
“You’re ours,” Amber agreed, stroking his crisply cut red hair so he’d look up at her over her daughter’s fair head. “Let us go with you, Rico. Let us be there for you every night when you get home. Mia was right. If we’re gone, it’ll look suspicious. If we’re there, they’ll think you’re foolish enough to believe all is well. But we’ll know differently. We’ll be careful and clever and prepared for them to make a move. I’ll go back to work and keep my ears open. Evie will go back to school and stay safe in our apartment. Mia and I will look out for each other. And Evangeline and I will both be there to love and support you in any way we can. As your family.”
Didn’t she know they just had?
Rico stood, holding Evie on his hip, pulling Amber against him within the curl of his other arm. He nuzzled her attractive new do and breathed in the stabilizing essence of her before kissing them both lightly. Fear and pride warred inside him for these two incredible females. What would he do without them? He never wanted to find out. And in that strong certainty, he found the only answer for the three of them.
“Let’s say our good-byes. It’s time this family went home
.”
A Sneak Peek from
Prince of Dreams
“House of Terriot” Book 4
Prologue
What the hell?
Kip Terriot stared, open-mouthed, as his half-brother Michael slipped weighed bars into his sparring gloves. “What are you doing?” he whispered, casting a frantic glance toward the others to make sure the move hadn’t been seen.
“Evening the odds.” Michael shrugged in his own defense. “Don’t tell me you haven’t wanted to take Daddy’s favorite down a peg.”
Kip followed Michael’s glare across the court floor where their older brother limbered up with precise movements. Cale Terriot was what the other eleven young princes of the shapeshifter House of Terriot aspired to be, a lethal, undefeatable force of nature, the kind that burned through their mountain compound on Lake Tahoe like an unquenchable forest fire, leaving behind only ash. He was the impossible bar their father set to take their measure.
Before Kip could catch him, Michael strode out to square off in this latest competition to earn their king’s miserly praise. One that could easily turn deadly.
Time for action ticking away, eleven-year-old Kip stood frozen in indecision. How could he pick between his best and only friend and his idol, knowing the consequences?
Do something! This isn’t right!
Bram waved them to begin, and it was too late.
Cale’s speed and skill delayed the inevitable end but Michael patiently waited for his moment. On the sidelines, Kip worried his lip, his heart and head at war until finally pushed to take a step forward, just as that well-placed blow landed.
Cale’s fall to the floor seemed to take half a lifetime.
A stunned hush settled over the gathering of Bram Terriot’s sons, that suspended inhale lasting until their brutal king began to applaud from the empty gallery.
“Well done, Michael.”
At that first-time laud for the twelve-year-old victor, Kip’s moment to come clean vanished.
Cale shook himself back to his senses and staggered to his feet, jaw already ballooning from the surprising impact. With a conceding nod to his opponent, he bowed his head to his king, shoulders tense in anticipation.
“You’ve disgraced yourself,” Bram drawled out like thunder, “allowing a boy almost half your age to make a fool of you. Prepare.” He stood, a terrifying giant, immediately bringing his sons to line up below him, each taking a knee, more from fear than respect, heads bowed until their king was gone. Then, while the older males goaded a stoic Cale, Michael returned for his jacket, meeting Kip’s scowl without a trace of remorse.
“Tell him,” the youngest prince insisted, “before it’s too late.”
“Hell no!”
Kip gripped Michael’s arm. “You know what he’ll do.” Just the thought of their king’s displeasure chilled his blood. He nodded toward the defeated figure heading for the showers. “He’s our brother. He doesn’t deserve that.”
“And we do?” Michael jerked away. “I’m not taking a beating just because you developed a conscience. You’re so concerned, you go tattle to Bram the Beast. What do you think he’d despise more, my cheating or your squealing?”
Michael joined the group waiting to congratulate him on the unprecedented defeat. Kip stayed silent. Bram wouldn’t fault Michael for doing what it took to take down a mightier foe. In fact, he’d applaud the treachery.
Kip took his time making his way to the locker room, unwilling to bump elbows with the gloating Michael and the rest of his blood-thirsty kin. He threw gloves and pads into his locker with a satisfying clatter, frustrated, angry with both his friend and himself. But mostly at himself for his cowardice.
He’d finished dressing by the time the shower shut off. As Cale moved past him wearing just a towel about his hips, Kip studied his brother’s bare back and the network of scars scored into it as a testament to their father’s temper. Kip’s failure to act would add to that cruel design.
“He cheated.” The words blurted out.
Cale paused and turned back, a twist of a smile on his misshapen face. “I know. There’s no way Mikey could have packed a punch like that.”
“I should have said something, but I . . .”
Cale raised a hand to stop him. “Did the right thing,” he concluded. “Why take on troubles that aren’t yours?”
“Because it wasn’t right, and it wasn’t fair.”
“Not much is, brother. Get used to it.”
Kip refuted his grim philosophy. “I don’t want to get used to it. I’ll go to our king and . . .”
“Make it worse? No, thank you.” Cale’s hand fell upon the slumped shoulder, providing a firm squeeze. “But I appreciate the offer. No need for you to share my bad luck. I’ll be more careful around Michael next time. I underestimated him.” His gaze narrowed, bemused and thoughtful. “And you, apparently.”
Something in that look had Kip standing taller. “Me?”
“Not all warriors fight with cunning and brute strength. A wise king looks for those with brains, not just brawn. For those with the wisdom and compassion to speak up instead of blindly following.”
Kip stared at him, clueless. So, Cale spelled out in a low, compelling voice.
“You’ll stand beside me, brother, when I wear the crown.”
PRINCE OF DREAMS
Concluding book in the “House of Terriot” Series
Coming in 2018
About the Author
Nancy Gideon is the award-winning, bestselling author of 60 romances ranging from historical, regency and series contemporary suspense to paranormal, with a couple of horror screenplays tossed into the mix. She’s also published under the pen names Dana Ransom, Rosalyn West and Lauren Giddings. She works full time as a legal assistant in Central Michigan, and when not at the keyboard, feeds a Netflix addiction along with all things fur, fin and fowl. For more information on the author, her books, or the “House of Terriot” and “By Moonlight” series, visit Nancy online at:
Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon
Other Books by Nancy Gideon
Books in the “House of Terriot”
Prince of Honor
(Turow and Sylvia)
Prince of Power
(Colin and Mia)
Prince of Fools
(Rico and Amber)
Prince of Dreams
(Kip and Ophelia)
Books in the “By Moonlight” Series
Masked by Moonlight
Chased by Moonlight
Captured by Moonlight
Bound by Moonlight
(Max and Charlotte)
Hunter of Shadows
(Silas and Nica)
Seeker of Shadows
(Jacques and Susanna)
Betrayed by Shadows
(Giles and Brigit)
Prince of Shadows
(Cale and Kendra)
Remembered by Moonlight
(Max and Charlotte)
Unleashed by Shadows
(Cale and Kendra)
“Complex characters, vivid writing and intriguing plot twists keep readers coming back.”
-Publisher’s Weekly