Jolie never wanted to leave.
In fact, she pushed off the couch next to her brother and crossed to him.
“That was so damn hot, that I need to sit in your lap.”
He wouldn’t say no to that. So, he patted it and when she sat, cuddled his wife and mate.
“Back to the topic at hand,” Jacques began. “How did they find you, Father?”
“Maybe they followed us,” Mordechai asked. “We were taken right after your wedding,” he offered.
He got quiet.
Something about that didn’t sit well with him.
“We’ll find her, Father. I swear.”
Jolie agreed. “He won’t kill her. He’ll need her as leverage to get me to surrender.”
Alex, Flynn, and Jacques all answered that. “NOT HAPPENING!”
She laughed. “I know. Relax. I can’t let that happen. Our children have to be born—no matter what.”
While she loved her mate, she wasn’t fond of Mordechai or Morganna. She didn’t like the way they treated Jacques. He was precious, and they’d broken him.
“When exactly did you get taken?” Flynn asked.
This was all about being a cop. His interest was piqued.
“The very next day.”
Flynn glanced over at Kiera. “When were you taken?”
“The same day.”
It didn’t add up. None of it did. They were missing something, but what?
“I don’t think you were followed from the wedding to your home,” Flynn offered.
“All I know is I want to find Morganna. If they hurt her, I’ll kill him.”
“Again, I have to kill him,” Flynn reminded him. “You saw how much Death needs this done.”
Yes, he did.
Still…
His emotions took over as his eyes filled with tears. “Of everything I am or was, I have always loved your mother, Jacques. I can’t leave her behind.”
Flynn reached for his mate’s mind.
‘Something is up here.’
‘What?’
‘The Tueur found us at the house right after our wedding. They were then killed and the second wave came and took Kiera, trying to find us.’
‘Okay.’
‘Your father was taken.’
‘Yes, he was. What are you getting at?’
‘Jacques, there’s no way they found your father, the witch who helped us, and our home unless they were told where we were.’
He stared at his mate.
‘What are you saying?’
‘This smells like betrayal.’
His heart skipped in his chest.
‘Flynn.’
‘Think about it.’
He was, and he didn’t doubt his mate was right. This didn’t seem right. They’d managed to stay ahead of the Tueur for months, but after the family shows up, they’re found.
“Father, when you came to the wedding, did you tell anyone you were leaving?”
Mordechai sipped his wine. “No. Jolie called and spoke to Morganna, and they arranged it. She didn’t even tell me until we were leaving. She surprised me that morning.”
Flynn stared at his mate.
He was getting that sick feeling.
“Do you think you were followed?”
He shook his head. “She told me we had to be careful. I made sure no one figured out we were leaving. We walked to the art district, we shopped, and then we took the underground train to the airport. We took various stops.”
Jacques needed to think this through.
‘Flynn, give me time to weigh this, please?’
‘Yes, Jacques. I’m sorry.’
Yeah, so was he.
“All I know is we’re safe here,” Flynn offered. “No one can get in here.”
He also knew that if the Tueur showed up here, Mordechai would be the leak. Alexzandre didn’t know where they were, and Kiera’s mind had been searched.
This wasn’t looking good at all.
“I need to say something,” Jolie began.
They all looked over.
“I want you all to leave. I want you to take Kiera, Alex, and head out of here. If they took you both once, they will again. Mordechai, I want you to find Morganna, and go under. They’re going to come after my family to get to me. They can’t touch me here.”
Flynn held one hand.
Jacques the other.
They knew she was scared. If the Tueur wanted to break her, this was how they’d do it.
Through her family.
“Jolie, I don’t want to risk Kiera, but I’m not leaving. If you’ll allow me, I want to stay. I’ll make a stand with my family.”
She opened her mouth.
“Wait.”
She said nothing.
“I didn’t protect you against Goethe, and that’s on me, but I will protect you against his brother. It’s our blood against theirs. They’ve taken shots at the Degaul family and the Harcourtes. We don’t let them win. We take them down.”
“And then I’ll make sure the Tueur is cleaned up,” Flynn stated. “When I take over, I’m cleaning house. I won’t allow them to terrorize. In fact, I’m going to destroy them all.”
They stared at him.
“I’ll be the only one who hunts your kind. I won’t play favorites or be bought. I will be fair.”
She stared at him. “No. You will not hunt our kind.”
He didn’t want a fight.
“Jolie.”
“Flynn, we’re in this together. Jacques and I will be at your side. We’re married. We’re a couple. This is our duty now too.”
He was glad he had them in his life.
“As for you, Alexzandre, I will always take family I can trust, so you are welcome to stay,” she said, knowing her mates were okay with that.
“Welcome to the family,” Flynn said, kissing the inside of Jolie’s wrist. When he scraped his fangs across her skin, there was a wave of goose bumps across her flesh.
Jacques looked to his father. “Do you want us to find you a safe place? When I find my mother, I’ll get her to you.”
Mordechai looked insulted. “You behave like I’m the oldest one here, and the weakest,” he said, pointing at Jolie. “I believe you liked older women. She’s got a few years on me, and she’s carrying babies. I will stay and fight with my son.”
“I’ve seen him kill,” Alexzandre offered. “He’s brutal.”
Jacques was aware. “He taught me everything I know when I was a boy.”
Mordechai’s eyes filled with tears. “You’ve done me proud, Jacques. Help me find your mother. That’s all I need now. I want to find my mate and bring her home.”
No one wanted to admit that she was likely dead. If Gradius had her, she was a goner.
“So, you’re in?” Flynn asked.
“I’m in.”
It was time.
“I’ll be the one who brings this up. I don’t want my mates to take the heat. We all know I’m a cop. It’s what I was born to be, and I’m damn good at it.”
“I hate cops,” Mordechai offered.
“I hate betrayers,” Flynn offered.
Everyone went still.
“What are you saying?” Mordechai asked. “Are you insinuating that I betrayed all of us?”
They all glanced over.
“Before you get angry, Father, let Flynn speak. He’s right. He’s a damn good cop. His instinct is better than most guardians I’ve fought with.”
Mordechai didn’t look happy, but what was he going to do? This was their home now, and Rinnon was squatting in his body. No one here could stop him.
“There were only so many people who knew of Kiera’s home. At the wedding, we had two vamps from our family, and two humans. One is my cop partner, and one was our donor.”
“Mina has been with us since she was a child. She wouldn’t betray us.”
Flynn agreed.
“Plus, we can access their minds. They didn’t betray us.”
Mordechai star
ed at them.
“So the Harcourte side is in the clear. Tommy came a few days earlier, and no one followed him. Had they, the Tueur wouldn’t have waited to make a move. Do you agree?”
He didn’t want to, but what choice did he have?
“Yes.”
“Then we have your side, Jacques. We had Maura, William and your mother,” he said, checking off the list.
“We wouldn’t betray you, Jacques.”
“Father, someone did.”
He stood. “I need to think for a while. I need to process this. May I?” he asked.
Flynn waved his hand toward the door.
Mordechai stormed off.
“Vanth!”
She popped back in.
“Yes?”
“Follow Mordechai, and if he makes a call, eavesdrop for me.”
She was gone.
Jacques didn’t like this.
“I’m sorry.”
“I get it. I need to think. I’ll be back.”
They watched their mate leave.
Well, that didn’t go well. Flynn had pretty much told him someone who he loved had sold them out.
But who?
“Want to take a walk?” Alexzandre asked, holding out his hand to Kiera.
He knew his sister and Flynn needed to talk, so he’d make himself scarce.
“They said there is a grotto, and I’m curious.”
She accepted.
When they were gone, Flynn pulled Jolie into his lap. “I hated doing that.”
She knew he did.
“It’s okay, my love. Someone betrayed us.”
He hated this.
“Do you think Jacques will forgive me?”
She kissed him. “I know he will. He was thinking it too. I was in his mind. He only didn’t want to admit it.”
He didn’t want it to be true.
“It sucks, baby.”
Yeah, he could say that again.
∞ Chapter Thirty Nine ∞
They knew he needed to think, but being married meant talking it out with your mates. Anymore, they were in this as a team, whether he liked it—or not. Jacques wasn’t suffering alone.
When they found him, he was in Rinnon’s library, lying on the large leather couch. His feet were up, and his eyes were closed.
“Jacques?” Jolie called, as they entered the room.
“I don’t know what to do.”
They each took a seat beside him when he sat up. They were flanking him. Immediately, he took their hands.
“I have a problem.”
“What?” Jolie asked.
“I made a mistake.”
Flynn lifted a brow. “What did you do?”
“I missed something so huge, and I didn’t even catch it until now, Flynn. I cracked it up.”
“Jacked it up, not cracked it up.”
“Whatever. I missed something, and it may have cost Jolie her life.”
That had their attention
He got up and began pacing. His long legs helped him crisscross the floor in a flurry steps.
“What?”
“When I called my father the other day, my mother answered.”
They stared at him, not quite sure what had him this riled up.
“Okay.”
“She asked me how Jolie’s pregnancy was, and I told her good.”
They still waited.
“We didn’t tell my family. We didn’t tell my mother about the babies. I didn’t tell my father we were having children until after I spoke to my mother. Telling him was the first time I brought it up with them. Plus, if she knew, why didn’t she tell him?”
Jolie closed her eyes.
She knew what that meant.
Only someone helping the Tueur would know about her pregnancy.
“Jacques, I’m so sorry.”
“I was so wrapped up in this, that I never suspected my own mother. How could she do this? Why would she do this to me?”
Flynn got up and hugged his mate.
He was shaking with anger.
“We’ve got this.”
“I never caught it, Flynn. I could have risked us. Had we not gotten Jolie out, and something happened, it would be on me. I asked her to take me back on as guardian, and I never paid attention to the obvious.”
Jolie crossed toward them. “Jacques, we figured it out. That’s all that matters. We’ll work through it.”
“Jolie, it’s my mother—my own flesh and blood is trying to kill my child. How do I live with that?”
They didn’t know, but now that they knew who, they could begin dealing with it.
“Well, we have an even bigger problem,” Jolie offered, hugging her mates.
“What?” Jacques asked.
“We’re going to need to prove this to your father, and then ask him to do us the ultimate favor.”
He didn’t like this.
“What?”
“He’s going to have to find her, and we’re going to lay a trap.”
“He won’t do it. She’s his mate. My mother has been under his thumb for centuries, but he’s always been loyal to her. He’s always been in love with her. It would be like asking me to betray you. I couldn’t do it.”
They knew it was going to be hard, but it was necessary.
“We don’t have a choice. He’s the only link to her. He can find her, and we can use that.”
Jacques couldn’t hold back the tears.
“You want me to kill the woman who gave me life.”
He began weeping.
It was too much to bear.
“We’re sorry, Jacques.”
And they were.
Jolie and Flynn closed around him, making sure that Jacques was being soothed and offered all the love they could give him. There was nothing worse than being betrayed, and their mate was just handed his heart by his scheming mother.
No one saw this coming.
Oddly, if they had to pick, Mordechai would have been the one they figured would have done the deed.
They had been wrong.
The storm brewed for some time. After holding their mate, he eventually calmed down, and the guardian was back in place. “What do I have to do?”
Flynn told him the plan.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. I hope you don’t hate me for it, but she’s my mother.”
Flynn knew he wouldn’t be able to kill his mother either, even if she betrayed him.
“Will you hate me if I handle it?” Flynn asked.
Jacques stared into his eyes. “I’ll never hate either of you. You’re my husband and my wife. I have to trust in you.”
Jolie kissed him.
Then Flynn did too.
“I have you, Jacques. I have you.”
And he did.
* * * H a r c o u r t e * * *
Alexandre sat with Kiera beside the grotto. The sound of water falling, and the way it played on the ceiling was mesmerizing.
He was enjoying his time with her.
“It’s beautiful in here,” she admitted.
She was right.
“You’re pretty calm,” Alexzandre offered.
“Why shouldn’t I be?”
“Uh, this whole thing should be freaking you out, Kiera,” he offered, kissing her knuckles.
“Which part? The vampyre thing or the blood drinking thing?” she asked, admiring his handsome face. When they had arrived, Flynn pumped him full of energy, and he’d healed fast.
Now she could see the real him—who he’d been before being damaged.
“Maybe the entire ‘someone is trying to kill us, my sister is carrying the Destroyer, and her mate is a reincarnated deity’ part?”
Kiera laughed.
“It’s not that shocking. I’m a witch. We deal in the odd and mysterious. The ancient Celts believed the Gods and Goddesses walked among us. Why can’t Rinnon?”
She had a point.
“We should probably talk about the whole bonding thi
ng,” she offered.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to do that.
It didn’t bode well for him.
“Do you hate the idea?”
“No,” she answered honestly.
He relaxed a little.
“Do you?” Keira asked.
“I don’t want to let you go, but I can’t steal your free will. If you want to leave, I’d set you free.”
It would kill him, but he would.
“You would really let me leave if I wanted to?”
Alexandre felt his heart breaking. It was Arian all over again. “If you hated being bonded to me, yes, I would let you go. I’d teach you how to survive without energy from me.”
“So it’s possible?”
He wanted to lie again.
“Yes, it is.”
She pulled his face closer to hers. “You could have lied to me. You could have told me I was trapped.”
“I don’t want you to stay because you have to, Kiera. I want you to stay because you love me. I had a horrible mating with a woman who used and abused my heart. I don’t want to risk that again. If you stay, I need to know it’s because of me.”
She touched his lips with hers.
“I want to stay with you.”
He didn’t move. “As in…?”
“As in, we’re mated, bonded, married, tied together, and trapped. I found you, Alex. It mattered. You matter.”
His heart skipped.
So did hers.
“Remember when I told you that I didn’t want to have sex in a filthy vagrant-filled building?” he said, her mouth inches from his. Alexzandre could feel her breath on his lips, and she tasted delicious.
“Yes.”
“This isn’t that building.”
Kiera moved into his lap. Immediately, his hands went to her hips.
There was a low growl in his chest. If it scared her, she didn’t even acknowledge it.
“I want to mate with you,” she said. “Did I use the word correctly?” Kiera asked.
He smiled up at her as she was perched in his lap. “Yes, you did. Are you sure, Kiera? If I have you, I don’t think I can let you go. I don’t want to see you leave.”
She heard the pain.
“She did a number on you.”
“She betrayed me. I didn’t see it coming. Mates can’t cheat. If you’re perfectly mated, you can’t stray.”
“Did you think she was perfect for you?” Kiera asked, her heart fluttering.
Dangerous Sacrifice (The Harcourte Vampyre Society Book 6) Page 47