by Tara Rose
None of it felt real. Valerie couldn’t move. It seemed that everyone was running, either toward her or toward her father, but she was frozen in place, staring at the barrel of a gun. She heard shouting, and someone leaped in front of her, holding out their arms as if blocking her view. Valerie heard a small sound, almost like a car backfiring or a firecracker going off, and then nothing. Dead silence.
She was still breathing and nothing hurt. If he’d shot her, wouldn’t she know it by now? Wouldn’t there be pain? Several men knelt close to the figure of a woman at her feet. She heard growling, and glanced up to watch her father shift into his jaguar form and run. Four jaguars shifted at the same time and gave chase. She watched them all disappear into the hills, and then she became aware of someone crying softly.
She glanced down at Emme, bent over someone, and then she looked around wildly for Drake. He was standing behind Emme. She hadn’t even seen him at first. Valerie whimpered, looking around for Stephen and Micah. Both were still on either side of her, and they didn’t appear to be hurt.
Who was on the ground? “No…” Understanding washed over her, bringing with it a sickening sensation like she’d spun around in a circle for too long and now she was going to throw up.
“No!” Valerie screamed and dropped to her knees, pushing Emme away from Abby’s still form. When she rolled her onto her back, Valerie nearly retched at the sight of a still-smoking hole in Abby’s chest. Crimson liquid gushed out of it, and Abby’s skin was as white as the snow on the hillside.
“No!” She screamed again then sobbed as hot fear rushed through her. She couldn’t breathe. Hands were pulling her away and she tried to fight them off, but Stephen and Micah were too strong. She couldn’t stop screaming. Her throat was raw but she kept on yelling Abby’s name, again and again. Someone was holding her, whispering something, stroking her hair, but she didn’t hear the words. All she heard was the gunshot, over and over, like it was stuck on a permanent audio loop in her brain.
“She’s not dead…She can’t be dead…”
Micah held her, but his body might as well have been made of stone. It offered no warmth or comfort. Nothing again ever would. No matter what Abby had done, she didn’t deserve to die for it. She’d been afraid of the same things that Valerie had been—that when the people who trusted her found out the truth, she’d be sent away. No one had known about her parents. How long had she hidden that? How long had she lived in Jargonian village?
Valerie had known so little about Abby’s life, and that was her own fault. She understood that now. She’d never asked. She’d simply taken what Abby had given her—shelter, food, and clothing. What had she given Abby in return? Barely her company. She’d been so busy trying to get Stephen and Micah to notice her that she’d forgotten to pay attention to a lonely woman who was hiding a horrible secret.
Valerie cried until she couldn’t cry anymore, and then she started walking with Stephen and Micah. They were less than half a mile from their village. She heard voices, disconnected, as if they were merely floating in space rather than part of bodies, say something about taking Abby to town in the SUV. But none of it mattered. Abby was dead. And Valerie had never even had the chance to get to know her, or to thank her for all she’d done.
She wasn’t angry with Abby for telling her father where she was. He’d known somehow. Her dreams had been prophetic. It had only been a matter of time before he’d found her. Valerie knew that. This hadn’t been Abby’s doing. She refused to believe that Abby had set this in motion. This had been set in motion three months ago, when Valerie had decided to run away. And now, Abby was dead.
Chapter Eleven
Valerie woke and at first had no idea where she was. That had happened to her a lot during the past week. She barely remembered last Saturday, but that could be because she’d done nothing since then except sleep and eat whenever Stephen or Micah brought food to her room. She would have left the food untouched, but they sat on the bed and watched her until she’d consumed at least half of what they brought to her, so she had little choice.
Abby’s funeral service had been a blur of faces, both angry and sad. She hated the fact that most of the residents of the village blamed Abby for Reynard showing up to take Valerie away. Didn’t they understand? Abby had held that secret in her heart for thirty-three years. Emme told Valerie that Abby had lived here that long, and she had never told anyone who her parents had been.
Valerie had learned more things about Abby’s sad life in the past week than she’d ever thought to ask the woman while she’d been alive. No amount of comforting from Emme, Drake, Stephen, or Micah had been able to fill the hole in Valerie’s heart. The guilt overwhelmed her at times. She didn’t think of what Abby had done as a betrayal, but almost everyone else did.
Even Stephen and Micah, as much as they agreed with Valerie in theory that Reynard might well have found her on his own eventually, with or without help from Abby, wouldn’t concede the point that Abby’s phone call was only one small piece of the puzzle that had led him to the road outside their village last week. Whenever Valerie tried to fit together the odd configuration of events that had led to that showdown, her head ached.
What she had been able to ascertain was that Reynard knew Abby’s parents. That had immediately put Drake and the jaguars on Gary’s special forces team in the frame of mind that Reynard was part of the League. They’d wanted to question Valerie, but none of the Jargonians had let anyone near her. Not yet, at least. She knew that day would come, but she wasn’t afraid of it because she only knew what she knew, and couldn’t tell them anything else.
Reynard had known Abby’s parents, and somehow he’d tracked her to this village, and then he’d found a way to contact her. When he’d threatened to expose her family to Drake and Emme, Abby had told him what he wanted to know. That’s all anyone knew right now, because the jaguars who had gone after Reynard last week had lost him in the hills. Valerie had been stunned to learn that he was still out there somewhere. Everything she’d heard this past week had both shocked her and made her wish she could curl up into a ball and drift away.
Drake and Emme had given her Leonard’s old room because it overlooked the lake on their property, and they thought she’d enjoy the view. But Valerie hadn’t looked outside for a week. She had no idea who had retrieved her things in the modest home Abby had owned, but one day when Valerie had started opening dresser drawers to look for clean clothes, she’d found her own things put away in them.
When she’d asked Stephen and Micah about the clothes and her other possessions that had shown up in the room, they told her that Abby’s home was hers if she wanted it, but Valerie had declined. It wouldn’t be right to take her home. She’d then asked what would happen to all of Abby’s possessions, but the guys had told her not to worry about any of that. Their mother was taking care of everything.
She glanced at the clock. It was almost five in the morning, and she knew Emme would be up soon to make breakfast. The Jargonian family didn’t sleep in late. Drake and Emme worked hard, and until Valerie had been brought here to live, she’d had no idea how much they actually did all day, every day. Stephen and Micah helped as well, and she hadn’t realized that, either. She felt like a giant freeloader, but of course they’d all told her that she wasn’t. Still, she was tired of doing nothing but lying in bed all day, feeling sorry for herself. She wanted to do something to fill the hours besides sleep. It was time to join the land of the living again.
She padded to the windows and pulled open the heavy drapes. Frost covered the window, so she wiped it away and gazed at the moonlight glinting on the frozen water. It would be full in just over a week, but the light it gave now was as bright as if it already was full. The sight was so beautiful that Valerie almost began to cry again. She missed Abby. And as she thought about all she’d never done for her while she was alive, Valerie realized that the best way to honor her memory would be to clear her name.
The idea came to Valer
ie as clearly as if someone had whispered it into her ear. She would prove that her father was part of the League and thus clear Abby of the label she’d been given. Nothing else made sense in light of what the Jargonians had told her. He had to know them, at least, even if he wasn’t actively part of them. How else would he have known Abby’s parents, or been able to track her down? Someone had to have said something to him that eventually led him to this village, and to Abby.
Drake had called Rick at the hotel, and he’d checked phone records. A cell phone call had been place to their suite during the hours that Valerie had stayed behind in the Ruiz village with Stephen, Micah, Emme and Drake. That meant her father had known they’d all gone to Passion Peak, and where they were staying.
Either one of the villagers who had traveled with them was a mole, or her father had powers beyond those of a normal shifter. Valerie knew it wasn’t the latter, so that meant one of the villagers accusing Abby of betrayal might have done the exact same thing. One of their own might have betrayed Abby to her father. That person might have betrayed all of them, and if that were true, Valerie was determined to find out who it was.
“It’s nice to see you out of bed.”
She whirled around at the sound of Micah’s voice. There wasn’t enough light in the room to see more than his shadow, so she turned on the bedside lamp. “It’s nice to be out.” She wore only a thin cotton shift, but he’d seen her naked already, so she wasn’t self-conscious. “I can never begin to thank all of you for what you’ve done.”
Micah sat on the edge of the bed and patted the spot next to him. “You don’t have to. Stephen and I were hoping to persuade you take a walk later. Just on the property, if that’s all you’re ready for.”
She crossed the room and sat next to him. “I’d love that.” His surprised smile encouraged her to continue. “I need your family’s help with something.”
“Name it.”
“I want to prove my father is in the League of Exitium.”
Micah’s smile faded, but his expression remained interested as she outlined the conclusions she’d drawn about Abby and her father. When she told him she wanted to find out how her father had known where Abby was, Micah frowned.
“We’ve been wondering that at as well. My father has people working on it.”
“Oh, thank you. I’m so glad to hear that. Everyone thinks Abby betrayed me, but they seem to forget that he found her somehow. That means someone told him where she was. And someone told him where to find her in Passion Peak. He made the phone call last Friday. Not Abby.”
Micah brushed a hand along her arm, and for the first time in a week, Valerie felt a faint stirring of arousal. Would she ever make love to him and Stephen again, or was that lost forever? “While I agree with you that someone had to have set things in motion for Reynard to find Abby, I can’t and never will agree with you that she didn’t betray you.”
“How can you say that? She gave me a home. She treated me like a daughter.”
“I know that. But she could have refused to tell him what he wanted to know. She could have come to my parents and told them everything. She never did that.”
Valerie knew he was right, but she wasn’t ready to label Abby as a traitor. “Something else is bothering me. I can’t figure this part out. If my father knew that we were all in Passion Peak, why didn’t he simply go there?”
“Because then he would have had the Ruiz family to fight as well as all of us.” The corners of his mouth turned up. “And you just changed the subject.”
She glanced away. “Do you have any idea the guilt I feel right now? I lived with her for three months and I knew nothing about her.”
Micah gently turned her face toward his. “Sweetheart, she lived in this village for over thirty years and my parents knew nothing about her.”
Valerie sighed. “Yes, but knowing what your family does…that they hunt League members…surely you can understand her reluctance to say anything. Everyone would have assumed she was part of them.”
“You know, there’s one possibility you seem to be forgetting.”
“What’s that?”
“That your father contacted Abby before we all went to Passion Peak.”
Valerie shook her head. “I would have known. I would have sensed the change in her.”
“I know you feel a sense of obligation to her because she took you in. I understand that. But there are events here that had to have taken place, as you’ve figured out. And they involved Abby.”
“She did more than give me a home. She took a bullet for me.” Abby had been the person that Valerie saw move in front of her as her father drew his gun. She knew that now.
“I know she did.” Micah pulled her close and held her tightly. “I know.”
“That’s why I want to do this. I want to clear her name. I owe her that much, at the very least.”
“Then we’ll make sure we find out exactly what happened, who else is involved, and the timeline. All right? I promise you that.” He released the embrace and stood. “Do you want to come downstairs and eat breakfast today, or shall Stephen and I bring it up to you?”
She shook her head. “It’s time for me to come downstairs. Just give me a few minutes to shower.”
He smiled. “Take your time. We’ll wait for you.” As she started to walk past him, Micah pulled her into a gentle embrace again. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For everything last week in the hotel room. And for staying here with us.”
“Where else would I have gone? I can’t stay in that house alone. I need to be with all of you. And as for last week, I’ve been hoping…” She didn’t know how to put it into words, and was suddenly embarrassed to continue. What if he and Stephen felt differently by now?
“Nothing has changed,” he said softly. “We both still want you. I hope you still feel the same way.”
“Oh yes. Yes, I do. Sir. I haven’t called you or Stephen that all week, have I?”
Micah chuckled. “No, but we decided to give you a pass. However…” He smacked her left ass cheek, and the arousal suddenly coursing through her body both shocked and delighted her. She hadn’t been sure she could feel it again. “Starting right now, we’re back to that protocol. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir.” Valerie wanted to shout for joy. They still wanted her.
“Later we’ll talk about more protocol and limits. We also never answered your question about why neither of us have subs or mates. It’s important that we do that.”
“All right. I can’t wait. Thank you.”
Micah shook his head slightly and pulled her closer, stroking her hair. “How can you even be real? You’d better go take that shower now before I lose my willpower and join you.”
“Maybe we can do that some day?” She looked into his eyes. “I mean with you and Stephen both?”
Micah groaned, released the embrace, and gave each ass cheek another hard smack. “Get in there. You’re killing me. We’ll see you downstairs for breakfast.”
Valerie watched him walk away, and then she went into the bathroom and turned on the water. She couldn’t stop smiling as she took her shower, imagining all the things she’d do soon with Stephen and Micah. And she was thrilled that they were going to help her find out how her father had found Abby. She wanted to do that. It was right to resolve that question, and it meant the world to her that Micah hadn’t brushed off her request. He found value in it, as did she.
And they still wanted her. That was real. Everything they’d said to her in the hotel was still true. They were going to train her as their sub, and she would make love to them again. They’d help her explore her fantasies. Valerie could hardly wait to spend time with them again and learn all they wanted to teach her.
Chapter Twelve
Valerie felt like she’d woken up from a long, terrifying dream. It felt so normal sitting in the morning room with Drake, Emme, Stephen, and Micah to eat breakfast. Their house was like a museum,
and when she’d first entered it months ago, it had taken Valerie a few days to get used to being allowed to touch things or sit on the furniture. Now that she was living here, she felt that way all over again. She had no idea how Emme kept up with taking care of such a large home.
Drake fixed her with a pointed stare. “Before you came downstairs, Micah filled us in on your thoughts regarding your father and the League. I have to say I agree. Gary would like to send two of his troops over here to talk to you about your father and uncle. While I know you don’t have any direct information tying them to the League, anything you remember may be of value to us. Do you think you’re up to that today?”
His tone and expression were so hopeful that Valerie agreed to talk to the jaguars. She had no idea what might or might not help them, but now that she’d decided to do this, she wanted to throw herself into it full tilt and do whatever she could to help.
Emme glanced at her sons. “Do the three of you have plans today?”
“We thought we’d take Valerie out on the lake. It’s frozen enough now to skate on.”
“That’s a wonderful idea. But can you spare her for a few hours this morning to help me with some of the mending?”
“I’d love to do that,” said Valerie. She immediately cut her gaze toward Stephen and Micah. Should she have let them make that decision?
“That will be fine,” said Micah, nodding toward his mother. “Stephen and I had planned to go into town with Father this morning.” He glanced at Valerie. “Then when we return, Stephen and I will take you outside for some fresh air.”
After breakfast, Valerie helped Emme with the dishes. As soon as the men left the house, she screwed up her courage and glanced sideways at Emme. “May I ask you a personal question?”
“You may ask me as many questions as you like, personal or not.”
“Do you call Drake ‘Sir’ when you’re alone?”