Betrayed by Shadows

by Nancy Gideon

  Giles could hear her struggling to resist that command. “Don’t you do this, Giles. I’ve forgiven him. It’s not your place. Haven’t you done enough to this family? You’ll be dead to me!”

  “Not much of a threat there, Mama. You’re looking at a corpse already. T-Boy,” he added mildly, “take her out.”

  Irene continued to fight the edict. “Boyd, aren’t you going to help your father?”

  “This is between him and Rob-E and none of my affair. Let’s give them some privacy.”

  Once it was the two of them, Emmett sat up slowly, the footrest of his recliner clicking into place like a pistol shot. “Are you going to give me a chance to explain?”

  “If there’s an explanation for betraying both me and my father, I guess I could hear it. But it won’t change anything.”

  “I understand that.”

  “Well, I don’t.” Giles’s voice cracked like the wall of a fracturing glacier. “I don’t understand how you could turn on a man who was like a brother to you. For money!” For an instant, the rage bubbled up and threatened to boil over, but several low, fast breaths forced it down. “Explain that,” he challenged through gritted teeth. “Go ahead.”

  “Clo was like my brother. He put a roof over our heads. Your mama was raising my kids. I owed them everything. It wasn’t for money.”

  “Were you fucking my mother even before my daddy died?”

  That cold question brought Emmett across the space between them so fast, Giles was rocking back from the force of the slap before he registered movement.

  “Don’t you ever disrespect her like that. You know better. She loved your daddy. When he died, it damn near killed her.”

  “And yet she forgave you and married you.”

  Emmett seemed to wither under the contempt in those frigidly spoken words. “I never expected that kind of mercy. I didn’t deserve it. I deserve what you came here to do.”

  “Why? Tell me why.”

  “I did it to thank them for all they’d done for us.”

  Giles didn’t think any reason his stepfather could come up with would shock him, but that did. “Thank them?” he echoed incredulously.

  “The business was expanding so fast, we couldn’t keep up. We was running out of funds. I went to the Guedrys, and they put me in touch with Vic Vantour. I didn’t know it was his money I’d been taking to get me back on my feet all those times. He made me the sweetest investment deal. It would have sent all you kids to college, given me the means to have my own place so I wouldn’t be a burden to your folks no more. I wanted your daddy’s respect. You know what he thought of me.”

  “He loved you.”

  Tears rose up in the tormented gaze. “But you know your daddy. He wasn’t having none of it. He wouldn’t listen. Said he wouldn’t get into bed with no vipers. I wanted him to meet with them so they could explain things. I didn’t know—I didn’t know they were gonna—”

  “Kill him to get him out of the way.”

  Emmett nodded, his shoulders slumping, his manner broken. “But you wouldn’t let it go. Half them law dogs investigating his killing were in Vantour’s pocket. They come to me and told me how it was, that if you didn’t stop, you’d be as dead as your daddy, and maybe my boy with you. So that’s why I took you aside and made up that story about them threatening to trump up some charges against Boyd unless you backed down. They weren’t going to jail him. They were gonna kill him. My boy. Then you went off to college, and I thought the worst of it was over.”

  “It was their blood money putting me through school.” The horror of it twisted through Giles like a wringer washer. “Mama told me it was from an insurance policy.”

  “I couldn’t let it be for nothing. It was what your daddy wanted more than anything. He was so proud of you.”

  Giles couldn’t let himself weaken. “So she knew all along.”

  “No. She was in a bad way after the accident, couldn’t care for herself or for you kids. We’d both of us had our hearts broken, and we sorta helped each other mend them. It wasn’t no fast or intentional thing. It didn’t make less of what she had with your daddy or me with my wife. We wanted a home for you kids. I did the best I could, Giles, but I’m not the man your daddy was, and I never will be.”

  “She could forgive you but not me.” Giles’s stoic stand crumbled, breaking him apart inside into sharp little shards of pain. That she would choose Emmett, his father’s murderer, over her own son.

  “She mourned the loss of you like it was your daddy all over again. I couldn’t stand her not knowing what I’d done to bring all that hurt down on her. It was years before she could look at me with any degree of tolerance. Finally, it was our love of you all that got us through it. We wanted the best for our children. I don’t expect the same mercy from you, son.”

  “I’m not your son.” The breath seethed from him as Giles’s focus clamped upon the one thing Emmett could never explain to his satisfaction. His grip tightened on the shotgun until it shook. “You say you want the best for me, then you sell the woman I love to the same monsters who killed my father? Or were you stupid enough to think they just wanted to ‘talk’ to her, too?”

  Brigit.

  The mere thought of her was the only thing strong enough to threaten his resolve.

  That wounded look of shock on her face when he’d left her slashed through his soul like the ax he’d used to cut down her enemy. He’d promised to stay with her. That torturous image thrust up his hopes and dreams like desperate staying hands. That remembered vow clawed greedily, selfishly, back to the surface over the old bones of brittle principles.

  He’d thrown away all he loved in the name of that brutal cry for justice. If he answered it now, he wouldn’t be atoning for sins of the past. He’d be casting aside a potential future with the female he’d claimed to love, leaving her unprotected. He hesitated, his chest heaving with emotion.

  Emmett was staring at him in vague confusion. “I didn’t tell them about her.”

  Giles frowned. “If you didn’t—”

  A voice interrupted from behind him.

  “He didn’t tell them. I did.”

  twenty-one

  Giles turned in surprise at his sister’s bold statement. She stood in that unstained hall archway, her head high. Despite the defiant stance, her eyes were awash with a need for forgiveness.

  “Cori . . . why?”

  Huge tears rolled down her pale cheeks. “They killed Daddy and nearly took Mama, too. I couldn’t let them take Boyd, or Lou, or Emmett. Or you. I couldn’t. You know what they are, what they’re capable of. They weren’t making empty threats. I couldn’t let you sacrifice yourself for her the way you did for Daddy, not when you’ve just come home again. Not for someone I don’t even know.”

  The argument sounded no less poignant than when Brigit had made it. When she’d talked of sacrificing the lesser evil in the name of love.

  All the anger, all the bitter thirst for vengeance, emptied out of him as his sister threw herself into his arms and at his mercy.

  “I’m sorry, Giles,” she sobbed unashamedly. “I took their call to Emmett. I told them what they wanted to know. I can’t lose you again. I just can’t.”

  He set the shotgun on the lamp table so he could hold her close and whisper into her fair hair, “Don’t you see, Cori? Without her, I’m not alive. I’ll do anything to keep her safe.”

  Her grip tightened. “No! No, you won’t. I won’t let you.”

  He smiled at her absolute conviction. That was their daddy talking. “Yes, you will. You will because you love me and want me to be happy. I won’t be happy without her.”

  She slapped her hand against his chest and stepped back, her head tucked low. “Dammit, Giles. I’d better see you again.”

  He leaned down to kiss her brow. “You will. I promise.”

  She glanced up uneasily. “What if she holds a grudge?”

  Giles chuckled, the tension in his chest breaking loose. “Brig
it is the last one who’d ever fault you for trying to protect your brother. You’ll be great friends. You’re both strong and impossible women. I’ve got to go.”

  “Back to her?”

  The twinge of resentment in her voice softened his heart and made him smile as he stroked a hand over her hair. “Always.”

  Giles left the shotgun where it laid, a reminder of how close things had come to a different ending. He couldn’t look at his stepfather without inviting back the harsh confusion of lost respect and betrayal. Perhaps that damage could be repaired. If not, he would grieve over the loss for the rest of his life. He stepped around his sister, clutching her hand briefly in his, then strode out into the damp morning air.

  His mother waited at the bottom of the stairs, eyes fixed upon him, filled with anguish and fear. Then her frightened gaze darted to the doorway, flooding with relief when she saw Emmett standing there.

  “Good-bye, Mama,” Giles told her simply. “I’m sorry I brought you such heartache and disappointment.”

  She stood stiffly as he wrapped her in an engulfing hug and rested his cheek atop her graying crown. A huge sigh escaped him as he felt her tentative touch upon his shoulder. He pushed away, starting for the dock with no intention of looking back until she called after him.

  “Bring that girl of yours for a visit. I like her.”

  Giles’s smile broke wide. “I will.”

  Emmett had come down the steps to slip his arm about his wife’s shoulders. The rightness of that image took the bitter sting from Giles’s mood.

  It was what his daddy would have wanted.

  Maybe now they could both rest easier.

  Boyd was sitting on one of the pilings. “We heading back for New Orleans?”

  “We?”

  “Thought I’d go with you if you wanted the company and figured I’d be worth the trouble.”

  “Get in.”

  Boyd grinned. “’Sides, you’re gonna need somebody to drag Lou home kicking and screaming, ’less you’re fixing to let her burrow in permanent.”

  His wild cousin and Brigit under the same roof. It should have made him shudder in apprehension. He found himself smiling as he cast off the mooring ropes.

  Boyd plopped into the seat beside him. “Get things settled?” A hint of hesitation colored his tone.

  “Yes.”

  Surprisingly, they were. Giles left behind a place he could still call his home in his hurry to get to the future.

  Brigit slept most of the day away in the office of Cheveax du Chien. She hadn’t meant to. She had plans to make and little time to put them into motion. But the second she leaned back into the accepting leather folds of Jacques LaRoche’s couch, the decision slipped away from her.

  Her subconscious swirled with darkness and dread. Vague, disturbing dreams stalked her slumber. Dreams of unknown threat and endless running. Of faceless death and bottomless despair that somehow became the bedroom where she and Kendra clung together, listening to murder being done below.

  And in that dream, as in real life, Silas appeared to scoop them up and hold them close, steadying their world with his determined words.

  I will never let anything harm you.

  Only it wasn’t her brother’s voice.

  It was Giles’s.

  Brigit awoke with a soft gasp, momentarily disoriented. Her head throbbed meanly, making it difficult for her to open her eyes. She heard two voices, one Louella’s and the other, a child’s. They were discussing the odds of drawing to an inside straight. That unlikely topic made her think poignantly of her childhood with Silas and his fondness for cards.

  She sat up slowly. At first the two girls didn’t notice that she was awake, Giles’s cousin and Jacques’s daughter too engrossed in their animated game. They were gambling for the possession of a pot filled with hair clips and nail polish. A swift and heart-wrenching ache for her own absent cousin and the innocence of their happy youth speared through her. A time that would never come again.

  At least Silas would keep his word to Kendra. That would have to be enough to sustain her.

  She was suddenly aware of the child’s bright blue eyes fixed upon her with an unnerving stare.

  “He’ll see to his promise.”

  The girl’s quiet intensity alarmed her. “Who?”

  “Not your brother. The other one. The one from your dream with the kind eyes.”

  Giles?

  Brigit gaped at her. From her dream? How was that possible? A shiver stroked her skin.

  Louella smiled at her disconcertment. “Don’t mind Pearl. She says the strangest things. She can see the future. She’s told me everything’s all right at home, that I’m not to worry. But that’s just silly, because I know Giles would never hurt my daddy. And I’m fated to tame a ferocious monster, like in a movie.” She giggled with delight.

  Brigit found nothing amusing in the child’s unwavering gaze. Nor in her ridiculous predictions.

  No prince was coming to rescue Brigit MacCreedy from her foolishness. Not Silas. Not Giles. She’d be fighting her own battles from now on. No one else was going to suffer the fallout for her schemes or dangerous intrigues. Never again would she have to look into the eyes of someone she loved and see herself to blame for his misery.

  Giles had gone to take Emmett St. Clair’s life, and if that were accomplished, he would never recover from it. Nor would she.

  “Are they back yet?” she asked Lou in a deadened voice. The girl shook her head, puzzled by the worry clearly defined in her expression.

  You’re to blame. This is your fault.

  Brigit shrank from that memory of Giles’s last look. There was no reason to delay what had to be done. She had to move quickly before courage failed her.

  The floor of the club was rapidly filling with patrons. From the top of the stairs, Brigit could see Nica circling through the tables in her skintight black jeans and white tank top, her glossy black hair tamed in a heavy braid. Nica was abruptly snatched about the waist and tugged down onto a customer’s lap, where she melted into his lusty kiss. Brigit had to admit, despite her earlier doubts, Nica and her brother made a fitting pair.

  When Brigit stopped at his table, Silas glanced up, still laughing over some private joke, his possessive hand upon his wife’s midsection.

  “When are you leaving?” She didn’t bother with niceties, nor did she ask to join them.

  As Nica lifted from his knees, Silas replied, “I was just saying my good-byes.” His palm slapped against the denim-clad rump for a quick squeeze, earning him a scowl and a cutting glare toward Brigit before Nica headed back to the bar. To his sister, he said, “Sit.”

  Love for him mingling with heavy sorrow, Brigit clutched one of his hands between hers. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

  “No. I’m going to throw myself into danger so I don’t have to return to my wife and unborn son. Of course I’m going to be careful. It’s not the best timing in the world, but it is what it is.”

  “You’ve talked to Cale?”

  “No, to Bram.”

  Brigit swallowed down her trepidation. Bram Terriot, the leader of their clan. The one who had slain their parents and demanded allegiance in return for their lives.

  “Don’t trust them, Silas.”

  “I don’t trust anyone outside of this room. I’ve made it public that we’re meeting, so I don’t think he’d risk slitting my throat upon arrival. He might wait until after he hears what I have to say.”

  “Don’t joke.”

  His tight smile conveyed his lack of amusement with the entire situation.

  There it was again, the nagging impression that the Terriots’ response to her had been hugely blown out of proportion. “Silas, ask your prisoner why it was so important to kill me. There’s something more there. I know it.”

  “I will.”

  “Just see that Kendra’s safe. I’ll never ask anything of you again.”

  Silas’s smile took a cynical bend. “Until next
time.”

  There wouldn’t be a next time. He didn’t realize that yet.

  “When I get back, we’ll talk about the Guedrys,” he went on, unaware that the conversation would never happen, that it wouldn’t be necessary. “Perhaps now would be the right time to get both clans on board. I’d hoped to have Max involved. He’d lend a lot more weight to my words, but they’ll have to settle for me.”

  That was a nasty surprise. “Nica’s not going with you?” If she knew he had the cool-eyed assassin at his back, Brigit wouldn’t worry. Now she went cold with dread. “You’re going alone?”

  “I told Nica you’d keep her company, and Jacques and Giles are needed here. So it’s just me.”

  He was going into a bastion of evil unprotected while leaving his best resources here to guard her and his adopted clan.

  “Silas, if you get yourself killed, I will never forgive you.” Or myself.

  His smile warmed with genuine humor. “The thought of your disapproval alone will bring me back in one piece.” He finished his beer in a single gulp and stood. “Better get on the road.” He put an arm about her shoulders and leaned down to kiss her cheek with a warning: “Behave.”

  She caught him about the neck to keep him from straightening. “I love you, Silas. I don’t think I ever really knew how much.” Until now, when saying good-bye. “You deserve to be happy, and I can see that Nica’s done that for you. I’m glad you found her.”

  “Take care of her while I’m gone. She’d never admit that she worries.”

  “I’ll do everything I can to make sure she’s safe.”

  He gave her another kiss. “Thank you, Bree. I love you, too. More than I’ve ever let you know.”

  Knowing it now would make everything she had to do that much easier.

  Watching Silas stride across the room was like seeing their father off on one of his many causes. Silas had inherited that strength, that integrity. She watched him scoop his wife into his arms for one last long kiss, and it was like witnessing the bond between their parents, the kind of love she’d longed to experience all her life and now was leaving behind. The sooner, the better, for all concerned.