What if it’s his brother?
Nope. No skin off my nose. It’s his problem, not mine.
The ringing goes on, and on, and on until he grabs his cell and pushes a button.
“What?” He shakes his head. “You want me to bring it now? Fine. Same place?” He drops me on the couch like I’m a sack of potatoes. Then he freezes.
“What?”
He stares at me, his nostrils flared. When he speaks, he doesn’t bother to hide his scalding fury. “Fine.”
He hangs up the phone and throws it across the room. I gasp when it shatters and falls to the floor in fragments.
“You got your wish,” he spits out.
“What?” What the hell is he talking about?
“They told me to bring you.” I stare at him, processing what he’s just said.
“Me?”
“I don’t take orders from people, Nicolette.” He takes a step toward me.
“Oh, believe you me, I know.” I stand my ground, hands on my hips.
“When I find out who this is, they’ll wish they never cornered me.”
“Of course. Naturally.” I swallow and stay right where I am. “When do we leave?”
My heart beats faster as he steps so close to me I can almost touch him.
“Right. Now. Let’s get this over with. Let’s put this behind us, once and for all.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Fabien
There’s no time for us to even talk, for me to even begin to explain shit to her.
I’m not sure it would make a difference if there was.
I tell Thayer we’re leaving. He knows what that means. While we go to the Baths of Caldane, he’ll make sure we have our team nearby.
If we ambush whoever took my brother, it won’t end well for us. We know this. But if there’s even the smallest possibility I can call them in, I sure as hell will.
“Nicolette.”
“What?” She clenches her teeth and permits me an icy stare.
“I don’t care that you’re pissed at me, you’ll fucking do what I say when we’re there. You know I wish you weren’t even here.”
“How interesting that a man like you doesn’t even wish I was here. You have no issue stalking me, prying into my personal life, then pretending our relationship is—” As if she said too much, she quickly clamps her lips together, shakes her head, and turns away from me.
We’re only minutes away from the Baths.
There’s no time to explain anything to her, and even if there was, I’m afraid that she wouldn’t listen. We can’t talk now, though.
I notice she has a bag over her shoulder.
“What’s in the bag?”
“The knife you gave me.” She looks out the window.
“You can’t take that with you.”
“Watch me.” Not making eye contact, she blows out a breath and shakes her head. “I won’t make it obvious, but I’m not going in there unarmed.”
If we were good—if we were real—we’d be having a long, long talk about the way this is going down.
Over my knee.
I want to shake her. Then kiss her. Then fuck her until there’s not the slightest hint of protest left in her.
But I can’t think of this now. We have to get the job done, or everything was in vain.
From the very beginning, I was determined to bring Lyam home safely. He’s assured me he is unharmed, likely because whoever has him knows the fallout of harming a member of my family directly. I would decimate entire cities for justice and revenge if they harmed a hair on his head.
“I don’t care that you’re pissed.”
“Obviously.”
“Enough.” I pull the car over with a jerk of the wheel and turn to face her.
“I know you’re angry. And we’ll work through this later. Right now, we’ve got too much on the line for you to pull this bullshit.”
“I’m not the one who pulled bullshit. God, I can’t wait for this to be over with.” Her voice catches as she goes to turn away from me, but I won’t allow her. Grabbing her chin, I force her eyes to mine.
“You listen to me,” I say in a low voice. “I know you’re hurt. But if we’re not a team right now, someone could get seriously harmed.”
Though she opens her mouth to protest, she quickly shuts it. I can only hope she listens to reasoning.
“Fine.”
God, what I wouldn’t give to spank the hell out of her and fuck every thread of resistance from her body right here, right now, in the back of this car.
I’m not a patient man.
“I’ll bring the talisman as instructed. They’ll give me my brother. That’s how it’s supposed to go. They’ll expect me to attack, which I have no intention of doing when I’m outnumbered and at a disadvantage. I have backup nearby, and our only plan today is to find out who did this.”
“Got it.” She gives me a nod.
Okay, good, we’re getting someplace.
“Then we leave. My backup will find who did this.”
“And you’ll get revenge. Peachy.”