Lucien went downstairs looking for Ryenne but she wasn’t in the house. In fact, she, Gavin, and Dany were gone.

“What do you mean, gone?” he asked his mother.

“I came out of the office as the three of them pulled away in the car,” his mother said.

“Where are they going?” he asked.

She shrugged.

Lucien went into the salon where Emma and Pascal were playing a board game with their daughters. “Do you know where Ryenne went?”

Emma looked up from the game. “No, but at least she isn’t alone.”

Lucien had to admit it was a positive in this situation. The only positive. Why had she left without telling him? She must have known he’d be annoyed. Which meant she probably went after the Fangs. “Putain.”

“Lucien!” Emma gestured toward the girls with her head.

He raised his hands in apology and backed out of the room. Pulling his phone from his back pocket, he called her. It rang. And rang. And went to voice mail. “Ryenne, what are you doing?”

Anger rose inside him. He wanted to toss the phone across the kitchen but knew it would only get him another scolding from Emma or his mother. And maybe a cracked screen. With their bank accounts frozen, he couldn’t afford a new phone.

Instead, he paced through the house in long strides. Past the office, up the stairs, on the back patio. If it were dark, he’d go out for a run in the Bois de Boulogne, but he wanted to be here when Ryenne returned or called in. Anyway, he couldn’t take the chance in broad daylight when they didn’t know how or when the Fangs would next strike.

About an hour later, Guy arrived and found Lucien outside in the backyard. “Are they back yet?”

Lucien shook his head. “Back from where?”

“Dany texted me that they were going to confront Grieux, but I was in a meeting. I tried calling but it went straight to voice mail so I came back here.”

“Grieux? Shit, what were they thinking?” Lucien growled.

“I don’t think they were thinking,” Guy said.

Lucien tried calling Ryenne again. Still nothing.

“This doesn’t feel right.” He pushed a hand through his hair before striding inside. “Should we go after them?”

“They can take care of themselves,” Guy said. “They’d both be pissed that we tried to come to their rescue if they don’t need it.”

Lucien nodded. Ryenne would be furious at the assumption she needed help. But this was the Fangs. Renardin was dead and the Malraux business was being destroyed. These rogues weren’t playing games. If Ryenne needed him and he didn’t help her, he’d never forgive himself, no matter how annoyed he was that she’d left without telling him and talked his sister into it, too.

“You’re right,” he said to Guy. “But I can’t stay here a moment longer doing nothing. Are you with me?” He loped to the door and pulled it open.

But before Guy could answer, the family car screeched to a stop in front of the house and Dany spilled out the passenger door.

He ran down the stairs to the car. “Putain,” he muttered, lifting Dany, cradling his younger sister to his body as he carried her into the house. Beyond noticing she wasn’t seriously injured, he couldn’t look at Ryenne. He strode into the dark interior, not waiting for her or anyone else.

“Pascal,” he yelled as he ran toward the salon at the back of the house. He deposited Dany on the couch and stepped back as both Pascal and Guy pressed forward.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Dany insisted.

Guy leaned into her arm and she whimpered.

Yeah, fine, Lucien thought. “What were you thinking?” he asked in a voice close to a roar, pacing by the end of the couch near her feet.

Emma had ushered her daughters out to the patio and stood in the doorway, anger and concern etched into her face. Their mother joined her in the doorway.

“We had to do something,” Dany said between gritted teeth.

Pascal examined her. “This cut on your head just needs to be cleaned. Luckily, it was superficial. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot, but it’s nothing. Your arm, however, is broken. I’ll need to get some things from the pharmacy to set and immobilize it.”

Maman stepped into the room. “I’ll clean her head wound while you’re gone.”

At her words, Lucien glanced toward her and saw Ryenne hovering behind his mother and older sister. He turned on her with a venom he didn’t realize he’d been hiding. “What the hell were you doing, going after those people on your own?”

Everyone scattered at his tone of voice. Maman to the kitchen, presumably to get towels to clean Dany; Pascal out the front door; and Emma out the back to be with the little girls. Only Guy stayed, dropping down to sit on the couch with Dany, putting her head on his lap.

And Ryenne, who stared back at him with a quivering lip. He was too angry to consider what the quivering lip meant, only to realize he’d never seen any part of her quiver before except with excitement and pleasure.

“You’re so stubborn and selfish, only doing what you want!” He tore at his hair. “Do you ever think of anyone else, Ryenne? Shit, you could have gotten yourself killed. Or turned. Did you think of that? And Dany now has a broken arm because of you.”

“Lucien,” Dany said from the couch, raising her good arm toward him. “It’s not her fault. I wanted to go. We couldn’t stand just waiting here for them to strike next. But it was like the Fangs were waiting for us. There were so many of them.”

Maman came in then with a bowl of water and some towels. “Shh. I’ll take care of the small cuts and the blood. You stay calm and let your body heal.”

“So instead of waiting around for them to strike next or for us to come up with a plan together, you two went off half-cocked. What did you expect? You went straight into Fang territory with no backup, nothing.”

“There were three of us,” Dany said in a small voice.

Lucien stared at her.

Ryenne made a whimpering noise he’d never heard from her before. He glanced up and looked all around the room. The anger slid off his face. “Where’s Gavin?”

Ryenne sucked in a breath and ran from the room. Lucien heard her feet pounding on the stairs.

He dropped down onto the floor next to the couch. “What happened to Gavin?”

Dany closed her eyes and a tear leaked out. “We don’t know. He didn’t make it out. Ryenne only left because I was hurt.” She took a few deep breaths. “Don’t be too harsh with her. She thought she was helping you.”

Lucien dropped his head into his hands. How was risking her life, along with Dany’s and Gavin’s, helping him? He lifted his head and watched his mother soothe away Dany’s pain with the damp towel and a few whispered words.

“We have to get him back,” he said.

Guy nodded. So did Dany.

“But not right now,” his mother said. “Call your uncle and tell him to come. Enough is enough. We need a plan that will end this.”