Ryenne rushed up the stairs, relieved not to meet any other Malraux on the way. Françoise and Emma wouldn’t even meet her eyes when she stood near them in the doorway between the kitchen and the salon. At least Pascal had given her a small smile of reassurance on his way out of the house. And Guy didn’t seem to hold anything against her, despite his girlfriend’s wounds. He was always so even keeled and jovial.

But Lucien...

She’d never seen him so angry.

And he was right to be angry with her. Ryenne had been a fool. A stupid, impatient, careless fool. Dany was lucky to have made it out of there with only a broken arm and some cuts and scrapes.

Because Gavin...

A strangled cry escaped her throat. Poor Gavin. Her best friend wasn’t a fighter. Was he even still alive?

Upstairs, she locked herself in the bathroom and turned on the shower.

This was all her fault. She had asked Dany to come and had failed to keep Gavin out of it. She had failed to keep him safe.

Undressing, she remembered what she had suffered at the hands of the Fangs a few months ago. But she was trained to fight and had been mentally prepared to die if she had to. And she’d had her mother’s shifter vaccine to prevent her from being turned.

Unfortunately, she had none left after today’s dose. She had only planned on visiting Lucien for a week and hadn’t expected to get into another war with rogues.

She stepped into the shower and turned the heat on higher, needing the pain, the punishment. She deserved every word Lucien had stabbed into her heart.

Now the Fangs had her best friend and she didn’t know if he could survive. What if they turned him? She shuddered. It didn’t matter. He’d still be Gavin, he wouldn’t become a rogue. The Malraux would help train him as a shifter and she would stand by his side.

At least he’d be alive.

She pounded her hands on the cool tiles. How could she have let them take Gavin?

There had been so many of them. Pouring out of the abandoned building as soon as she, Gavin, and Dany had crossed the yard. Almost as if the Fangs had been expecting them.

Could there be a mole among the Malraux?

She scoffed. They were family. None of them would work for rogues, none would hurt the others.

Guy wasn’t family. He was just Dany’s boyfriend. And he’d been out this afternoon when Dany and Ryenne had left the house. Dany had texted him their destination. He could have warned the Fangs.

No, she shook her head, water droplets flying from her hair. He loved Dany. Ryenne had no doubt.

Chantal wasn’t family either, and she knew Ryenne suspected the Fangs in recent events. Ryenne had seen Chantal’s boyfriend or whoever at Lord Enterprises today. He was a rogue and he could have stabbed Lucien last week. But Chantal didn’t know Ryenne would visit Lord today.

They must have had better security than Ryenne realized.

Shit, she’d been so stupid. If she’d been on a job, she would have checked for cameras, and Gavin would have hacked their system. They didn’t do anything today, they’d just shown up as if they thought the Fangs would roll over and let Ryenne rub their tummies.

Now, who knew what they would do to Gavin? Kill him. Turn him. Use him as bait to get to her or the Malraux.

Tears of anger and loss burned behind her eyes but she wouldn’t let them fall. She didn’t cry. Not since her brother had died.

Ryenne couldn’t believe she was going through this again. She’d almost lost Gavin to rogues at a shifter hunter convention in Las Vegas years ago when he’d been taken hostage. He’d come through it fine. He’d used his wits and managed to stay alive until Ryenne could get to him.

This time was different. In Vegas, there had been a handful of rogues and Gavin had been able to elude them for hours. This time, they were up against an entire corporation full of rogues who already had their hands on Gavin, who was in a foreign country, unable to understand the language, and unfamiliar with the players.

In Vegas, she’d been able to communicate with him. Now, she hadn’t heard from him since she’d left the Lord compound. Back then, she’d been working in her own country, in her own language. That wasn’t the case here in France.

If they killed him, she’d hunt down each and every one of them and make them pay.

Turning off the water, she got out of the shower and reached for a towel. She dried off then wadded up the towel, stuffed it against her mouth, and screamed.

She couldn’t lose Gavin. Not Gavin, too.

Alone in the bedroom, she noticed Lucien hadn’t come up to talk to her, to let her apologize. What if she’d lost him, too? The thought tore at her insides and made her want to scream again. She really cared about Lucien, and his entire family.

The realization hit her like being stunned by her telescoping cattle prod: she was falling in love with Lucien. Now that she might have lost him—lost his love, respect, friendship—she finally realized her true feelings. She was falling so hard for him and she might never get the chance to tell him.

On her way to the closet for fresh clothes, her eyes fell on the packet of letters Gavin had brought from her mom. The letters from the mysterious T.O. who wanted to share secrets about her family.

If she were home, she could have helped her mother through this situation, and Gavin would be safe. But she had thought the Malraux needed her help. They might not be safe now, but they wouldn’t have been any safer if she’d left on Friday when she was supposed to. The Fangs had targeted the Malraux long before Ryenne had come along.

She threw herself onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. She had let everyone down and she didn’t know how to make it better.

If only she could call her mom. Mom always made everything better. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t admit what she’d done; it was too terrible. And she didn’t want Mom to worry about Gavin, too. She’d call her when this was over.

In the meantime, she sent her daily message to let Mom know she was alive. Ryenne would have to wallow in her guilt all alone.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

Ryenne sprang up from the bed.

Dany, her left arm in a sling, stood in the doorway. “It’s going to be okay, you know.”

“No, it’s not okay. Everyone’s mad at me and they have every right to be.”

“Yeah, so what?” Dany came in and sat on the side of the bed. “They’re mad. They’ll get over it. They’re mad at me, too, but they’re my family and they love me so they’ll get over it. They love you, too, you know.”

The Malraux loved her? No way. She had seen the faces of Emma and Françoise earlier, and a few days ago when they blamed her for the attention of the Fangs. Maybe Lucien had loved her, but not anymore.

“Come on,” Dany said, reaching out with her good hand. “Come downstairs with me. I promise you it will be all right. You can’t hide up here forever.”

Ryenne would consider hiding. At least until she’d figured out her next move.

“You can’t get Gavin back by wallowing in misery up here,” Dany said. “Come with me.”

She had a point. Ryenne took Dany’s outstretched hand and walked downstairs with her. She had to face Lucien and his family eventually.

Her brash demeanor usually got her through every uncomfortable situation she’d ever experienced. Usually. This time, she was broken. If Dany hadn’t been holding her hand, she would have run back upstairs.

Dany practically dragged her out to the patio, where everyone had gathered for drinks. Mathieu had joined them and he stood to hug Ryenne.

“I’m so sorry about your friend,” he said. “We’ll do everything we can to get him back.”

Tears pricked her eyes again. “Thank you.”

Dany gave her a reassuring smile.

“Yes,” Françoise said from her seat at the table. “Gavin is one of ours, he’s an innocent, and we will get him back. The Fangs will just keep coming after us and we can’t let them. We will hit back. Hard.” She gestured to the empty seat next to her. “Come. You probably know the Fangs better than any of us. Help us formulate a plan.”

Surprised by Françoise’s change in attitude, Ryenne walked like a zombie to the empty seat and dropped into it.

“Right then,” Françoise said. “The compound in the eighth arrondissement has good security. It makes it hard to penetrate but it also makes it likely the Fangs are holding Gavin there.”

There were several nods around the table. Ryenne, too, couldn’t fault her logic.

“Any ideas on how to get in?” Françoise asked.

Mathieu began to rise from his seat, his mouth opening, but the doorbell interrupted whatever he was about to say.

Françoise frowned. “We’re not expecting anyone.”

“I’ll go,” Guy said. He was the largest and most intimidating of them all.

Lucien accompanied him, and Ryenne, not ready to be alone with the Malraux after the events of the day, followed. Guy got to the front door before Ryenne had made it out of the kitchen. He was fast for such a big guy. His body language slackened but there was wariness on his face.

Ryenne caught up to Lucien in time to see his facial expression go blank. She glanced to the door as Guy opened it wider.

Chantal stood there, darting nervous glances over her shoulder. “Can I come in? Please?”

Guy looked to Lucien, who nodded.

Chantal practically fell over her own feet trying to get inside before Guy changed his mind or before some unknown assailant grabbed her from outside. Once in the hall, she pushed the door closed and leaned against it.

“What are you doing here?” Lucien asked.

Chantal looked at Ryenne.  “You said you would help me if I told you the truth.”

Both men looked at Ryenne. “When was this?” Lucien asked.

“Yesterday. With Gavin.”  His name stuck in her throat.

He turned back to his ex. “What truth?”

Chantal swallowed. “The Fangs kidnapped my fiancé.”

“You have a fiancé?” Lucien asked.

Ryenne ignored him and the feelings his question stirred in her. Her own hurt was too raw to contemplate why he might still care what Chantal did and with whom. Instead, she offered her hand to Chantal. “Come outside and tell us what happened.”

Chantal nodded, took Ryenne’s hand, and walked with her to the patio where the Malraux family gave her a cool and curious reception. Emma’s face darkened and Dany lowered her eyebrows. Françoise stood and gestured to a chair, ever the gracious hostess. She said something in French to Dany, who filled two glasses with red wine and set them in front of Ryenne and Chantal.

Ryenne wondered which young woman Françoise preferred to date her son. Had she mourned the end of Lucien’s relationship with Chantal? Would she mourn the end of Lucien’s relationship with Ryenne?

She pushed the painful thoughts aside. They wouldn’t help Gavin. She told the others about the man who had been with Chantal at the restaurant when they met Renardin, and again at the club when Lucien was stabbed.

“I didn’t know he was planning to do that,” Chantal rushed to say. “But I didn’t have a choice. He drove me to the club that night. He’s been watching me, which is why I didn’t want to talk to you at work yesterday.”

“Who is he?” Dany asked.

Chantal stared at her hands, clenching and unclenching on the table. “His name is Patrick Grieux.”

A gasp went around the table.

“Grieux?” Françoise asked.

Lucien pulled out his phone and tapped on the screen. “Jean’s son. He works for Lord Enterprises, too.”

“He’s a Fang,” Chantal whispered.

“But how did you get involved with him?” Lucien asked.

“First, he started watching me,” she said, still not looking at anyone. “I’d see him across from my job, at the café where I stop for a coffee during breaks, in the metro station, at the grocery store on the corner near my apartment. Axel noticed him, too, and confronted him outside our apartment one night.”

“Axel is your fiancé?” Lucien asked.

Ryenne glanced at him. Did he still care?

Chantal nodded and stared at her hands.

Ryenne leaned toward her. “What happened? What happened to Axel?”

Chantal looked up and met Ryenne’s gaze. “Patrick grabbed Axel, twisted his arm up behind him, and dragged him to a car waiting down the street. I haven’t seen him since.”

Chantal’s voice broke and Ryenne felt a twinge of pain on Chantal’s behalf. If she were a touchy-feely kind of person, she’d put her arm around Chantal or hold her hand. Or something. But she wasn’t. It had already been out of character for her to offer her hand to Chantal in the entryway, which she’d done so they could get the full story. Now, Chantal’s story was spilling out.

The Malraux exchanged glances and waited for Chantal to compose herself enough to continue her story.

“The next day, they called me and said if I wanted to see Axel again, I would do them a favor. They wanted me to seduce Lucien.”

Horror coursed through Ryenne but she nodded to hide her true feelings from the others. She’d begun to suspect something like this when she saw how scared Chantal was the other day, but hearing it aloud was worse than anything Ryenne had been thinking. Chantal clearly hadn’t been trying to get Lucien back for herself. Glancing at Lucien, she was both amused and sad to see him blush.

“I didn’t want to do it,” Chantal continued, now looking at Lucien. “I had hurt you enough already, but Patrick called last week and told me to wear something sexy. He didn’t tell me why or where we were going. He picked me up and brought me to the restaurant where you were meeting with those two men.”

“Did you know the other men?” Ryenne asked.

Chantal shook her head. “Patrick made me sit there and pretend to eat dinner until you started to leave and then he told me to get up and talk to you.” She let out a long sigh. “I hadn’t seen you in years. I’m glad you’ve found happiness with someone else.”

Ryenne swallowed and kept her facial expression neutral.

“I’m so sorry for my part in all of this, but now that you know the truth, will you help me?” Chantal asked. “They haven’t let me talk to Axel for days. I don’t even know if he’s still alive. Help me get him back.”

Ryenne looked around at all of the Malraux and nodded. Emma and Dany seemed less pissed off than they had, and Dany melted further into Guy, maybe moved by Chantal’s story.

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Emma asked. “This could be a ruse.”

Chantal’s lower lip trembled and she scrambled for her phone. “Here are photos of me and Axel together. He’s real and we really are in love. We were planning to get married in the fall at a chateau near Chartres. His family is in Brittany and mine in Tours, so it made sense.” She shoved the phone toward Emma who took it and swiped through several pictures.

“Okay, he exists,” Emma conceded. “He could be a rogue or not really kidnapped.”

Chantal’s pretty face fell and tears leaked out of her eyes.

“You said Patrick called you,” Ryenne said. “Did you record any of the calls?”

Chantal shook her head and then her face suddenly brightened. “Wait. There was one time when he called during work and I couldn’t answer. He left a message and I saved it.” She reached for her phone and spent several seconds looking for what she wanted. “Here it is.”

A man’s voice came out of her phone. Ryenne couldn’t understand the words but the tone was brusque and the voice sounded young.

“What did he say?” she asked when the message ended.

“He said if Chantal didn’t try harder to distract me, they would send her one of Axel’s fingers as motivation,” Lucien said.

A silence followed his words. Ryenne felt bad for Chantal, but a small nugget of jealousy had taken root in her belly from the moment she had first seen Lucien’s reaction to his ex’s arrival.

Getting Axel back for her would solve one half of the problem, but she didn’t know how to solve the other half. Lucien had to decide for himself which woman he wanted and whether he could forgive Ryenne for her actions this afternoon.

Mathieu eventually broke the silence. “Now we have two people to rescue.”

“So, how do we get into Lord Enterprises?” Guy asked. “Brute force?” He cracked his knuckles as if for emphasis.

“There aren’t enough of us,” Françoise said. “We’ll have to use stealth.”

“Actually, I don’t think Gavin and Axel are being kept at Lord,” Mathieu said. “Chantal, please play the message again.”

She did.

Ryenne shook her head. She didn’t know what to listen for. She didn’t understand the words.

Comprehension dawned on Lucien’s face. “There are sounds behind the words,” he said. “But not the sounds you’d expect from the city.”

“Especially not from the area around Lord Enterprises,” Mathieu said. “They’re near the St. Lazare train station, but I don’t hear train sounds or traffic in the recording.”

“But he could be inside the building, on an upper floor,” Dany said.

“True, but there are noises,” Lucien said. “Bird song and wind through leaves.”

They listened again and all the shifters then heard it, the sound of the countryside, or at least the suburbs.

“So where are they?” Ryenne asked.

“That’s what we’ll have to find out.” Mathieu’s face shone with excitement.