One hour later, Ryenne, the Malraux, and their friend Martin, the Senegalese elephant shifter, stood around Mathieu’s workshop wearing special gloves, soaking darts and knives in the tranquilizer liquid Pascal had brought.

“How long do we have to wait?” Guy asked, bouncing on his feet and clearly itching for a fight.

“Just until it dries,” Ryenne said. “About five minutes. Not long.”

“Then let’s figure out our strategy,” Lucien said. “We’ll go through the woods to Grieux’s back gate. And then what? Will we all push into the house or will we divide up the labor in some way?”

Ryenne smiled at the way his mind was working. His directness had always attracted her. And he was right. Unlike how she’d gone about things yesterday, they needed a plan. This rescue had to work. They had to get Gavin out of there.

“The tranq darts can be used to take out the guards on the gate and anyone else we encounter on our way into the house,” she said. “We should all have some. I keep them in this leather pouch I wear at my hip.” She looked at Mathieu. “Do you have anything like this for the others?”

He nodded and pulled out leather pouches from a drawer and distributed them to each member of the team.

“The tranquilizer only works if it hits the bloodstream, but the pouches and gloves protect us in case of cuts or open sores on our skin. And keep us from getting punctured.” Ryenne glanced around the room. Everyone nodded. “I’d like to lead the team going into the house.”

The others nodded.

“Dany and I can stay outside to handle any other guards that wander into the backyard,” Françoise suggested.

Dany frowned at being left outside but it was smart. Her arm was better but not one hundred percent, and someone had to watch their flank.

“The rest of us will enter the kitchen,” Mathieu said.

Lucien nodded. “Then Guy, Martin, Ryenne, and I will go down into the basement. We don’t know how many Fangs will be guarding Axel and Gavin.”

“If you need help, you can yell up to us. Mathieu and I will be your backup.” Emma’s tone was hard and determined.

Ryenne was glad Emma had agreed to this mission. She was the one Malraux Ryenne was the least sure of. Ryenne had trouble reading her except when she was clearly annoyed. Emma owed Ryenne and Gavin nothing. Thankfully, she was being as supportive as everyone else in this endeavor.

They set out all the weapons to dry and went their separate ways for a few minutes. Emma and Françoise whispered in a corner. Dany and Guy kissed in front of the big fireplace. Mathieu sat in the middle of the room and closed his eyes. Lucien stood near the drying weapons, his face rigid.

“Thanks for helping me get Gavin back,” she said, wishing she could pour out her heart and make him understand how much she regretted her decisions the day before. How much she wished she could change everything. How much she cared about him.

He nodded. “Thanks for helping us fight the Fangs.”

Her heart stuttered. His face was still hard and he didn’t meet her gaze, but it was a start.

He reached out and she thought he would touch her hand. But he touched a dagger. The disappointment was crushing. She ached for his touch.

“They’re dry,” he announced. “Let’s go.”

Ryenne squared her shoulders. Right. Time to go. To end this standoff and bring Gavin home.

She loaded her pouch with darts, put her dagger in its sheath at her back, and checked the stun guns in each sleeve and along her side. She longed to take her sword, back on its shelf in Mathieu’s weapons showroom, but it wouldn’t be as useful to her tonight. It was too long and bulky to carry through the woods and it didn’t seem like the ideal weapon to use in a basement.

Dany smiled at her. “Ready?”

“Ready. How’s your arm?”

“It’ll do.”

Ryenne was glad Dany would be standing guard outside. Hopefully, it would keep her out of danger unless absolutely necessary.

Emma kissed her husband goodbye and they left Mathieu’s house by a back door and went into the approaching night. They melted into the woods of the Forêt Domaniale and set off at a brisk jog. The Malraux, Martin, and Guy quickly outpaced Ryenne. She slowed with a grunt of annoyance. Keeping up the pace would tire her too much to fight off rogues.

Mathieu appeared out of the trees ahead of her. “Sorry about that,” he said, his voice gruff. “We forgot you’re not a shifter.” He turned his back to her and crouched. “Climb on.”

Ryenne recoiled. “Uh, no.”

“Ryenne, we don’t have time to argue. Please, climb on my back so we can meet the others. There’s no point in you arriving at Grieux’s out of breath and too tired to lead us into his basement.”

Ryenne huffed out a breath. Mathieu made a good point. She’d have to put her pride aside for the sake of the mission. “Fine.”

Settling herself on his back, her arms wrapped around the huge man’s neck, she tried not to feel like she was five again. But a memory of her father giving her a piggy-back ride slammed into her as she bounced up and down through the forest. For a few seconds, she was a little girl again, her blond hair flying behind her, giggling and screeching with delight. And her father was alive.

Then they caught up to the others and she forced the memory away as she slid off Mathieu’s back. Her father’s fight against the rogues who had killed Cody had ended in tragedy; Ryenne wouldn’t let history repeat itself. Tonight, her determination and training would prevail.

The Grieux property was within sight. A typical two-story stone house, it fit its idyllic surroundings. The external shutters on the windows had already been closed against the night, and all was silent.

She felt a moment of doubt. The house looked abandoned. But Lucien and Mathieu had checked it out earlier in the day, and the grounds had been crawling with guards. An abandoned house didn’t need guarding.

The Malraux stood behind a line of trees, checking weapons and waiting.

The familiar tingling came to Ryenne’s stomach as it always did before a new job. She ignored the queasiness and adjusted her dart pouch and dagger. Sliding a stun gun from her sleeve into her hand, she looked through the trees to their target.

“Ready?”

Lucien’s voice so close to her ear made her jump. Letting boldness overtake her in preparation for their attack, she leaned up and kissed his lips, gently, barely a touch. “Yes,” she said, as if she didn’t want to grab him and pull him behind a tree and tear his clothes off. “You?”

He looked at the ground, bit his lip, then met her gaze. “Look, I’m sorry for yelling at you yesterday. I... you...”

She nodded. “I know.”

“Do you?” His intense gaze burned through her.

“I was wrong. I’m sorry for putting you through it.”

He dropped his gaze from hers and stepped away. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Okay. Let’s go.”

She thought he might have been about to tell her words she hadn’t known she wanted to hear until yesterday, but they were too important, and now wasn’t the time. And if he didn’t say them, she’d be crushed. She couldn’t lay her emotions bare right now, not when she needed all of her physical, mental, and emotional strength focused on this mission.

The group gathered behind Mathieu and Lucien and surged toward the gate. No one guarded the narrow wooden door set in stone from this side.

Ryenne stepped forward and knocked on the door. The others melted away to either side. Ryenne fluffed out her hair and cocked a hip.

The door opened a crack. “Oui?”

“Hi,” she said in a bright voice. “I’m here to see Patrick. He’s expecting me.” It didn’t matter if the guard understood English or not. Even his confusion would give them a chance.

The door opened wider and she pushed against it, aided by Lucien. The surprise was enough that the guard stumbled back. Ryenne shot her stun gun into the first guard’s chest. They all ran into the yard as he slumped to the ground.

On silent feet, each Malraux targeted a guard and took him or her down with their natural abilities, followed by a round of tranq darts to keep them knocked out longer. They dragged them into a pile under a tree, where Françoise and Dany gagged them and used plastic ties to secure their hands behind their backs.

Ryenne handed Dany her telescoping cattle prod. “In case any of them start to wake.”

Dany nodded, and she and her mother crossed their arms over their chests and took up defensive positions, one near the gate and one fifty feet away near the kitchen door.

Ryenne and the others continued to the house, led by Lucien. The door opened easily and they all entered the empty room. Lucien nudged open a door on the far side of the kitchen, where they could all see light coming from a room at the front of the house. An archway to the right led into a pantry and another to the left opened onto a hallway leading to a formal dining room, empty and dark at this hour.

The basement door had a chain across it, which Guy released. He, Martin, Lucien, and Ryenne stalked down the stone steps, this time with Guy in the lead, leaving Emma and Mathieu in the kitchen. Cold and dank, the basement was unwelcoming and silent. Ryenne’s stomach twisted at the thought that Gavin could be here in this awful place, cold, hurt, and abandoned.

At the bottom of the steps, darkness yawned. Ryenne would have to trust Guy’s and Lucien’s shifter senses because she didn’t dare turn on a light or use the flashlight app on her phone until they knew what waited for them.

Lucien took her hand and steered her in one direction and she felt more than saw Guy and Martin leave in another direction. They stopped and Ryenne’s foot kicked against something hard. She reached out her hand and found another door. She felt for a handle or knob. Heaving on the door and pulling on the handle accomplished nothing.

Panic threatened to rise within her at the loss of her sight and even power.

“Stand back,” Lucien whispered. His warm breath on her ear centered her. She wasn’t powerless. She wasn’t trapped.

A scraping sound came to her with a rush of wind.

“I don’t smell any shifters,” Lucien said. “It’s safe to use a light.”

He used his phone to light up a room beyond the door. Now, she could see an old-fashioned metal key hanging from a lock she hadn’t found in the door. The room was bare and even colder than the rest of the basement.

Pulling out her own phone, she used the flashlight app and trained the light on each wall in turn. At the far wall, she gasped. “Gavin!” He and another man, both shirtless, bloodied, and bruised, were chained to a stone wall.

She ran to him and lifted his hands, looking for a way to free him. “Are you okay?”

He blinked in the light and she lowered her phone. Lucien went to the other man. “Are you Axel?”

The man nodded.

“Ry?” Gavin asked in a hoarse voice.

“I’m here,” she said, her own voice cracking. What had they done to him? She wished they’d thought to bring water and medical supplies, but they’d been focused on finding Gavin and Axel, and hadn’t thought about the next steps. “We have to get them out of here. Pascal will patch them up. Guy!”

“Not so fast,” a voice said from behind her.