The Mistress

“I should have let you pass out.” Laila glared at him before smiling back.

“You should have,” he said. “But I didn’t so now you have to tell me why you’re blushing.”

“I’m blushing because...my uncle doesn’t know that I know he and my aunt broke up.”

“How did you find out? Did Nora tell you?”

“Their room is next to mine. I heard them talking.”

“What did you overhear?”

“Just talking.” He wasn’t sure he believed her. That blush of hers was so bright he wanted to put his sunglasses on. “She came to visit once and I overheard her saying something about leaving him, about him not telling us. He seemed to know she would come back to him. That’s why he didn’t let us know she’d left him.”

“She did go back to him.” Wes closed his eyes again. “He was right.”

“He’s always right.” Laila laughed a little. She had a good laugh—sweet and musical. “Wes? Are you awake?” Laila snapped her fingers by his ears.

“I’m awake. Dizzy. If Nora saw me now, she would kick my ass all the way back to Kentucky.”

“I don’t think she’d be mad at you.”

He nodded with his eyes still closed. She would be mad at him. Furious. God, how much he wanted her here right now yelling at him, telling him how stupid it was of him not to take five f**king minutes to eat something. He wanted her back so badly he’d sell his own body for it. Kidneys, lungs, anything he had to spare to get her back. Thank God for this little bout of low blood sugar. At least everyone would blame his shaking on that and not the truth that he’d simply never been so scared in all his life.

“I went into DKA while living with her. As soon as I was out of the hospital, she lectured me for a solid hour about how much I’d scared her, how I was never allowed to do it again.”

“It couldn’t have been that bad. You’re smiling.”

“It’s almost fun getting chewed out by Nora. I didn’t realize she cared about me that much until...you know, she thought she’d lost me.”

“They say you never know what you have until you’ve lost it.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s not true. I always knew what I had. I didn’t need to lose it to know.”

“What did you have?”

Nora, he thought but didn’t say out loud. Laila seemed to take comfort in the idea that Nora and her uncle were in love and back together. For Laila’s sake he’d keep the truth of his relationship with Nora to himself.

“I had my best friend, and I want to get her back again.”

“And we’ll get her back again.” The voice came from the doorway to the bathroom. Wes opened his eyes and saw Søren looking in. “No matter what it takes.”

“Are you sure?” Wes stared up at Søren from the floor.

“Yes.”

“I hope you’re right,” Wes said as he started to drag himself off the floor.

Søren held out his hand to Wes. He only looked at it before standing up on his own even as a wave of dizziness nearly sent him back to the floor.

“I’m always right,” Søren said. “When you’re ready, we’ll leave for the house.”

“Who’s we?”

“Me, Grace and you two.” Søren nodded at him and Laila.

“Not Kingsley?” Wes asked as the dizziness passed and his vision cleared.

“No.” Søren held out an arm and Laila tucked herself against his chest like a bird under a wing. “He’s already gone.”

17

THE QUEEN

I asked my husband to sacrifice himself for you.

Those were the words Marie-Laure left with Nora after their little bedtime story. The French bitch had said a jaunty, “Bonne nuit,” before curling up into bed and falling fast asleep. Nora had considered screaming at Marie-Laure or kicking her or something, but Damon stood as a mute menace, watching her. So Nora got as comfortable as she could despite the bonds on her wrists and the awkward position and had prayed with all her heart and all her soul and all her might that no one would die because of this woman and her bitterness and her obsession. No amount of reasoning or rationalizing could make sense of this madness, so Nora prayed only for a miracle.

And at dawn, she finally slept. She woke up to her hands numb from the rope and in a world without miracles.

Alone in the bedroom Marie-Laure had commandeered, Nora assessed her situation as calmly and rationally as she could. Marie-Laure was clearly off her f**king rocker. That was the calmest and most rational judgment Nora could muster about Søren’s ex-wife. No. Current wife. And to think Nora had been worried for the past eighteen years that the church would find out about her and she was nothing but a mistress. Wonder what they would do if they discovered he had a wife?

But...Nora tried to comfort herself as she watched the sun peeking over the windowsill. Søren hadn’t been a priest when he’d gotten married. And all the world considered Marie-Laure a dead woman. The marriage had never been consummated despite Marie-Laure’s attempts to seduce her husband. Surely Søren could get an annulment once all this was over. Or, even better, he’d be a widower.

Nora forced her mind away from all the vagaries of Søren’s marital situation. It didn’t matter. She was only thinking about that because it scared her a lot less than her real problem. She had to break that mindset. She couldn’t give in already. Marie-Laure had no qualms about killing people. She pushed a teenage girl off a cliff once. Having one of her boys put a bullet in Nora’s brain would be an even easier kill.