Unleashed by Shadows (By Moonlight Book 10) (18 page)

And he was a Terriot, one of the brutal ogres who ripped her pampered life to pieces then broke Kendra’s already crumpled heart by turning his back on her pain. The very last thing she’d ever wanted to hear was her sheltered cousin sighing, “I’m so in love with him I forgot how to breathe.”

Brigit would have preferred killing him to welcoming him into the family. Until he’d gone and proved himself to be worthy of her cousin’s love. More annoying was the fact that she had grown fond of him. She’d saved his life and in return made him promise that she’d never regret it. She’d begun to fear she was about to.

What had he done now?

While Kendra clung to her rather desperately, Cale murmured something about getting ready for work and made himself scarce in the bedroom. Brigit looked about to exclaim, “Have you found Sodom and Gomorra?” The fact that her cousin didn’t laugh alarmed her.

“Cale’s trying to keep himself and his brothers under the radar.”

“Oh, I get that. By moving into the big tent of a circus and jumping through flaming hoops in the center ring. Nothing to see here.” She moved through a gaudy room so ripe for depravity she had to squint her eyes. Gaze catching on a silky garment, she lifted the remains of Kendra’s pajamas and arched a brow.

Kendra snatched them away, blushing furiously. Her glare dared her to make something of it.

“So where’s the rest of the happy family? Sleeping with hookers or just reeling home from the clubs?”

“I haven’t seen them this morning. It’s early.” A pointed look. “Especially for you.”

“My hubby had a breakfast meeting here in the city. I had him drop me off. So you’d better appreciate the extra effort it took for me to look this effortlessly attractive.”

“Your husband.” After a meaningful pause, Kendra added, “Congratulations on your marriage. Silas told me.”

There it was, that quiet, near fatal cut, because Brigit had excluded her from the most important event in her life.

“Kendra.”

“Oh, I understand. No need to explain. Silas did that for you, too. It was a hurried affair. I wasn’t there for his so why should I have expected to be there for yours.”

Oh. Hell.

Brigit’s instinctive move to embrace her was waylaid by Cale’s reappearance. Kendra rubbed at her eyes and turned to smile at him. Brows lowered suspiciously, he came to slip an arm about her shoulders, pulling her close to kiss her temple. Sheltering, gentle. Brigit decided to hate that about him this morning.

“I gotta go, baby. You okay?”

When she pressed her face into his shoulder and nodded, he engulfed her with a heart-twisting tenderness, making Brigit doubt the dissension she’d sensed in earlier conversations. Until he glanced up, features solemn as a head stone.

“Bree can help you pack your things and take you to Savoie’s without anyone seeing you leave.” He looked to Brigit for confirmation, relieved by her quick nod. “Is Savoie back?”

“In a few days,” she answered. “I’ll take her.”

He buried his lips in the tousled blonde hair and whispered huskily, “Go now. I need you safe.”

He tried to straighten, but Kendra caught his face between her hands. Her voice faint, she demanded, “What about you?”

“I’ll be fine, mama. Don’t worry about me, and don’t give me any reason to be worried about you. All right?” He searched her expression intently. “Kendra?”

“All right.” She lifted up to kiss him, the gesture becoming a lengthy demonstration. Concluding with a quiet vow. “I love you, Cale. I would forgive you anything.”

Brigit couldn’t mistake the sudden stiffening of his features. Her neck prickled protectively. What had he done?

Kendra watched him go, her heart in her eyes. After the door closed, she drew a purposeful inhale and turned to Brigit, her earlier testiness forgotten. “Help me. We need to hurry.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.”

“Tell me.”

She wavered, almost buckling then was strong once more. “Later. Let’s just go.”

Brigit followed her into the bedroom where the scent of lots of sex struck as potently as the wall color. Kendra tossed a bag on the bed and started pulling clothes out of the closet, leaving Cale’s hanging alone. Brigit started with a dresser drawer only to stop and stare. She lifted an item between thumb and forefinger.

“What exactly do you do with this?”

Kendra snatched it from her without a blush. “Use your imagination.”

“I tried, but I started picturing Cale and . . .” She broke off with a shudder. Eying the rest of the drawer’s contents, she asked, “Did you host some kind of home party and not invite me? I would have enjoyed seeing the demonstrations.”

Kendra shoved her aside to scoop up the inventory and dump it in her bag. “We’re adults. And what we do is none—” The rest fractured and fell away. And suddenly, Kendra was in her arms, trembling fitfully as she cried, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

Brigit hugged her tight, exclaiming, “There’s no place I’d rather be. Let’s finish up and get you tucked in safe and sound.” On that, she and Cale could agree.

*

Things were not right with the Terriot king.

Cale knew it before the reactions of others confirmed it. Wound so tight his insides trembled, he responded to the greetings of his co-workers with a growl instead of a grin. By midmorning, all steered clear of him, fearing his warning rumble would precede a sharp bite. His eyes hurt. Even his darkest glasses couldn’t ease the ache. His system knotted in a near agonizing demand for sustenance. Not for food or drink or rest. But for something he refused to provide.

T-Ray pulled him aside when the others broke for lunch. Leaning back in the shade of a shipping container, the other regarded him and frowned.

“What’s up with you, friend?”

“Under the weather, I guess.”

“That what it is? Some rain cloud of misfortune turning you into a right ornery sonofabitch? Or is it something else?”

Before Cale could stop him, T-Ray reached for his sunglasses, leaving him squinting like a mole above ground.

“Aw, man. What the hell are you doing, Mick? I thought you was a smart boy.”

Restoring his glasses, Cale scowled but embarrassment had him turning away.

T-Ray heaved a regretful sigh. “Heard some talk but didn’t want to believe it.”

“What kind of talk?”

“That you was mixing it up for Casper Lee.”

Cale swiveled toward him, ignoring the hard cramping protest the move cost him. “What do you know about Lee?”

“Was a kid here 'fore you started. Boze Reading. Good kid. Lots of stupid ambition. Ended up dead.”

Anger and uneasiness twisted through Cale. “Overdose?”

“Yeah, of blunt trauma to his stupid head. Lee, he comes down here trolling like a pimp, reeling in them that thinks he can get them a better slice of the pie. All he gets them is dead. No matter what you think you’re gonna get from your deal with Lee, it won’t be coming out on the other side alive.”

“Tibideaux okay with this going on during his watch?”

“Oh, hell no. Tib, he be a straight arrow. He finds out one of his has the Black-eyed Shakes, they’re done here.”

“So if not here through him or his crew, how’s the stuff coming in?”

T-Ray glanced about carefully. “Word is, through legal channels.”

“The law?”

“Hush. We ain’t supposed to be talking about such things or we’ll be sharing a dumpster.”

Cale lowered his voice to a taut whisper. “The NOPD is running drugs on the docks? I don’t believe that.”

T-Ray’s features firmed. “You’d better. They be working with some hot shit outta the West, frying these here good boys’ brains up like pork sausage on a Sunday griddle.”

“Out in the open? I can’t believe Philo hasn’t caught on.”

“Naw. They mostly work outta a pussy parlor called Maisy J’s over in Algiers. You stay the hell away from there. You need a pinch of something to keep you even, I can get that for you.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine.”

“Hell, you’re rattlin’ around inside like a possum in my grandmere’s kitchen.”

Temptation swept over him, clutching in his belly, kinking through his veins. Gritting his teeth, he muttered, “I’m good.”

A sad smile. “Sure you are. They all think that until they eat a bullet or rip the guts outta their girlfriend. You take care, Mick, that doan end up being you.”

*

Isolated out on historic River Road between rice fields and swamplands, Max Savoie’s massive old plantation house sat decaying, surrounded by high walls and high tech surveillance. Part of Kendra’s anxiousness fell away the moment the heavy iron gates closed behind Brigit’s sporty rental. The rest would disappear when she had Cale safely within to keep her company.

“Let’s get you settled in Cale’s room.” Brigit started up the graceful curve of the stairway at the end of the wide entry hall. At Kendra’s puzzled look, she added, “Most of his things are still here. He left in kind of a hurry.”

Something she’d never had explained by the source. “Did he wear out his welcome?”

“Along with a pint of blood over there by the study doors.”

When Kendra drew up in alarm, Brigit realized she’d crossing into sensitive material. “He didn’t tell you any of this?” At the shake of her cousin’s head, she sighed. “Men and their secrets.”

“Will you tell me, Bree? I can’t help him if I don’t know what he’s involved in.”

“Let’s get you settled in first, and then we’ll find a nice Chablis and pull the cork on whatever you need to know.”

*

A prudent glass in, Brigit’s tongue loosened.

They lounged on comfortable veranda chaises, looking out over a patchy lawn, erratically trickling fountain, and overrun rose garden. The cool stickiness of the noon hour softened into a light breeze as afternoon shadows lengthened.

“Silas brought him here to go undercover with him, Nica, and Charlotte Caissie. They needed someone unrecognizable, an outsider they could trust.”

“And they trusted Cale?”

“More than you know or he’d ever believe. With their lives. And mine.” At Kendra’s sharp look, she added, “When we told you about my little car accident . . . it wasn’t an accident. Someone ran us off the road into the swamp.” Before her cousin could express her shock, Brigit added, “Cale got me out before the car went under water. He saved me and this little guy.” Her palm rubbed over her belly as her eyes got glossy. “I will love him for the rest of my life for that.”

“Who did it?” Kendra asked faintly.

“We don’t know. One of the Guedrys trying to erase the threat of this baby. Someone who thought Max and Cee Cee were inside.” She shrugged eloquently.

“What’s he doing for Silas? How afraid should I be?”

“Cale’s here after James. Silas is trying to bring down the players involved in a fight ring. Max is after the heartless monsters from the North who stole his memories. You should be very afraid because he isn’t, and he should be.”

“And the scars on Cale’s hand? Who put them there?”

She listened in silent horror as Brigit described the events played out in the hallway surrounding Max’s mysterious visitor, his mother’s sister Genevieve, an icy-blooded elitist from the North who’d stripped Max of his past in an attempt to bend his will to hers. A situation ending badly when she came face-to-face with one of the Terriot clan whom she held responsible for the decimation of her family.

“I didn’t know females of our kind could shift.” Brigit’s tone conveyed her shock and wonder. “If I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it now. She was on Cale before any of us could blink. He barely escaped. Max kept her from going after him.”

“What happened to her? Is she still a threat?”

“She promised she would be. From what I’ve managed to twist out of my brother, which wasn’t easy, they think she developed the chemicals they’re lacing into that drug, Kick, as a way to manipulate our kind.”

“And this is what Cale’s gotten involved in?” Her face had gone nearly bloodless.

“Just the tip of the iceberg, I suspect.” Brigit reached out to squeeze her hand tightly. “I’m afraid for him, Kendra. He acts like a man who has nothing to lose. At first, I thought he was trying to prove something to Silas.”

“No,” Kendra corrected quietly.  “To himself. And to me. The sins of the father. He’s trying to atone for them all.”

Brigit scoffed at that. “Bram Terriot was a bully and a brute. I used to think Cale was just like him, but I was wrong. When Cale tossed his crazy ass out and refused to become just like him, he made everything right in my book.”

“Then why isn’t he at home taking care of that crown he wanted so badly? Why is everything he’s told me a lie?” Kendra’s voice shattered, crumbling just like her hopes and dreams.

And, as always, Brigit came to the rescue.

“It wasn’t a lie, Kendra. He’s here to make things safe for us and the next generation we’ve started. He could have stayed up on your mountain out of harm’s way, protecting his own and letting the rest of us go to hell. That’s the Terriot way. But he’s smart enough, just like Silas, to see that the problem here is everyone’s problem, and it isn’t going to go away unless someone stands against it.”

“Why does it have to be him?”

“Because he’s strong enough to bear the burden of what he has to do. He always has been. That doesn’t make him a liar. It makes him a hero.”

“I thought I was your hero.”

The low, gruff voice brought a look to Brigit’s face Kendra had never seen before. Bliss.  Utter, complete bliss.

“You are, honey bear, and you know it,” she purred, reaching out for a huge paw of a hand to draw it to her lips.

Giles St. Clair wasn’t what Kendra expected. She’d seen the endless parade of her cousin’s suitors. Rich, pretty, well-mannered, impeccably groomed and garbed. Easily manipulated. St. Clair was nothing like them. A rugged mountain of a man, he was older than Kendra imagined, with square-jawed pleasant looks, congenial smile, and easy manner. Brigit described him as comfortable as an old couch. His mild gaze revealed a shrewd intelligence. And there, she saw the appeal for her flighty cousin. Here was a man who could ground her with his solid presence and hold firm against her tempest winds. And Kendra liked him immediately, her best friend’s human husband.