Cold Hard Secret (Secret McQueen) (21 page)

Aubrey Delacourte was the last man I wanted to have to deal with right now. Or ever again, if I was being honest. I had sort of hoped—with him being a true immortal and all—he might forget about the favor I owed him until I was long dead. If I could have put off hearing his name again until I’d been dead for five hundred years, that would have been swell.

“What about Aubrey?”

Cal let out a wavering breath. When she spoke next, her voice was firm and serious. “He sent his men to me tonight. He knew you’d been here, and he had a message for you.”

Was that all? A crazy fairy was sending his men chasing after me in interdimensional space to deliver messages? No biggie.

“And the message was?”

“He wants you to know he hasn’t forgotten you. He wanted me to tell you he’s coming. And he said if you don’t give him what he wants this time, you’ll pay in blood.”

I stepped into Brigit’s closet, though I wasn’t sure what I was trying to hide from. I was already separated from Holden and Sutherland by a whole room, though if they’d been super keen to listen in, they probably could have managed. I clutched the sleeve of a bubblegum-pink cashmere sweater and lifted it to my face. It smelled of Pink Sugar perfume, the candy-sweet scent Brigit had sworn by.

My eyes watered, and I blinked back the tears, struggling to stay in the moment.

Pulling the sweater down off its hanger, I clutched it to my chest.

So the fairy king was out for blood or favors.

I didn’t particularly want to give him either.

“Did he say when he was coming?” I glanced around the closet and considered sitting on the floor amongst the discarded purses, but thought better of it.

“It won’t be long now. If they’d come while you were still here, I wouldn’t have even had this opportunity. You must leave, Secret. Give yourself a chance to finish what you’ve started elsewhere. Once Aubrey has you…”

I waited for her to finish the thought, and when she didn’t, I supplied my own worst-case scenarios. “It’s going to be bad, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything when it comes to him, not anymore. I severed my ties with him. Where your future meets his, it’s all black.”

“Maybe it won’t be as grim as you think,” I offered.

“You have to run. This is my brother; we are of the same blood. If I tell you to go, you must go.
Please.
”

It was the
please
that did it. Calliope was the type to make orders, not requests. For her to be begging me to leave the city—something she hadn’t done when Peyton’s goon squad was out for my blood—meant it was serious.

I had to leave.

“Can you see Desmond?”

“I don’t like to look at the wolves.”

“I know. But I need you to do it now, because if I’m going, he’s coming with me, and I need to know he can handle it.”

“I dislike the idea of you having him with you at a time like this,” she replied quietly.

“I’m not going to die, Cal. I need you to tell me if he can handle it. Dominick and Lucas won’t admit it if I ask.”

After a thoughtful pause she said, “He will manage. But he isn’t where they claim he is. You’ll need to seek him from whence he came.”

“Just this once, with time being of the essence and all, do you think we could
not
talk in riddles? For my sake?”

Calliope snorted, and I could practically hear her eyes rolling. “He’s at his mother’s house. That was
barely
a riddle. I’m disappointed.”

“Don’t be. I’m actually going to take your advice for once. You should be thrilled.”

Although with advice like
don’t die
, it was pretty hard not to listen.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Penelope Alvarez had grown about a foot since the last time I saw her.

When she opened the door for me, her big eyes lit up with surprise, but instead of staring up at me, she now looked me right in the eyes. She was only thirteen, and if she kept growing at this rate, she would be taller than me before she could drive.

I was more relieved to note she wasn’t in the clutches of an insane fae who wanted to dismember her. Things were looking up in more ways than one.

“
Secret,
” she enthused, her grin spreading so wide I thought it might hurt her cheeks. “What are you doing here?”

Her greeting drew the attention of the remaining Alvarez family, bringing Grace, Desmond’s mom, as well as Dominick into the foyer. Dominick had inherited his mother’s stature and coloring, and the two short, blond Alvarezes stood side by side, regarding me uncertainly.

Dominick seemed ready to kick me to the curb, but his mother quickly shifted into hostess mode. “Secret, please come in. What a pleasure to see you.”

As I stepped into the hall, they spotted Holden on the front step, eyeing the house warily.

“Who’s your fri—?” Grace began, but Dominick cut her off.

“He’s a bloodsucker.”

It would have been nice if we could have gotten through the visit without resorting to name-calling, but evidently I wouldn’t be so lucky.

“Holden is safe, I assure you.”

“I can wait outside,” the vampire grumbled. “I don’t need to stir up any trouble. But let’s keep this snappy, shall we?” The last was spoken directly to me.

Once I had impressed upon him our need to be hasty, his natural first suggestion had been
leave the dog behind
. After I’d gotten it across that I had no intention of leaving Desmond behind, Holden had pouted on our whole drive over.

I’d already stopped at my apartment to grab my sword and a small travel bag, and we’d made a similar drive-by at Holden’s place, though his bag was larger than mine. Desmond was our last stop before we hit the airport in New Jersey, and I was sincerely hoping a polite phone call to Sig or, ugh, Lucas, would get us a plane on short notice. The custom BMW Z4 Lucas had given me was a sweet ride, but there was no way two vampires could hide anywhere in it during daylight hours.

Rather than argue about whether or not Holden should be allowed inside, I chose to keep my fights limited and stick to the only one that mattered. “I’m here for Desmond.”

“We talked about this,” Dominick said, moving to stand in front of his mother as if she needed to be protected from me. “How did you know he was here?”

I could have played coy or gotten mad at him for lying to me about Desmond’s whereabouts, but I chose the truth instead. It seemed like less hassle. “I asked the Oracle.”

“Handy,” he replied.

“What’s an oracle?” Penny asked.

“Never mind that right now. Let’s go put on some water for tea.” Mama Alvarez took Penny’s hand and pulled her towards the living room. Her smile was tight and more polite than warm. It pained me to be here putting such strain on her family. I had to wonder how much she knew about my situation with Desmond, and how that factored into her feelings towards me.

What a mess.

I guessed by saving Penny’s life I had a get-out-of-jail-free card as far as lectures went, but that would only get me so far. If I broke her son’s heart, I didn’t think she’d stay very nice to me.

“You thought you could just show up here and make Desmond come with you?” Dominick looked exhausted, and I doubted I was going to have to put up much of a fight. I would have rather not fought at all because I considered these people among the closest thing I had to a family, and I didn’t want to alienate them.

But I needed Desmond, and we needed to get the hell out of Dodge like…now.

Against any other foe I might have feared for the lives of the Alvarez family along with my other friends. But Aubrey wasn’t Peyton, and he wasn’t Mercy. He wanted something from
me
, and he had enough appreciation for how I operated to know coming at me through my loved ones wasn’t the way to make me cooperate. He might try something with Holden or Desmond, but I would have them with me.

Everyone else was still considered mine under vampire law. Sig would keep an eye on them, because if anything happened to them, it would be considered a direct affront to me. I still had some power in this town, and I was grateful to use it while it lasted.

“Shit is going to hit the fan soon, Dom. I need to take Desmond, and we need to go
now
.”

“Shit is always hitting the fan with you.”

“I’ll be sure to give a warning and some raincoats to the first three rows in the future. But I don’t have time to argue about it now.”

“You’re going to put him in danger again, aren’t you?”

“Desmond is a big boy, and you know he’ll want to come.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I can appreciate you wanting to protect him, I really can. And I don’t want to put him in danger. Danger just sort of occurs a lot in my general proximity. But I won’t let anything happen to him.”

“Like you didn’t let anything happen to him in Paris?” Dominick crossed his arms and gave me a hard stare that I think was meant to make me feel guilty. It was working.

“I brought him home alive.”

“And what about the time he took a bullet for you?”

Dominick meant well, and he was just trying to protect Desmond, but the reminder of Des’s near death at my wedding brought up a violent and particularly visceral memory of blood. Blood all over my hands, my dress, blood everywhere.

And with it came a flash of other blood and spilled innards, with Holden’s vampire brother Maxime stretched out, gutted like a fish. I got lightheaded and braced myself against the foyer wall. Taking several deep breaths through my nose, I closed my eyes to count, but in the darkness of my mind the visuals were much worse. The halo from the hallway lights was a ghost of the overhead surgery lights where I could still smell the antiseptic.

I could still feel the incision.

Dominick caught me as my knees buckled, and helped me back to my feet. He kept both his hands on my waist, clearly not trusting me to stand on my own. I was grateful, because if he’d let me go, I would have probably collapsed onto the floor.

“Are you okay?” All his former hardness was gone, and he was looking at me like a friend again. His worry was so apparent it almost made me feel worse than his guilt glare had.

“I’m so far from okay I would need a travel visa to get back to okay.”

Dom snorted and pulled me in close, wrapping me up in a tight hug. I hadn’t realized how badly I needed to be held with no expectations. I didn’t need to feel bad for not sleeping with Dominick like I did with Holden and Desmond, and that made the hug easy. I buried my face against his warm chest and breathed in deep. He had an earthy, wild smell to him that was something I recognized on most werewolves, but he also smelled like family.

“What are you running from?” he asked.

“I need to finish something I started a long, long time ago. And then I need to put an end to all the rest of the garbage that keeps making my life insane.” As soon as I’d spoken the words I knew I meant it. I wanted to be done with everything, all the madness and danger and all the crazy nonsense that had followed me over the years.

I was ready to try my hand at a normal life.

Or as close to normal as I could get.

Another pair of arms wrapped around my middle, and I jerked before Penny’s scent found me. “Why are we hugging?” Her question was delayed, given she was already snuggled up to us, but I liked it, so I didn’t complain.

“Secret needed a hug,” Dominick answered. “Pen, do me a favor and go wake up Desmond.”

“But you said I shouldn’t—”

“I know what I told you before. But I need you to do this for me, okay?”

“’Kay.” Penny withdrew from the hug and clomped up the nearby stairs. For such a skinny girl, she sure managed to make a hell of a racket. Grace stood in the doorway nearby, keeping an eye on us.

“You keep my boy safe,” she said finally, coming to stand near us. Though she didn’t join in the hug, she gave me a soft pat on the back.

“I won’t let anything happen to him.” I meant it, but the problem was it wasn’t a promise I was in control of keeping.

Footsteps creaked upstairs, and I stepped away from Dominick, my gaze following the direction of the sound. Desmond—fully human Desmond—appeared with Penny at the top of the stairs. He looked groggy and was sporting more facial hair than he ought to after only a day without shaving, but otherwise he appeared to be in good condition.

He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand and seemed to realize we were all watching him.

“What’s goin’ on?” Still dressed in black sweatpants and a light gray long-sleeved shirt, there was something very innocent in his appearance that made me feel bad for rousing him.

“Something has come up,” I explained. “We need to go.”

“I was supposed to rest.” He wasn’t really complaining. It was much like hearing a child ask for five more minutes in bed.

“You can sleep on the plane.” We’d all be sleeping on the plane once daylight broke. “But we have to get going.”

“The plane?”

“Yeah, we’re going to meet my
grandmere
, remember?” I hoped his brain wasn’t too fried after his forced stay in wolf form. He didn’t seem more out of it than I was upon waking up, though. “You think you’re up for another trip?”