[Southern Arcana 2.0] Crossroads (27 page)
“It’s not fair.” Her throat flamed, raw with anger and misery. “It’s not
fair
.” Nothing in Michelle’s life had been, but this would be torture, for her to glimpse a future with Aaron only to have it snatched away.
“It’s not.” For once, her father’s normally even voice held true pain, as if he could keep it at bay no longer. “Nothing in our world is fair, and it should be. It’s my job to make it that way.” It was his job to make it bearable.
Fair
was beyond any of them. “Oh God, what do we tell Michelle?”
“Shh. I’ll tell her. You just need to be there for her.”
The door behind them clicked shut, and Ochoa’s voice echoed in the quiet hallway as he whispered to Enrica. “They’re taking Conrad downstairs to meet the medical team. I don’t think the bullet hit anything vital.” He hesitated. “There’s nothing else to be done.”
Nothing for Aaron, he meant. Nothing for her sister. Nick bit her lip until it bled. “I want to go home, Dad. I want to be with Michelle.”
150
Crossroads
***
At least one good thing had happened.
Penny continued to outline the status of their current projects, and Derek let her voice wash over him.
The phone call was nearing the thirty-minute mark, but Penny’s enthusiasm showed no signs of flagging.
Twelve hours as a full partner, and she’d already cleaned up a week’s worth of messes. Her determination was comforting.
Exhausting, maybe. But comforting.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Derek grinned, glad she couldn’t see him. “Yeah, boss. Though I don’t have a clue how you’re still talking coherently. Did you sleep at
all
last night?”
“I’ve got two preteen sons and I work full time. Do you think I ever sleep?”
“Point taken.” A knock sounded on the door, and Derek rose. “You don’t have to check this shit out with me, you know. We trust you. It’s not like you haven’t been running the place for the last two years anyway.”
“Maybe I don’t like the idea of you sitting alone in your house and brooding,” Penny retorted. “It’s not healthy, Derek. You’re going to turn into Alec.”
“Ouch. If it makes you feel better, I’m pretty sure he just showed up on my doorstep.”
“Yeah, that’s great, because what you need is encouragement.” Derek was still laughing when he pulled open the door. Alec stood on the porch, facing away, but the tense set of his shoulders and the uncomfortable prickle of magic boded nothing good. Derek’s stomach twisted as Alec turned.
Cold eyes. Dead eyes. Derek had seen Alec filled with rage, determination, annoyance and disdain, but he’d never seen the man look so utterly fucking bleak. Lead settled in Derek’s stomach, but he couldn’t tear his gaze away from that frozen stare. “Penny, I’m going to have to call you back.”
“Derek, what’s—?”
“I’m going to have to call you back,” he repeated dully, then disconnected the phone.
For one endless moment neither of them spoke. When Alec finally did, the words filled Derek with dread and the tiniest thread of hope. “Pack a bag, Gabriel. You’re going to New York.” www.samhainpublishing.com
151
Chapter Twenty
Nick pulled open the door and leaned against it. “Come in, Luciano. I’m sorry I called so early—”
“I’d have come anyway, even if you hadn’t called.” He looked perfectly put together in his dark slacks and sweater, as if their world hadn’t exploded before eight a.m. “How’s Michelle?”
“Honestly, I can’t tell.” She’d cried, and her sporadic flares in magical power had left Nick with a blazing headache. Then, after only an hour, Michelle had fallen quiet. “She was a mess for a while, and now she’s…I don’t know.”
He nodded, his dark hair falling over his forehead. “How can I help?”
“I asked her to call you.” Michelle stepped into the foyer, and the temperature seemed to drop. She’d washed her face and pulled her hair into a severe knot, every strand smoothed into place. Nick had seen her fake composure before, but usually some hint of emotion bled through. Now she was cold. Hard.
Luciano looked away. “You don’t know how terrible I feel about what’s happened, Michelle.” The chill in the air intensified and then disappeared altogether with another surge of power. “Thank you. But I don’t have the luxury of grief. I have a child that most of our society would rather see dead than alive.”
Another spike of magic ripped through the room. Nick had to steel herself against it, and she still almost staggered.
Even Luciano frowned uncomfortably. “I’ll do anything I can to help. You both know that.” Michelle fixed her gaze on him for several seconds, then turned sharply. “I’ll take advantage of your kindness. If you’re not prepared for that, you should leave. Otherwise I’ll be waiting in the sitting room.” Luciano looked at Nick, but she could only shrug. “I have no idea what she’s talking about.” He bent his head close to hers. “Have you talked to your father yet? About what you’re going to do now?”
“Not yet. There hasn’t been time.” The last two hours had been a blank jumble. “He dropped me off and went back to handle things, but who knows what’s going to happen.” His gaze was fixed on the doorway to the sitting room. “If Hoffman and Ochoa are scared Michelle will retaliate—”
“I know.” It had become the worst-case scenario, the eventuality Nick could barely let herself consider. “But they have to take responsibility for losing control of one of their own. I’m not letting them gloss over what happened to Aaron.”
Crossroads
When they stepped into the sitting room, they found Michelle seated on the edge of the loveseat, her hands folded in her lap and her posture rigid. She watched as they each took a chair. “Nick, you’re not going to like any of this but, considering the life I’ve led up to this point, I hope you’ll understand how badly I need to have some control over what happens to me next.” She bit back her protests and nodded slowly. “I’m listening.”
“I’m not going to be allowed to live on my own,” Michelle said, her voice flat. “They want someone they can trust watching my every move. Someone with familial loyalties.” She nodded to Luciano. “They would have gotten that if you’d married Nick. You would have been responsible for making sure I didn’t cause trouble, even if they pretended I was in Nick’s custody.”
“More than likely.” He leaned forward. “If you’re worried about whether I can still do that, don’t be.”
“And if I asked you to marry me instead of Nick?”
He flinched almost imperceptibly. “I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I.” Nick rose and walked over to kneel beside Michelle. “How would you ever convince the Conclave to go along with this? They’re expecting a marriage that will yield money, prestige
and
children.” The words hung in her throat, raw and painful, but she forced them out anyway. “You know they are.”
Michelle’s cold eyes found Nick’s. “There are three of them left. Hoffman and Ochoa want to blame Enrica.” The tiniest crack appeared in her sister’s icy demeanor, along with another one of those stomach-roiling swells of power. Michelle forced her expression into utter blankness again before turning her attention to Luciano. “Do you share your mother’s ambitions for your future?” He was shaking his head before she finished the sentence. “No, I don’t.”
“Marriage to me would satisfy the Conclave’s need to punish your mother by destroying your chance to take her seat on the Conclave or become Alpha someday, and it would put me under their thumb.” Michelle touched Nick’s cheek. “You’d be free, because they’ll never consider this a wrong done to me.
They made a bargain with you and broke a bargain with you. You can use their absurd customs against them.”
It was the first glimmer of hope she’d had in weeks, and Nick’s first instinct was to grab it and not let go. She hated herself for it. “And if it doesn’t work?”
“You’ll make it work,” Michelle whispered, the confidence in her voice unwavering. “You don’t want to be a part of this life, but you’re strong enough to face them. Help me make a life I get to choose. If Luciano is willing.”
He sat, pensive and still, and watched them. “I’ll do it.”
Michelle dropped her fingers to Nick’s hand, clinging to it with a desperation that belied her calm exterior. “Don’t agree until you’ve heard me out, Luciano. What I’m asking is unreasonable and selfish.”
“I understand.” He smiled wanly. “I know how things are, Michelle. I’ll do it.” www.samhainpublishing.com
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Moira Rogers
Something quiet seemed to pass between them, an unspoken moment of understanding. Michelle returned her hand to her lap and laced her fingers together. “They can’t think you’re doing this to help me, or they’ll never agree to it. I’ll speak to my father. My inheritance is rather spectacular. No one on the Conclave will wonder what would prompt you to accept such an unacceptable wife when doing so provides you with the means to expand your ranch and reason to stay there indefinitely.” He braced his hands on the arms of the chair. “It’s common knowledge that my mother doesn’t support my business, and none of them know the first thing about horse breeding. It won’t be hard to convince them I need that money, and badly.”
“As long as you make them believe this is a union in name only, for selfish reasons. It’s the one thing I need you to promise me, Luciano. That you won’t ever give them reason to suspect your loyalties can’t be trusted. Your life depends on it, and so will my son’s.”
Nick rose, feeling a little dizzy. “I’m going to make some tea. You two…have a lot to talk about.” Michelle was focused entirely on Luciano. “Thank you, Nicky.”
“You’re welcome.”
Neither of them really noticed when she left the room, and Nick walked just far enough across the foyer to make it out of earshot. Then she leaned her forehead against the wall and braced her hands on a table.
Breathe. Just breathe.
The front door opened behind her, and her father’s voice drifted over her, low and gentle. “Luciano’s here?”
“In the sitting room with Michelle.” She forced herself to straighten and turn to face her father.
“How’s Hoffman?”
“Fine. Once they stabilized him, he started healing.” He tilted his head toward the kitchen. “If your sister’s all right for the moment, I need to talk to you.”
“I was going to make some tea.”
The kitchen was deserted. The housekeeper had been absent all morning, and Mahalia had been keeping to herself. Nick had appreciated both, because she’d needed the time to help Michelle. “Did you give Mrs. Kelly the day off?”
“The morning. She wouldn’t accept the whole day.” A hint of a smile tugged at his lips. “She’s always been very fond of you both, and Aaron won her over eventually.” If she stopped thinking of what came next, of all the practical things, she wouldn’t make it. Nick took a bracing breath as she filled the kettle. “What do we do about Coleman? You can’t challenge him. You’re the Alpha. It isn’t allowed.”
Her father’s low, angry growl filled the kitchen. “Don’t think I haven’t considered breaking that rule.” 154
Crossroads
“You can’t.” Michelle’s words came back to her.
You can use their absurd customs against them.
“We can’t afford to break tradition right now, not when they must feel like they owe me reparations for Coleman’s actions.”
“They won’t want to swallow it. If we give them any excuse to back down, they will.” His gaze shifted to the doorway, as if he could see Michelle. “Is Luciano here for the reason I think he is?”
“Michelle already asked if he’d—”
“Don’t like to interrupt.” Mahalia walked into the kitchen, her shoulders set in a tight, tense line. “I just got off the phone with Alec. His father called him.”
Her father’s eyes flashed annoyance, but he didn’t seem willing to order Mahalia from the room, though he would have had no such compunction had it been anyone else. “That’s to be expected. Alexander likes to tell himself his son wants to be involved.”
The older woman frowned at him. “If that was the news, it would have kept.” She turned to Nick. “He just put Derek Gabriel on a plane.”
Shock warred with relief, and Nick sagged against the counter. “Damn it. God
damn it
.”
“I notice he called
after
it was too late to stop him.” Nick slammed the kettle on the stove. “Of course he did.” Because Alec, of all people, would know she’d have told Derek to stay home. Fear ripped through her, with panic hard on its heels. “I can’t be worried about this, Dad. On top of everything else, I can’t be worried that Derek is going to come here, not knowing what the hell is going on, and try to take on Coleman. I
can’t
.” Her father laid a hand on her shoulder and glanced at Mahalia. “Did Alec say anything about Coleman?”
Mahalia leaned on the counter. “He said Derek could do it. He said he could beat him.”
“Interfering
bastard
.” Facing the man who’d killed Aaron herself wouldn’t have been this terrifying.
“Derek’s only been a wolf for two years. Even if he knew how these things worked, it’d be dangerous.”
“It’s dangerous no matter what,” her father said quietly. “You know that I don’t hold with the sexism prevalent in our society, but some things can’t be equalized. I don’t care how fast you are, Nicole. You’re half Coleman’s size, and you don’t have the sort of training it would take to overcome that. You can’t fight him.”
“So I should throw Derek at him?” she asked dully. “I’d rather let Ochoa or Hoffman take him. I’d rather let him
rot
in a Conclave cell for the rest of his life.”
“Be prepared for what that means, then. It would undermine us. Make us look weak.”
“I don’t care.” Even as she spoke, she knew it was a lie. She cared, because Coleman had stolen part of her family. Her
pack
.
Her father had always been able to read people. “Tell me honestly, what do your instincts demand?” Retribution. Blood. “I have to—to talk to him. I have to make sure he knows what it would mean.” www.samhainpublishing.com
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