“M-made love? You r-raped me! M-my d-desire for you? Y-you disgust me. I never hated anyone, until now. You are the monster, not my Tobias.”
As he reached to slide his hand under her skirt, she cringed. “You were all wet, sweetness, and I felt you.”
She jerked backward, and as he pulled his hand out, she noticed the blood on his fingertips.
“You bastard! My baby…my baby…Tobias!” she cried, trying to wrench her arms free from his vise-like grip. “I hate you, Frank!”
“It didn’t have to be this way. I’ve wanted to be your husband since we were teenagers. I asked you when I was sixteen to marry me, but you just laughed. I asked you again at eighteen, but that’s when you told me about this man you’d met-Tobias.”
She sobbed harder at Frank’s mention of her husband’s name. That set him off.
“I’m so sorry, Tobias,” she repeatedly lamented. “Forgive me, I’m so sorry.”
His face was void of all emotion now as he stared deeply into her eyes-eyes that he knew would never look at him with love.
Eyes that would never look at anything ever again.
One hand pulled at her arms, while the other, which held the knife, sliced deeply into her wrists. “No. I’m the one who’s sorry,” he whispered.
Tobias held her gaze through Frank’s memories that were washing over him. At the precise moment when Nicolette’s eyes glazed over in death, so did Frank’s. Jade pried Tobias off him. “No more, Tobias. You shouldn’t drink anymore.”
Chapter Fifteen
Davis arrived from the hospital in the medical examiner’s van to transport Frank’s body to the morgue. Joe Menendez handled the paperwork. It would read that Tobias was informing Frank Dubois that he was about to be arrested for the murder of Nicolette Strigoi and Mayor Dubois went wild in response.
As a result, he attempted to kill Jade Laroque during his psychotic break, and Tobias had no option other than to subdue the mayor. By any means possible.
Of course, that paperwork would never be found, kept in a confidential file. And the mayor’s certificate of death certainly would never see the light of day.
Deidre Dubois would fill out a missing person report in due time, and they would conduct a cursory search for the missing man. There would be no body to autopsy. If all worked out, even Philippe Laroque would never know what happened.
Unless his daughter told him.
“What the fuck?” Bo yelled as Tobias tried to explain what had happened in Frank’s office. Jade stood off to the side, observing the shifter. He fidgeted, barely able to stay still.
“I know it’s a lot to absorb, but I saw for myself.” Tobias turned toward Jade. “Although I still don’t understand how you kept your transformation into Lamai a secret. Who turned you and when?”
Jade’s hurt was reflected in her voice. “Your daughter turned me a week ago.”
“No. She wouldn’t,” Bo snapped. “She would’ve told me.” He ran his hands through his hair, finally resting on a muscled knot between his neck and shoulder. Tension balled up there. Bo had become a walking time bomb. “I can’t believe she and I have come this far, and now Raven’s in danger.”
Mortal danger.
“She would, and she did-though she didn’t mean to. Raven inadvertently took too much blood from me. She was very apologetic.” Jade smiled. “She didn’t tell you because you were unconscious at the time. Raven explained how she doesn’t really feed anymore. She just got caught up in the moment and the memories of our mom. The only way to keep me alive was to change me. It was really strange because she communicated with me telepathically.”
“These past few days, Raven never mentioned what happened,” Bo said in a despondent tone. What other secrets was she keeping from him?
Tobias was reeling. “I don’t understand.”
Jade fingered a strand of her curly hair. “I wanted her to change me. She was going to try a blood transfusion, but she feared it would be too little, too late. So…I bit her wrist, and she had to let me drink.”
She laughed.
Bo thought it quite odd for this woman to react this way.
Jade pinched the bridge of her nose between her brows. “You don’t understand. I can’t really blame you. When she drank from me, we connected…or rather she connected to our mom and me. Raven was devastated when she realized I could die. She only meant to scare the piss outta me, which she did. I lost total control of my blad-”
“Okay, too much info,” Bo interrupted.
“When I began to drink from her, the connection was complete. It was almost as if the three of us were in that room together. Raven, Maman and me.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?” Tobias asked.
Again, Jade laughed. “Maybe because Raven knew you’d be furious and she didn’t want to shift everyone’s focus from saving Bo. In the meantime, she had Tracy give me blood. I promised to play along. I think Raven hoped the transfusion would dilute my blood enough that I wouldn’t change, but it just took a little longer.”
“Now what do we do? Your father still has Raven, and he’ll know you’re not quite the same daughter,” Bo worried aloud.
“Yes, that will only increase his hatred. He has no idea what really went on? For all his power as a bokur?” Tobias asked.
“Did you know?” Jade countered. “My father taught me everything he knows pertaining to magick. Plus I think the only way he was able to survive my mother’s death initially was to immerse himself in finding me, then in training and raising me. Remember, Frank told my father I was your daughter, Tobias.”
“I never took Nicki’s blood. I should have. I would have known she was in trouble in spite of Frank’s shields if I had.”
Bo went into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. “So how did he find out? That you were his, I mean. You wouldn’t have shown signs of being a Lamai until you were around twelve or thirteen.”
Jade rolled up the sleeves of her black cable knit sweater. “The old fashioned way. He had a paternity test done.”
“Of course. He has all those connections in the medical field, so it makes sense he would have a test performed,” Tobias said as he gazed out the window, no doubt wondering where his daughter was. No longer a Lamai, Raven didn’t have the same bond to her father as before.
Jade was lost in thought. “Frank’s magick was strong, but I think that, deep down, my father knew something wasn’t right, which is why he had the paternity test done. He always said to me, ‘You can’t trust anyone.’”
“Speaking of paternity, how is Emerald?” Bo asked Tobias.
“She’s fine, at home resting. I was with her all last night.” Tobias half-heartedly smiled. “She tried working some of her fae magick to see if she could locate Raven, but came up empty.”
Bo got up and dumped his remaining coffee into the sink. He turned and leaned against the counter, eyeing the two Lamai in the living room. “How do we even find Laroque?” Bo asked.
“I’m sure he’s not anywhere we would think to look. He won’t be on Hannah’s Vineyard or Mirabelle. I can’t sense his whereabouts or Raven’s,” Jade confessed.
“I don’t understand why your father put up with Frank after he found out he lied about you,” Bo said, puttering around the kitchen.
Jade wanted to help Bo with the breakfast dishes, taking the sponge from him. “My father never let on to Frank that he knew the truth that he was my real father. Only he and I knew…and of course you, Tobias. He knew he couldn’t trust Frank, so he used him, but he made Frank feel that they were in an alliance.” She rinsed the sponge and placed it back in the soap dish.