Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
I can trust him.
“I’ll go but I keep my weapons.”
“You keep your weapons pointed away from my men.”
Jesus, they’re all the same.
“Fine.”
I get in the car. Two men flank me, their weapons drawn, as the rest climb into the car. One taps his phone and seconds later, Mario and Lyam are on a screen.
My heartbeat slows and I blow out a tight breath. I recognize Le Luxe in the background.
Thank God I made the right decision.
I need to tell him what I know, and I need to resist any attempt he might make at bringing me back to Thayer.
I speak in a sudden rush of words, frantic to catch him up to speed and get help with what I have to do.
“Lyam! I think Nicolette’s been taken.”
He shakes his head. “She hasn’t. I just spoke with her. She’s with Fabien.”
I close my eyes as a rush of emotion chokes me. I want to cry with relief.
Nicolette’s okay. I open my eyes and draw in a deep breath. “Someone texted me from her number.”
He sits up straighter. “Did they?” He and Mario share a look I don’t quite understand.
“How can that happen?”
“It’s not hard,” Lyam says, reminding me that he’s all-too-familiar with underhanded techie tactics. “It can be done on a computer by using the person’s cell phone number. In our case, we’re lucky Nicolette broke her phone, because now we know immediately the text wasn’t from her.”
Ahh.
“So someone wanted to find out where I was.” I frown. “How did you know where I was?”
Lyam scowls into the screen, looking not unlike his brothers. “Do you think my brother was stupid enough to use only a collar as a tracking device on you?”
I stare at my body, as if an arrow with the word tracker would flash.
“How did you know about that?”
Lyam blows out an impatient breath. Now he definitely looks like Thayer. “Savannah, the trackers he put on you were in case of abduction, not because he thought he couldn’t trust you.” He shakes his head. “Jesus. The phone you’re carrying has a tracker. The knife and gun have trackers. Even the clothing and wig have tracking devices embedded in them.”
I feel my eyes go wide at this.
“And that haircut Cosette gave you? She wasn’t just cutting your hair.”
I stare at him before I trace my fingers around my scalp, looking for a microchip or something that would give it away.
“You won’t find it. Thayer spent a lot of money making sure you wouldn’t.”
I slam my lips together and stare at the handle of the car door, wondering how I can escape from his hired help, but Lyam sees me.
“I watched footage of you leaving. If I hadn’t been so distracted by Thayer’s arrest, I would’ve prevented that. Why did you leave?”
“I don’t owe you answers,” I begin, but he shakes his head.
“Don’t you see what’s going on here? They framed Thayer as the murderer to draw you out. The Chabert family knows that you’re a couple, and taking Thayer into custody was the best way they had to convince you to come forward. They couldn’t storm the castle and take you, not from a place as secure as Le Luxe.”
“And yet Cosette tried, didn’t she?”
“Cosette?” Lyam asks. “What do you mean?”
I tell him everything that happened. He curses and lifts his phone, sends a few messages, then returns back to me with effort. He keeps glancing at his phone.
Are Lyam and Cosette a thing?
“First things first,” he says. “Thayer put these trackers on you so I could find you if he was hurt, because that’s the only damn way he’d let you go. I know you’re in Paris, and as luck would have it, so are Fabien and Nicolette.”
I swallow hard, so overcome with emotion I can’t speak for a few moments. “We now know that someone’s tried to pose as Nicolette, likely attempting to get information from you.”
“They kept asking where I was.”
“Of course they did,” he says under his breath. “God. So we need to get you with Fabien and Nicolette as soon as possible. The Chaberts want you out of hiding, Savannah. They want you to show your face so they can kill you.”
I nod, processing all of it. “So I draw them out,” I say. “I let them think I’m not aware it isn’t Nicolette. I tell them to meet me somewhere, then we see who we’re really dealing with.”
Lyam shakes his head. “Too risky.”
“No,” I insist. “It’s the only way, Lyam. I need to testify against them and free Thayer. But I also need to make sure Nicolette is safe, and ultimately that I am, too.”
Lyam nods. “Thayer would fucking kill me, but I think it might be our only choice in this case.”
I take out my phone and send a text to Nicolette’s number.