Chapter Twenty-Nine
MINA
Four days later…
“Wilhelmina!” Madame Martin called cheerily as I entered the boulangerie.
“Bonjour,” I greeted her and the only other customer.
Madame Fontaine, the retired schoolmistress, echoed my greeting, then tut-tutted. “Running again? Young people these days…”
“No wonder she’s still so thin,” Madame Martin, the baker, lamented as if I wasn’t even there. “And she still hasn’t found a man.”
Ah, but I had. A dragon shifter, no less. Not that I volunteered that news.
“Well, at least she has more color now,” Madame Fontaine said. “Must be this fresh autumn air.”
My cheeks flushed. No, that was a side effect of great sex, every morning and every night. Sometimes even in between.
Marius and the others had departed for their meeting with Gordon apprehensively, knowing any outcome was possible.
So I’d been surprised, delighted, and relieved when Marius had appeared at my door late that very same evening.
Touched, too. He’d come home — to me. He wanted to spend his precious time off with me. I’d practically squealed with glee.
But those three days were up now, and we expected the other guys back within hours.
“What can I get you?” Monsieur Martin asked.
“Two pain au chocolate, please,” I started. “One for now, one for later,” I fibbed, so they wouldn’t think I was serving breakfast for two. “And four baguettes.”
“Four? Are you expecting more clients?” Madame Martin asked.
I stifled a sigh. Everyone knew everyone’s business in Auberre.
“Yes.” I moved pointedly to the register. “How much will that be?”
I paid and snatched up my purchases before they could pose any more questions, like who my clients were and how long they were staying.
Even so, my mind started calculating. Three weeks had elapsed since Marius, Roux, Bene, and Henrik had first arrived.
My contract with Gordon ran three months.
That left a little more than two months.
I bit my lip. How many more missions might they be sent on during that time? What would those entail, and what other dirty secrets about my godfather might they reveal? What would happen afterward — after their three months with me and after their time working for Gordon?
Above all, what about Marius? Would he disappear at the end of that time, or would he stay…and stay…and stay?
“Well, goodbye, everyone—” I whirled into a quick exit from those thoughts and the bakery.
The bell over the door jingled too late for me to react, and I crashed into the incoming customer.
“Désolé.” Sorry, a man said from an inch away.
“My fault,” I started, then whispered, “Clem.”
“Mina,” he murmured, eyes aglow.
For a moment, our gazes locked, and a whole alternative life drifted through my mind.
A nice, simple life, with a good man with a good, steady job.
A stunningly handsome man free of crimes and links to the criminal underworld.
A man who would be content to build a quiet life in this quiet place with someone like me.
But that vision was black-and-white, and it faded quickly, replaced by a different, brilliantly colored one. One of a life of blazing passions, and not just the kind found in bed. Life with Marius was life on the edge. Thrilling. Unpredictable. Sometimes even terrifying. But oh, so very alive.
Maybe my life didn’t have to be a constant cycle of school semesters or home repairs. A life that didn’t adhere to the standard framework, with education, marriage, and children all pre-programmed for certain times, followed by years of watching that life unfold in predictable ways.
Which wasn’t to say I wanted to plunge headfirst into a world of danger, intrigue, and covert missions. Just hoping that Marius and I could find a middle ground.
“Bonjour, Clement!” Madame Martin called. “Doesn’t Mina look well?”
I winced.
His eyes sparkled. “She does.” But then his nostrils flared, and I steeled myself.
Clement was a wolf shifter, and wolf shifters had good noses. Too good for me to hide the scent of dragon, no matter how hard I’d scrubbed or how much I’d sweated while running.
His eyes went wide, and his expression hardened.
Ten awkward seconds followed. Neither of us uttered a word, but so much passed between us.
Memories of the past, hints of a future.
A whole fantasy world that sprang up, then faded away.
The walls of a friendship, once solid, now crumbling, like my chateau.
Could it someday be repaired the way walls or a roof could?
Clement’s eyes filled with anger and jealousy, and for a moment, I worried what he might say or do. But all that ebbed away, replaced by deep sorrow.
Guilt stabbed at me, but what could I say?
“You look good too,” I said with an undertone that added, And I’m sure you’ll find the right person soon.
He stepped away.
“Good to see you,” he murmured, a martyr whispering his last words.
I swallowed hard. Madame Martin was right. He was a good man. Just not my man.
It hurt me to hurt him, and words wouldn’t help. But, oh! A new love interest might.
“Did I mention my sister and cousin are coming soon?” I asked. “Gen keeps asking about you.”
Absolutely true, because my younger sister had been infatuated with Clement from about the age of five. Unfortunately, Clem was four years older and had barely noticed her.
But Gen — Genevieve, officially — had been an annoying chatterbox back then. Nowadays, she was poised, intelligent, interesting — and much, much prettier than me. Wasn’t a good man just what she needed after a string of toxic relationships?
“That’s good,” Clem said, unenthused.
Then, yikes. His eyes started glowing, and his jaw clenched. His wolf side was prowling closer to the surface, and crap. It wasn’t ready to accept defeat.
This isn’t over yet, that determined glint said, then communicated something like Let the best man win.
Crap. Just what I needed — a wolf and a dragon shifter feuding over me. Flattering, but potentially fatal.
I could see and hear it now. The earsplitting howls, the possessive growls, the bared teeth. Marius would unleash his fire, while Clement could call in an entire wolf pack to assist. If I didn’t find a way to de-escalate things, they could lay waste to lovely Auberre and burn my chateau to a crisp.
Not good. Maybe Gen could fly in a week sooner. Hell, tomorrow would be good.
Then again, knowing my sister, she would fall for Henrik instead.
The town clock struck the quarter hour, spurring me into action.
“Oops. I have to go. Merci.” I waved to Madame and Monsieur Martin, bid Madame Fontaine a polite Au revoir, then turned to face Clem.
My lips moved with two false starts before I finally got something out.
“à bient?t.” See you soon, I said, hurrying out the door.
“à bient?t,” he whispered.
Four pairs of eyes followed me out. Especially Clement’s.
I always picked up the pace on my run back to the chateau, but this time, I really hit the gas, desperate to escape to the safe bubble of home.
A soon-to-be slightly less safe bubble, what with Henrik on his way, but still. Home was home.
I raced through the woods, ticking off my own private landmarks. The fallen oak… The pool in the stream… The scorched patch Marius had left the night of the intruder…
Eventually, I emerged at the tangled garden, then jogged across the lawn.
Beep! Beep! A vintage Citroen 2CV puttered down the drive, and the driver waved from the window.
We converged at the front door, and a slightly stooped, older gent emerged.
“Mina!” He opened his arms.
“Sid!” I ran over to hug my father’s old friend.
His hair had thinned, and his frame was more gaunt than I remembered. Either I had grown an inch, or he had shrunk. But it was the same old Sid.
An ache settled in my chest, and I closed my eyes, imagining hugging my father. If he had lived to Sid’s age, would I be wise enough to treasure signs of aging as a monument to all the years we’d shared?
I leaned back, keeping hold of Sid’s hands.
“My God. Every time I see you, I see him,” Sid murmured, experiencing his own moment of what might have been.
I laughed, touched and embarrassed.
“Thank you so much for coming,” I said, moving things along.
His eyes twinkled. “Wouldn’t miss this for my life. Now, show me that painting.”
* * *
Meeting Marius came first, however, and viewing the painting was further delayed by the early arrival of Roux and Bene.
The fierceness of their hugs — and mine in return — was both moving and surprising.
It had only been a few days, and a few weeks of knowing them at all, but they felt like old friends now.
The brothers-in-arms effect of having survived a dangerous mission together, I supposed.
“Good to see you,” I said, meaning every word.
“Good to be back.” Bene grinned, and Roux did too.
Henrik appeared a short time later, beating Gordon’s deadline by a good hour. So, hmm. Maybe these men, tough and capable as they were, had nowhere they would rather be — or, at least, nowhere else to go. Maybe they were coming to love the chateau the way I did. Like home.
A sad, but equally heartwarming thought. Slightly alarming, too, at least when it came to Henrik.
No hugs for him, though our handshake wasn’t as forced as it might have been.
“Delphine sends her regards,” he said, stiffly handing me a fancy bag.
I hid my surprise. Was there hope for the coldhearted vampire after all?
“How sweet.” I peeked at the pastry box inside.
“Yes, I’m told they are,” he said indifferently.
Not what I meant, but it sure beat him licking his chops and murmuring, Yes, she is.
A light lunch followed, because the arrivals had all started their journeys before dawn. I set out cheese, cold cuts, and bread, wishing Claudette were around to help, but also grateful she wasn’t. We all sat around the dining room table, catching up.
“Maybe I should follow Marius’s cue and spend my days off here next time,” Bene teased. “You look so relaxed.”