Chapter 9 Theo
THEO
OUI, YOU HEARD right, oh fearless leader—explain thyself.
I hadn’t planned to call King out in front of everyone at tonight’s meeting.
In fact, I’d thought I’d gotten over the way he led my captor to the jungle and then decided to abandon me there once it seemed I was out for the count.
But as I sat beside Shep, in a room full of my brothers who were asking questions they all deserved the answers to, I realized I wasn’t fucking over it.
King had left me in the goddamn jungle.
I could maybe understand that if it had been a day or three in and there was no sign of me or if I had, I don’t know, any form of survival training. But this was me we were talking about. The Prince of Monaco. A man who’d grown up in a literal castle, for fuck’s sake.
So what in the hell had he been thinking?
Shep had said King surmised my kidnapper might’ve left with me, which I supposed was plausible, since that had in fact been the plan. But he didn’t know that for certain.
Thank God Shep had had less faith in my jungle skills. I was a badass under most circumstances, but he’d known I’d need saving from that hellhole, because even if I’d been at full capacity, those spiders, anacondas, and demon bats would’ve had me curled up and rocking in a corner.
A shiver raced through me at the thought.
“What’s he talking about, boss?” Lachlan was the first to speak up, uncaring of the tense silence that had fallen over the table.
Shep was stiff as a statue beside me and, judging by the twitch in his jaw, was doing his level best not to lose his shit—whether it be on King or me, the jury was still out.
Benoit and Lucien were focused on their leader, eyes narrowed as they seemed to sense something was rotten in Denmark, and Alessio…
Well, he was busy studying his hands beneath the table. The guy had barely looked twice at me since we’d arrived and was doing everything in his power to avoid looking at King.
“Nothing we need to get into now,” King said, pushing to his feet.
“Aw, don’t be like that,” I said, stamping out my kretek, my apparent death wish still firmly intact even after my brief brush with it.
“No one here is going to judge anyone else’s actions.
After all, you all gave me the benefit of the doubt when you heard about what was being said and had apparently been done… didn’t you?”
I knew very fucking well that wasn’t the case and that my brothers and King had had their suspicions about the bombing and my removing of my tracker—which, granted, was the whole point of whatever this plan, scheme, in-house treason was all about, right?
But the fact that they’d all questioned me still stung.
So sue me if I wanted to get a few jabs in of my own.
“Theo,” Shep said, then placed a hand over mine on the table, and I wasn’t sure if it was the move or the distraction itself that had King turning on his heel and heading for the door.
Either way, I wasn’t distracted, and I wasn’t letting him go without a final comment.
“Your leaving seems to be a running theme lately—”
“Theo.” Shep’s voice was much harsher then, cutting through the sudden tension in the air like a knife. He’d wanted to keep things all copacetic now that we were back, and sure, maybe we’d get there. But not yet. Not until King acknowledged his part in all of this.
King’s broad shoulders stiffened as he stopped in the doorway, and then he glanced back at me, dark eyes full of an emotion I’d never seen before—guilt.
“We’ll talk about this,” he said as though we were the only two in the room. “But not here. Not now. I need to go. I have some phone calls to make. But Theo?”
“Oui?”
“I am glad you’re back. And I’m glad you’re safe. We will get to the bottom of this.”
I gave a clipped nod and, as he walked out of the room, finally let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
Dieu. I hadn’t known how angry I was at him. How frustrated I was in his lack of faith in me. How disappointed I was that he found me lacking when it came to being good enough for Shep—
Oh shit, Shep.
I turned to see that intense blue stare zeroed in on me, his mouth pulled into an all-too-serious line. When I gave an absent shrug, a sexy smirk curved his full lips right before he leaned in and planted a long, hard kiss on me.
“Holy shit.”
“Do we need to step outside?”
“Une fois que tu as go?té au charme à la Monégasque, tu ne reviens pas en arrière.”
“I knew it.”
That last voice belonged to Lucien, and as Shep pulled back and grinned at me, I said, “Bullshit. You didn’t know a damn thing.”
“I called it at the wedding, but Kai didn’t believe me.”
“The wedding?” Benoit’s mouth fell open. “As in your brother’s wedding?”
My eyes shot to Shep, who didn’t look surprised by Lucien’s words. “Wait, you told him?”
Shep shook his head, but before he could say more, Lucien added, “You were both flushed and disheveled after you came back from making sure his ass showed up to the altar. Shep, you were even bleeding—”
“Whoa, Theo’s a biter? Now why does that surprise me?” Lachlan said.
Shep shrugged. “We were…fighting.”
“Yeah, fighting and fucking.”
I brought Shep’s hand up to my mouth and teased his middle finger between my teeth, giving just enough pressure that he arched a brow.
Unfortunately for us, our brothers weren’t done with us yet.
“Is that why King was extra irritable today?” Benoit waggled his brows at us, doing his best to be an instigator.
Apparently dating a dangerous arms dealer meant the few fucks he’d ever given had gone right out the window.
“Does he not approve of this new development because it’s Theo or because it’s anyone with Shep? ”
Not one of the loudmouths had anything to say then as they all stared at the two of us and waited for the answer.
But the answer was…both. At least from where I was sitting, and King wasn’t here to give us his take on it either.
Shep finally cleared his throat and said, “You’ll have to ask him.”
“No way in hell am I asking him,” Lachlan said, holding his hands up. “It was your question, Benny—you fuckin’ ask.”
“Do I look like I have a death wish?”
“Your boyfriend is a scary motherfucker, so yeah, I think you do.”
Benoit waved him off and turned his attention back to us.
“You have to give us all the juicy details. Did this start at the wedding or before? Who initiated it? My guess is Theo, but I’ll be proud if it was Shep.
” When he took a sip of his drink, I thought he was done, but he continued to fire off questions.
“Are you two just hooking up or is it serious? Is it even allowed, or is that why King is pissed? Did he find out about you two and that’s why he came to the safe house? Are you—”
“Jesus, Benoit, take a breath,” Alessio said, the first time he’d spoken since King left. The fact that he was so quiet and not giving us hell was rubbing me the wrong way, because he was by far the most sarcastic shit in the group—and that included myself.
“This is important information, so why you aren’t contributing to this conversation, I have no idea.” Benoit looked personally offended, but Alessio wasn’t even looking up from the table.
“I saw their trackers,” was all he said, and Benoit gasped.
“You knew this whole time? Merde, why does no one talk to each other anymore?”
“Poor Benny doesn’t have a reliable gossip partner,” I said. “But I don’t have a tracker anymore anyway, so if you’re going to try to spy—”
“I’ll replace it for you today,” Alessio said, picking at the leather band around his wrist.
“Alessio.” Shep waited until Alessio finally looked up, and then he leaned forward. “None of this is your fault. You hear me? You’ve done everything you can, and you can’t continue to beat yourself up—”
“Yes, I fucking can.” Alessio slammed his fist on the table.
“This guy should’ve been taken care of already.
Theo shouldn’t have been taken. Those videos should’ve been an easy fake to spot.
Neither of you should’ve had to hide or go to a fucking safe house in the first place.
So yeah, I failed. I’m still failing. This asshole is still out there and I’m no closer to finding him than I was a few weeks ago. ”
I hated the look of defeat on his face and radiating off him in waves. For so many years he’d been the one we relied on, but no one was all-powerful. “Alessio, you’re not the only one who can fix this,” I said. “We’re all here, together, and we’ll come up with a plan. We will find this guy.”
Alessio only scoffed, not even looking at us as he ran a hand over his face.
“Would it help if I told you I have information?”
All eyes shot to me, and I felt Shep’s hand squeeze my thigh in support.
I’d never felt that before, and certainly not sitting here at the Kings table.
I’d always felt confident in myself and my place in the world, but having Shep beside me gave me a feeling I’d never expected, like I was anchored somehow—like I could do anything and he’d be right there no matter what.
Maybe that was why I felt so sure that what I’d overheard the night I was taken was the key to uncovering who was behind all the chaos of the last few weeks.
“When I woke up in the cave, I heard him on the phone,” I said as the room went deadly silent.
“He was talking about our transport the next morning, and then he disagreed with whoever was on the other end of the line. He said, ‘That’s not where you told me.’ Then he mentioned ‘Mott,’ like it was the place he’d be taking me. ”
“Mott,” Lucien murmured, brows knitted together as he drummed his fingers on the table. “Does that sound familiar to anyone?”
“That could be anywhere,” Lachlan said. Sarcasm dripped off his words as he added, “Did he mention what kind of place he planned to take you to? That could help narrow it down to a few million hits.”
“Yeah, he was real specific on that call,” I said. “Even tossed out his bank account numbers and home address.”
“Fair enough.”
“Mott,” Alessio repeated, sitting forward. “Did he say anything else?” When I shook my head, he pushed back from the table and got to his feet. “I’ll take care of this.”
Without another word, he started toward the door, and I jumped up. “Alessio, wait. This isn’t on you. Let’s figure it out together.”
He spun around, eyes wild and narrowed, looking like a man out for vengeance.
“Let me handle this. I’m going to find this motherfucker.
” He looked at us one at a time, like he dared us to disagree, and then continued toward the door.
I thought I heard him say under his breath, “If it’s the last fucking thing I do,” before he slammed it behind him.