Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Lyam
Cosette sleeps for hours.
She’s so beautiful when she sleeps.
I sit beside her and ghost the outline of her brows with the tip of my finger. Down the contours of her cheeks and the full pout of her lips. I rest my hand on her back, steadied by the gentle cadence of her breathing.
I’ve never loved any woman. It’s a foreign concept to me and strange to think that Lyam Gerard, player extraordinaire and Gerard family black sheep, has fallen for a woman.
But how could I not?
She’s sunshine and daisies and all things good and wholesome, and I’m… not. She yearns to serve, and I yearn to command.
Now that I know what happened, I know she had good reason. I can’t fault her. Not now.
So when my phone rings and I see it’s Thayer on the line, I pick it up.
I’ll fight him if I have to.
I’ll win.
“Where the fuck are you?”
“You know where I am.”
“Is this phone safe?” Fabien’s voice. Three-way call.
Jesus. “It’s fucking safe. I was the one who programmed it. You two pussies can’t make a fucking phone call without the other on the line?” I roll my eyes heavenward. I guess it’ll make things easier for me in the long run.
“Alright, Lyam. What the hell happened?”
I tell them how we got into a chase and that I suspect we’ve been set up.
“I’ve checked all calls and records, prompted by Philippe,” Thayer says. “There’s no record that the police had anything at all to do with this. Every member of their force is accounted for at the time of the chase.”
I clench my jaw. “Motherfucker.”
So someone posed as the police to scare us. It was a setup.
I’ll remember that.
“You’re safe to leave, Lyam. They aren’t after you.”
“Yet,” Fabien responds. “I’ve never seen the citizens so restless. Montague’s got it so that every fucking thing is blamed on organized crime.
“Abduction in Marseille? Mafia. Racketeering in Nice? Mafia. Murder in Roubaix? Mafia. Bad weather coming? Fucking mafia.”
“I’m honored,” I mutter, rolling my eyes.
What an asshole.
While it’s good to know we’re safe, I don’t want to take Cosette out of here, not again. I know she was joking, but she mentioned building a nursery here. I saw the way her eyes lit up when I gave her the tour.
If we go back to my home, my family and friends will know I’m there.
I want privacy for a little while.
I want some time alone with her.
And hell, I like knowing how safe we are here.
I want to reconnect with Cosette. Does she want to be with me? After all we’ve been through, for the love of God, we need some time to just be with each other.
“Lyam?”
“Yeah?”
“You thinking what I am?” Fabien asks.
“That I need to pay Rousseau a visit? Yeah.”
There’s a pregnant pause as I wait for one of them to ask the question we’re all thinking. Finally, Thayer’s the one who does the honors.
“You gonna tell us or do we have to drag it out of you?”
“What?” I ask, as if I don’t know for a fact they want an update on Cosette.
Fabien, as the oldest, heads this gig but he takes input from all of us and in the end, it’s all of us that run this.
“We want an update on your prisoner.”
“Remember?” Thayer snaps. “The one who tried to kill my wife?”
“She didn’t try to kill her. Jesus.”
Thayer’s growl travels really well through the phone.
“But yeah, I’ve got an update.” I stand and straighten my shoulders. I don’t know if it will be easy for them to accept her at her word. “Cosette’s pregnant.”
The slew of curses makes me pull the phone away from my ear for a minute.
“I’m guessing you verified this,” Fabien groans.
“Yeah. I did. I confirmed that she’s pregnant, and I confirmed that I’m the father.”
“No shit?” he asks.
“Excuse me if I’m not popping champagne celebrating that that woman’s gonna have one of my nieces or nephews,” Thayer snaps.
“Listen, I know where you’re coming from,” I tell Thayer. “I do. If I were in your position, I’d feel the same.”
“But what?” he snaps.
“I know her reasons now.”
“Well light me a cigar and call me uncle,” Thayer mutters. “You care to share?”
“I do,” I tell him with a sigh. “The Chaberts knew about the baby. They fucking threatened to terminate the pregnancy.”
There’s another pause as this news settles in.
“Are you kidding me?” Fabien growls. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Yeah. I told Cosette that it’s a good thing they’re dead.”
“Better to be dead than to be your enemy,” Fabien supplies.
He’s not wrong.
“Well. Maybe it’s good you didn’t kill her then,” Thayer finally reluctantly admits.
Maybe?
Jesus.
“She’s apologetic, brother. I know this is hard to hear, but I mean it. She didn’t want to hurt Savannah. You know how quickly she came to us.”
“After the Chaberts were gone and she knew she was in deep shit,” Thayer provides.
“When she knew the threat against the baby didn’t exist anymore. Yeah.” I feel my temper rising, which is not a good thing with my brothers. I could fill a mansion with every piece of furniture or window we’ve broken when in this exact position…
“So what now? She just goes free? That’s it?” Thayer asks, obviously not willing to let this go.
“I think we have her and Savannah talk things out. My research tells me that what she says is right. I believe her. We’re heading in to get a prenatal checkup next month. And in the meantime…”
“She’ll continue to be your prisoner.”
“Right.”
“Though not under lock and key like we thought,” Fabien says.
“Yes.”
Thayer continues. “You’d think I wouldn’t want to hear this, but I do. I couldn’t fathom why someone I considered a friend would ever betray us. The fact that she did this under duress means everything.”
“I trust you, Lyam,” Fabien says. “You do what you have to. I know you’d never want to hurt a pregnant woman, especially one who came clean.”
“Yeah,” Thayer admits. “I mean, I’m the first one to say no mercy.” They don’t call Thayer Le Sauvage for nothing. “You know that. But everyone has a motive. If she’s willing to do what it takes to make things right again, then I say we forgive her.”
Forgive. Almost a foreign concept to my family, but one that holds significant weight.
Forgive.
I can forgive her.
I did forgive her.
We all can.
“Alright, so when life gives you lemons,” Fabien begins.
“You get out the goddamn vodka,” I supply. Maman’s expression. Triple sec, vodka, lemon juice and a simple syrup make the lemon drop, her drink of choice.
“So we move on, and we know exactly what to do. Talk to our informants. Prepare for an attack from whoever the fuck Montague’s paid, and act accordingly.”
“Exactly.”
Rousseau, one of our top-paid informants on the police force, knows exactly who’s doing what and hasn’t led us astray yet.
“I’ll contact her in the morning. Thayer, probably best you get in touch with one of our lawyers.”
We need a lawyer ready should Montague want to do more than blow smoke up the asses of the Parisian citizens. It can’t hurt.
I hear stirring in the other room, and when I look up, Cosette stands in the doorway, a blanket draped around her slim figure. “Lyam?”
I hold up a finger to her. “I gotta go. I’ll fill you in tomorrow.”
I hang up the phone before my brothers can distract me again.
I’ve known plenty of beautiful women in my time, but Cosette stands in a class all her own. She’s a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, slender and graceful. I can lift her with one arm and hold her, and it takes no effort at all to physically dominate her.
Dominating her mind is a whole other story. You don’t take submission from a woman like Cosette. You earn it. It’s part of her nature to serve. It’s who she is.
I toss the phone on the desk and look at her. We stare at each other in silence. I’m tired and weary, but a new kind of energy wakes me up when I look at her.
Twilight has fallen outside the window, pastel blue light kissing her shoulders. Her blonde hair’s messy but beautiful, the soft curls framing her pale face like a halo.
“You’re beautiful,” I say, my voice husky.
“Thanks,” she whispers, looking down as if she’s embarrassed. “Who was that?”
“My brothers.”
Worry creases her brow. “And what did they say?”
I shrug. “Thayer has understandable concerns. I told him I think you need to talk to Savannah.”
She bites her lips but nods. “Yeah. It won’t be fun, but it has to happen.” She shakes her head, worry creasing her brow. “I feel so terrible about what I did.”
“Shhh.” I cross the room to her. “You know I wouldn’t let this go if I wanted you to still pay for this.”
I watch the worry in her eyes fade but not disappear.
“It was the shittiest thing to do,” she says, shaking her head.
“And what choice did you have? It was our fault our enemies had anything to do with this. They shouldn’t have come anywhere near you.”
“I didn’t know mercy was in your vocabulary, Lyam,” she says with a wan smile.
I reach over and tuck her hair behind her ears. I frame her face in my hands and kiss her forehead. “Mercy and justice go hand in hand. In my family, we focus on justice first. Loyalty. And mercy’s rare but sometimes necessary.” I sigh and kiss her again.
In my world, it’s kill or be killed.
When I was taken against my will and held captive, it was clear as fuck why, and who I was. I knew what they wanted. In this life that I’ve chosen, there are no gray areas, no exceptions.
But now Cosette’s making me question everything.
I change the subject.
“No more about this, Cosette. Not another word.” I tip my finger under her chin so her eyes meet mine. I put steel in my voice. “Did I explain that well enough?”
She closes her eyes and nods. I can tell it takes a lot for her to admit this. When she opens her eyes, the green depths look troubled but hopeful.
“Lyam, I—you know, a part of me hoped you’d punish me.”
I’m not surprised. I nod. “I get that.”
“Do you really?” she asks curiously.
“I do.” I sit on a chair and bring her onto my lap. It feels so good to have her here, nestled in between my arms, her weight on my lap. I drape my arms around her. “You want to pay your penance. You feel guilty.”
I can see the pain written across her face when she squeezes her eyes shut and nods. “Yes. God, so guilty.”