before. Or since.” He tipped his head and held up a finger. “Oh, forgive me. I did see it one other time. When she descended the stairs the other night, dressed as a TV show character because she is a smart, amusing, light-spirited woman. Do not squash that and leave her as a cowed dog who must return home with her tail between her legs because her owner has abandoned her to the darkness he introduced her to.”
“Is that all?”
“No, it isn’t. You also need to be told your conscience did not die with Markus. It is just more convenient for you to claim it did.” He nodded, his beard rippling. “That is all.”
“Your opinion has been noted. Now, go get my pet.”
Sorin’s sigh was a long, frustrated sound. “Very well.”
“Text me when you have her.”
He gave a clipped nod and was gone. Lucian lowered himself into his chair and became still. He watched in his lower periphery his tie jump as his heart slammed behind his sternum. He felt…fragile. As if he might shatter if he moved. He didn’t shatter, but he did move.
“Please go away before she returns,” he murmured politely to the demons he allowed to rise and take over.
♦ ♦ ♦
Four hours after being shut into the back of the delivery truck, Yasmeen was fighting a pounding headache and trying to ignore her aching muscles. Ten minutes ago, she’d settled into her seat aboard a flight heading from Brasov to Paris. After a brief stop in Munich, she’d carry on and by morning, she’d be sitting at a Parisian café with Kristen.
When the Uber driver had dropped her off at the doors to the airport, she’d bought her ticket and then found a payphone. She’d called Kris collect, and proving her friends had spoken since Yasmeen had left New York, Kris had freaked out when she’d heard Yasmeen’s voice. After the screeching had stopped, and Yasmeen had cut off her own fucking irritating tears that just wouldn’t quit, a mere portion of her story had spilled out. Kris hadn’t pushed as Miranda would have done. Thank goodness, too, because something was stopping Yasmeen from giving all the details she knew she should. She’d disappeared from a funeral and was surfacing on the other side of the world days later. She should explain.
She couldn’t.
She knew already, no matter how much pressure Miranda put on her, Yasmeen had no intention of sharing every detail of this adventure. Hers and Lucian’s time together was…personal. More private than anything she’d ever had in her life. And she would protect that.
She rested her head on the window and closed her eyes. Where was he? What would he do when he learned she’d left? Would he even care beyond the fact that she’d disobeyed him? She bit down on her bottom lip when it trembled. God, she wanted him to care.
She paid no attention to the pilot’s voice when it came over the intercom to announce their departure. Couldn’t understand him anyway. But she did peel her tired lids back when a commotion started up at the door that had just closed. She frowned when the pilot himself came out, glaring at the flight attendants as he worked the latch to open them up again.
The pilot turned toward his audience and said something that had everyone getting up and filing out of the plane, murmuring and casting suspicious looks at each other.
Yasmeen’s heart started racing. Oh…no. “This is nothing,” she whispered to herself as she dragged her ass up to join the queue. “He probably isn’t even in the country. It has nothing to do with you. Probably ice on the wings or something.”
A man waiting for a break snuck in front of her with a curious look aimed over his shoulder. She tried to give him a reassuring, I’m-not-crazy smile but couldn’t because she was pretty sure she was.
The cold wrapped around her legs as she neared the door, but she didn’t feel it because she was already a walking icicle. She didn’t think she’d ever feel warm again.
She stepped out onto the top of the rollaway stairs to see the entire airport had come to a standstill. Flight staff and ground crew were clustered in little groups, talking and pointing at the plane. People were at the windows of the brightly lit terminal, faces pressed to the glass as they gawked.
At the plane Yasmeen was on.
There were two vehicles on the tarmac, right at the bottom of the stairs. One