Mario steps in front of me as Lyam returns. “All clear for now but I’ve only checked the front gate. Come with me, Rossi?”
I shake my head. “Before anyone does anything, we need to find out what’s going on. Then you two can go.” With Fabien gone,I’m the one Lyam obeys and as our guest, Mario does the same. They wait, like leashed guard dogs frothing at the mouth. Lyam practically paws the ground in front of him.
I stand Savannah upright in front of me. “Tell me what happened. I want to know everything before they go out, so tell me why you’re here.”
She draws in a breath and speaks in a rush of words. “I saw a police officer murdered and the murderers are chasing me.”
I feel my eyebrows rise. I jerk my chin to Mario and Lyam. “Go.”
Maman covers her mouth with her hand as the door slams behind them.
I reach for Savannah’s hand but pull back. I held her when she fell, but I won’t let myself touch her.I can’t.
She’s the baby sister of my sister-in-law. We’re practically related.
She’s ten years younger than you.
“Let’s go in the other room. I want to know everything. Every detail you can remember.”
“She’s hurt, Thayer,” Maman says pleadingly, her arm around Savannah’s shoulders. I look down at her torn clothing. Her knees are covered in gravel and blood. My anger becomes a blistering fury, clawing at me like a monster with talons and fangs.
I’ll kill them.
I will find whoever scared her and threatened her and they will die a painful, torturous death.
I turn my fury on Savannah. “I thought you were with Fabien and Nicolette. Why are you alone? What happened?”
She flinches as if slapped, what little color that had been left on her face now gone. She blanches when she mumbles her reply on a half cry. “I saw someone murdered,” she repeats in a choked voice. “I… I got lost. I was with them, yes, but they left on their flight to Italy, and I walked home.”
She’s making no sense. I can’t shake the truth out of her. So I stifle a growl that will only scare her and nod, trying to stay calm.
“Go on.”
“There was… a woman. She was all tied up and gagged and screaming.”
“Where were you?”
“I—I don’t know. I got lost. My phone was dead.”
I grit my teeth. A lecture won’t help right now.
“I was behind some kind of a pub. I saw them and they saw me. I didn’t know what to do. An officer came and they—they killed him. Right there. I don’t know what happened after that. I ran.”
“Did they find you?”
“Not at first. Please, Thayer, lock your gates. I’m so afraid they were following me. I heard—I saw—I don’t know what I saw. I hid for hours until I was so cold, and I thought they were gone. I remembered where you were near the Seine, so I made my way here, and I swear—I swear they followed me, Thayer.”
She looks over her shoulder as if chased by a ghost and takes an involuntary step toward me.
I try to gentle my voice and fail. “If they followed you, they won’t get you now.”
Maman speaks up. She does what I wouldn’t dare to do—runs a hand down the back of Savannah’s wild hair and smoothes it down. “Hush,mon amore,” she whispers. “Come tell us what happened, and we—” When she pauses, she corrects what she was about to say. “You’re safe here. Believe me when I tell you, Thayer won’t let anyone hurt you. Even if someonedidmanage to get past Lyam and Mario, no one will get past Thayer.” She lowers her voice and swallows before she finishes. “And I do mean no one, love.”
Savannah nods.
“Sit.” I stifle the need to snap my fingers.
We’re not in Le Luxe.
