As much as he longed to, he couldn’t throw Kit over one shoulder and Ezra over the other and carry them out. Violating their choices would only tear what little good he might do for them to pieces. And in the case of Kit, he had no grounds. He had kept information from them, too.
If they were within listening distance, they had learned quite a bit about Roger and Ezra. Roger had held back nothing, telling Ezra everything that had happened since their meeting with Dmitri in 1989 through his decision to come to the penthouse that night.
Ezra had shared plenty in return. He’d turned one of Roger’s unintentionally abandoned donors and helped her transition both to life as a vampire and life as a woman. Savanna was currently in London, keeping an eye on Ezra’s house while she continued a romance with what Ezra asserted was a lovely young mortal who was madly in love with her. Though HT Moss had earned the coven’s ire, Savanna’s own literary career was growing completely unnoticed by Seamus and the other leadership.
They’d been sitting in companionable silence for about five minutes when Candide strode through the front door with two pets and four of her personal security with her.
Anger stirred in Roger, but it didn’t have the power that had built in him before. A cool tide in his mind would grant him the magic he’d done before, but further wrecking her home wasn’t on his agenda.
Besides, Ezra had finally put the pages of his manuscript back in order. It’d be rude to throw them around again.
“You’ll want to dismiss your security,” Roger said hoarsely. He dared to lock his gaze with Candide’s. She was colder than ever. That had always been her way, and he usually didn’t care. But now he wondered if she had built a wall between them long ago, that he had never seen the true her.
Don’t grow paranoid. Don’t be like him. Don’t hurt those you love. Roger dropped the invitation to the debut party on top of Ezra’s manuscript. “I don’t think you want them to hear what I might say.”
“It seems my abundance of caution is unnecessary. You are dismissed.” Candide turned to her nearest pet, kissed her cheek, and motioned forward. “The two of you as well.”
The six mortals departed. The four security guards left the penthouse while the two pets went farther in.
Candide’s heels clicked against the hardwood as she otherwise silently walked across the room. With an effortless grace, she sank into the wingback chair that Roger had once owned. She folded her hands together, her elbows on either armrest, and held her head high.
Did she feel the same sense of power he had from it? Or was she, like him, putting on airs in a vain hope to convince herself that she had any control over her own life?
“Well?” She lifted an eyebrow. “How shall we proceed? Shall you drive a stake through me for my supposed misdeeds?”
“God, no,” Ezra muttered. “And people think I’m the dramatic one.”
Candide tilted her head. “I’m beingdramatic? Roger practically declares war on the coven, robs Seamus, and then forces his way into my private sanctuary. Then I find the two of you sitting side by side like a pair of judges ready to determine my fate.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Candide,” Roger said.
She remained perfectly still.
“I don’t.”
“You bade me to send away my security so that you could speak. What would you have to say?” she demanded.
Ezra leapt to his feet. “My God, this isRoger. What’s gotten into you?”
Candide looked away.
Her mind was a fortress, but Roger spied telltale signs of where she was covering her emotions the hardest. He knew thetouch of that exact mental shield. She was more than obscuring the truth. She was actively hiding something.
His stomach dropped to the ground floor. The Arctic wasn’t as cold as his heart was now. “How long have you known what happened to him?”
She dragged in a ragged breath. Small beads of tears formed at the corner of her eyes, but Roger didn’t trust her display of emotion. Her mental walls were still formidable. Everything she was doing could be an act. “Since the annual meeting.”
Christmas. Three weeks ago. She’d known that long. She’d known that he was ready to tear the world apart to find his love, and she’d saidnothing.
“Candide!” Ezra shoved his hand through his fiery red hair. “How could you keep this from him? Fromme?”
“You and I had an arrangement,” Candide replied. She swept her gaze to Roger. “I didn’t know what it might do to you, mon cher.”
“Don’t call me that right now,” Roger growled. “What’s become of Takashi? Have you seen either of them?”
An agonizing eternity passed, but Candide finally spoke. “I’ve seen them both. Zack multiple times.”
“You knew they’d been kidnapped, and you’ve seen them, and you didn’t say anything to Roger?” Ezra put his hands on his hips. “Love, that is just cruel.”
