Chapter 69: Back to life
ÉTIENNE
I climbed back up the stairs with the phone in my hand. Chris’s phone. The sentinels had confiscated it when they’d dragged him down here, and now it sat heavy in my palm like evidence of how thoroughly I’d won this round.
The lock screen showed three missed calls from someone labeled "Shann." His sister, presumably. The woman who would deliver what I needed without realizing she was handing me the final piece of a puzzle that had haunted me for years.
I descended the stairs again. My footsteps rang against stone with deliberate slowness.
I did like this little game of ours. From where I was, I could hear his heartbeat thundering because I was listening in for it.
He could probably hear me coming. I wondered if the anticipation I was letting build was starting to become unbearable.
Chris stood when I approached. His hands gripped the bars so tightly his knuckles had gone bloodless.
"Here." I held up the phone where he could see it through the dim light. "You get one call. One chance to convince your sister to steal those records and deliver them without alerting your pack crones."
His jaw worked silently for several seconds.
"How do I know you’ll still keep your word?"
"As I implied before, you don’t." I unlocked the cell door with the key I’d taken from the guards. The heavy metal swung open with a groan that echoed down the corridor. "But you’re going to make this call anyway because the alternative is worse. For her."
I stepped inside. The space felt smaller with both of us occupying it. Chris watched me with the wariness of a wolf cornered by something larger.
I held out the phone.
He took it. His fingers trembled slightly as he pulled up his sister’s contact information. The phone rang three times before she answered.
"Chris?" Her voice came through tinny and sharp with worry. "Where the hell are you? We’ve been looking everywhere, and Mom is freaking out, and Dad keeps saying you went rogue and— Forget that even, I hope you are not at Valcourt territory because Margo just told me—"
Fuck! I was going to be exposed.
"Get on with it!" I bellowed, loud enough that even the girl on the phone would have heard.
"Shanelle." He cut through her panic with surprising gentleness. "I need you to listen very carefully."
Silence stretched on the other end.
"I’m in Valcourt territory." He kept his eyes locked on mine while he spoke. "I got caught trying to infiltrate their estates."
"You what?" The screech made me wince even from several feet away. "Are you insane? Do you have any idea what they’ll do to you? Margo told me it was a trap, and now—Fuck!! Fuck!!! Fuck!! We need to tell the Alpha immediately and—"
"No." The word came out sharp enough to silence her mid-sentence. "You can’t tell anyone. Especially not father or Margaux’s father."
"Chris, what the hell is going on? If you have been taken, how can you reach me?"
He swallowed hard. I watched his throat work around whatever explanation he was trying to formulate.
"Because they want me too. There is one brute right in front of me as I speak, even now. But it does not matter. This is to protect Margaux."
The line went quiet again. When Shanelle spoke next, her voice had dropped to something closer to a whisper.
"What do you mean, protect her? I just talked to her, and she told me—"
"Fuck the dilly-dally and get to it!"
"She is suffering here, Shan." Chris’s hand tightened around the phone. "They are fucking hurting her, and I need your help to keep her safe."
"How?" Shanelle’s breath came fast and shallow through the speaker. "Margo told me herself that she is okay and that text that you received was—"
"I do not want to argue, Shanelle. I just need your help."
I heard the girl sigh over the line.
"What can I possibly do?"
"There’s a book." Chris glanced at me. I nodded slightly. "Records from the Archambault trial. Valcourt wants it in exchange for easing up on Margaux."
"The Archambault trial?" Confusion colored her tone. "Why would he want something like that?"
"Beats me. But it was kind of explained, and all this has to do with is pack politics." Chris shifted his weight. "Apparently, there is a mole they want to find, and they think those records might reveal who it was."
"That sounds like something we should absolutely tell the Alpha about." Shanelle’s voice turned sharp again. "If Valcourt is interested in investigating old traitor cases that somehow connect and involve our pack—"
"Shanelle." Chris interrupted with desperation bleeding through. "Please. Margaux is like a sister to you. You know what she means to me. To all of us. I wouldn’t ask if there was any other option. Beaumont had no problem throwing her to these barbarians. When it comes to it, she will not be the first choice. It is a stupid old case."
Hearing him say that about my life story made me want to punch him. But I needed to hold back with everything that I had.
The silence stretched longer this time.
"Where would I even find records like that?" She finally asked. The question carried the weight of capitulation.
"Archive room in the pack house basement," Chris spoke faster now. "The shelf that Margo and I used to spend time in."
A pulse of something ugly twisted low in my stomach at the memory that brought it with it. I wondered if my family tragedy was used as an icebreaker to help them get closer.
"And if I get caught?" Her static-like voice brought me back from those murky waters.
"Don’t get caught." Chris closed his eyes. "Please, Shann. For Margaux."
I heard her exhale shakily through the speaker.
"Fine." The word came out barely audible. "But you owe me. Big time."
"I know." Relief flooded his features. "Thank you."
"When do they need it?"
"Today." Chris looked at me for confirmation. I nodded once. "Bring it right here. You will be granted safe passage."
Then he looked at me again for confirmation. I nodded once more.
"Okay," Her voice steadied slightly. "I will do my best."
"Thank you." Chris’s eyes stayed locked on mine while he spoke. "Make sure you come alone."
A pause stretched on the other end. I could practically hear her working through logistics.
"I will try my best." And the line went dead.
Chris lowered the phone. His hand shook as he held it out for me to take.
I pocketed it and stepped back toward the cell door.
"I did what you asked." Chris followed me to the threshold. "My sister won’t disappoint. Margaux is like family to her."
"Good." I pulled the door closed behind me. The lock clicked into place with finality.
Chris gripped the bars again. His expression shifted to something I couldn’t quite read.
"I have a question."
I paused but didn’t turn around.
"Why did Valcourt marry Margaux?" He spoke slowly, like he was working through a puzzle. "It would have made more sense politically to offer your sister to one of her brothers. That would have created an alliance that was far stronger."
The question caught me off guard. I’d expected him to ask about Margaux again. To demand proof she was alive or beg for another concession.
I turned to face him fully.
"Because my sister gets to choose who she wants to marry."
Chris’s eyebrows rose.
"Valcourt isn’t weak-willed like Beaumont." I kept my tone conversational despite the simmering anger at his questions beneath the surface. "Our women aren’t sacrificial lambs we throw at political problems. My sister will marry for love or not at all. We agreed on that long before any of this started."
Understanding flickered across his features.
"Plus." I stepped closer to the bars. "Imagine if my sister were treated the way I treat Margaux."
The implication hung heavy between us.
"So you married her to shame my pack." Chris’s jaw tightened. "And to get your hands on some dusty case records."
"Yeah." I smiled behind my mask. "Exactly."
"Fuck you."
"You’re allowed to feel however you feel about it." I shrugged. "Doesn’t change the situation."
Chris stared at me with loathing so pure it was almost impressive.
"I want to see her now." He straightened his shoulders. "I did what you asked. My sister won’t disappoint. So let me see Margaux."
"It will be her choice whether she wants to see you."
"Her choice?" He laughed bitterly. "Since when do you care about her choices?"
I opened my mouth to respond.
Then the bond flared to life with sudden intensity. Margaux’s emotions crashed through the connection with enough force to make me stagger. Desperation and plenty of determination.
What the fuck.
I spun around.
The sound of running footsteps echoed down the corridor. Two sets moving fast toward the cells.
Margaux appeared first around the corner. Her hair flew wild around her face. Her eyes were red-rimmed like she’d been crying.
Laurent appeared behind her. He looked empty and concerned in equal measure.
Before I could even get a word out, Margaux raced past me without acknowledging I existed.
She headed straight for Chris’s cell with single-minded focus that made my chest constrict painfully.
"Chris!" His name tore from her throat.
He pressed against the bars, damning the chains.
His hands reached through the gaps toward her even though she was still several feet away.
"Margaux." Relief broke across his features. "Thank Goddess. I thought he’d badly hurt you."
She crashed into the cell door hard enough that the impact rang through the entire corridor. Her hands found his through the bars. Their fingers laced together with desperate familiarity.
"I’m so sorry." Tears streamed down her face. "I’m so sorry you got dragged into this. I never meant for you to get hurt because of me."
Something sharp and ugly twisted in my gut.
I stood frozen several feet away. Watching them cling to each other through platinum bars while my wife apologized to another man for suffering I’d caused.
The bond pulsed with her emotions. I tasted guilt. Relief had a part to play there. But the most sickening one of all was the affection that was so deep that it made my teeth ache.
She cared about him. She really cared.
My wolf stirred restlessly.
This is what jealousy feels like, he observed.
"Oh shut up already," I said under my breath as I turned to give venom to Laurent.
Still.. I hated that he wasn’t wrong.