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The sound of the door opening stirred Ar his eyes open, he peered toward it, a relieved s She wore jeans and one of the new T-shirts they&039;d purchased on their shopping expedition She looked good Better than good, she looked like nothing had ever happened
His sh, and Arust "Get out, Lucian I don&039;t want to talk to you"
Eshe&039;s eyebrows rose, her head swiveling to peer at the man behind her and then back to Armand in question, and he shifted restlessly on the bed, and then explained, "He had ," Lucian said with a shrug, h, Bricker, and Anders followed hi daust, but said, "It wasn&039;t for healing the last tireed "But Eshe&039;s wasn&039;t and you were trying to get up and go to her"
"She was screari to her Wouldn&039;t you have gone to Leigh if the situation had been reversed?"
"Of course," Lucian said calain You needed your rest and there was nothing you could have done for her"
Arant ass"
"I try," Lucian said with unconcern, ushering Leigh to the chair beside his bed as Eshe moved toward the bed itself
Arlanced to Eshe as she settled on the side of the bed He ed a smile for her, and asked, "How are you?"
"Alive Thanks to you," she murmured, and leaned forward to kiss hihed unhappily, knowing that if he hadn&039;t bitten her the last time they&039;d made love, both of them probably would have woken sooner In effect, he&039;d da a smile for her benefit, he squeezed her hand when she slid it into his, and then glanced to the others in his room "So what&039;s all this about?"
"Tirimaced at the words He&039;d hoped to have a moment alone with Eshe before this conversation, but supposed it was better just to get it done and over with Kind of like ripping a bandage off in one swoop and suffering a quick sharp pain, rather than suffering the long, drawn-out effort of feeling each little pull of hair as it was sloorked off
"Fine," he said at last "Obviously Leonius II has found out where Eshe is and she needs to be moved to a safer location"
The response to that was decidedly strange Everyone in the roo to hi down at their entwined hands, but she was obviously attuned to Lucian, as were the others The , "There is no Leonius to have to hide me from"
"What?" Armand asked with surprise
"I mean there is, but he&039;s not after me," Eshe said quietly "That was just-"
"I sent Eshe here to investigate the deaths of your wives," Lucian interrupted
"What?" he asked sharply, his gaze shifting between the two of them "Why?"
"Because Nicholas&039;s life depends on it," Eshe answered at once
"Eshe!" Lucian snarled, glaring at her across the bed
"He has a right to know It&039;s his son," she snapped, glaring right back, and then added, "Besides, he won&039;t do anything foolish like try to break him out He wants to find out what happened to his wives as much, if not ot to do with Nicholas?" Ar from one to the other "And what do you mean Nicholas&039;s life depends on it? And break him out of where? Has Nicholas been found?"
"Yes," Eshe murmured "And there&039;s soo"
"I know he didn&039;t do it," Arrimly, and it was true, he&039;d been positive then and still was that Nicholas had not killed the o Armand had even driven up to Toronto at the tiure out what really had happened, but everything had seemed to point toward Nicholas Still, he hadn&039;t been able to believe it But he also hadn&039;t been able to prove otherwise The story of his life, he thought bitterly
"I&039;m sure he didn&039;t," Eshe said quietly, and he relaxed a little as he heard the sincerity in her voice When he nodded, she continued, "It see a lot of questions about the deaths of your wives before she died, and in fact called Nicholas the night before her death saying she had so to tell him, but died before she could do so Nicholas was understandably distraught at first, but some weeks after Annie&039;s death, he recalled that phone call and tried to find out what she&039;d wanted to tell hiht of the , Nicholas started out heading to the hospital where Annie used to work, intending to speak to a friend and coworker of hers and ask her if she knehat Annie may have wanted to tell hi the hospital parking lot to opening his eyes in his basement with a dead mortal in his lap He&039;s been on the run ever since"
Arh him His son had lost his life mate to whoever it ho had killed his oives He just knew it It was all his fault so was Armand just didn&039;t kno He didn&039;t knohy anyone would kill any of the wo
"Nicholas is locked up at the enforcer house," Esheto find out his future If we find the culprit behind the deaths, he will be found innocent and go free He&039;ll get his life back"
"And if we don&039;t?" Armand asked sharply
Eshe shook her head and actually sot someone scared, otherhy lock us in the shed and set it on fire? We&039;ll catch theo free"
Armand almost asked how she knew they&039;d been locked in the shed when she&039;d been unconscious, but then realized Lucian had probably told her His irritating big brother had just been finishing grilling him about what exactly had happened at the shed when Eshe had started screao to her at once, and Lucian had pushed hiive hione out
Noake and learning that Eshe wasn&039;t being chased by a psycho Leonius the Second, but was here to investigate the deaths of his wives and try to save his son Obviously he needed to figure out what the hell had been going on all these years He&039;d tried looking into the deaths before, but had co, but noas imperative he find out what the hell had happened and ould have it in for him Otherwise his son would probably be executed and everyone Araze slid to her His life mate After Rosamund&039;s death he&039;d had suspicions, but that was all He hadn&039;t been able to find any proof that any of his wives had been murdered On the surface the deaths had all appeared to be accidents, and that was it Still, he&039;d suspected, and that suspicion had been strong enough that in an effort to keep the rest of the women in his fa that if he rong and the deaths had all been accidents, then the only person hurt by the action would be hiht and didn&039;t do his best to keep theive hi the women he cared about, then Eshe as his lifehe could do for her was send her so to hiriet her away fro away from you didn&039;t save Althea," Eshe pointed out, not appearing either upset or angry at his words In fact, she was suspiciously calest concern"
"Me?" he asked with surprise
"Yes I&039;ently, as if talking to a child "You, however, are a civilian And while I was probably the target with the fire in the shed, you nearly died there with me It&039;s probably best if you went to stay solance at Lucian "Perhaps you should have Anders take him back to the enforcer house and lock hiet to hiht up on-"
"I&039;lared at Lucian as if theme up This is ht here to figure out what the hell&039;s going on"
"I don&039;t know, Arivehappened to you because of ," he infor his arhed, but after a et dressed and come downstairs We can talk down there and Bricker can make breakfast and coffee for all of us"
"I can?" Bricker asked dryly
"I&039;ll help," Leigh offered
"I agree we shouldhe&039;d definitely feel at less of a disadvantage if he weren&039;t sitting there naked, Arrimly
"Good," Eshe murmured, and leaned forward to kiss hiet downstairs
She stood then and Arh and Bricker out of the roo sex, every hts came to an abrupt halt as it suddenly occurred to hi to make Lucian send Eshe soue defensively that he himself shouldn&039;t be sent away He wasn&039;t sure, but had the distinct impression he&039;d been played there somehow
"Yes, you were," Lucian said, and while his face was expressionless, there was nothe amusereed dryly,him The man shook his head and said, "It was beautiful to watch I al you stay before she left the room"
"So she somehow turned the tables and did it on purpose?" he asked with a touch of outrage
"Of course," Anders laughed
"Hh and uess," Anders said with a, confront her on it, and soizing"
Lucian nodded with a grunt of disgust
"Women are sneaky," Anders said dryly
"No, they aren&039;t," Arh as he tossed the blankets aside and got up He had learned so toward the walk-in closet to find clothes, he explained what he&039;d learned, "An angry er, as enerally are even when it comes to ience to deal with our anger So, while we sto like wounded lions, they use their heads as a sort of defense"
"H at the door of the walk-in closet as Ar they&039;ve evolved to be sant disbelief in the enforcer&039;s voice and said, "Only in communication skills They can dance circles around us on that front Or at least most of them can," he corrected himself dryly He had met women ere failures in that area and men who had better coe in other areas"
When Anders runted doubtfully at the claim, Armand simply smiled and shook his head as he retrieved a shirt and pulled it on The man would learn
"So?" Lucian asked as Aroing to try to insist Eshe leave?"
Armand paused to peer at him with consideration "Would you send her away?"
Lucian shrugged "It&039;s your home I would make her leave if you wished itand set her up in the ht, so she&039;d still be here under threat, but without anyone to watch her back," he said dryly and then sighed "She can stay We&039;ll work this out together But I&039;ht"
"We&039;ll see," Lucian murmured and headed for the door
Armand scowled at his back and followed
"That was a nice bit of fast talking upstairs," Bricker congratulated as he followed Eshe and Leigh down the stairs "You turned the tables on Armand beautifully"
"I don&039;t knohat you&039;re talking about," Eshe said innocently, and caught Leigh&039;s grin out of the corner of her eye as they stepped off the last step to start up the hall In an effort to change the subject, she added, "Sorry about volunteering you for cooking duty I&039;ll help too, of course"
Bricker snorted at the offer "You can&039;t even open a strudel box You aren&039;t going to be much help"
"Which is why I volunteered you," she pointed out, unoffended "I&039;h now that I&039;ain I just haven&039;t bothered with food for a long tih said as they walked into the kitchen "I can&039;t i to eat Iwithout chocolate and cheesecake"
"Cheesecake?" Eshe asked dubiously It didn&039;t sound very appealing Cheese was lovely, but dropping blue cheese or even old cheddar in a boith flour and whatnot and then cooking and icing it just sounded bizarre to her
"You haven&039;t had cheesecake yet?" Leigh asked with a look that see
"If we stay, I&039;ll pick some up today You have to try it It&039;s ," Bricker said wryly when Eshe glanced his way in question "I&039;ve never met a woman who didn&039;t like cheesecake"
"And you don&039;t like it?" Leigh asked hiht," Bricker said with a shrug
"Lucian likes it He can&039;t get enough," Leigh announced "But ers than the sweet yuht of food It felt like days since she&039;d eaten real food, and her stomach felt e her thoughts "You haven&039;t had anything to eat since Sunday and it&039;s Tuesday now"
Eshe frowned at this announceht when she&039;d arrived to start this job It had been a week, and the only thing she&039;d done was question Harcourt At this rate, Nicholas was going to fry
"Don&039;t be so hard on yourself," Bricker said quietly as he opened the refrigerator and began res, bacon, and butter "You questioned Armand too, and we have tried to question Susanna&039;s brother and sister They just haven&039;t been around for questioning"
Eshe grunted and scowled at hi her mind, but he didn&039;t notice His back was to her as he retrieved a frying pan froh asked, glancing around the kitchen "And then I could start on toast"
"That would be good Thanks," Bricker said
"What do you want rab up the empty coffee carafe and carried it to the sink to fill it
Bricker frowned and glanced around and then said, "You can set the table"
Eshe raised an eyebrow "Where do you want me to set it?"