Chapter 8: Léonie - Crushing His Mountain Flower

What was my husband doing here? 

“Go. Keep him away from the basement,” Hugo said. “Be careful, though.”

“All right. I’ll try.”

Crouching as low as I could with my belly, I crept to the stairs, expecting at every second Étienne would open the door to the basement and find us.

“Stall him,” Hugo hissed. “I’ll put this asshole somewhere.”

“Don’t kill him yet,” I hissed back, and I saw Mano’s eyes widen, but the rope around his throat was too tight for him to call out and sound the alarm.

He wasn’t going anywhere until I got my answers.

“Tilly? Armand?” Étienne bellowed, pacing into the other room, and I tracked his movements through the crack in the basement door, trying to catch my breath.

His body looked tight with irritation, impatient and angry.

Had he been the one behind the attack? Was he here to finish the job?

Well, I wasn’t going to go down hiding in the basement. If he was going to kill me, I’d force him to do it to my face.

And if I didn’t move now, I might not have another chance.

As soon as I heard him in the kitchen, I crept as silently as I could up the last few steps, closing the door as much as I dared without trapping Hugo, then practically collapsed against one of the bookshelves.

It only took a few seconds before my husband whirled around, his eyes instantly honing in on me as I felt the force of his intense gaze.

“Where were you? Why didn’t you answer when I called?”

Bile and nausea threatened to rise in my throat, but I only shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

Étienne stalked back over to me, those strong arms crossed across his chest.

“What were you doing?”

“Nothing.”

I didn’t rush into his arms. Didn’t beg him to please believe me.

In fact, my hands weren’t even tempted to touch him. To get what? More rejection?

“I’m looking for Mano.”

My heart skipped a beat and the hairs on the back of my neck began to rise.

Had he guessed what we’d done?

But my voice was still steady.

“I haven’t seen him.”

“His truck is right outside,” Étienne bit out.

I shrugged. I had never lied to my husband before, but I didn’t owe this man anything, no matter how fast my heart might beat, how much past memories tried to intrude on my consciousness.

“That’s strange.”

Inside, my heart was thudding hard as my husband narrowed his eyes.

“You’re trying to tell me you haven’t seen Mano?”

“Maybe he went out in the woods. They can be very dangerous, you know.”

Étienne’s eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean by that?”

I had to get Étienne away from this room. Because what if he decided to look around? What if he saw that the door to the basement was cracked open?

What if he found Mano?

Not until I had a chance to find out the truth.

I edged closer to the door, but he was in between me and the outside in a moment, looming over me.

My heart beat, but not from love or excitement that he’d changed his mind. From anxiety that Étienne would see the open door, that he’d go down to the basement.

That he would stop me from finding out who had turned my life upside-down.

“Maybe he’s around the grounds somewhere,” I said, attempting to step around my husband. “Nasty creep like him probably goes around looking in the windows.”

Étienne’s brows drew together, and he put a hand on my arm, his palm curling around my elbow, each finger hard and heated and digging into my skin.

“Why would you say that?”

“No reason.”

I tried to shake him off and it pissed me off that I couldn’t easily do it.

“What are you saying about Mano?”

“What do you care? According to you, we were sleeping together.”

Now Étienne looked even angrier. Stood even closer.

“What else was I supposed to believe when I came in the door and saw you in his arms? Half-dressed?”

“I don’t know, maybe you should have believed your wife, who you know damn well never cheated on you.”

Something worked in my husband’s throat, a muscle that throbbed with a singular intensity.

“Answer the question, Léonie. Has he been harassing you?”

“No.”

“Are you lying to me?”

I turned away, wrenching my arm out of his grip.

“I’m not talking to you anymore.”

I crossed my arms protectively over my belly. Baby boy was active today, punching my ribs, kicking my bladder. God, I needed to pee.

“If—Mano has been improper toward you, trust that he will be punished.”

I said nothing. Because I had no faith in him or his promises.

“Well, Mano isn’t here,” I bit out. “You can go now.”

“Look at me, Léonie.”

When I didn’t obey, Étienne took my chin in his hands, and forced me to face him.

“Come in the kitchen. Tilly and Armand will leave.”

I forced my restless fingers to unclench.

Calm. Stay calm.

My husband sat down in a chair, his fingers tapping on the wooden table, his legs stretching across the floor.

Expecting me to follow.

I only stared at him.

Was it my imagination or was he glancing down at my belly? How long had it been since he’d seen me? Had it been a few weeks? I’d lost some time to that gray blank of depression.

I hadn’t had my phone since the day they’d frame me. Who was they? I’d find that out soon enough.

So I didn’t know what fruit or veggie my baby was as big as now, but from the way he was pressing on my ribcage, squashing my organs, and make it hard to breathe, I guessed I was at watermelon level now.

Did Étienne ever wonder if he’d made a mistake?

“Where is your hospitality? Get me a glass of water.”

Anger curled inside me.

“Get your own glass of water."

I stared defiantly right back at him.

I couldn’t read the expression on his harsh face. Jaw like sharp glass, throat a column of muscle. Every inch of Étienne Bastide revealed what he wanted it to.

Nothing.

But, after all, I knew nothing about the man I had married.

Nothing at all.

“I’m thirsty. I want a glass of water.”

Fury sparking through my fingertips, I jerked open the cupboard behind me, to reveal the neat rows of upside-down cups.

“Well, there you go.”

His brows drew together.

“You know, Hugo’s life is very comfortable here. I could make it a lot less comfortable.”

Bastard.

I swallowed my anger and grabbed roughly for a cup.

“Now, that’s a good girl, Léonie.”

I tightened my lips as I poured him the most lukewarm cup ever. He was not going to get a rise out of me.

But then I moved closer.

“Come now, you can move a little faster,” he said mockingly, raising one finger.

Just one finger, the rest of his body looking entirely relaxed and entirely sure of me.

That’s how his whole life had been, I reflected bitterly. When Étienne raised a finger, he got what he walked.

“You’re a loyal little creature, aren’t you? I really believe that no matter what I did, if I raised a finger, you’d come back to me.”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

He snorted, and his dark eyes gleamed at me. What burned maliciously in those depths? What made him such a wicked, brutal man, so uncaring of his own wife and child?

“Girl, I own you and I have for a long time.”

My temper flared uncontrollably inside me, and I twisted my hand to fling the water in his arrogant face, but he struck faster, knocking the glass away before a drop could get on him.

The water splashed all over the floor, the glass slipping through my fingertips to shatter on the ground.

And in a second my husband had me up against the table, my hands clutching the wood as he gripped my hair.

“Léonie Bastide, what the hell has gotten into you?” he growled.

Emotion almost swamped me, but instead of love it was rage.

“I could never come back to you. Not after what you did to me.”

“What I did?” he hissed, his arms caging me in, his weight pressing down on my back as I felt his hard thigh against mine. “What about you inviting other men into our bedroom?”

“You didn’t even check yourself on the paternity test, or even do any investigation to see if maybe, just maybe, you were being lied to and set up. You’re a lazy bastard, just like Hugo says you are.”

He pulled my face around to look at him.

There was a strange light in his eyes, and suddenly he seemed so terrifyingly alive, like there could be no one in the world as alive as Étienne Bastide.

He was more predator than man, wasn’t he? I wondered as a shiver ran down my spine.

“Maybe you should trust me that I’m taking care of it.”

“I don’t trust you,” I said, my jaw set.

There was something hard jabbing into my side, and I felt humiliation wash over me.

“Merde. All right, wife, I’ll look into the paternity test. After these meetings are over.”

“You want to look into the paternity of your own child, but—you have too much work?”

“That’s right.”

Angry, I shoved back with my hips, trying to slam back into his cock and balls.

“I hate you!”

Étienne gripped my hair tighter, his other hand burning my hip.

“Stop saying that.”

“Get off her!” I heard Hugo call out as Étienne’s lips descended on my throat, in a kiss that was more like a bite.

Steadying himself on the table, Hugo wailed the cane across his brother’s back. Hard. Once. Then again.

Étienne snarled in rage and whirled around to grip the cane so hard it cracked.

I flew between them.

“Stop it! Get away from Hugo!”

“Christ, Léonie, get the hell out of the way!” Étienne snapped. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

It was when he shoved Hugo back that he noticed his bandaged shoulder.

“What happened to you?”

There was a beat of ragged silence as Hugo darted his eyes over to me, and Étienne pounced, his hand around his brother’s throat with frightening rapidity.

“You better not be hiding something from me, brother. Tell me what the fuck happened.”

“Léonie and I got--shot at this week. One of the bullets grazed me.”

For a moment Étienne stood stock still, like an unnatural frozen statue.

“You got shot at?” he repeated, turning to look at me, his eyes uncanny, unblinking.

“I didn’t get hit! You should be worried about Hugo. He’s the one who got us out of there.”

“Why didn’t you fucking tell me? Who did it?”

“Who has motive to hurt me?” I replied quietly, letting it hang there in the heavy, angry silence between us.

“Jesus Christ, woman. You think I hired someone to kill you?”

“Maybe.”

He let Hugo go and slammed his hands on the table, glaring down at me.

I forced myself not to move.

“What kind of man do you think I am?”

“I think you’re the kind of man who would like to get rid of an inconvenient wife so he can have another one.”

He gave me a contemptuous look.

“Who said I was getting another wife?”

“You put a ring⁠—”

“I asked you a damn question, Léonie Bastide. Who told you I was getting you a new wife? No one.”

“No one had to tell me anything. It was pretty clear. Your mother⁠—”

He sent me another scorching look.

“Never mind my mother. Believe what I tell you.”

I said nothing. I knew what I had seen.

Étienne ran a hand impatiently through his dark hair.

“No, I didn’t try to kill you. Putain de merde. Tell me where the fuck Mano is, I need him for this meeting. I know he must be here! His goddamn truck is here!”

Neither of us said anything.

“If Mano has acted improperly toward you, believe me, he will be punished.”

Still I said nothing. Then Tilly and Armand were brought in and questioned.

“Monsieur, I saw nothing,” Tilly said. “We’ve been working in the kitchen for the last few hours. I surely would’ve heard something if he’d come inside.”

“So you are expecting me to believe Mano parked, never came in the house, and somehow vanished from a locked-in yard?”

Étienne kicked the door open, then began to search the first floor in a frenzy, jerking the couch away from the wall and yanking open doors and closets with violent fury.

It reminded me of my nightmare from weeks ago.

Only this time there really was a man here.

A man I was hiding from my husband.

The old Léonie would never have done such a thing.

Good thing she was dead.

When he was thundering back down the stairs, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

It was Tilly, stepping in front of the slightly open door to the basement.

So Étienne couldn’t see it.

My husband was in a towering fury, and I had to clench my fists in my skirts to keep my knees from knocking.

“There should have been security here. I have to go to a meeting now, but I will send more security to investigate. You will not have to worry about anyone else skulking around, I promise you. And I will get to the bottom of who shot at you.”

Still I said nothing.

“Say something,” Étienne snapped with a frown.

“All right.”

He looked like he was waiting for something else from me, but I only stared out the window.

“Hellfire and damnation, wife. Just let me go to the damn meeting. Then I’ll come back here and listen to you. If you insist the paternity test must be wrong, I’ll look into it.”

I said nothing again, and with another low curse, he went out the front door.

Hugo and I looked at each other, waiting until the gate had slammed shut behind his SUV.

“We don’t have much time,” I said. “Unless we want his guards crawling the grounds while we’re doing this.”

We would have to get information out of Mano fast.

Hugo’s smile split his face, and for a moment my gentle brother-in-law looked almost savage.

“I can be quick.”

First, we repaired his cane the best we could, then back we went, down to the basement again, and Hugo, his gait uneven with the cracked cane, dragged a bound and tied Mano out of a locked supply closet.

“You won’t get away with this—” Mano started, his face contorted in fury, and Hugo hit him square in the mouth, then wrapped the rope around his neck again.

“Brother, if you think I am going to go easy on you after years of being locked up, you’re a fool.”

I watched as Mano’s face began to turn purple.

The fact that his hands were bound behind his back meant he couldn’t even try to escape, and I watched as abject panic chased the arrogance off his face.

“It wasn’t your idea to set me up, was it?” I asked as Hugo let him have a tiny, shallow breath. “Even though you want me, someone else put you up to it, didn’t they?

Blood dribbled out of his nostrils.

“I want to know who it was. Who wanted to split Étienne and I up that badly? Your mother? Faustine?”

“You better answer,” Hugo warned as he tightened the rope brutally tight again for several long seconds, then let it loose.

“Fine,” Mano wheezed. “It wasn’t my idea.”

I knew it.

“You planted the condom wrapper there to make me look bad.”

Hugo elbowed Mano viciously in the head.

“I did plant that condom.”

“Who put you up to it?” Hugo growled. “I know you’re too spineless to have planned something like this yourself.”

“I can’t tell,” Mano rasped. “He’ll kill me if I do.”

“I’ll fucking kill you now, fucker.”

“He?” I asked sharply. “He who?”

“Étienne. Who else has any power in these mountains? My brother is the one who forced me to do it. He orchestrated the whole thing.”