Jacob's Trial [Forbidden Legacy 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (7 page)

Michael’s expression shifted, the droopy corners of his mouth curving upward. “Yes. You should not have interfered. When I recognized you,
brother
, I turned my attacks to the Elf. You saved him. You and that little slut.”

Jacob’s fingers curled into a fist. Only Gustav’s icy reserve held him in place.

“Tell us,
brother
, do you let the Elf mount you, too? Or do you just take turns with Cassie? She’s got a sweet little ass.”

“Enough.” Gustav saved Michael’s life. But Jacob merely added that to the sum total of pain he would extract from the bastard’s hide.

“He’s a wanted fugitive.” Jacob faced the inquisitor general. His fingers dug into the palm of his hand, pinpricks of pain piercing the fury fraying the ends of his control.

“He is a Wizard. He will not be taken by human authorities for performing the business of Wizards. Leave off, Jacob.” And that was that. The inquisitor general had spoken. Jacob’s team would face censure, banishment, their powers war locked and more if they were to go against Gustav’s wishes.

Unless…

“A full Council must decide that, my lord.” The placid words reacted against both men like a match carried into a live powder magazine. Gustav whirled on him, and Michael’s smirk vanished.

“The Philadelphia Accords of 1812 that sanctioned the reunification of the European Council with the Colonial Rebellion state that human life is sacrosanct and it is the duty of all Wizards to defend against Fae incursion in
defense
of those lives. Those same accords set the rules of engagement and created the position you occupy, my lord.” He focused his attention on Gustav’s stone-carved expression.

“Are you really trying to educate me on accords that
I
helped negotiate?” The bland tone was a warning, but Jacob remained unwavering.

“If it is necessary, my lord, to make my case. Yes.”

Michael’s snort of derision jerked the inquisitor general’s wrath in his direction. Silenced under the quelling look, Michael spared Jacob a glare. Jacob ignored him. Should Michael move to attack, he would flatten him and take his chances with the Council. If he remained silent, the bastard would face a trial by his peers and his defense would be weak.

Unless they are running scared…

Averting the thought, Jacob waited.

“Fine. We will convene the Council.” The inquisitor general’s acquiescence sent another wave of warning bells ringing through Jacob’s mind. “We will need three days, and we will meet during the waning gibbous of the full moon.”

“Then I will take Michael back into custody.” Jacob’s lips curled into a thin smile.

“No.” Gustav shook his head and sat down once more into the great chair. “He will remain in my custody until the time of the trial.”

Jacob disliked the idea. “Then with your permission, I will remain here to monitor that custodial arrangement.”

“No, and to suggest that again would border on an accusation, Wizard Book. I suggest you reconsider your line of thinking before I level charges at you.” Gustav’s patience for the matter was at an end.

“As you wish, my lord.” The words crawled around the stiffness in his throat. His jaw ached from maintaining his expression. If the inquisitor general vouched for Michael, their cause may be lost already.

“I do. You will be present for the trial, as you are bringing the charges. You will also produce Cassandra Belle.” And there it was.

Damocles’s sword hung over his head, ringing with the inquisitor general’s orders.

“My lord?” The last place on earth he was bringing Cassie was into the sphere of Michael’s influence.

“The charges you are levying include the murders of the Belle family, which she represents, as well as charges of malfeasance against her person. If she is as human as you say, then she is vital to your case. You will bring her before this Council for examination.”

If.

The gun beneath Jacob’s arm weighed against his soul. One bullet would end Michael’s existence and neutralize the threat to Cassie. Gustav would end Jacob, but Michael would still be dead.

And Cassie would be safe.

As though aware of the dark direction of his thoughts, Michael vanished from the room, blotted out by the inquisitor general’s power.

“Three days, Wizard Book. You will bring the woman here. You will present her before this Council, and I caution you, if you bring the Elf with her, you better have his head in a bag or yours will be.”

Blackness plunged down, and Jacob’s next breath arrived in the antechamber of the inquisitor general’s home. The doors swung open, signaling his dismissal. Jacob clenched his fists.

Three days to save her life.

Cassie added a sixth slice of turkey bacon to the napkin-layered plate before sliding all of it into the microwave. Programming it for two minutes, she leaned back against the counter and folded her arms. The machine whirred to life, the internal light shining on the circular plate spinning the food as it nuked to crispness.

“Among the Fae, a woman’s eyes glow when she is fertile for the lover she has chosen. It is a rare and exquisite sight.”

She tapped her foot impatiently.
Pregnant.

Really?

The concept of children wasn’t foreign to her. She’d always imagined they were in the plan.
Eventually. In five or six years. After my career was established. After I am secure, independently wealthy, and can really enjoy life with a baby.

Three long beeps announced the bacon was done. Popping open the device, she pulled the plate out, careful to grip the drippy napkin rather than the actual china. The heat promised a burn, but she set it down on the counter quickly.

Among the Fae…

But her eyes glowed for Jacob. Peeling the napkin away, she transferred the crispy bacon to a cooler plate and carried it toward the square-paned, double-sided French doors that opened onto the veranda overlooking the mountains.

Mountain.

She preferred her ocean-side view in Malibu. But the mountains were safer. Helcyon and Jacob wanted her out of reach of civilization. If not for Helcyon’s ability to shift her Underhill and out again, she wouldn’t even be able to go to her office.

A place he refused to take her after she roused from her shock to realize she still had meetings. The hard thump of her heart pinged on her conscience. Helcyon looked so damn happy. He’d asked her to forgive him before admitting he hoped she was pregnant. The quiet longing in his green eyes was a foreign experience for her and skimmed guilt to the top of her shock.

Nibbling the bacon, Cassie walked across the warm wooden planks to lean against the railing. Mountain breezes carried the scents of cedar, pine, sweet grass, and the elusive, just out of her reach, hint of snow. The range sprawled green and lush before her, but the mountaintops dusted white with the promise of snow contrasted with the warm sunlight puddling around her.

Three pieces of bacon later, her mind paused the instant replay of that conversation. Controlling her breathing smothered the flood of panic that rushed her system, and she nibbled on a fourth piece of bacon as she tried to understand what terrified her more.

Finding out she was pregnant.

Or telling Jacob that Helcyon got her pregnant.

He’d hate it.

Or would he?

Her mouth went dry around the bacon, the turkey flavor turning to ash on her tongue. Her eyes glowed in that hotel room just over a week ago. They’d glowed for Jacob.

From the frying pan to the fire…
Her heart sank, lodging against the bacon in her stomach.
How do you tell a man you might be pregnant and you have no idea who the father is…? Slut, thy name is Cassie.

The buzzing of her phone dragged her from the dark thoughts, and she tugged the BlackBerry out of her pocket. The number struck a chord of recognition. “This is Cassandra Belle?”

She placed the plate with its now-unappetizing pieces of bacon on the railing and wiped her fingers on the dry part of the paper towel.

“Miss Belle, this is Phyllis at the West Hollywood Christian Louboutin’s location. It’s been a few months, but we just got the most darling shipment of Devidas in, embroidered strass on black, green-tea, or hot-pink suede. I’ve set aside the pairs in your size, and we still have your credit card on file if you’d like us to go ahead and ship them to you.” Retail therapy answered a lot of qualms over the years.

“The green tea, please, Phyllis. And thank you. Did the Dorsets ever come in?”

“Black suede wrap with the gold heels? Yes ma’am. I also found that pair of feathered strap pedestal heels with the 120mm silver spike you were hunting for last month. I can package all these up and send them out to Malibu today.”

The quaking in her tummy relaxed and Cassie closed her eyes, letting the sun warm the coldness of her cheeks. The flushed, racy beat of her heart dulled to a fist-bump rap against her rib cage. Shoes she could focus on. The black feather pumps would be divine with the strategically designed crimson-threaded feather Vera Wang dress she’d picked up last winter.

“Actually, could you courier them to my office? I’m having some remodeling done to the Malibu house and I’m not staying there currently.”

“Absolutely.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Phyllis. Really.”

“My pleasure, Ms. Belle. Please drop by to see us the next time you’re in town. We miss you.” No they didn’t. They missed her credit card. But Cassie took the small measure of comfort from the words. Phyllis represented the normal part of her life. The part that seemed to have ceased to exist that day in Grant Park.

She hadn’t been to a nightclub opening, a power lunch, or even a Beverly Hills mini runway show since. No, she’d been rained fire on, kidnapped, blinded, surrounded by hungry reporters, and danced the thin line of politics with her pseudo-great-great-grandmother.

And spent every night wrapped in the arms of a man who wants you and is willing to share you. Whine less.
Her phone’s second line buzzed even as she hung up with Phyllis.
And you wouldn’t trade either man for some stupid power lunch.

The icy shackles chinking against her heart melted as Jacob’s dry expression appeared on her phone’s screen. She thumbed the green answer button with relief. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. What’s wrong?” The crisp, no-nonsense masculine tone swept away the ill-at-ease sensation in one broad stroke.

“Besides Michael’s apparent escape and my two he-men telling me what I can and cannot do?”

“Yes. Besides those.”

“I found out what my eyes glowing might mean.” She didn’t mince the words. The only way to maintain the equilibrium in their threesome was honesty, openness, and trust. If she paused to consider how she could love the two men so much in so short a time, it made her temples throb, but her heart didn’t care what her reason might suggest. She loved them. She wanted this to work.

The doors opened behind her and she waved Helcyon over.

“What do they mean?” Jacob’s tone remained reserved, guarded. But he was a guarded individual, stern and nearly as forbidding as Helcyon was relaxed and playful.

Helcyon glided up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, tucking her back against the warmth of his chest.

“According to Helcyon, the eyes of Fae women glow when they are fertile.” Fertile. If ever there was a word that needed marketing assistance, because it conjured images of a recently tilled field with dark, rich soil, and a farmer in a straw hat spreading seed by hand.

The image of Jacob and Helcyon sporting conical straw hats shook a laugh from her. She was so going to get them each one, if only long enough to take a picture.

“Put the Elf on the phone.” Jacob’s voice snapped through the line and Cassie frowned. She wasn’t sure what reaction she’d been hoping for, but the tense dismissal wasn’t it.

Passing the phone to Helcyon, she stood on her tiptoes to try and listen.

* * * *

“Can she hear us?” Jacob’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel.

“Yes. One moment.”

“Hey!” Outrage suffused Cassie’s tone. The Glashtyn slid through traffic, negotiating every open space between cars on the I-5 smoothly.

“Go ahead.” The stilted tone reminded Jacob that Helcyon didn’t like talking on the phone. Too bad.

“Does it really mean she’s fertile?”

“Yes.”

Closing his eyes, Jacob counted to ten. That put a whole new spin on their problems. “They glowed when she was with me.”

“So she explained.”

“Is she pregnant?”

It was Helcyon’s turn to let out a breath. “It is too soon to be positive. I could take her Underhill, but…”

The descending note in his voice suggested the Elf wasn’t comfortable with the idea. Neither was Jacob.

“No. That would alert the Danae
.
”

“Exactly.”

“You two realize that I should be a part of this conversation, not just the object of it?” A strident note of displeasure crescendoed in Cassie’s words.