Page 81 of Explosive Vengeance

“Tonight. I’m on the plane now.”

“Yay! Then you can come to my piano recital tomorrow.”

“Sweetheart, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Jean-Pierre drove him home from the airport. It was past the girls’ bedtime, but his wife would be up. Guillaume couldn’t wait to see her. She treated him like a king, worshipped him, and always stood by his side. He loved her impossibly hard for that.

He carried the flowers he’d purchased into the house. The kitchen light was on, but his wife wasn’t there. “Vienne?” he called as he strode toward the living room.

Quiet treads on the carpeted staircase behind him made him turn around. The welcoming smile on his face froze at the cold expression on hers. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Vienne stood on the third tread from the bottom wearing her favorite satin dressing gown, one elegantly manicured hand resting on the handrail. She swallowed, something like horror in her liquid brown eyes as she stared at him. “I had a disturbing telephone call a few minutes ago.” Her voice was a soft rasp. As if she didn’t dare to speak any louder.

He took a step toward her, concern for her safety punching through him. “Who was it? Did they threaten you?”

Vienne shrank back, clutching the halves of her gown together at the throat. As if the thought of him touching her revolted her. “Stop.”

He halted, taken aback by her reaction. “Vienne, what—”

“Is it true you’ve been buying and selling women as part of your business?”

Shock blasted through him. The blood drained from his face, leaving him dizzy, a cold sweat popping out on his skin as his heart began to hammer. No. No, this couldn’t be. “Don’t be ridiculous. Who told you that? Who did you talk to?” Guillaume would hunt them down and kill them for this.

She swallowed, a sheen of tears making her eyes glisten. “Don’t you dare lie to me.” Her voice was so quiet. So cold the words iced the air between them. Guillaume could feel their chill from where he stood.

He stared at her, struggling to come up with a plausible lie. She’d caught him so off guard that she must see the truth in his face. “I…”

A sob escaped her. She clamped her lips shut and shook her head, looking at him like he was a monster conjured up from the bowels of Hell. “Get out.”

“What?” he gasped, stricken. She and the girls were the best part of his life. He’d loved her since he’d met her at that party when he was twenty. There was no one else for him and never would be. Only Vienne.

Her spine straightened, steel entering her expression. “Get out and never come back here.”

“Vienne,” he croaked, reaching a hand toward her. “Don’t. I don’t know what you were told, but it’s not—”

She turned and rushed up the stairs, leaving his heart to hit the floor and shatter into a million bloody pieces.

The master bedroom door slammed upstairs moments later. And she absolutely would have locked it against him. Because the mere sight of him now disgusted her.

Reeling, Guillaume dragged in a ragged breath. The pain in his chest was awful. Like someone was crushing his heart in a vise.

He doubled over, forced air in and out of his lungs as his stunned brain scrambled to find a solution. Who the fuck had told her about the women? And why hadn’t he denied it faster? He was so damn angry with himself for not coming up with a lie in time.

Under the shock and grief, rage began to grow. He would find whoever had told her and kill them in a horrible way. In the meantime, he had to figure out how to win his wife back. He’d make her stay with him if it came to it, or take their girls. Because the thought of living without her or the girls was unbearable.

Feeling half-dead inside, he stumbled back through the kitchen. Jean-Pierre shot off the stool at the island, his brows crashing together in alarm. “Sir—”

“I’m going to the chateau,” he mumbled, and walked to the door. “Stay here with them. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

He walked out into the cold October rain, terrified that the life he’d built had just been irrevocably shattered.

****

“I’ll be damned, you were right. He came alone,” Heath murmured to Chloe.

It was almost midnight and Dubois’ vehicle had just arrived at his country estate near the Normandy coast. They lay prone side by side on a small hill that allowed them to see over the wall surrounding the estate. The rest of the team was scattered elsewhere, ready to act when Chloe gave the signal.

“Told you. By all reports, Vienne Dubois is a genuinely good person. No idea how she went this long without knowing what he was really up to, and not sure I believe that anyway. Either she’s clueless, or he was just that good at duping her.”

---