Caught Forever Between Read Online Free PDF Page B

you’d see what I’d done. And hate me for it. So I sent you to Alex.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And I was right.”
    “Cass, I got nothing to do with this — ” Raleigh’s words ended with a snarl from the loup garou. Raleigh moaned and whether it was just simple fear or added pain, Cass couldn’t tell.
    “Cassandra Aphrodite Danzinger,” said a familiar voice. “Open your eyes, girl, and witness what you done brought about.”
    At the mambo ’s cold words, Cass opened her eyes. Gabrielle LaRue stood in the doorway between the front and the back of the shop. She stepped forward, the door swinging shut behind her. She fixed Cass with a gaze as icy as her words, her eyes like night-hidden stones. A purple scarf covered her hair and silver flashed at her ears, throat, and wrists. Her purple dress was simple and summer-sheer, and her brown feet were sandals-clad.
    A queen stood before her, a queen full of dark power, one who weighed and measured her better than any set of scales. Cass straightened. Met the mambo ’s gaze.
    “You set all this in motion, girl,” Gabrielle said, crossing the floor to stand beside her crouching godson and his downed prey. “You a decision to make.” Her gaze shifted to Helena. Helena met the mambo ’s dark eyes and lifted her chin slightly. “Justice for your mama or — ” Gabrielle glanced at Raleigh. Her lip curled slightly as though she smelled something bad — maybe the bitterness he’d splashed all over the shop and himself when he’d pulled the trigger That Night. “ — justice for your Michelangelo.”
    Returning her attention to Cass, she looked at her for a long moment. “You must choose one. The other be released, y ’hear, girl? Released until the day a higher power calls ’em to task for what they done.”
    “I didn’t shoot Alex,” Raleigh said, his voice thin. “He’s my fucking brother !” Sweat gleamed on his forehead. His strained face looked ghostly even in the kitchen’s clear light, his eyes as dark as midnight.
    A sudden pang pierced Cass. He looked like Alex had when she’d discovered him on the blood-pooled floor, pale and fading, eyes shut. She remembered Raleigh walking into the shop, the color draining from his face as he looked at his brother held in her blood-smeared arms; remembered his words: He’s dead, isn’t he? Remembered the shocked expression on his face when she’d breathed, No. Call 911.
    Remembered the shattered-heart feel of the world ending as Alex’s blood pulsed past her fingers
    Tearing her gaze away from Raleigh, Cass looked at her sister kneeling before her, broken wrist held tight against her chest. Helena met her gaze. Held it. She said nothing. Her earlier words looped through Cass’s mind: I’d do it again. I’ve got no regrets. And felt again Helena’s arms wrapping around her, comforting and warm, strong enough to hold her forever. Recalled Helena’s voice shushing her, soothing her — right after she’d murdered their mother.
    Cass shifted her attention back to Devlin. He watched her through the dark fall of his hair. “I choose Raleigh Paris,” she said. “D’you hear me, loup garou ?”
    “ Oui ,” Devlin growled. “I hear you, for true.”
    “No!” Helena exclaimed. “Cass, this is all wrong — ”
    Her words ended when Devlin threw back his head and howled. The sound reverberated through the small room, lonely and full of yearning, dark and primal. The hair rose on Cass’s arms and neck.
    Helena stared at Devlin, lips parted, eyes wide. Raleigh struggled frantically to push himself free of the loup garou ’s weight.
    In seconds, Devlin stripped off his clothes. His muscles rippled.
    Gabrielle strode past her morphing godson and, hand to elbow, eased Helena to her feet. “You be free, girl,” she said, her gaze stern. “You weren’t named. Time to go.”
    “No, I — ” Helena began, but the mambo held her hand up to her mouth and blew the glittering dust cupped in her