Ruby Fever (Hidden Legacy, #6)(96)

I would be mad at Linus for a very long time.

Victoria turned to me. “Why, Catalina? Why the Wardens?’

“It was complicated.”

“Oh, I know. He told me. But look at this mess we are in. This Warden thing threatens the survival of the family.”

“Do you know you nearly broke Nevada with that horrible scheme? That was a bigger threat to us than this.” I waved at the estate. “This is simple. We know who the enemy is. Nevada never expected you to stab her in the back.”

Victoria heaved a sigh. “Is she happier now, being the terrifying truthseeker of House Rogan? Did I free her so she could be a wife and a mother?”

“You and I will never see eye to eye on this.”

“And you think you will ever see eye to eye with Linus? This man has failed in every area of his life. He abandoned me and your father and went off to be a weapons merchant. Being a Warden is how he’s trying to atone for his sins. He is fanatical about it. After I began my sentence, he came to see me in prison. I was shocked. I thought, ‘Finally, a spark of humanity from that man.’”

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

“He found out that one of the Houses involved in the Conspiracy planted a mole in prison to watch me. He wanted to flush them out. I met him in the gardens, and he started prattling on about building a new Rome, and hating to be bored, and how the cause wasn’t dead.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help myself.

“I nearly strangled him. I should have strangled him. What would they have done, put me in prison? It is a miracle that man is alive. I get no credit.”

She shook her head and sipped her tea.

Victoria Tremaine’s battle cry. I do everything and get no credit.

“Why did he leave you and Dad?” I asked.

“I met him in a little coffee shop in New York. He’d had a fight with his grandfather and landed in the US with nothing except the clothes on his back. I had been looking for a donor for two years and I knew he was my best chance.” Victoria sighed. “We met, we talked, we did things that two young people do when they find each other attractive. He agreed to the donorship. I didn’t tell him the whole story about the surrogate, but he saw enough clues to put it together. Whatever his many faults are, your grandfather is not stupid. He chose to ignore it. Then when James was born, I brought our son home and Linus was over the moon. Your father was the most adorable baby in the world. For a little while we were a family.”

She looked off into the distance.

She had told a version of this story to Nevada. Like most things she said, it was a half-truth. Truthseekers had to actively concentrate to be able to tell when another truthseeker is lying, and Nevada had believed her.

“I knew it wouldn’t last. Linus had goals. He was ambitious. It was too easy, Catalina. Too nice and comfortable. He had a moment where he realized exactly how tempting it would be to stay with us and play house, and it must’ve scared him. He found the surrogate contract. He became upset. We fought. He left.”

“What was in the contract?” That was the second time she’d mentioned it.

“Misha was a vegetable, Catalina. There were people hounding her family hoping to get their hands on the new Beast of Cologne. None of them had the magic, but it didn’t matter. They had a child stolen. They consented to her use as a surrogate in return for protection.”

I put my face into my hands. “It gets worse and worse.”

“It’s my sin, not yours. To them I was the lesser of many evils.”

“Lesser evil is still evil.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Did you get their child back?”

“Of course I did.”

Linus came striding back. “Get your guards. We have to take a road trip.”





Chapter 17




Arabella took a turn at thirty miles per hour in an armored transport not designed for it.

“I’m sorry about Pete,” I told Linus.

I had finally given him a detailed account of everything that had happened. He had already heard the summary from Arabella, but there were things she didn’t know about.

Linus didn’t say anything. Pete had been with him for almost twenty years. He wasn’t an employee; he was a friend.

“What about his son?” he asked.

“I had MII stash him in a safe location until this is over.”

“That’s good,” Linus said. “Still angry with me?”

“Yes.”

I was going to be angry for a very long time. I had compartmentalized it the way I compartmentalized my fear and outrage when I dealt with Victoria, my revulsion when I had to process a crime scene, or the deep anxiety I felt when Konstantin looked at me a moment too long with that longing in his eyes. I’d learned that I could do that. It was my superpower. But it didn’t mean I forgave or forgot.

“You should’ve told us,” Arabella said from the driver’s seat.

“That I was your grandfather or that I was Caesar?”

“Both,” we said at the same time.

“You were not ready for it.”

“It’s pointless,” I told Arabella. “He thinks he is always right.”

“No,” my sister said. “One time he thought he was wrong, but he was mistaken.”