Vanquished (The Encounter #3)(49)
“Oh, my, I’m sure you’ll seduce her into submission. Use your charms. They never fail to get you whatever you want,” I teased, laughing with him.
With that, he barely finished his meal, so elated at the very idea that he didn’t have to sacrifice his own life, his freedom any longer. He was jetting out of the chateau as fast as he could, en route to Paris.
It amused me how he could immediately adapt to whatever circumstances came his way. I wished him well, and the ex-mistress he had to woo back in his arms. She would be a fool not to succumb to his charms. He was truly one of a kind.
“Care to enlighten me on how his charms could get him whatever he wanted, Isobel?”
Hugo’s question threw me off guard.
Tensing, I awkwardly glanced at him, hoping he wasn’t insinuating what I thought he was, because we couldn’t go back there again. For f*ck’s sake, not tonight. Most especially not after what he had just announced. We should be celebrating, not dwelling on the past and picking on every damn word that might condemn me in his eyes.
“Any woman with good sense would not want to pass on a good-natured man like Julien; that’s all I meant. I get where you’re trying to go. Let’s not, Hugo,” I huffed out, a little ticked. “We’ve come a long way to get where we are right now, so let’s not go there, please, not tonight of all nights.”
“Forgive me,” he pleaded. “You’re right. It’s just … Jealousy gets the best of me, and the thought of you with any man kills me inside, Isobel.”
He looked so conflicted my heart ached for him. This guy truly loved me, and he was having difficulty trying to express it without having his machismo being edged out.
Poor man, I thought, grinning like an idiot.
“I love you, you stubborn fool. There’s no one else but you. Try to remember that from time to time, will you?” Reaching for his hand, I gave it a light, encouraging squeeze.
We were going to be okay. I knew it. I could feel it. The grace of calmness welcomed me into its arms. We were almost there.
After dinner, we decided to stay in the bedroom, lounging in the sofa section of the room with the Louis VX intricate-style fireplace on. We were both entranced with the fire dancing before our very eyes while he held my feet, gently massaging them since they were a tad swollen from a cross-Atlantic trip. I was exhausted, yet I lavished on these little moments. They were meaningful to me.
“Hugo,” I said softly, my eyes still glued on the dancing fire. “Are you going to tell me how you did it?” I wasn’t trying to pressure him, but this matter directly affected me and the twins. I had to know, or I wouldn’t be able to rest.
I could see his jaw locking, which was a clear indication that he had reservations. Something displeased him.
Waiting with bated breath, I tried not to concentrate on his silence. There was something that bugged him, and the more he waited and held back, the more I became anxious and curious.
“First, I want you to understand that everything I did—everything I have ever done—was all for the benefit of you and the twins, but most of all you,” He began, to appear agitated and anxious to no end. “The night your father, Constantin, came to threaten and extort you and Julien, he immediately went to my place. He asked for double actually.”
I saw red everywhere. The word anger didn’t even come close to describing how furious I was.
“For the love of God! That man is—”
Hugo stopped me with a finger against my lips, his eyes full of unspoken emotions. “Don’t waste your breath on it. We all know what kind of a man he is. There’s no need to harp on it right now, because if we divert from this subject, I might never get to finish it, so please, indulge me this one time.”
His pleading set alarm bells ringing in my ears. For him to dissuade me from the subject of Constantin after he had blatantly asked for two million Euros … Well, whatever it was holding him back was much more pressing. I wasn’t sure I was prepared for it yet. It felt as though I was waiting on the scaffold, and the executioner was still taking his sweet time, sharpening his ax.
“Don’t mention this ever again, but I paid the man off. Not because I wanted him to go away—well, that, too, but what he held was much more important to ignore. It was worth the payoff. The information he had directly affected us both, like killing the two birds with one stone kind of thing.
“Constantin’s statements checked out with what Beno?t found. There was a man who sought retaliation against a man named Benedikt Romanov, the very same man who had cursed my family. This vengeful man wanted to hit Romanov where he deemed it would hurt most. Since Romanov had a lot of money and investments, taking a few of his companies wouldn’t suffice; hence, the hunt for a particular driving force that would hit him so much he wouldn’t ever recover.
“After months of research and scouring Romanov’s history, they finally found it, and merely a few days ago, a bounty was posted. Then a rampage ensued.
“Romanov went on vacation after he murdered his wife. Apparently, he was on a yacht, enjoying the glorious Grecian sights when he slept with a woman, a woman who later bore a child. She didn’t inform Romanov since she was married and passed it off as her husband’s. But the husband knew all along. That’s why he came to me, thinking I would benefit with this information more than anyone else.”