Hupotasso (Vampire Bachelor Games #2)

56

56

I stare into my glass morosely, waiting for him to finish his tirade.

I’m only half-listening. The other half is mourning my mother and hating myself for causing her last thoughts to be distressing. She didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve to be told in her final hour that I’d driven away the woman she’d done everything to bring into my life by acting as my father would have.

I owed her more than that. I owed them both more than that.

“The only logical conclusion, given how much she hates you both,” Viper goes on, “is that she somehow used her visit to shock our mother so greatly that her heart stopped, and then used The Free Men to escape. We should send the death squad after her.”

I shake my head, unable to comprehend all I’m hearing.

“Viper, Mother died due to complications. Her body wouldn’t accept the medication. They tried everything, but a human woman’s body after hupotasso is not the same as a normal woman’s. We don’t know if that’s why the drugs didn’t work, but one thing I do know is that Angie didn’t visit Mother. She left the hospital the moment she arrived. Another woman took her place and sat with Mother for ten minutes. She was under supervision by Asumpta and security the whole time.”

“Where is this woman then?” He scowls.

“She got away. Jag’s on the case.”

Viper snorts as the door opens.

“Speak of the devil.”

Jag ignores my brother and walks to loom over where I sit, moodily staring into my now-empty glass.

“I have information. You’re not going to like it.”

“Jag,” I sigh. “I can’t take any more news tonight. Viper’s just finished regaling me with his theory that Angie deliberately shocked Mother to death before running.”

“Viper, you little cunt,” Jag snaps. “What game are you playing? Anyone who knows Angie knows this is bullshit. She didn’t even visit your fucking mother.”

“I was with Mother when she died,” I add, swallowing hard.

‘If anyone shocked her to death, it was me.’

Viper shrugs and I shake my head at him.

Jag’s right. Although Angie was adamant she hated me I know she wouldn’t harm Mother. It’s just not in her nature, even if she had visited. I have no idea why Viper hates her so much that he’d make up this story without first checking the facts. But I can’t worry about Viper at the moment, all I can think is that the only two women in the world who professed to love me are now gone.

Standing, I push past Jag and Viper to pour myself another drink.

“Why did Angie run then?” Viper snipes. “If she wasn’t guilty, why run?”

I don’t bother telling him that I’d done something heinous to her the night before she flew out. The less Viper knows, the better.

“She wasn’t happy here,” is all I say as I top my whisky glass up to its rim.

It occurs to me as I say this that maybe she’d learned somehow that Sophie was pregnant with my child, about twelve weeks if my calculations are correct. That would mean both babies are due around the same time.

‘But even if she doesn’t know about the pregnancy, she knows I’m going to dispense with her and marry Sophie. I told her so myself. If she learned Sophie was pregnant then no wonder she ran. I should have told her. I should have told her I’d changed my mind, that I wanted to keep her, that we’d work on our marriage…instead, I’d lost my temper and bitten her. As far as she knows, I still want to kill her. And now I have no chance to tell her how wrong she is, how sorry I am for everything. Unless I can find her.’

“Falcon, we need to talk,” Jag says quietly.

I look at him and sigh heavily. His expression is strained. Jag isn’t easily rattled. Whatever has him so bothered must be important.

“Get it off your chest,” I sigh, but before you do, I already know I royally fucked up and deserve the bruises you gave me the other night, and more. Mother told me hupotasso doesn’t work on pregnant women.”

His face turns white.

I don’t often see Jag affected by anything.

Wordlessly, I hand him my drink and watch as he downs it in one gulp before sitting down heavily in my recently vacated chair.

“Is everything alright, Jag?”

“It can’t be,” he whispers.

I frown.

‘Does he truly believe I can’t father a child?’

“What is it you came to tell me?” I ask brusquely.

“We found the nurse,” he says quietly, his face still unnaturally pale. “She suggested the Free Men switched your mother’s drugs weeks ago. I haven’t been able to confirm it yet, but if so Eleanor didn’t stand a chance and her death would have been nothing to do with her body rejecting the medication.”

“The Free Men,” I hiss. “They helped Angie escape and killed my mother?”

Jag looks up at me, shaking his head.

“Before you start, Angie wouldn’t have known about your mother. The alleged drug switch took place, as I said, weeks ago. “But yes, the nurse responsible switched clothes with Angie. The Free Men helped your wife run and are likely hiding her. It’s the logical conclusion.”

“When has anything we believed about Angie ever been a logical conclusion?” I snap.

Jag nods and shrugs.

“Kill her,” Viper snaps, interrupting us, “she’s been nothing but trouble from the start.”

“She’s my wife ,” I snarl, “and need I remind you, she’s carrying my heir?”

“Why then,” he turns to point at Jag, “send your loyal best friend. If anyone can find her, he will.”