Rose, Charlotte - Bayou Rescue [The Shifters of Alligator Bend 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (15 page)

Georgina’s face went red. “I can’t believe you would question me after what I’ve been through. You know who I find suspicious? Adele. I still say she should have known Villemont was going to be there, but she didn’t. She failed, but how can we be sure that she failed by accident?”

Adele gasped. “Georgina, please—”

“There is nothing to explain,” Georgina snapped. “I got captured, and it was all your damn fault.”

“Okay, everybody, calm down,” Manuel said. He slammed his palm down on the table.

A hush fell over the room.

“Adele, I been tryin’ my best to believe you, especially when I saw that Georgina came to you first before heading home with us. I thought that meant that she trusted you and had forgiven you as well. But that don’t seem to be the case, and I can’t say I blame her.”

“With all due respect—” Oscar started to say, but Andre cut him off.

“I gotta agree with Manuel on this one. Adele, we appreciate everything you tried to do, but there’s some hurt floatin’ around. I don’t think there’s much you can do now. I know you’re Xavier and Oscar’s mate, and so of course we ain’t gonna turn you away, but maybe it would be best if you quit helpin’.”

“But I could—”

“No,” Manuel said, cutting her off. “I don’t think you could do anything. And I think it would be best if you quit helpin’. I don’t think it’s good to have you around.”

Oscar felt his blood begin to boil. “Are you kidding me?” he snapped. “She didn’t do anythin’ wrong.”

“I just ain’t sure I can trust her.”

“She’s our mate,” Xavier said.

“That may be true, but I still don’t think she should be around right now.”

“Serafine!” Oscar cried. “Do something! You know Adele don’t mean no harm. You know she cares about us, and we care about her. Help us out.”

“Manuel, you be makin’ a mistake by doin’ this,” Serafine said. “Look into your heart. You know what’s right.”

Oscar felt Adele shrug off his touch and step away from Xavier’s arm. “You know, maybe I should go. I wanted to help, but it seems that I’ve only made problems, and in more ways than one. This rescue is clearly a family mission, and I should just take off.” She headed toward the door.

Oscar and Xavier looked at each other, and then they turned and hurried after Adele.

“Hey! Come back!” Manuel called. “We got family business to discuss.”

Oscar and Xavier ignored him and caught up with Adele on the dock.

“Wait!” Oscar said. “Don’t listen to Manuel. All he wants is to get his wife and son back. Ain’t like you can blame him, of course, but it means he’s gonna get pretty harsh. He’s gonna get rid of anyone he thinks ain’t helpin’. But he’ll come around.”

Adele shook her head, and Oscar saw tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “I’m sorry. I know he probably didn’t mean to be hurtful, but he has a point. I did screw up. We all know it.”

“Something tells me Manuel has screwed up more,” Xavier said.

“That may be true, but I was just told outright that the congregation doesn’t want me around. I think it would be best if I kept my distance, at least for now, out of respect to Manuel and Andre and what they’re dealing with.”

“Then we’ll go with you,” Xavier said. “If our congregation don’t respect you, then they don’t respect us. We’re not gonna stay around.”

Adele sighed. “No, that’s not right. Rosaline and Armand are your family. I can’t ask you to choose between them and me. So I’m going to step aside for a little bit, at least until this all blows over.”

“But—but when will we see you again?” Oscar asked.

Adele’s tears started to flow. “I don’t know. When this is all over, I guess. But I refuse to make this worse. I refuse to create animosity between you and your family.”

Reaching up, she gave Oscar a deep kiss then gave one to Xavier as well. A sad smile on her face, she hopped into the boat that Georgina had rented. She raced across the water. Adele only looked back once and gave a small wave, tears streaming down her face.

Chapter Nine

Adele struggled to keep back the tears as she boated back toward the city. She had to keep her wits about her. It was her first time attempting to sail back from the congregation without any assistance, and she didn’t want to get lost. Especially because she knew she was too proud to call Oscar and Xavier to ask for help if she got lost. She was relieved when the city came into view.

It took her about twenty minutes of sailing along the river to find the dock she and Georgina had started from so she could return the boat. She had half a mind to not return it and leave Georgina to deal with the consequences, but she knew that revenge wouldn’t get her anywhere. It certainly wouldn’t make the congregation want to trust her. Plus, anything that drew negative attention to someone in the congregation drew negative attention to Xavier and Oscar by extension, and she wasn’t about to do anything to put the men she cared about at risk.

Still fighting back tears, she hurriedly returned the boat, took a cab to the university, and finally got into her car to drive home. When she finally arrived in her driveway, she paid the driver and crawled up to her apartment, where she sprawled on the couch. Adele turned on the television and let herself get taken in by the cheesy movie that was on. She didn’t even bother channel surfing for a better program. She just wanted to stop thinking for a few hours.

Both Oscar and Xavier called her that night. Each time, she picked up the phone, looked at the name on the display, and had to force herself not to answer it. She was desperate to hear their voices, but she couldn’t deal with talking to them when she wasn’t sure she belonged in their lives. Not when she was unwelcome among the rest of the congregation. Not when so much was at stake. Each time, she pressed the “ignore” button and went back to her moping.

Neither man made an attempt to call at any point over the next three days. Although Adele knew she had brought it upon herself by insisting on distance, it still broke her heart. She went through the motions of work, wrapping up the semester. She noticed Georgina was distant in the lab, but Adele decided she couldn’t blame her after the way things had gone upon her arrival back at the congregation. They were all stuck in an uncomfortable situation. Adele forced herself to keep up the façade of everything being fine, putting on a pleasant face for students and colleagues. Deep in her heart, though, she ached, and regretted that she had allowed herself to end up in this position.

Four days after the argument on the houseboat, Adele was walking back to her car after administering an exam to her first-year lecture class. She nearly dropped her keys when she saw Xavier and Oscar standing next to her vehicle.

“I’ve missed you,” she blurted out.

“We’ve been missin’ you, too, baby,” Oscar said. He leaned over and gave her a soft kiss.

“We know you been feelin’ skittish about the congregation,” Xavier said, taking her hand. “Can’t say we blame you. But we need your help tomorrow.”

“What’s tomorrow?”

“Georgina—well, I know her story looked suspicious, but after you left the other night, she told us she got some good information while she was lying in wait.”

Oscar nodded. “She said that during the party, she overheard that Villemont had bribed someone at the Aquarium to hand over Armand and Rosaline to him. A lot of money. More than he was offering to pay when he was trying to make a legal sale. We’re gonna sneak in there while it’s goin’ on and get our family back.”

“We know it’ll be damn risky,” Xavier said. “But we can’t let this happen. We ain’t gonna let him take Rosaline and Armand away for good.”

Adele sighed. “I hate to be so suspicious, but do either of you see that her story still doesn’t add up? She lurked for less than a day and figured out how to foil the security system. Not only that, but despite everything else that was going on during the party, she managed to get information about Villemont bribing a corrupt Aquarium official to get the albino gators?”

Oscar shook his head. “We know. We ain’t buyin’ it at all. But as for the rest of the congregation, well, they’re just so glad she’s alive, they don’t care about the inconsistencies.”

“Besides,” Xavier said, “no matter how she came up with that information, the bribe is still goin’ down. Even if it came from a corrupt source, we can’t let Villemont get away with that shit.”

“But what if the bribe isn’t actually happening?” Adele asked. “What if it’s a trick to throw you off the trail? What if nothing is going down, but the security guards bust you for breaking and entering? Or worse, what if—”

“We can’t think about it like that,” Xavier said. “Yeah, it could be a trap. But I know I don’t wanna run the risk of ignorin’ her and then findin’ out too late she was tellin’ the truth. I could never live with myself after that.”

“Me neither,” Oscar said.

“Are you absolutely sure that there’s no other way? I can’t imagine the thought of you ending up in jail, or getting hurt.”

“There’s no other way,” Xavier said.

Oscar nodded. “If we thought we had other options, we’d take ’em. But this is the last chance we have to save ’em. We have to do it.”

“And what do you need me for? I screwed up last time, remember? My help is no longer welcome.”

“We need you to be the distraction this time,” Xavier said. “You gotta show up as a pissed-off biologist. Flash your credentials. Say you heard about this through the grapevine, that you’re gonna go to the press, that you’re gonna call the police, if they don’t back down. Keep all the attention focused on you so we can get in and save Rosaline and Armand.”

Adele took a deep breath. “And the rest of the congregation is okay with this? Why don’t they have Georgina do it if they trust her?”

“Georgina said she don’t wanna be a part of it. Said she’s too scared after last time.”

Adele couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “All that heroism, and now she’s a chicken.”

Xavier gave a sarcastic chuckle. “I know, I know. Look. I don’t care ’bout what Manuel and Andre think, and neither does Oscar. We trust you. So does Serafine, for that matter. She insisted you be a part of it, that we could depend on you. So will you help us? Please?”

Adele sighed. She was still feeling hurt, but knew there was no way she could live with herself if she didn’t help. Part of her worried about what would happen if she walked into a trap, but she quickly pushed that thought from her mind. She cared about these two men, and they were asking for help. When it came right down to it, she knew there was only one answer. “Of course I will.”

“Thank you,” Xavier said, sweeping her up into a deep hug. After a long squeeze, he released her and brought her into a strong, passionate kiss.

She turned to Oscar and let him envelop her with his body. She filled her lungs with his scent, and as they kissed, she allowed her tongue to taste every inch of his mouth.

Xavier kissed her again, and slid his hands up her shirt, pulling her bra out of alignment to get access to her nipples. Oscar leaned in to place kisses on her neck, and slid his hand up her skirt, pushing her panties aside to ease his fingers up into her wet pussy. As he moved in to kiss her, he reached up and found her G-spot, and pressed his thumb against her clit. Xavier continued to massage her breast, pinching the nipple just hard enough to send shivers throughout her body. His other hand tangled in her hair, pulling her head back, holding it still as her mouth welcomed each kiss.

Oscar checked his watch and frowned. “I hate to leave this way,” he said, “but I think the congregation is expecting us back at the home base.”

Adele’s body was screaming for more, but she just nodded. She didn’t want to be a distraction. “Want a ride?”

“Thanks,” said Oscar. “That’d be nice.”

“Same hotel as last time?”

“Yeah.”

Adele unlocked the car and started it up while Oscar got into the front and Xavier settled right behind her. Driving along, her body became more and more insistent to finish what they had started out by the park. She took a sudden detour and headed for a nearby park where she knew they could find a secluded spot. She couldn’t believe what she was doing, but also knew there was no way she could just let them take off.

Oscar shot her a confused expression.

“Ain’t we supposed to be takin’ Claiborne?” he asked.

“Sure, if we were going right to the hotel.”