“I think there might be another woman,” Abel finally said and met her eyes.

It felt as if somebody had plunged a knife into her heart. “No,” she managed to choke out.

“Listen, Faye, I can’t be a hundred percent certain, and I truly hope that I’m wrong, but the way his men talked . . . I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, but Cain’s strange behavior worried me.” Abel dropped his hands from her shoulders.

Faye shook her head in disbelief. Cain had another woman? “No, that can’t be.” She didn’t want to believe it.

“Maybe I misunderstood what they were talking about. But it sounded like they were discussing when to bring her to court and present her to the clan.” Abel turned his back to her. “I’m sorry, Faye. I wish I had better news. I’m worried about Cain. Whatever happened to him during the last year, it might have changed entirely who he is. What if he’s being unduly influenced by the men who’re now his guards, or by the woman they talked about? I’m worried for the clan.”

Faye barely heard the words, because all she could think of was what had happened in Cain’s room. He’d punished her for not having waited for him and then he’d rejected her. He’d been so angry and mistrusting of her. She’d felt it in her bones. Just like she’d been keenly aware of the absence of affection in his gaze. Had he stopped loving her because he’d fallen in love with another woman?

A sob tore from her chest before she could suppress it.

“Oh, God, Faye, it pains me to see you hurt,” Abel said.

A moment later she felt his arms around her, pressing her to his chest.

“Don’t do anything hasty. Maybe I’m wrong and he still loves you, but I couldn’t help but notice the indifference with which he greeted you yesterday.”

So Abel had seen it, too.

“What am I going to do?” she sobbed.

“Give him some space,” Abel counseled. “Show him that you’re not pressuring him. I can tell you from my own experience that no man wants a needy woman. Don’t show your feelings. It will only make things worse.”

She nodded, desperately trying to dry her tears. By visiting Cain in his suite she’d probably already made a huge mistake, but she couldn’t tell Abel about it. She needed no confirmation of her own stupidity. Why hadn’t she read the signs Cain had so clearly exhibited upon his arrival? Why hadn’t she seen that his love for her had died?

19

“There’s not much point in interrogating the guards who were with me yesterday.”

Cain stared at Marcus who sat in the chair in front of his desk. “Meaning what exactly?”

“They’re new recruits. That’s the reason they didn’t recognize you. They came to us after your disappearance. Abel hired them,” Marcus informed him. “I apologize again for the attack, but from where I was I didn’t see your face. Had I known it was you—”

Cain lifted his hand to interrupt him. “Well, that explains why I didn’t recognize them either,” Cain lied. “When we’re done here, give Wesley their names. I’ll have my men do a background check on them.”

“But that’s already been done,” Marcus protested.

“Not by me.” He motioned to Wesley, who was leaning against the wall, watching them. “Wes, you know what to do.”

The witch nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

Cain glanced to the other end of the room, where Thomas had set up his computer and was busy typing away on his keyboard. Haven had left the room and was canvassing the property, familiarizing himself with its layout and inhabitants.

“Now back to you,” Cain said and looked down at the pad where he’d noted down the vampire guard’s answers to his previous questions. “Why were you in the French Quarter the night of my abduction?”

“It was my night off.”

Cain looked back at his notes and scanned them until he found what he was looking for. He tapped on the paper with his pen. “You said earlier that your regular night off is Wednesday. I was abducted on a Monday.”

Marcus dropped his lids. “I will regret for as long as I live that I wasn’t there that night. I shouldn’t have done it. Maybe if I hadn’t, I could have prevented it.”

Cain narrowed his eyes, suspicion creeping up his spine like a snake. “Done what?

“I asked Baltimore to change shifts with me.”

“Why?”

Marcus shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “The woman I was seeing back then begged me to visit her that night. And I was a fool in love not to be able to resist her. So I asked Baltimore to change shifts with me.”