To Tempt A Tiger(83)

Once the door closed behind her, Zoe finally let Rose put her down. “You want to explore the room?” Rose asked her.

She nodded, taking Rose’s hand. They went through the two-bedroom suite, checking the huge en suite bathrooms, making sure everything was to Zoe’s approval. She stayed well away from the windows, a move that made Rose’s heart ache, but otherwise, she didn’t seem nervous or scared. When Rose walked back out to the living room area, Zoe willingly stayed behind in their bedroom to go through her backpack, making sure her blanket had made the room transition.

Rose walked into Vlad’s arms, hugging him tight. She didn’t know what to say about his brothers, whether to hope they were alive or had been murdered by the bastard elder. Part of her didn’t want the threat of their fanaticism hanging over Zoe, but without them, it didn’t look like bringing Lei to justice would be possible. Both options seemed cold, though, when compared to what Vlad must be feeling. Like them or not, they were his brothers, his blood relations. She didn’t have siblings of her own. She couldn’t understand what it was like to lose one—even one you didn’t get along with. Would he mourn them? Would he care?

“I’m not sure how to feel about my brothers right now,” he said as if reading her thoughts.

She pulled back and frowned up at him. “Could you tell what I was thinking, or are we just thinking the same things?”

“Your scent is too full of complicated emotions right now for my tiger to separate them. And no, I can’t exactly read your mind, even though your scent gives away your emotional state most of the time.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “But it’s an obvious topic. They may have set up our daughter to be kidnapped and…” He glanced to the bedroom and didn’t finish the sentence. “Yet if they’re alive, they could testify against Lei. If they’re dead, they’re no longer a threat but Lei likely goes free.”

“And they’re your family.”

“That’s… I wish I could say that matters less. I don’t want it to matter. We’ve never been close. I’ve spent my life pretending around them and never letting them know the real me. The only family member I was close to was my mother. It makes my feelings for my brothers complicated.”

“Will you be upset if they’ve been killed?” She asked quietly, not because of Zoe’s excellent hearing, but because the topic seemed too somber for anything louder.

“Yes. And no.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ll know when we find out.”

She cupped his cheek, failing to come up with words of comfort. So she kissed him instead.

“You kissing! Silly,” Zoe said as she walked into the living room dragging her blanket.

The sound of her voice, sing-songy and happy, did Rose’s heart good. Zoe had been through so much, Rose couldn’t help but worry how this would affect her.

“Do you like when I kiss Vlad?” she asked her daughter.

“Ha! It’s silly.” She launched herself at them and hugged both their legs.

“Could have been a worse answer,” Vlad commented dryly as he settled a hand on Zoe’s head.

Rose chuckled. A knock on the door interrupted the moment. Vlad patted her back and went to answer. Rose pulled Zoe close.

Vlad stepped back to let Alexis in, and Rose frowned. “Is something wrong? You literally just left.”

She motioned to the corridor. Rose looked around her to see a vaguely familiar man standing outside the door. It took a minute to place where she recognized him from—he was one of the elders’ assistants, though she couldn’t remember who he was or which elder he belonged to. Not Qiang’s assistant, though. She remembered that much. Someone else’s.

“What’s going on?” Rose asked.

“They want to see you and Zoe. Alone.”

“No,” Vlad said flatly. “They don’t go anywhere without me.”

Alexis didn’t even blink at his outburst. “Told you so,” she said to the man in the corridor.

He edged to just inside the doorway, but when Vlad glared, didn’t step any farther into the room. “The discussion is private, Ms. Callaghan. And you haven’t…claimed Vladimir yet,” he said. He glanced quickly at Zoe before pointedly looking away and keeping his gaze very obviously on Rose.

“I’m claiming him as my escort,” she said. “He comes with us or Zoe and I stay here. What do they want anyway?”

“I am not at liberty to discuss such things.”

Rose narrowed her eyes on the man. He shifted his gaze to the side, managing to look mildly embarrassed and annoyed at the same time.