Everyone has a Weak spot (16 page)

“Name it, I'm your man,” Officer Beaudine said, eager to redeem himself.

“I need you to go across the street and put yourself in that doorway yonder. Go take a piss right now and get a big cup of coffee. Don't let anyone in or out."

War didn't see the young officer's face fall. He was staring fixedly across the street. Officer Beaudine had thought he could earn back some respect, and here Sheriff War was just giving him crap work to get him out of his hair. That's what Beaudine was thinking as he stood in front of War's desk.

He turned to go and couldn't help but look through the window. He saw his boss's nephew in that other window, and he was sitting all cuddled up with the little ballerina. Had there been any noise at all on the street or in the building, he might have missed the boss's next words.

“That's my family up there, Philipe. Somebody's after ‘em. I'm countin’ on ya, man.” War's voice was a choked whisper.

Beaudine snuck a look at War's face. He looked back at the couple in the window. He looked again at his boss.
Damn, the man has tears in his eyes
. This was
not
crap work.

He cleared his throat. “Boss, you can count on me. I'd lay down my life for you and yours. Same as you done for me time and again. I'm on it.” Beaudine turned and walked away. He figured he'd start with taking that piss his boss had ordered.

* * * *

War reached for his Rolodex to start calling old contacts. Someone would know someone who could track down this Legacy. Someone would know what happened in Nice. Someone would know about who tried to take Renaud.

Someone would know about Lorelei's three broken ribs and punctured lung in Venice the year before last...

Damn! Lorelei had had three broken ribs and a punctured lung?

He ached for her and he ached for Renaud having to suffer those fears for her with nobody to turn to. The boy's pain knifed through him. He knew Renaud felt he'd truly be alone if Lorelei Allemande was taken from his life. For a minute, he deep down hated Alana and Lawrence Brunet. He felt pretty ashamed of himself, too.

Before he started looking for answers, he decided his first impulse had been the right one. Security should be first. The fact that Lorelei had been injured twice—three times if you counted what happened at the store a few months ago, well, that just let him know this was a serious operation. A serious operation called for serious men.

War checked his watch. It was only nine o'clock? He had thought it was the middle of the night. He called his second in command from his old army unit.

“What the fuck do you want?” was how the man answered his phone.

“Get your ass to Louisiana's what I want,” War growled back. “Call the next man down, I need ya all."

“Yessir, on my way. Shut up, Dorothy!"

“Fitz?"

“Yessir?"

“Don't call me Dorothy"

“Uh, yessir.” This last ‘yessir’ held a smile. War hung up.

* * * *

With that done, War moved to the next item on his list. What is this damned Legacy, and who could he trust to help him get to the bottom of it?

He thought for a minute. He had taken some of his sister's letters from home a couple of weeks ago. He thought he'd see if he could work any of this out in his spare time. Now he didn't have any more spare time. But he had looked over the letters.

A couple of the letters had mentioned Lorelei's mother, Ariel. In fact, the earlier letters mentioned her in a very negative way. He went to the bottom of the stack.

Yep—pure venom.

It seemed that his sister, Bella, had been after the same man as Ariel. The man they both sought was a famous ballet dancer from the USSR.

War booted up his computer and opened a search engine.

If you want to know about something, just go to the Internet. Anything you ever want to know is there, right?

Apparently so, if you weed through some of the garbage, War found.

The dancer, Ivan Rychtar, was dead now. From what he could tell, the man had died violently. The details were sketchy. When War entered the man's name and the name of the college his sister had attended, he found the dancer had been friends with a tenured professor still on staff there. War got the man out of bed.

After some huffing and puffing, the man finally began to take War seriously. At first the Sheriff thought it was his status as a police officer. That belief was dispelled quickly.

The professor remembered his sister and Lorelei's mother. In fact, the man obsessed about them. Specifically, he obsessed about Renaud and Lorelei. He chartered a jet and arrived shortly after midnight. He gave War the entire story, with pictures.

* * * *

The girls had met the Russian dancer through this professor during their third year of college. Both girls had been drawn to Ivan. Ivan, it seemed, was attracted to both girls. Although he had earned a reputation as a womanizer, the vast array of movie starlets and models were to become a smokescreen for Ariel and Bella.

The girls weren't at all that close in college, as it turned out. They just happened to fall in love with the same man. And that man just happened to fall in love with each of them. Lorelei and Renaud were conceived during the spring semester of their mothers’ fourth year at college.

Ariel moved to Connecticut not far from where Ivan trained. She had her baby there. Renaud was born in Virginia.

War remembered that Bella had been working in Washington, D.C. after college. She'd married Lawrence's brother, Louis, whom she'd dated in Washington. They'd moved back to Louisiana when Renaud was born. The professor cleared that one up and a few other things with it.

The truth was that Louis Brunet was homosexual, but not openly so. His brother, Lawrence, must have suspected. Louis had been at college with Bella and had been having an affair with a male dancer for years.

He'd known about Bella and the famous dancer and was ready to go home when they found out she was pregnant. Louis did the chivalrous thing, which happened to be helpful in hiding his homosexuality.

Lorelei and Renaud were born on the same day in the same hour. Lorelei was older by twenty-two minutes.

Ivan continued to see both women and paid for their care and upkeep. He would have liked to see his children but judged it unsafe. This caused the old professor to break down. War gave the man time to pull himself together and took a phone call.

* * * *

Ivan Rychtar had been a product of genetic engineering. Before the Second World War, the Rychtar family had been chosen for “refining” and “perfecting” by their country's government. Each generation's DNA had been altered in an effort to produce a man perfect for use as a weapon. Now, Ivan's children were considered commodities.

The government who had created him had been obsessive. Ivan's children were weapons. If they could breed, they would produce very useful children. Think of the beautiful and stealthy spies that could be made from these children. And if they were bred with each other the results would be incredible.

I think I'm gonna be sick.

There were people out there who wanted to kidnap his nephew and his wife, essentially, and make them have sex so that they'd produce a child. These monsters wanted to guarantee the superior gene combination that would come from Lorelei. They would breed Lorelei with Renaud and then some other superb specimen and then they'd harvest her remaining eggs.

War had to go outside. He wanted to vomit and then kill someone. He walked out to the now empty street in front of his building and took great gulping gasps of air.

* * * *

War also learned why Lorelei and Renaud felt they couldn't have close personal relationships. Ariel had been killed in an effort to get Lorelei. Both Bella and Louis had been killed in an effort to get to Renaud. Thankfully, those deaths had been quick, cold, and clean.

The deaths were blamed on an auto accident, a mugging, and a nasty fall. The people who wanted the children didn't want to be noticed. They simply wanted to clear the way and get the children.

The first overt attempt on Renaud happened soon after his mother's death. The boy had been joining Lorelei in New York. When he got off of the airplane an attempt had been made to take him. The children, then thirteen, had gotten away.

The professor saw it on the news and told Rychtar what had happened. Ivan Rychtar searched the streets of New York until he found his children. He sent them home.

The professor felt the three needed each other. His old friend was lonely for his children. Ivan wouldn't go to them so the professor brought them to Ivan. He sent them both a note signing it from Ivan and arranged all the travel.

Ivan was angry with him, but so happy to be with Lorelei and Renaud. He had one day and one night with them before the people who wanted them came.

The men when they came told Lorelei and Renaud that they would spare their only living parent if the children came quietly. Their father told them that he loved them more than his own life. Then he proved it. He told them to run and never look back. They did look back once.

Using the genetic engineering that made him, Ivan gracefully killed six of the ten men who'd come to kidnap his children. Two of the remaining men would never walk or talk again. The children, fifteen years old by then, escaped. War eventually did go out and vomit in the street when his interview with the professor ended.

Chapter 23

At two-thirty a.m., War approached the recessed doorway that led to Lorelei's studio and apartment. Now he was taking over. He tested the knob and allowed himself a wry grin when he found it wasn't locked. For all his bluster, Renaud hadn't locked the doors either.

War let Officer Beaudine know that relief would be along in a few hours. The young officer assured his boss that he was still fresh and fine. After what he'd seen so far tonight, Philipe Beaudine had plenty to occupy his mind.

War and the policeman with him, Officer Williams, made their way up the stairs and through the studio. Officer Williams looked around curiously, but said nothing. He remained in the doorway of the apartment when War walked inside.

Lorelei and Renaud were still in the corner window but at opposite ends now. He was stretched out with his legs on the outside and she was curled against the window with Renaud's legs between her and the open room. War reached over him and lifted Lorelei into his arms. Renaud struggled to sit up reaching for her.

“Hush, boy,” said War. “It's only me. Get up. Go with Williams. He'll take you home.” War carried Lorelei to her bed and placed her in it, pulling the duvet over her.

“What're you doing with Rory, Oncle? What's going on?” Renaud was still half asleep and trying to figure out how to react. War was at least assured that the boy didn't see him as a threat. He knew Renaud would have gone on the offensive immediately if he'd felt threatened.

In his untrained state, Renaud could have transformed into his beast if he'd smelled evil intent in the air. War would have to spend some time with him correcting that possible lapse in his education.

“I'm putting her to bed, son. Go home and get some sleep. I'll look after her now. Come on back here when you wake up.” He said this almost harshly.

Renaud needed to know he had no choice in this. He needed to be forced to meet his own needs. He was a good man. But he was a good
young
man. It was long past time for a grown-up man to step in. He moved to his nephew and put his arm over the boy's shoulder. He still stood a few inches taller than Renaud.

“You've done a good job, son. The cavalry has finally come. Get some rest. We'll talk later. Williams'll bring ya.” War gave his nephew a quick one-armed hug and pushed him through the door. “Lock the doors!” he admonished.

War watched Renaud's truck drive away with Williams at the wheel. He moved back to Lorelei's bed and pulled the duvet back. He moved his fingers over her shoulders to check for a bra. He grinned to himself at the thought that he was frisking her for a different type of contraband this time. Once again, she was braless. He shook his head and tried to ignore the tightening in his groin. He pulled her socks off and gently removed her shorts.

He began removing his uniform shirt while searching for a thermostat. He knew his lupine body temperature was high so he lowered the air conditioning. It might take her a while to get used to his body heat.

Mission accomplished, he moved back to the bed and removed his shoes, socks, pants and belt. His service revolver went in one of his shoes on the floor by the bed. His hearing was such that he'd be able to grab it if necessary before anyone could get through the downstairs door.

With a sigh, War slid between the sheets and reached to pull Lorelei close to him. Chuckling, he smoothed down her large shirt so he could admire the group of cartoon ducks printed there. There were two child ducks, a boy and a girl. There was a scholarly-looking father duck, and what looked to be a rakish and daring pilot duck.

He wrapped his arms around her tightly. He inhaled her scent on a sigh of contentment. Kissing her forehead, he closed his eyes. As he began to doze he mused that he had never thought to find a mate and here she was in his arms. Sheriff Dekon Warrick Martine fell asleep counting his blessings.

* * * *

Ballerina Lorelei Eliza Allemande woke up completely confused. She was snug in bed, she knew that much. She was very snug in bed, in fact. Her face was buried in a warm and familiar masculine chest, one of her legs caught between two muscular thighs, and one of her arms was draped over a tight, manly waist. A very healthy erection pressed at the apex of her thighs.

Instinctively, Lorelei knew that she was in bed with War. She didn't know how she'd gotten from the window seat to her bed, but she knew it was Warrick Martine that she was plastered up against.

She shouldn't be in bed with him. She was going to have to leave him. Lorelei needed to get out of there before he woke up. She ought to go find her brother. Damn the man, she couldn't think clearly when she was so close to his body.