Chapter 16

Chapter

Sixteen

P iper fell asleep as she lay atop him. She was exhausted but happy, and he was responsible for both of those things. Nothing in his life had ever felt so right as to hold his mate close and listen to her deep, even breathing as she slept. As the tie dissolved, he slipped from her body, pulling on his jeans and boots.

"Rémy?" she said sleepily. She still lay on her stomach, turning her head to see what he was doing.

He came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning down and kissing her gently.

"Go back to sleep, Piper. I'm going to go catch something from the creek and feed your horse. I want you to rest."

"I can help," she said, starting to rise.

Rémy pressed down on the small of her back, forcing her down onto her belly before lowering his hand to her backside. "You will do as I ask, n'est-ce pas? "

"I'm not being difficult, I'm being needy. I don't want you to go."

"I'm not leaving. How can you think I would ever give you up?"

She purred and smiled as she rolled to her side and stroked his arm. "I don't. I love you, Rémy. I always have."

He kissed the tip of her nose. "I love you more. Now stay put and I'll bring you something to eat."

Half an hour later he was back in the shack with two cleaned and filleted rainbow trout. He looked through her staples and was able to find rice, salsa, and spices to make a flavorful meal. He joined her back in bed, stretching out beside her and cuddling with her while he fed her.

"This is really good. Where did you learn to cook?"

"At home. My mother insisted we all learn so we could feed ourselves."

"What do you think you'll be doing while Dad is still alpha?"

"I thought I'd fuck his daughter repeatedly, to make up for lost time." Piper laughed, as he'd intended her to do. Then his face grew serious. "There may come a time I have to leave for a bit."

"No."

He checked his annoyance. He wasn't used to having to share the reasoning behind his thinking, but Piper needed time to learn to completely trust that anything he did, he did for them. There was so much she didn't know about what had happened, and she had a right to know.

"On my last mission as a SEAL, I was the only survivor. All the other men in my unit were either killed or captured. Those of us who were captured were tortured. I spent night after night listening to my comrades scream in pain. We had been betrayed. I'm not sure by whom, but there are people working on finding out. I mean to avenge the deaths of my men."

"Sounds like an exciting project for a pair of fated mates."

He said nothing and just stared at her. " Non ."

" Oui ," she replied, mimicking his accent. "Seriously, Rémy. Do you really want to leave me alone to get into all kinds of trouble just to get back at you for leaving me behind… again?"

"From this point forward, you will do as I say."

"We both know better. Look at it from my standpoint—you'd be abandoning me again."

"Piper," he said looking down at her and seeing the mischievous gleam in her eye. "You don't believe that."

"No, I don't. And I'm glad to see you understand that. But I won't be left behind. Your life is my life. We're either in it together or we're not. I love you. Whoever this asshole is, he or she almost got you killed. I'm really not okay with that."

"I'm doomed," he groaned, shaking his head. Nothing would ever be easy with Piper, but she was worth whatever it took to keep her. "You will obey me. You will follow my orders and do what you're told. Do you understand me?"

" Oui , Alpha. I am yours to command."

He couldn't help but laugh at her outrageous statement. He had no doubt he could handle Piper, but he also understood how she felt. Before he could say anything else, his cell vibrated.

"Rémy? It's Ted Somersby. I think I have that information you wanted."

"It was the woman, wasn't it? Keegan's woman."

"Looks like it. Apparently she was a double."

"Poor Keegan. A couple of us tried to talk to him about her."

"Yeah, guys like Keegan are an easy mark. They get some righteous sex and a little affection and suddenly they're in love and their woman can do no wrong."

"There was a time I would have scoffed at that notion, but this morning lying next to my own woman, I have a far better understanding."

"The Texas cowgirl?" Somersby asked.

"One and the same," he answered with a grin, watching Piper as he talked. She was still naked as she lay next to him.

"Do we know who she was working for or where she might be now?"

"She was with one of the terrorist groups that operates out of the UAE. We've been able to track down her family. If my intel is correct, she should be in Dubai right now for her grandfather's birthday. He could well be funding some of her more dubious connections and activities."

"When is the party?"

"Tomorrow."

"Do me a favor. Upload whatever you have to my old Dropbox account. I'll take it from here."

"You can't go alone, Rémy," said Somersby.

Rémy looked down at Piper. "I won't. Just make sure you destroy anything that could connect you back to me."

"Are you sure?"

"I am. And thanks, I owe you one."

"Don't worry about it. I think I may have a proposal for how you can pay me back, and it doesn't involve anyone pointing guns at you or even leaving your lady's bed. Give me a call in a week or two and regardless of your final answer, we'll call it square."

"I don't suppose there's any chance I could convince you to stay home or go to Rivière Du Loup and let me handle this alone. I will be home before the full moon," he said, looking at her.

"No chance at all. Where are we going?"

He shook his head, resigning himself to the fact she would be going with him despite his protestations. "Dubai. It's about eighteen hours each way. Let me call the jet."

"Have the jet head to the ranch. We have a chopper, I can have them come up and bring someone to take my horse back. By the time the chopper gets here, we'll be ready to go."

"But they'll find out about our secret place."

"It doesn't matter anymore," she said. "This was always my place to find my peace and solace. I realized this morning that where I find peace and solace is no longer a physical location, it's being with you. As long as I'm with you, it doesn't matter where I am."

" Bien ."

Three hours later they were en route to Dubai. They spent most of the plane ride in the bedroom at the back, fucking like bunnies. Rémy had been right, Piper's sex drive was more than a match for his. He couldn't get enough of her and no matter how many times he reached for her, she responded with the same level of need as the time before.

Neither of their fathers had approved of this mission, but Rémy and Piper had been adamant. This was a chance for Rémy to avenge the lives of his men and if something happened to them, Riley and Cameron would still be available to fight the Darkness.

"I think you scared my dad a little when you threatened to snap his spine," said Piper lazily as she lounged in his arms.

"No one but me ever speaks to you that way again. We may live at Wolf Meadow, but we are Gautiers and always will be. Do you know what I'm going to do on the plane ride back?"

"Tell me," she purred.

"I'm going to play with your pussy during takeoff and use my thumb against your clit while I fuck you with my fingers." Piper was chewing on her bottom lip. "Then after I make you come, I'm going down on you and lapping up all your honey. I'll spread you wide and eat my fill, leaving just enough behind that I can knot and tie you to me at thirty thousand feet."

"You'd better not die on me, Gautier, or I'll be pissed. Where's this bitch supposed to be?"

"The family is hosting a party for her grandfather at a home outside the city. It's isolated, which means fewer prying eyes to worry about."

"How are we getting in?"

"We'll bribe one of the officials at a small, private airport. We'll fly in and land after dark. The pilot parks away from the terminal, then we cut a hole in the fence and get a ride to where they're having the party."

"Are you planning to call Uber? Do they even have Uber in Dubai?" she asked.

"I have no idea. I called Somersby back. He's arranged to have a car and the other things we'll need waiting for us. Untraceable. We drive to the right location, do what needs to be done, and get out the same way we came in. I can do this alone if you've changed your mind."

"There is no alone for you anymore."

"Okay. One last thing though. If I fall, you get out. If I'm alive, call Somersby. They'll come for me."

"Who do you mean by they?"

"Somersby is part of a private black ops group. They have the means and men to mount a successful rescue operation. If I don't make it, Jean-Edouard will see that you're taken care of. We have a mutual agreement. If something happens to either of us, the other will ensure the mate who is left behind will be taken care of and never forced into another pairing. The two packs will remain being joined."

"Wow. I'm not sure whether to be furious that you're planning to die on me or love you more for wanting to ensure I'm provided for. For the record, I won't be okay. If you think your mother did badly when she thought your father was dead, you ain't seen nothing."

He grinned. Only Piper could make him laugh at a time like this. They wiled away the rest of the trip with Rémy telling her funny anecdotes of unclassified missions and Piper trying to teach him the difference between various cattle breeds.

"Do you think I'm selfish for doing this with the Darkness looming out there somewhere?"

Piper shook her head. "No. Mawmaw Chantal is convinced it won't come before the full moon, and thanks to you we have not only a primary plan but also a secondary one. If you miss this chance and she disappears, you'd never forgive yourself. No. We have a right to do this. Besides, we'll nail this bitch."

"Killing isn't always that simple, Piper."

"My mother went after those who stalked the females of our kind, and usually killed them in cold blood. She made them face her while she did it so the last thing they saw was the woman who ended them. She's never once had a nightmare about it. To this day though, she still has bad dreams where she sees the eyes of the women who were DeMoncada's victims. Some were dead by the time she got to them, but others, the ones who really haunt her, had gone so deep within themselves, they never made it out. I don't have some airy-fairy idea of what ending this woman will be like, but if those you served with are to get justice, we're the ones who have to get it for them."

Rémy reached his hand around the nape of her neck, pulling her close. "I love you. And the fact that you're kind of crazy scary really turns me on."

She laughed and wrapped her arms around him. "I love you too. And absolutely everything about you turns me on."

P iper looked out the window as they approached the private landing strip. The pilot turned off all his lights, so they landed in darkness, coming to a stop at the far end of the airfield. While they were gone, he would turn the plane around and be ready to leave quickly in case they were being pursued. Once they were on the ground, the stairs were let down and they made their way from the plane to the back fence of the airfield, the parked plane providing them with cover. The SUV was right where it was supposed to be.

Grateful for a night sky filled with stars, they made their way to the residence of the man hosting the party. The plan was to wait and get the woman alone and then end her life—quietly, efficiently, and relatively painlessly, a gift she had not afforded those she had betrayed.

Both Rémy and Piper were impressed by Somersby's ability to put their plan into action in such a short amount of time. The security system had been hacked and circumvented so there was a blind spot they could use for ingress and egress. They waited in the dark and watched as the woman came out of the house and made her way to the far side of the pool. Rémy grinned; this was the opening they needed. She was a smoker and women who smoked were frowned upon by most men in the UAE. She'd gone off by herself.

Small groups of men were milling about near the pool, and for the most part the woman was ignored by the other guests. The party inside was enormous and it sounded like people were having a good time. Rémy had said that their intel showed she was looked down upon by her family. The old man doted on her because she worked for several terrorist factions, and he was willing to overlook some of her behavior in the name of jihad .

Somersby and Rémy had agreed Piper would be safer and they would attract less attention if she wasn't clad in black ops chic, so Somersby had left a conservative dress and heels for Piper to wear in the vehicle he'd supplied. Changing in the back of the SUV had been challenging, but at least she looked like she was there for a party. One of the men approached the woman as she sat on a bench and said something in Arabic. Piper didn't know what it meant, but the tone and the woman's reaction made it clear that it had been an insult.

When he left, Piper broke away from Rémy and approached her. "Thank God, or should I say thank Allah. Can I bum a cigarette from you?"

"What are you doing at a party like this?" the woman asked in a heavy Arabic accent.

"I know, hard to believe, right? I look like I'm dressed for a funeral instead of the old man's birthday party. But hey, it was important to Ahmad so here we are."

"Yes, Ahmad would want to make an appearance and you would do him credit," said the woman.

"Even though I'm an infidel?" Piper asked, smiling.

"Yes, but a clean and conservatively dressed one."

"Trust me, this isn't my usual attire."

The woman looked down at her own drab dress. "I understand."

"Can I bum a smoke?" Piper asked.

"Sure. Why not?" The woman offered her a cigarette.

Piper took it, placing it between her lips and leaning over to let the woman light it for her. Silently Rémy came up behind her. Piper held on to the woman's wrist, steadying her hand as Rémy crept close and then pushed the stiletto blade up under the woman's ribs and straight into her heart. She exhaled a small gasp as her eyes widened.

Piper looked her straight in the eye. "For Keegan and the rest of the men."

The woman's body shuddered as the life drained from her eyes. Piper used her dress to wipe off the woman's wrist after leaning her back and placing her in a relaxed position. To the casual observer, she looked like she was taking a break and having a smoke. Rémy took the cigarette from her, pinched it out, putting it in his pocket and slipping the stiletto back up his sleeve.

They made it back to the airport and through the fence and were headed back onto the plane less than an hour after they had landed. They left the SUV in the same spot they'd found it and wiped it clean of prints, even though they'd worn gloves the entire time. Whoever was picking it up was supposed to ensure that no trace evidence had been left behind.

Piper and Rémy ran back to the plane, trotted up the steps, pulling them up and locking the door for takeoff.

"Go!" called Rémy as the plane sped down the runaway gaining speed and altitude.

As they had on their way into UAE airspace, they flew back out under the radar until they were in neutral airspace. At that point the pilot flipped on their lights, changed directions, and headed for home. The entire mission had taken less than two hours.

"Remind me to never make you righteously angry."

"What?" she said, baffled at his comment.

"Making sure she knew why she was dying? That's downright mean… and all kinds of sexy."

"You're all kinds of fucked up, you know that?" she laughed.

"Absolutely. Now as I recall, the more enjoyable part of tonight's entertainment involves getting my mate naked in that bed and knotting and tying her to me."

Piper couldn't stop laughing as he hauled her out of her seat, tossed her over his shoulder, and told the pilot that unless they were under attack they were not to be disturbed until they were on final approach to Rivière Du Loup.