Page 64 of Isabelle’s Forbidden Love

“Damn it, Lydia, this is not a game. Isabelle is in danger. We have to find her.”

“She can look after herself.”

“She can’t if she doesn’t know what she’s up against.”

“Oh, you’re talking about her and Orlando? Does everybody have to gang up on them? The guy has a fucking alibi.”

Cooper narrowed his eyes at her. “So you did speak to her.”

“I’m not telling you anything else. You always twist my words. It’s just not fair.” She pouted, and had she been anybody else, he might have bought the gesture that was supposed to project innocence. But he knew Lydia better than that. She was no shrinking violet. She could defend herself against the best of them without having to bring out the damsel in distress character.

“Isabelle needs our help. Or Orlando will hurt her.”

“Oh please! Orlando wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone Isabelle. They love each other. And she’s doing what she has to do.” Lydia rose and dropped her half-eaten Danish on the coffee table. “Orlando is being framed for those murders. And since Scanguards isn’t doing anything to find the real killer, Isabelle and Orlando have to do it themselves.”

“Damn it, Lydia. I’m only trying to help. I thought that Orlando was being framed too, when I found an anonymous threatening note in his Hummer. I even checked his alibi with the Mezzanine. He was there during the time the mailman was murdered, and if it’s true that he was with Isabelle the night the Vuber driver was killed, then yes, he’s being framed. But that doesn’t change what he did in his past.”

Lydia gave him a quizzical look. “What do you mean?”

“He killed six people, an entire family, including his blood-bonded mate, back in Montreal in 1981. The newspapers called it a massacre.”

She stared at him, her mouth dropping open. “That can’t be. Isabelle would never be with a killer. She has better sense than that. It can’t be true.”

“I’ve got multiple sources, as does Samson. It’s true.”

He could practically see the wheels spin in his sister’s head. She knew something about Isabelle’s whereabouts, but was torn.

“She made me promise.” Lydia shook her head. “We have to trust her that she’s doing the right thing.”

“Please, Lydia, she’s your best friend. She’s my friend too. We can’t just let her walk blindly into her doom. What if he’s gonna hurt her like he hurt his blood-bonded mate? What then?”

For a few long seconds, Lydia said nothing. Then she walked into the hallway and stopped a few feet away from the entrance door.

“I think you should leave now. I’ve got things to do, and then I need to call an Uber.”

Cooper approached, ready to implore her once more to tell him where Isabelle was hiding, when the penny dropped. Lydia had a perfectly good car. So why would she want to take an Uber?

His gaze snapped to the side of the wall, where several hooks were attached. Lydia’s house keys as well as the spares for his and their parents’ homes were hanging there. But one hook was empty. It was where Lydia’s car key should be.

Slowly, he nodded, understanding what she was trying to tell him. “All right then. I’ll leave.”

“You’re a good brother, Coop,” she said and hugged him for a second. “Be careful out there.”

“Always.”

“And, Coop,” she added, “can you make sure that when you find her, she won’t disappear again?”

He nodded and patted his jacket pocket. “I’ve already thought of that.”

Cooper left the flat. On the stairs, he already pulled his cell phone from his pocket and navigated to Benjamin’s number.

It took a few seconds, before his fellow hybrid answered the phone. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Are you near your Scanguards computer?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Log in, and track Lydia’s BMW for me.”