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was forced, but at least he was trying. But his words were chilling to say the least.
    “ I have some news for you both. I’m very sorry, but your home was broken into tonight.” They both stood up and he asked them to have a seat. “Quentin and the others are trying to salvage what they can, but I’m afraid that the house is in a shambles. Not a loss, but still it has been torn apart. It is fixable, just messy. And most of the things that were destroyed belonged to Opal. So even if she refuses to wear what I purchase, she has no other choice.”
    “ Did anyone get hurt?” He shook his head at her question, but Sapphire knew there was more to it than he was saying at the moment. “Where is Blair? Why hasn’t he…did something happen to him?”
    “ He is fine now.” That didn’t make her feel any better. “I have been sent to bring you home. I assure you, all is well with him other than I think him to be more related to Opal than you are. I’ve never ran into a more stubborn family in all my years. He said that you were to finish shopping and to purchase something pretty for yourself. Blair wants to have the house set to rights before you get there.”
    “ I’m going home right now.” He nodded and put his hand on her arm. She was standing in their bedroom before she could utter another word. Blair was just coming out of the bathroom, and Sloan had disappeared again.
    “ I’m just fine.” Sapphire ran to his arms anyway. She could smell the fear on him and feel his pain, but nothing much more than that. He held her while she touched him everywhere she could reach.
    “ Who was it?” He told her he didn’t know. “Then why are we up here and not out trying to find the bastard?” His laughter made her realize just how stupid she sounded.
    “ He left a message for Sloan and his mate.” Sapphire sat down. The baby kicked her hard in the belly, and she rubbed her hand over him to sooth him. She wondered if it would be any better had she had him in her arms when Blair continued. “He was the man that found her in Paris, but I didn’t catch his name. He’d followed her from New Orleans and had hoped to take her there, but she was being followed and he had to wait. She will be watched more closely now, he said, and I would take that as gospel. Sloan was terrified when I called him.”
    “ The body guard that Sloan put on her, Rufus? Is he the one that is keeping her safe? And Sloan, too, I would guess?” Blair nodded. “Tell me what it said, this note; tell me what he said about my sister.”
    Instead of answering her , he handed her a thick envelope. She almost wanted to tell him she’d changed her mind, but took it. As soon as the first picture spilled out, she looked up at him. When he reached for the rest, she told him she had to see.
    They were pictures of Opal. Sapphire was sure if she fanned them just right she ’d be able to see the way her sister had been hurt like a movie. And when she saw the blood pouring from her chest and spilling out onto the floor beneath her, she put her trembling hand over her mouth. Sloan really had saved her sister’s life. Then the pictures were of another woman, another place, and this time they were only snapshots of the way she was killed, the way her face looked in pain and eventually her death. She put them into the envelope and pulled out the handwritten letter.
    She will die this way. I had her first, my dear Sloan , and when I get her, I will fuck her over and over before I begin to cut her up and have her for my meals. I know you think you have gotten the better of me by hiding her away, but I will find her. And you. I have both your scents now, and you will both suffer at my hands. This you can count on.
    Sapphire looked at Blair. “Does he know this man?” Blair nodded. “Do you think he’ll be able to get her? Get her through Sloan? And do you think this…this thing has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting past us?”
    Blair laughed. “Right