Free Broken Heart 07 Cross Your Heart by Michele Bardsley Page B

can’t, either, Eva.” He kissed his wife’s knuckles. “We’ve been cataloging the items in the secret room,” offered Lorcan in his soft Irish brogue. “There’s a darkness there, sure enough. An’ I think it’s affectin’ the queen and her consort. Not that she’ll listen to us.”
    “She thinks Gabriel cheated on her,” said Eva.
    Shock ricocheted through me. I gaped at her. “He would never do that, even if it were possible.”
    “Whaddaya mean?” asked Tez.
    “I told you, remember? Bound vampire mates literally can’t be with anyone else,” I said.
    “Turn left at Main Street, you delicious man. Mmm. Nice hands. I loooove how you grip that big… strong… steering wheel.”
    “That’s the voice of your GPS?” I asked Tez. “She sounds like a porn star.”
    “Jenna Jameson,” he admitted. He glanced at me, grinning. Did nothing embarrass the man?
    “Jenna who?” I asked primly.
    “Jameson,” offered Eva from the backseat.
    I switched my gaze to her. Had she the ability, I suspected she would blush. She cleared her throat. “What?” she asked. “She writes books, too. Hey, as a librarian I don’t judge. First amendment and all that.”
    “Of course, a stóirín.” Lorcan had a manly grin on his face, which matched Tez’s.
    I rolled my eyes.
    “A friend of mine uploaded her voice as a joke,” said Tez.
    “An’ how many accidents have you been in since Jenna’s been givin’ the directions?” asked Lorcan.
    “Just some near misses.”
    “Your turn is coming, and if you keep driving like this, I will be, too. Go left, baby. Yeah, just like that. Oh… oh… oooooh.”
    I reached toward the dash and pressed the OFF button. The GPS powered down, and I glared at Tez. “Just follow this road. It leads straight to the driveway of the mansion. You can’t miss it.”
    “Spoilsport.”
    For the first time since I was age eleven, I had the insane urge to stick out my tongue. Tez looked far too satisfied with himself, and that damnable humor lurked in his hazel eyes. Most disturbing of all, I found myself… um, turned on by the wicked possibilities. My sexual experiences had been rather limited, and I’d had none at all since my Turning. Oh, dear. I really was sexually repressed.
    “Shall we get back to the subject at hand?” I asked. “Why would Patsy believe Gabriel cheated on her?”
    “We don’t know. Patsy and reason parted company,” said Lorcan, grimacing. “She’s certain he’s been sleepin’ with other women.”
    “He’s been relegated to a guest room.” Eva glanced at her husband. “Every day, Patsy seems to get angrier.”
    “And Gabriel?” I asked.
    “Completely at his wit’s end.”
    Unnerved, I turned back around and looked out the passenger window. The idea of Patsy being out of control was a scary concept. She held seven out of eight vampire Family powers, along with the ability to shape-shift into a wolf. What if her anger went beyond Gabriel? She was capable of leveling the entire town and everyone in it.
    I wasn’t looking forward to seeing the secret room—not if something within it held the power to poison the minds of whoever got close. Still, we didn’t really know what was going on. Patsy’s odd behavior might be related to any number of things.
    Yet, I couldn’t dismiss the obvious explanation, not when I’d had such terrible experiences with the silver box. Something had tried to kill me—and until we figured out what was going on, I wasn’t safe.
    No one was.
    The Mercedes was parked askew in front of the mansion, and the door was wide open. Tez was the first out of the car, gun drawn. Lorcan was right behind him; Eva and I followed. We paused by the door and peered inside. The foyer was empty. It was quiet, too, and I found the lack of noise disturbing. The mansion was usually a beehive of activity. Patsy had workers for the house and the yard; housekeepers, babysitters, and assistants were always on hand. There were nearly always