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“Monsieur, I saw nothing,” Tilly said. “We’ve been working in the kitchen for the last few hours. I surely would’ve heard something if he’d come inside.”

“So you are expecting me to believe Mano parked, never came in the house, and somehow vanished from a locked-in yard?”

Étienne kicked the door open, then began to search the first floor in a frenzy, jerking the couch away from the wall and yanking open doors and closets with violent fury.

It reminded me of my nightmare from weeks ago.

Only this time there really was a man here.

A man I was hiding from my husband.

The old Léonie would never have done such a thing.

Good thing she was dead.

When he was thundering back down the stairs, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

It was Tilly, stepping in front of the slightly open door to the basement.

So Étienne couldn’t see it.

My husband was in a towering fury, and I had to clench my fists in my skirts to keep my knees from knocking.

“There should have been security here. I have to go to a meeting now, but I will send more security to investigate. You will not have to worry about anyone else skulking around, I promise you. And I will get to the bottom of who shot at you.”

Still I said nothing.

“Say something,” Étienne snapped with a frown.

“All right.”

He looked like he was waiting for something else from me, but I only stared out the window.

“Hellfire and damnation, wife. Just let me go to the damn meeting. Then I’ll come back here and listen to you. If you insist the paternity test must be wrong, I’ll look into it.”

I said nothing again, and with another low curse, he went out the front door.

Hugo and I looked at each other, waiting until the gate had slammed shut behind his SUV.

“We don’t have much time,” I said. “Unless we want his guards crawling the grounds while we’re doing this.”

We would have to get information out of Mano fast.

Hugo’s smile split his face, and for a moment my gentle brother-in-law looked almost savage.

“I can be quick.”

First, we repaired his cane the best we could, then back we went, down to the basement again, and Hugo, his gait uneven with the cracked cane, dragged a bound and tied Mano out of a locked supply closet.

“You won’t get away with this—” Mano started, his face contorted in fury, and Hugo hit him square in the mouth, then wrapped the rope around his neck again.

“Brother, if you think I am going to go easy on you after years of being locked up, you’re a fool.”

I watched as Mano’s face began to turn purple.

The fact that his hands were bound behind his back meant he couldn’t even try to escape, and I watched as abject panic chased the arrogance off his face.

“It wasn’t your idea to set me up, was it?” I asked as Hugo let him have a tiny, shallow breath. “Even though you want me, someone else put you up to it, didn’t they?