Queen’s Menagerie (Crown & Country Book 1)

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Excerpt

Evangeline held up her hand. “Wait. Before you bring them in here, I need your help.”

Mordecai turned to her. She’d hid her nervousness well. Too well. He took in a steady but deep breath, analyzing the emotions in her scent. There was worry there and confusion, but not anything above what he’d sensed upon her arrival.

He placed a hand on hers. The skin was soft and warm. An arc of electric current sparked through the connection. Unseen, unheard by anyone other than the two of them.

Evangeline’s gaze shot to his. She turned her hand and clasped his fingers tightly. “Mordecai.”

It was said in a soft whisper, but it might as well have been a gunshot for the way it went through him.

“Tell us,” he urged.
Indecision skidded across her face before she put her shoulders back and began.

“Last night an intruder tried to gain entrance to my room from the window. I would never have known had Jonas not come to warn me.”

Fear and anger shot through Mordecai’s soul. His grip on Evangeline tightened. “Go on.”

She glanced down at their entwined hands before looking up again. “When I tried to pull Jonas from crawling out of the window to challenge the intruder, I saw nothing there. At first, I thought he was living a nightmare caused from his first change.” She shrugged slightly. “I lost my balance and started to fall when I felt a hand in the middle of my chest, pushing me back inside.”

Mordecai’s hair began to tingle in warning. “Are you positive?”

“Yes. It wasn’t a gentle touch, but strong enough to force me back into the room.”

Gideon frowned. “And you still did not see anything?”

“No.” Her gaze implored them to believe her. “He must have lost his grip on the sill because both Jonas and I heard him fall and hit the bush below the window. We ran outside to see if we could find him, but by the time I secured a gun from the cabinet and loaded it, he had gotten away.”

Mordecai raised a brow. He didn’t care for the idea of her wandering around in the middle of the night with a loaded gun, but he liked the idea of her not having a weapon even less. “What did you find?”

“Jonas was able to track him to the edge of the property. Whoever he was, he dragged his leg behind him as he fled. But that was all. This morning, I discovered pieces of crumbled mortar and brick scattered on the ground beneath. When I used my father’s high-powered binoculars to investigate the surface of the exterior wall, I found a distinct pattern. Hand-and-footholds. Someone had indeed climbed the wall.”

Mordecai bit back an oath best not uttered in the company of a lady. Only the knowledge that the culprit was already long gone kept him in his seat.

Gideon leaned back as if in shock. “Extraordinary.”

Evangeline shook her head. “That isn’t the first I’ve encountered him. According to Jonas, the man has been following me the last few days.”
“By the Gods!”

Mordecai knotted a fist and tried to regain his temper. It wasn’t easy. Knowing someone tracked Evangeline and tried to gain access to her room angered him beyond reason. The fact the man could render himself invisible was a matter for further investigation.