Redemption

by Jennifer Bene

  “Stop, uncle,” Rémi answered quietly. “There is no harm in seeing what she brought before I make a decision.”

  David took a half step closer to her, whispering, “What the fuck is happening?”

  “Marc doesn’t want Rémi to look at the drive,” she explained under her breath.

  “Of course not,” David mumbled, and she agreed. If anything, Marc’s behavior would only cause more issues for him.

  A moment later, the guard returned with a laptop, setting it on a narrow table against the wall. Rémi opened it, typing in his password to unlock it before he plugged in the drive and looked over his shoulder at them. “What am I looking for?”

  “It’s on the top-level of the drive. An AVI file named ‘Marc,’” David answered, staring at the man who was rapidly turning red in the face.

  Turning back to the laptop, Rémi opened it and expanded the video on the screen. It revealed the same overhead shot of her father’s penthouse that had also recorded the night David took her. As he clicked play, studying the screen as others moved closer to see it, Lianna cleared her throat.

  “I told Jean-Luc before I left that Marc had been meeting with my father. I saw him at my father’s home a few years ago, and they introduced him to me as someone else. I didn’t even know he was my uncle until I saw him at the birthday party you all threw me. Jean-Luc swore that Marc had never worked with my father, that neither of them had, and I called him a liar… which I regret. Because those are some of the last words I said to him, and I was wrong.” Glancing at Marc, she turned back to Rémi who was still watching the two men talking in the penthouse. “My father and Marc kept it from Jean-Luc, from everyone. Joseph Blanc didn’t even know they were meeting.”

  “Alain was my brother, why wouldn’t I go see him?” Marc asked, continuing to speak in French as he moved closer to Rémi, but he didn’t respond. He was still watching the video where Marc and her father were talking, pouring drinks, and then they moved into his office and off camera.

  “You can see the time and date stamp in the bottom right corner,” Lianna added, pointing toward the laptop while still keeping her hands raised. “That was from two years ago. Even more recently than when I saw him myself.”

  “This proves nothing,” Marc sneered, looking her over with all the disgust she was sure he’d been hiding on her previous visit.

  Turning to Marc, Rémi replied to the man in English. “I heard my father asking you about Alain on one of the voicemails he left you. What did he want to know?”

  Giving up on French, Marc waved a hand dismissively. “How should I know? She had him killed before we ever had the chance to talk.”

  “I didn’t hurt Jean-Luc, Rémi,” Lianna said, keeping her voice calm and even. “I didn’t have any reason to.”

  “Liar!” Marc shouted, pointing at her. “You resented him. You resented this entire family for excluding you!”

  Staring at him, Lianna could only huff out a bitter laugh as she shook her head. “Are you insane? Jean-Luc reached out to me. He welcomed me here. Cécile sent me family photos. They threw me a birthday party — the nicest one I’ve ever had. What would I have to resent?” she asked, dropping her arms to her side just so she could wave a hand toward him. “In fact, the only person who wasn’t welcoming to me was you. And you pretended like you’d never met me before, even though we both know that’s not true. You went out of your way to avoid me when I was here. Jean-Luc even got upset with you the day we were all supposed to have lunch together!”

  “What were you doing with Alain, Marc?” Rémi asked softly.

  “Visiting him,” he snapped defensively. “He’s my brother, I can—”

  “Why didn’t you tell my father?” Rémi tilted his head as he continued. “Why didn’t you go together? We both know how much my father wanted to mend the relationship between him and Alain.”

  “You didn’t know your father as well as you think, Rémi,” Marc replied, shaking his head as he looked around the room with a frustrated sigh.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “He didn’t want Alain back in the family!” Marc shouted, gesturing wildly. “Alain went to the states, took a new name, started over to create his own legacy. Your father hated that he managed to be successful away from his shadow, but I never turned my back on my little brother.”

  “So, you admit you went behind my father’s back?” Rémi stared at him, and it seemed everyone in the room understood the dangerous ground Marc was walking on except the man himself.

  “For the family! For the Faure name. Your father didn’t want to listen to Alain’s ideas, his successes, because they weren’t his.”

  “No, he didn’t want to hear about them because they weren’t the direction he wanted this family to go,” Rémi explained, keeping a much more controlled tone than his uncle.

  “But you have a chance now to change direction. To get things back on track,” Marc urged, taking another step toward Rémi before the stiff way his nephew faced him gave him pause. He didn’t stop talking though, and it was like watching him put the noose around his own throat. “The things that Alain and I worked on are still lucrative, and I can help you. I can teach you how to lead this family into a successful future.”

  “Is that what you told Jean-Luc when he asked you about my father?” Lianna asked, and he rounded on her, rage coating his face.

  “Be quiet, whore,” he growled in French.

  “Answer the question!” Rémi shouted. It was the first time he’d raised his voice, and Marc looked surprised as he faced him again.

  “Your father would have bankrupted this family in another decade, Rémi, and I know you don’t want that to be your legacy. The Faure name still holds power, and it’s your responsibility now. This is your chance to correct his mistakes.”

  “The only mistake Jean-Luc ever made was trusting you, you bastard!” Cécile suddenly shouted, lunging forward as Mathieu grabbed her arm and Anaelle moved forward to help, both of them looking to Rémi for direction. But Cécile kept screaming in French, tears filling her eyes. “I can’t believe you killed your own brother!”

  “Maman, stop!” Anaelle pleaded.

  Someone screamed, and Lianna turned to see Marc pointing a gun at her. “If you’re not man enough to do the right thing, then I will.”

  Before she could react, David grabbed her arm, yanking her toward him as he spun them around, putting himself between her and Marc just as a gunshot cracked so loudly in the room that her ears rang. It was almost exactly how he’d stopped her own father from killing her. People were screaming and crying in French and English, too fast for her to track, but she didn’t care about any of that, she only cared about David. Shoving out of his grip, she ran her hands over his chest in a panic. “Are you okay?”

  He looked stunned, but then he blinked, and grabbed her hands. “It’s not me. I’m okay, angel. He didn’t shoot me.”

  “What?” she asked, her heart racing so fast that she thought she might be sick, but as soon as she realized he was all right she smacked his chest, switching between fury and relief as she wrapped her arms around him. Lianna hugged him tight as she fought the tears stinging the edge of her eyes. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again.”

  “No promises,” he replied, laughing a little as he hugged her back. “But I would appreciate if we could avoid anyone pointing a gun at you for at least a year.”

  Wait. Who got shot then?

  Twisting out of David’s arms, she looked around him to see Marc lying on the floor, cussing at Rémi in French as one of the guards picked up the gun. Rémi still had a gun aimed at Marc, and he was shouting back, as was Cécile, and Marc’s wife was kneeling beside him, holding her hands out toward Rémi, pleading. But everyone was too emotional, speaking too fast and talking over each other, and she had no fucking idea what they were saying.

  Finally, Rémi, shouted over everyone. “Admit it! Admit you killed my father!”

  David pulled
at her arm, tugging her back from the chaos, as he quickly whispered under his breath. “What the hell is happening?”

  “Rémi wants Marc to admit he did it. I’m pretty sure Marc’s wife is begging him not to kill his uncle,” she whispered back.

  “Fuck that, he needs to die,” David growled, but she shushed him so she could listen to the rapid French.

  “Please don’t do this, please,” Natalie begged, keeping one hand on the bullet wound in Marc’s stomach and the other held out toward her nephew.

  “I’ll never forgive you for this,” Rémi said, and she could see the emotion in him even though it was clear he was trying to appear calm and in control.

  Marc groaned, glaring up at him as he snarled. “Jean-Luc was weak. He was always too weak to lead this family, and I tried to save us. But you’re going to turn out just like him.”

  The sudden gunshot made Lianna jump, and David pulled her closer, but there was no need as Natalie started screaming. Rémi had pulled the trigger, shooting Marc in the chest, and there was no doubt he’d die because no one was going to call the cops or an ambulance. Not here.

  Taking a step closer, Rémi stood over the man, and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear him amid the chaos. “I’m not weak, and neither was my father.”

  Cécile broke free of her children a moment later, shoving Natalie out of the way to kick Marc before she fell to her knees, grabbing at his shirt to shake him. “How could you do this? How could you kill him? He was your brother! He loved you!”

  “It wasn’t him!” Natalie shouted, sobbing as she moved to the other side of Marc, and her children moved close to her, hugging each other. “It couldn’t have been him! He wouldn’t!”

  David dragged her further away, and even though she wanted to keep listening, she couldn’t ignore his need to protect her, or his urge to understand. Tugging at her arm, he waited for her to look at him before he asked, “What the hell just happened?”

  Still dealing with the shock of watching Marc dying only a few feet away, she blinked and tried to organize her thoughts to explain. “Marc called Jean-Luc weak and said that Rémi is going to turn out just like him… which he’s clearly not.”

  “Apparently,” David agreed, and they both turned to watch the insanity unfolding around them.

  Twenty-Three

  David

  The entire room had dissolved into chaos. Too many people screaming in French, crying, but he didn’t give a shit about any of them — he just wanted to get Lianna away from it. Unfortunately, she wasn’t budging, and he could tell by the intense look on her face that she was doing her best to listen and translate, whispering snippets of it to him when she got the chance, although how she could make out any of it in the jumble of noise he had no idea.

  At least Rémi had finally lowered the gun, which made him feel slightly better, but he wouldn’t feel safe from the new head of the Faure family until they were out of this house. The only good part of the day so far was getting to watch Marc bleeding out on the floor. He wasn’t even conscious anymore from what David could tell, and he would no doubt be dead in minutes.

  One arm wrapped around Lianna’s waist, he held her against him, mostly to keep her from walking toward them in her goal of hearing more of the hysterical words. Sooner than he expected, Marc’s wife cried out, and he couldn’t deny the raw pain in her voice as she sobbed, leaning over her husband’s body. Their two children knelt down beside her, also crying, but he didn’t even bother Lianna for the translation for whatever they were babbling about. The bastard had deserved to die. If David had gotten a vote, he would have suggested something a lot slower and a lot more painful for making Lianna his target.

  The two kids helped their mother from the floor, the three of them hugging and crying and mourning a man who was apparently the same brand of evil as Lianna’s father had been. Rémi was comforting his mother, but he left Cécile with his brother and sister to approach Marc’s family.

  Facing Marc’s wife, Rémi looked between her and the two adult kids, speaking in slow, calm French, but when Lianna gasped, he nudged her and she sighed irritably, leaning in close to translate as Rémi spoke. “It’s time for you to decide where your loyalty lies. I understand you’re grieving the death of your husband and father. Unfortunately, I know too well how that feels. Marc killed my father. I killed him. You need to decide if our family has suffered enough loss. Where does your loyalty lie?”

  Oh shit.

  The wide-eyed look on the woman’s face seemed more than appropriate, and he had to respect when her son stepped forward, putting himself between Rémi and his mother. As the two faced off, no one spoke, in English or French, but eventually Rémi shook his head and raised the gun again, this time pointing it at his cousin.

  Tensing, David prepared to throw Lianna to the floor and cover her if some kind of shootout started, but he knew she wouldn’t move an inch while the standoff was still going on... and he kind of wanted to find out what was going to happen anyway.

  It seemed like it took forever for the boy to raise his hands and reply to Rémi with more French, which Lianna leaned in to translate again. “Our loss ends here, cousin. My father made mistakes. He has paid for them. My mother, sister, and I do not wish to contest your authority. Our loyalty lies with you. With Faure.”

  Turning to the side, Rémi set the gun down beside his laptop and turned back to his cousin to speak with him. Lianna whispered the words a few seconds after Rémi said them. “Good. I think our family has lost enough this week, cousin. Now we just need to mourn.”

  Watching the two men embrace didn’t mean much to David except that Rémi probably wasn’t going to decide to shoot him and Lianna. When they separated, they nodded at each other, and Rémi turned around to take over supporting his sobbing mother. His two siblings looked lost, stunned, as Rémi moved with Cécile toward the stairs.

  “He told them that he’s going to help Cécile to her room,” Lianna explained, pausing when Rémi suddenly stopped before the first steps and faced everyone, raising his voice to shout something else. “Apparently no one is allowed to leave until he gets back.”

  “Great,” David mumbled, frustrated that his plan to get Lianna safely out of this fucked-up situation was blocked. One of the goons moved to block the door, tilting his chin at David, and he realized he was one of the assholes that pulled him out of his bed. It was so tempting to deck the bastard, but nothing good would come from drawing attention to themselves. So, instead, he led Lianna to the side of the foyer, away from the dead body and the grieving family, and the temptation to break all the teeth in the goon’s mouth.

  Lianna sniffled, and he looked down to see she was crying, tears streaking her face. He’d been so distracted by the room’s chaos that he hadn’t realized when it started, but he pulled her against his chest, holding her tight. “Hey angel, why the tears? Everything is going to be okay now.”

  Letting out a sob, Lianna sniffed harder and shook her head as she pushed back from his chest, struggling to keep her voice hushed. “It’s all my fault...”

  “That’s bullshit. None of this is your fault.”

  “It is!” she argued, wiping at her cheeks. “If I hadn’t come here, if I hadn’t tried to become part of the family, Jean-Luc and Marc would be alive. The family would all still be together.”

  “Sure, maybe, and Marc would still be plotting behind his brother’s back, waiting to turn the whole family against him,” David added, and she made a little pained sound as she glared up at him.

  “Don’t pretend you care about them.”

  Groaning, he pulled her back into his chest, leaning down to whisper in her ear. “As much as I usually like to watch you cry, it’s not like this.”

  Lianna mumbled something that sounded a lot like ‘asshole,’ but he let it slide when she melted against him, wrapping her arms around his back. For a while there, he’d been sure that Marc was going to snap and kill them both. Kill everyone. If Rémi hadn’t acted wh
en he did, there was no way to be sure what would have happened, but it was definitely a relief just to have her in his arms again. Safe, alive, and without a target on either of their backs.

  “I never thought it was you, Lianna,” a woman said from beside them, and David leaned back to let Lianna look at her cousin. Anaelle, that’s her name.

  “I wouldn’t have blamed you if you did,” Lianna replied quietly, shrugging a shoulder. “You lost your dad.”

  Anaelle wiped at her cheeks, sniffling softly. “So did you, right?”

  Lianna shook her head, turning to face her cousin more directly. “Not like you. My father wasn’t like Jean-Luc. Your dad loved all of you so much, and he was so kind, and he didn’t deserve this.” Her voice cracked, and she started crying again, and David let go of her so the two women could hug.

  He wasn’t upset over any of their deaths, especially not Lianna’s father or Marc... but it seemed like Jean-Luc might have been the only sincere Faure brother.

  Admitting that he was wrong about him wouldn’t mean much now, and he couldn’t go back in time to change the way he’d already acted toward his family, but he could acknowledge that the man wasn’t the utter bastard he’d assumed he was. All David could hope was that Rémi really was planning on following in his father’s footsteps. Moving away from the more illicit criminal activities that Jean-Luc had begun, cleaning up the Faure family’s image, and building a future that wouldn’t be so drenched in blood.

  Hours later, David was frustrated that they were still under some weird form of house arrest inside the Faure estate. Even after Rémi had returned downstairs, he’d asked everyone to stay. He’d been polite about it, but it wasn’t like the goons were moving away from any of the doors, which meant it wasn’t really a request at all. As the various members of the Faure family had disbursed around the house to mourn in their own way, he and Lianna had found a secluded spot in one of the smaller sitting rooms to wait out the lockdown.