Iris shrieked, spittle flying from her mouth. Her face contorted, elongated, teeth filling her mouth and fur mottling her skin.

“Drop!” Saria called, throwing herself to the side with amazing speed.

Boneless, like a supple cat, Charisse slid to the floor as Iris hurtled the knife at Saria. Simultaneously, Drake squeezed the trigger. A single hole blossomed in the middle of Iris Lafont-Mercier’s forehead. She lay on the dirt floor in a crumpled heap, looking small and somewhat macabre with her face half leopard and half woman.

Armande screamed, but he rushed to his sister, leaving his mother crumpled on the floor. He gathered Charisse into his arms, their sobs filling the small space. Saria sat on the floor looking up at Drake, sorrow in her eyes, blood dripping from her upper arm.

“She was fast,” she admitted.

Drake was on her in seconds, clamping his hand over the wound. It couldn’t have been more than a flesh wound, but it was terrifying to him.

“Call an ambulance,” Remy commanded. “We need it now.”

Epilogue

“ARE you going to say somethin’?” Pauline asked.

Saria looked at Drake, tears swimming in her eyes. He looked so handsome in his tuxedo, the cut of the jacket emphasizing his wide shoulders and deep chest. Saria Donovan. There was no hyphenating her last name, although she had teased him that she wasn’t certain she would change her name to his. He had given her that golden, glittering glare that always sent a multitude of butterflies winging away in her stomach and she’d laughed at him.

Saria swallowed hard and looked down at the deed she held in her hand. Her wedding present. Pauline had given her the inn and the surrounding acres of land as a gift. An incredible, impossible-to-accept gift. She held the deed out to Drake. He took it slowly, as if the paper might explode in his hands.

“Pauline,” he began and then cleared his throat and looked at Saria as if for help.

Saria shook her head, tears spilling over. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You’re my girl,” Pauline said. “My only child. I have no other heirs. I want you to have this place. Amos and I will be livin’ close, at his home. You don’t need to keep it as an inn. Originally it was a home and it wants children fillin’ it. I want to come here and sit on the porch and rock my grandbaby. That’s my dream now, Saria. I want you to stay close. It’s an old woman’s hope, and selfish of me, but I love you and the thought of you goin’ off too far . . .”

“That’s not going to happen,” Drake assured, wrapping his arm around Pauline’s shoulders. “I promised you I wouldn’t take her away from you and I meant it. I’m taking her to the rain forest on our honeymoon, but I promise we’ll be back soon. I’ve got a lot of lair business to take care of.”

Amos grinned at him, the faded old eyes sparkling with mischief. “Better you than me.”

Drake sent him a scowl, but refrained from speaking when Saria stepped hard on his toes. If Pauline was Saria’s surrogate mother, then Amos was signing on to be her father and she wanted to make it plain to him that nothing was going to mar Pauline’s happiness again. She’d gone through enough with losing her sister and finding out the woman was a serial killer. Saria didn’t want anything else bad to ever happen in Pauline’s life if she could have any say in it.

“Who will look after things while you’re gone?” Amos pursued.

“Joshua. He’s planning on taking his uncles to task and cleaning up his family’s home and legacy. The other members of my team will stay and of course Saria’s brothers will be on hand should anything go wrong while we’re gone,” Drake assured.

“How’s Mahieu?” Pauline asked, glancing over at the man seated on her couch.

Wedding guests milled around, allowing Saria to catch only glimpses of her brother. “He’s much better. It was touch and go for a while, but his leopard is strong and he’s healing faster than anyone thought he would.”

“And Armande?”

“He was so distraught over his mother. He had become suspicious that she was ill, I think both Charisse and Armande were suspicious,” Saria admitted gently. “When Charisse broke up with Mahieu, Iris called him and wanted him to meet her alone to talk. He called Armande and asked him to be there when he met Iris. Armande saved Mahieu’s life. If he hadn’t been there, Pauline . . .” She trailed off. “Armande and Charisse are good people.”

Pauline patted her hand. “I know they are. I love them both very much. They need time to get over all this. I should have stepped in a long time ago when I saw how my sister treated Charisse. The poor girl lived with persecution and abuse for years.”

“It’s over now,” Drake said.

His voice was so gentle it turned Saria’s heart over. She leaned into him, uncaring of her beaded gown. Drake immediately swept his arm around her waist and leaned down to brush kisses down the side of her face.

Charisse had been her maid of honor, but Armande hadn’t come to the wedding. He’d chosen to go to the rain forest where he could breathe a little and think things through. Now that Charisse was safe, he didn’t have to watch over her so carefully. He blamed himself for the deaths of the men and women his mother had murdered. He’d known she was ill, but had no idea of the extent of her madness.

“Come dance with me,” Drake murmured in her ear.

She kissed Pauline. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I’ve always loved the inn. You know I do. It’s always been a sanctuary for me. I’ll be raisin’ my children here.”