Watching Remy and Jean-Luc was like watching a slow-moving trainwreck or two sharks circling one another. You knew the carnage was coming but couldn't look away. Rogue watched and waited for the first one to strike. It wasn't a long wait.
"Did ya lose your sense, boy? I didn't tell you to avoid fights with de Assassins because I thought dat went without sayin'," Jean-Luc's tone was mild as if he was asking about the weather. Jean-Luc leaned forward in his chair, bridging his hands in front of his face, dark eyes locked on the man beside her.
"We didn't fight, Pere. We barely spoke," Remy replied from where he lazed in the corner of the couch, the very picture of nonchalance.
"Is dat so?" Jean-Luc asked. Even to Rogue's ears, the tone sounded dangerously calm. Her eye's darted back to Remy, whose gaze never wavered from his father's.
"Don't make it a habit of chattin' with Assassins." Remy shrugged, pulling out his cards.
"Ya got into a public argument with Julien Boudreaux. Did you think 'bout how this could affect de Guild?" Jean-Luc demanded. Clearly, he had run out of patience with his younger son.
"Pere—"Henri tried to cut in.
"Not particularly." Remy cut his brother off, "I doubt Julien was considerin' his Guild when he started stirrin' things up."
"Pere, Julien cornered Rogue and Mercy. What should we have done? Left them t' handle Julien alone?" Henri asked.
"Of course not." Jean-Luc shot an angry look at his oldest son, "Dese two belle filles shouldn't have had t' deal with him at all. You should have known Julien would stir up some sort of trouble. Why didn't you order everyone t' leave when de Assassins came in? You were in charge of de group, Henri." Rogue felt Mercy stiffen beside her, but the blonde girl kept her mouth shut.
"I thought you taught us never t' run from Assassins," Remy said, scorn heavy in his voice, drawing Jean-Luc's attention away from Henri.
"I taught you t' use your head." Jean-Luc spat, "I trained you both better than dis. I find it hard t' believe you couldn't find a way to avoid a public confrontation."
"Apologies Pere. I didn't know we were courting de Assassin's good graces." Remy replied in an overly courteous manner. Rogue shifted in her seat, wondering if the argument was about to become an all-out brawl.
Emeric's story about Jean-Luc and Remy fighting over her replayed in her mind unwillingly. She wanted to believe that Emeric had been exaggerating, but by the looks of it, both men in front of her were ready to go to blows.
"I don't care about de Assassins. Marius is furious about his son missing. Every person in de Thieves Guild will be in danger if Julien isn't found. The Assassins are out for blood." Jean-Luc thundered.
"I thought dey always were." Remy scoffed.
"You need t' think about the family before you go causing trouble," Jean-Luc warned, dark eyes glinting.
"Trouble for the family or trouble for the Guild?" Remy mocked.
Rogue sucked in a breath. It felt like the room had dropped twenty degrees. Across the room, Henri's eyes flicked uneasily between his father and his brother, clearly looking for a way to stop the fight.
"The Guild is family." Jean-Luc stared down his son, leaving no room for argument.
Remy didn't respond but glared back at his father—a stalemate.
Rogue wanted to close her eyes in dread. She wanted to scream at the pair to knock it off. It wasn't Remy's fault that Julien had decided to be an ass. It wasn't Henri's fault the Assassins had shown up. Hell, if Jean-Luc wanted to blame anyone, it should be her for not backing down quicker.
Rogue started to open her mouth, determined to make the older man see sense, but a sharp look from Remy stopped her. Rogue snapped her mouth shut.
Where would you have gone, Julien? Rogue asked the psyche in her head.
To Oz, Julien snarked at her.
Rogue resisted the urge to hit something. Technically the psyches' knowledge was hers to access. Still, some were more forthcoming than others, depending on their personality and whether they were friendly. Julien's psyche was as much of a pain in the ass as the real deal.
Where would you have gone? Rogue asked slowly.
Julien's psyche swore at her, and a bright shock of pain rocketed through her right eye. Fed up, Rogue focused directly on Julien's psyche and mentally shook him. If he was answering her, then he had the information.
Dere's an old house, Woodside, on the northeast side of Lake Pontchartrain that my mere left Belladonna, Julien's psyche ground out, then spat, Chienne.
Where? Rogue demanded. This time the psyche didn't respond.
Cursing mentally, Rogue turned back to the conversation in front of her. Jean-Luc and Remy were still at it, and Henri was trying his best to keep things from getting uglier.
"There's an old house on the northeast side of Lake Pontchartrain. Julien called it Woodside. He said that his Mama left it to Belladonna." Rogue cut in. Everyone grew quiet at that and turned to stare at her.
"How do you know that Petite?" Jean-Luc's swung his head towards her. Dark eyes nailing her in place on the couch.
"I asked Julien's psyche," Rogue struggled not to fidget under the weight of the room's stares. "I asked him where he would have gone to hide, and he said, Woodside."
"Where on Lake Pontchartrain?"
"I'm not sure."
"You're not sure?" echoed Henri.
"Yeah. I don't…I mean, it's not like people's memories come with a file system," she huffed, struggling to explain it.
"I only get what I get. I can't control what information comes through when I touch someone, and sometimes some things are missing. The psyches can't answer me if I didn't absorb the information." Rogue traced the seams of her gloves before realizing she was fidgeting. Crossing her arms to keep her hands still, Rogue felt her face begin to heat in embarrassment.
"And Julien's psyche said that he went to this place?" Jean-Luc asked, moving to his computer.
"No, I asked where he might have gone, and he said Woodside," frustrated she rubbed the back of her neck and shifted in her seat, the leather creaking under her. Taking a breath to calm herself, she tried again. "Look, I don't know if he went there. I can't even tell you where it is exactly. I don't know." She trailed off, wondering why she had even opened her mouth in the first place.
"It's fine, Petite. It's a starting point if nothing else. Theo, have Emil check to see if any property titles were transferred to Belladonna's name…check her aliases too." Theo nodded and headed out of the room. Pulling out his phone, Jean-Luc gave Rogue a wide grin, "Merci Petite."
Rogue nodded in acknowledgment and glanced at Remy from the corner of her eye. He had moved from his seat on the couch and was now leaning against one of the bookcases with a blank look on his face, card weaving through his fingers.
He's pissed, Rogue thought, looking away.
Excusing herself, saying she needed coffee and some aspirin, Rogue left the room. Jean-Luc waved her away absently but otherwise didn't acknowledge her leaving.
Rogue stepped out of Jean-Luc's office, rubbing her head, trying to ease the headache caused by Julien's psyche. On autopilot, she found her way to the kitchen. The coffee pot was off but was still half full of lukewarm coffee. Rogue grabbed her alligator mug and poured a cup.
Rogue hardly tasted the stale coffee as she stared blankly out the kitchen window. She couldn't get the image of Jean-Luc and Remy out of her mind. Neither man had gone so far as even to raise their voice, but the fight had been painful to watch. Remy's comment about the Guild and the family stuck in her mind. It was clear that his comment had been aimed at Jean-Luc and that it had hit its mark.
Rogue wondered if Remy had considered that his brother and other family members had been standing there when he said it. Rogue felt bad for Henri. She wondered how often he got stuck between his father and brother like that. Did Remy or Jean-Luc pressure Henri to play the go-between, or is that just how it worked out? Clearly, Remy and Jean-Luc were too alike not to fight.
And what the hell had she been thinking jumping in like that? Rogue blew out a sigh in frustration, cursing herself for giving Jean-Luc what he wanted. Had it all been a ploy? Did Jean-Luc pick a fight with Remy to press her hand? Normally Rogue wouldn't have thought so, but the man was always three steps ahead of everyone.
Anger burned in her chest suddenly. It wouldn't surprise her if the older man had set her up. After all, wasn't that why he brought her here in the first place? Hadn't Remy done the same thing two years ago?
Like father, like son, Rogue scoffed, taking another sip of her coffee only to realize that her mug was empty. Rogue rinsed out her cup in the sink as anger, worry, and frustration swirled together in her chest. Taking a deep breath and blowing out her nose, she tried to calm herself.
Maybe it's time to blow off some steam Kid, Logan suggested. Rogue agreed.
She couldn't change anything right now—Remy, Jean-Luc, Julien's disappearance, the Guilds—but she could go hit something until she felt better.
It was surprisingly quiet when Rogue stepped into the training hall. Walking the short distance past the locker rooms, she saw several thieves standing around the mats. Emeric was holding court again.
The man spotted her and frowned. Rogue moved further into the room and stepped onto a treadmill, starting off with a slow jog. Popping her AirPods into her ears, she cranked up the music. She wasn't going to hide.
If he wants to run his mouth, why should I care?
Finishing her warmup, Rogue headed for the free weights over by a wall of mirrors, beginning her strength training portion of her workout. She kept an eye on Emeric on the other side of the gym using the mirrors. A steady flow of people in twos and threes had been stopping to talk to Emeric and his little group of friends, who had given up all pretense of sparring.
About thirty minutes later, Rogue moved back to the treadmill to finish up with a run. Across the room, the group by the mats had swelled to about fifteen thieves. Rogue could hear Emeric raising his voice to speak to everyone. Keeping her AirPods in, she paused her music, listening.
"—now that he's missing too. The Assassins are going to be out for blood."
Rogue mentally swore. She doubted that Jean-Luc had announced that Julien was missing to the rest of the Guild yet. The walls have ears.
"The LeBeaus still haven't figured out what happened to Sabine and Cecile. It's been over a month, and things are only getting worse. All they've done is blame the Assassins, and apparently, they're not behind it...unless y'all actually believe Marius would kill his own son."
Good for you, Emeric. Retrospect is 20-20, Rogue snarked.
"Does anyone really think that the Assassins are going to wait a month before they are out for vengeance now that Julien's missing?" Emeric continued on a roll.
I'll take obvious statements for $500.
"Let's be honest. Jean-Luc would have had all our hides if any of us had started a fight with the Assassins right before the Boucherie. The only reason that Remy got away with it is because he's Jean-Luc's son. We can't afford to start a war with dem, especially over some femme," Emeric asserted, staring at Rogue, bringing the crowd's attention to her.
Screw you, Honey. It's not my fault Julien's an ass. Rogue popped an eyebrow at the man but didn't say anything, no need to encourage him.
Emeric didn't need any encouragement anyway, too absorbed in playing the showman in front of his little buddies. Swaggering across the gym, he planted himself next to Rogue's treadmill, giving her a smarmy grin.
"No offense, Princesses."
Rogue gave up the pretense of working out and turned off the treadmill. Anger surged in her veins as she offered the man in front of her the sweetest smile she could, "Oh, don't worry, Honey. I never take offense from someone I wouldn't take advice from."
Emeric's smile turned hard, and he leaned forward.
"Well, here's some anyway, fille. The LeBeaus are not the best thieves in the Guild. Hell, there are at least ten that are better than Mercy and Theo. Four that are probably better than Henri, and he's the heir." Pausing, he smiled mockingly before asking, "Do you really think that the LeBeaus are going to stop the Boudreauxs?"
Indignation on behalf of Remy's family rose up so fast that Rogue thought she might choke on it. Stepping off the treadmill, she turned to face Emeric squarely. If Emeric wanted a show, he would get one.
"Let's be honest, Emeric. God himself couldn't stop Julien Bordeaux from fighting if he wanted to. Nobody can. Not Remy, not me," Rogue paused to flick her eyes over the man in front of her before sneering, "and certainly not you."
Emeric's smile dropped from his face as someone in the crowd covered a laugh with a cough.
"You got a big mouth, Princesses. And around here, girls with big mouths are only good for one thing." Emeric paused leaving the statement hanging as he leered down at her. Rogue crossed her arms over her chest. Straightening, he continued, "But since you're not even good for that, why don't you keep your mouth shut? Hmmm?"
Logan and Remy's psyches roared in her head. Rogue winced. By the time Rogue battled them back and was sure she wouldn't hit the cocky thief in front of her, the moment to respond had passed. Emeric snorted at her silence and sauntered away, returning to his little following. He clearly didn't see her as any threat because he continued sighing, "There's a fight coming, mark my words."
Considered them marked, Rogue thought viciously. Turning on her heel she stormed out of the gym.
Angry tears stung her eyes at Emeric's stupid comment and the group's lack of defense of Remy's family. No honor among Thieves, I guess.
Entering her room and heading for the bathroom, Rogue jerked the knob to turn on the shower. Waiting for it to warm up, Rogue leaned on the bathroom vanity, closing her eyes and counting to ten before opening them to stare at her reflection.
She wished Logan was here.
Rogue wondered if she should call Logan but dismissed the idea as quickly as it came. She wasn't sure what she could say about the situation, and it would be better to wait until she talked to Remy.
She hated that she was playing a game that she didn't know all the rules.
She hated that everyone seemed to have their own agenda.
And Rogue really hated that part of her agreed with Emeric about Remy's family having a blind spot when it came to the Assassins.
XOXOXOXOX
Next Chapter: Rogue talks privately with Jean-Luc