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Bram raises a cunning brow. “Who says I do? His past concerns me, but he seems totally reformed. And he’s a very concerned father.”
Frustration claws at me. Does no one understand? “What reason has he given us to trust him?”
“None, which is why I’m giving the man enough rope to hang himself. If he’s conspiring with Mathias, accusing him will only make him cling to his facade more tightly. If he thinks he’s fooling us…”
“He will grow lax and turn sloppy.” I sigh. Bram is right, and I have allowed my protective instincts to overshadow my common sense. I have ignored tested tactics and revealed my suspicions to Gray too early.
“Precisely. On the other hand, if he’s guilty of nothing more than a terrible past, how will you make amends? By the way, some might lob that same accusation at you.”
I snort. “I never plotted to make war with the enemy.”
“No, you just did the horizontal mambo with her.”
Exhaustion weighs on me. I stab my eyes with my fingers and rub furiously. Why does Bram have to be right again?
“Let’s pretend that Gray is actually trying to make amends and is the only person who knows a damn thing about the diary,” the wizard continues. “Reverse your positions. If you were her father, what would you tell you, her overprotective mate?”
The annoying lout continues to dole out logic. “Fuck.”
“You’re getting it now. Personally, I don’t trust the wanker. But until he gives me a reason to distrust him…”
“Giving him leeway makes sense. I have handled this poorly, alienating the father and infuriating the daughter.”
And making my immortality more likely to last forever.
“We’ll write your behavior off to the excitability of a new mating,” Bram says. “The rush, especially in someone who’s never experienced magic, makes newly mated men a bit mad. Hopefully, Gray will accept your apology.”
’Tis likely I will choke saying it, but say it I will. Will Olivia accept it?
Lucan dashes up a set of stairs behind us, stopping in the hallway. “Zain is gone.”
“Gone?” Bram thunders.
Lucan nods. “His cell is empty. There’s no sign of him anywhere in the dungeon.”
“Bloody hell!” Bram explodes. “After you and Duke captured him, I left him below for questioning later. I haven’t even talked to the bastard. How did he escape in scarcely twelve hours?”
“He didn’t escape alone. Someone freed him.”
“What?”
“The wall was blasted from the outside.”
Bram clenches his fists. “When?”
“Must be in the last hour. I saw no hole in the wall while we practiced outside.”
“Fuck. No one can step foot on my property uninvited.”
“Richard Gray was here an hour past,” I point out.
But I cannot voice this suspicion to my mate. We would only argue again, and as deliciously as our last spat ended, I have no wish to upset her. I must think smarter.
“So he was,” Bram drawls.
“Should we track Zain down?” Lucan asks.
Bram shakes his head. “He’s long gone. To think, after you brought him here and he pissed himself, I almost felt sorry for him.”
