“Yes.”
“That hasn’t stopped pounding since I met you.”
“Don’t you dare confess what I want to hear here!”
Drake chuckled. “As my lady wishes.”
Reginald gave a hysterical bark of laughter. “Do you think we’re the only ones your uncle is supporting? The only brother he’s courting?”
Rage exploded as he turned back to Reginald.
“You think this ends here, with me, withhim?” His gaze flicked to Percival, still unconscious. “Britain is crawling withmen who hate you,” the dog earl spat. “Men who would happily take you and all you hold dear apart piece by piece to get to you. Some even in your midst. You’ll never be able to protect my sister.”
Drake clenched his jaw.
“What are you talking about?” Violet demanded.
Reginald’s eyes gleamed. “You truly don’t know? Oh, sister.” He shook his head, mock pity softening his voice. “How veryyou.”
Drake’s hand tightened at his side. “Choose your next words carefully.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Violet said with a shake of her head. “It doesn’t matter if it’s one man, ten men, or the whole world. Drake doesn’t need to protect me,” Violet remarked, once again squeezing his fingers, “alone. We will protect each other.”
Protect each other.
His gaze found their joined hands. He liked that idea even though the thought filled him with slight horror at the same time. While Drake had been shaped by men who did not abandon their own, Violet was different.
His brothers closed ranks without question. They fought, bled, and covered one another’s backs as naturally as breathing. There was nothing gentle about it. Nothing uncertain. Each man knew his place, knew when to step forward and when to retreat.
With her, she would not fall in behind him or wait for orders. She would argue. Demand answers. Step into danger by choice. It would drive him bloody mad, but it would also make him work harder to protect their future. To not ruin what he had now touched, what he had now claimed.
“Correct,” Drake agreed. Always. “We shall protect each other while you rot in here. Better hope we don’t die, Barrowmere. The key to this cell might be forever lost to you if I do.”
Violet gave a curt nod. “You haven’t asked how I escaped your friend over there,Barrowmere.”
“Why should I ask?” Reginald snapped. “It was these criminals, no doubt.”
“You still haven’t figured it out?” Violet murmured. “I suppose Rook is really good at what he does.”
Drake’s head whipped to her. “Rook?”
Her face flushed. “I heard he tried to stab you. Forgive him, please? When I left London, he kept my brother’s attention occupied somehow. Also, he was there before you arrived at my garden.” Her countenance turned sheepish. “I told him to hide when I suspected you were coming.”
Holy hell. Their paths interlaced on a truly magnificent scale. His eyes bore into his little flame’s. “So there is another man.”
“Would you stop that?” she hissed. “Rook is not another man. He’s just a man.”
“And a bloody traitor!” Reginald howled.
Drake chuckled. He hadn’t fallen too far in his judgement of people. Thank God.
“I would think of ways you could be useful to each of these men,” Violet advised her brother. “It might be your only chance not to rot here for the next twenty-one years.”
Drake’s brow furrowed. “Twenty-one years?”
“My age,” she said easily. “I find it a useful measure of time.” She cast him a glance of pure curiosity. “What’s yours?”
Bloody hell. “I’d rather not say.”
