She hadn’t expected him to ask so bluntly. Something was truly off here, so she could never admit to her mission. “Fight?” she repeated, forcing a shaky laugh. “Do I look as though I frequent fights?”
“You are in such a place.”
Quibble much? “Yes, I suppose I am. I’m lost, you see.”
“Lost? Do you need for me to escort you home, then?”
Not on your life! “There is no need for that, sir.”
“But you are lost.” His scarred brow rose. “Do you not need aid?”
Certainly not from you, sir. “I can aid myself, thank you.”
“I see.” His gaze drifted down the length of her, taking stock of every inch of her. “You look,” he said, the corner of his mouthcurving slightly, “exactly like trouble that’s found its way to the wrong room.”
Her stomach knotted, and blaze it, the knot tangled with a treacherous trace of thrill. “Then I’ll just be taking my trouble elsewhere.” Violet shifted as though preparing to pass him, even though the path to the door lay squarely through his considerable bulk.
The man didn’t move. “I wouldn’t do that, love. You might trip over something unpleasant on your way out.”
“Such as?” she challenged, her mind flashing with bodies strewn across the floor.
“Me.”
Violet started, the single word settling between them like a dangerous challenge. Her mouth moved before her brain. “I beg your pardon?”
He grinned, a flash of teeth so sinister it finally roused the desire to abandon this plan. “Who are you, love? Who’s your master?”
Master?
She inched back a step. “I am my own master.”
“Is that so?”
Of course, he didn’t believe her. Why would he? She swallowed hard, pulse hammering, but managed to tip her chin. “Thatisso.”
“Then you wouldn’t be here, love.”
Could she retract her earlier denial of being lost?No, Violet. Donotdo that.She had to keep her head at a time like this. Otherwise... she did not wish to contemplate the consequences. “A simple coincidence.”
“So you meant to enter an abandoned building at night?” His tone remained dry, but his eyes were sharp, dissecting. “Just not this one?”
“Yes,” Violet said, lifting her chin.
His shadow stretched toward her, long and dark and inescapable. It didn’t just touch her; his darkness seemed to wrap around her ankles, rooting her to the spot as if the world itself were conspiring to keep her there, right where he wanted her.
“You know what I think, love? I think you were meant to find me.”
Voilet shook her head, the air suddenly too thick to breathe. “No, I—” The flame of the candle died at that very moment, startling her, making her mouth snap shut.
The room plunged into darkness.
*
The moment theroom went black, Drake shot forward, absolutely refusing to let this unexpected little flame escape.
Violet Sharpe.
Their newest tenant. Even her name felt like it belonged nowhere near him. However, from the one or two fleeting moments he’d heard her voice, he’d recognize her cadence anywhere. And then there was the unmistakable flash of red hair beneath her cap that not even the dark of night could hide.
