“You can’t imagine what I’m imagining,” Maxen said finally.
“I believe that a good thing, you know.”
“Your business is your business, Drake,” Maxen said. “But when it comes to your life and all of our lives, it becomes my business, other matters aside. We have the two who attacked you.”
“In the dungeon?” Bloody good.
Maxen nodded. “What’s the plan?”
“Since he doesn’t want to be drawn out, we hunt him down.” He chose not to voice his suspicions of Violet. “And we start with them.”
“Agreed,” Maxen said.
“Is she staying?” Knight’s voice came from the door.
Drake looked over and sighed. “She won’t abandon her shop.”
“But you’ll keep watch on her until danger has passed,” Maxen guessed. Not a question. The implication clear. Unhappiness.
“She has been assigned a chamber?”
“Calliope’s old one.” Dagger joined Knight.
A few doors down. That should be far enough away to keep from more lapses in judgement. The floors creaked and he’d have to pass the rooms of his vigilant brothers. So the immediate plan was to protect his family, Violet, wrench a name from their prisoners, and all would go back to normal. Well, they could thenreturn their attention to finding their uncle. “Are you any closer to the true threat?”
“All threats are true threats,” Knight said.
“Agreed,” Reaper echoed, flipping a coin from finger to finger. “And no, no word on our dear uncle.”
All threats were true threats . . .
Quite right. Drake knew that better than most. Some announced themselves with knives and hired fists. Others arrived quietly and more deadly. His uncle favored the latter. He’d been so occupied with this Bulldog wanting him dead, his suspicions of her, he hadn’t considered what her presence might look like to others.
Damn it, he’d need to consider that.
A tightness gathered in his chest. He had already proved how poor his judgment was when it came to her. He had to be smart now. One mistake was survivable. Two could be reasoned away. A pattern was not. If his uncle ever noticed her presence, then Violet faced another danger.
His uncle might set his sights on her. The man had a particular talent for identifying what others valued and turning it into a pressure point. He had tried it with Maxen. He would not hesitate with Violet, especially if he suspected she meant something.
And that was one outcome Drake would burn the world to prevent.
Entirely as a precaution.
Absent of all feeling, naturally.
He almost convinced himself.
Chapter Sixteen
Violet stood inthe center of the corridor in her borrowed night dress, candle in her hand, its light throwing long, uncertain shadows along the walls.
Absurd.
She did not even know which chamber was his. Should that obstacle have stopped her?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Reason, however, did not prevail. Indeed, the more she attempted it, the more something inside her tightened, restless and resistant, as though her body had already decided and merely waited for her mind to catch up. Her mind still attempted to reach for justification. Had he not once said something about keeping unpredictable variables close? Attached to a hip? It was a perfectly good reason to seek him out in the middle of the night.
