Reaper whispered. “Is that literal or figurative,frère?”
Serpent pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Did you find anything?” Drake asked.
Serpent nodded. “Caught a man named Percival. Think he’s an earl or something. He was skulking around town. Thought he might be one of our uncle’s spies.”
Christ, how many earls were there circling about?
“He’s not then?” Reaper questioned.
Serpent shook his head. “He’s looking for his fiancée. Evangeline Graves.”
Drake went on alert. “Graves, you say?” The name struck like a fist to his sternum. The bane of his bloody existence at the moment.
Serpent gave a curt nod.
Maxen’s eyes darkened. “Any connection to the man trying to kill you?”
“Could be,” Drake muttered darkly. “His last name is Graves, too.”
“Could also be a coincidence,” Deveraux pointed out.
“Might be,” Drake agreed, yet not convinced. “But I don’t believe in coincidence this glaring.”
“Neither do I,” Maxen growled. “Unfortunately, Calliope didn’t have any insight about these people either.”
That was to be expected. His brother’s wife, also the daughter of an earl, had been confined to her home and ran away before her debut. She probably hadn’t heard of any of these names. Just how many variables were still going to be added to this nightmare?
“Where’s the man now?” Drake asked, cracking his knuckles. “Did he escape you?”
Serpent sneered. “Am I a pup? He’s on the beach in a crate.”
Well hell. And his brothers raised their brows at his dungeons.Theywere a touch bigger than a crate.
“Thought it about time to report,” Serpent added.
“You should damn well report every day,” Drake snapped.
Serpent shrugged. “Lost track of time.”
Lost track of time, his arse. The sun rose and the sun set. Time. Track. Drake gave up arguing with this brother. Serpent would do what Serpent did.
“What about your woman?” Maxen asked Drake.
His spine snapped to attention.His woman. The words sounded so damn right his damn body hardened in ways he didn’t want it to harden here and now. “She’s not my woman,” Drake denied.
“She’s your responsibility, she’s your woman,” Maxen remarked, unperturbed. “Don’t even think of evading such responsibility.”
Bloody hell.
He wasn’t planning on evading anything.
Reaper chuckled. “So that’s the way of thinking that got your leg shackled,frère. Good to know.”
Dagger gave a short, humorless laugh. “He shackled himself quite willingly.”
Serpent strode to the bar and took a seat, rubbing his eyes. “Seems I missed a lot.”
