“I’m going to release you,” he said in her ear. “But I have a gun, and if you scream, I will shoot you.”
She nodded, and he slowly let her go, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the pistol Adrian had loaned him. “Miss Hawley, I presume?” he asked, gesturing for her to sit down in a red chair in front of the fireplace.
“Prometheus,” she retorted. “I’d hoped we’d seen the last of you.”
He smiled a bit behind the mask, impressed by her daring. Although probably in her late forties, she was still a beautiful woman, with dark hair, stunning green eyes, and a voluptuous figure. His smile faded as he remembered exactly who he was talking to. This was the monster who had raised his child in a brothel.
“Then perhaps you should not have opened another establishment like the one I burned down,” he replied, taking the chair across from her but keeping the gun trained on her.
She stared at him piercingly. “You took the boy,” she said angrily. “I raised that boy. I was very fond of him.”
“He’s in a much better place,” Luke told her, anger roiling within him. “As a matter of fact, that’s why I’m here. I will not burn you out if you tell me about the other child. The girl.”
“What girl?” she asked, her brow wrinkling in confusion.
He applauded her acting abilities. Even Vanessa could take lessons from this scheming bitch. “The one the Earl of Winters brought to you, approximately seven years ago. I need to know what you did with her.”
Miss Hawley frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She shook her head. “Winters only brought me the one child. Gabriel. He asked me to care for him until he needed him back. But then you took him, and Winters was furious. He has stopped his patronage,” she finished accusingly.
Lucien sat back, filled with confusion. “There was no baby girl?” A sickening thought suddenly took root inside of him.No, it can’t be.“When did Winters bring you this child? I need to know the exact date.”
“The child was a boy,” she fired back. “Gabriel. It was in ‘89. Perhaps June? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago.”
Gabriel. Is Gabriel my son?The hand holding the gun wavered as the ramifications of what she was saying sank in. Christ. How could he have been in the same room with that boy a dozen times and never felt a kinship?
“Is Gabriel all right?” she asked suddenly. “He was like a son to me.”
He swallowed, forcing back his emotion and trying to focus. He couldn’t be certain she was telling the truth, and he needed to make sure that the daughter he’d thought he had wasn’t still out there somewhere.
“If you cared for him at all, you never would have allowed people to use him in such a way,” he said, choking on his anger.
“I never let anything happen to him!” she cried. “We all treated him real good. He might have seen some things he probably shouldn’t have, but we never let anyone hurt him.”
Relief filled him, even though he knew how foolish it was to believe her. Hewantedto believe her. He wanted it desperately. He couldn’t bear to think of his child harmed in any way. He couldn’t bear to think ofanychild hurt and used.
But why had Gemma said the child was a girl if it was really a boy? What reason did she have to lie to them now?
“If Winters had hidden a girl child away somewhere, at the same time, do you know where he would have taken her?” he asked, trying to think what else might have logically happened. Perhaps Gemma had been wrong when she’d said the little girl had been taken to Miss Hawley’s. Still, it seemed very coincidental that a baby boy had been brought here at the same time his child had gone missing.
Miss Hawley shook her head, crossing her arms over her impressive chest. “I have no idea. He just brought me the boy, asked me to keep him safe. I always wanted a child, and he paid me well. I never asked any questions.”
He stood and grabbed a silk scarf from a table by her bed and tied her securely to the chair.
“Don’t leave me tied up,” she begged, her control finally breaking. “Don’t leave me to burn.”
He frowned, having forgotten his role of Prometheus in his confusion about what he’d learned. He probablyshouldburn the place to the ground, but he hadn’t done enough research to know if everyone would be able to get to safety, and he’d never had any intention of killing anyone, not unless he’d found some evidence they’d harmed his child.
“I’m not going to burn the place down,” he told her gruffly. “I just don’t want you raising the alarm until I’m safely away.”
Relief washed over her face, and she allowed him to slip a gag over her mouth without any further argument. No doubt she felt that she’d escaped this encounter with far less damage than she’d imagined.
He paused and turned back to her. “No more children,” he said harshly. “If I find out that you’ve had another child in this establishment, I’ll come back. And the next time, Iwillleave you to burn.”
She nodded jerkily to show her understanding.
Moving quickly now, he slipped out of her room, made his way out of the building, and then faded into the darkness. His blood rushed in his ears as he scaled the rooftops, the implications of what he’d learned tearing apart his soul.
* * *
