Page 83 of Unbound Duchess

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“NO!” Laurence roared.

Benedict produced a pistol of his own from nowhere, pressing the barrel of it tightly to Ellen’s bruised temple. One second, they were a few inches apart. The next, Benedict’s free arm was wrapped tight around Ellen’s throat, her back pressed fully to his chest as Benedict nudged the barrel against her head once more.

“You just keep getting in the way, don’t you?” Benedict snarled, madness glittering brightly in his eyes. “Step away,” he commanded through gritted teeth.

Laurence didn’t move. Did not even breathe as his gaze kept flicking from Benedict to Ellen. She’d been crying, and she was hurt. It was all his fault. Guilt threatened to make him buckle, but he refused to give in to it.

“You are not leaving this place with her,” Laurence answered.

“She is mine!” Benedict snarled.

“Let her go then,” Laurence quickly countered. “If she is yours, as you say, she will stay by your side.”

Doubt shifted through Benedict’s eyes, and with fierce quickness he turned Ellen in his arms. Fear tightened the muscles in Laurence’s stomach as Benedict shook her shoulders, his right hand still laced loosely around the handle of his pistol.

“I know you want me, Ellie,” he said in a trembling voice. “Tell him.”

Ellen said nothing as her lips trembled, her gaze focused solely on her cousin.

“Tell him!” Benedict roared, giving her another fierce shake.

The pistol fell from his loosened grip, and Laurence wasted no time in lowering his own and firing a shot into Benedict’s knee. A roar of pain exploded from his open mouth as he let Ellen go, and she stumbled hurriedly from the carriage and into Laurence’s side, grabbing Benedict’s fallen pistol along the way.

Laurence wrapped his free arm around her in an instant, holding her tightly against him as if he’d needed proof that she was actually there. He spared a second to press a kiss to her forehead as he tossed his pistol to the side and took Benedict’s from her shaking hands.

He wanted to pick her up and take her away there and then, but he couldn’t risk Benedict finding a way to escape. So he stayed, keeping her safe in his grasp as he kept his pistol trained on Benedict.

“No, Ellie,” Benedict sobbed in a crumpled, bleeding mess on the carriage floor. “Come back.”

“You killed him,” she sobbed, trembling heavily against Laurence’s side. “You killed him.”

Hurt, not for himself, but for Ellen, bloomed in Laurence’s chest as he realized that his suspicions regarding Robert Munro’s death had been confirmed. If Benedict still refused to give up his involvement in the auction, at least that would land him in prison.

“You have already confessed one sin,” Laurence pushed on, staring down at Benedict. “Give us the other. Tell us the truth about the auction.”

Benedict let out a strange, wounded sound. It was somewhere between a snarl and a sob.

“You and that blasted auction!” he roared, his hands hovering above his ruined knee. “Yes, I convinced your sister to take part, but I have already told you, I do not own it!”

Laurence sneered in frustration as his grip tightened on the butt of his pistol.

“But you have some part! Admit it!” he yelled with commanding rage.

“I pretended to be so to get under your skin, Curtis, but I do not,” Benedict seethed through gritted teeth. “I convince women to participate so I can act as their patron and receive their cut; that is all.”

Laurence let out a sound of rage as he moved the pistol slightly to the left and fired, the shot narrowly missing Benedict’s arm. Benedict bared his teeth as he jerked away from the sound, pain etching his face as he did so.

“You call me mad, Ellie?” Benedict seethed.

“Do not speak to her,” Laurence warned, pressing Ellen closer to him.

“He is going to kill me because he cannot get what he wants,” Benedict continued, ignoring Laurence’s warning. “You stay with him, and he will hurt you more than I ever could!”

“I am nothing like you!” Laurence bellowed and pulled the trigger again. This time the pistol only clicked, the single loaded bullet already used. He snarled and threw the gun aside.

“Laurence.”