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I rattled off a description of the vile alpha who’d sought to hurt two females under my care.
“And Meeker,” Pax stopped him. “Once you’ve finished that task, please ensure that our mate does not leave here without an escort. She is in danger.”
“Pax…” Jack’s warning growl sparked anger in my chest.
“Out Meeker.”
The old soldier left us together.
“Do not let people know she is in danger.”
“And why is that? Don’t you trust Meeker? For I do.”
“That ain’t it. Pax, the more people in this household who know there is a direct and imminent threat, the more likely she hears of it. And when she does…”
“I see what you mean.”
We lapsed into silence.
“There is one person we could go to.” Jack offered.
“Drexler?”
“The other side to Polly’s coin. And if Stimpson’s are to let, he’d be the first to know.”
“Not yet… I don’t—”
“Trust him?”
“I’ll talk to him. I can’t think of a more sure way to draw the cretin out.”
“You think Stimpson so much the fool?” Pax frowned.
“Rather desperate. You won’t know the taste of poverty, but it can make men and women do strange things. Sell their bodies, take risks no sane person would take… They’ll bet the clothes on their back while they chase their luck, never once realising their luck won’t hold. It becomes a madness.”
“Have you felt that?”
“No. But I’ve seen soldiers spend beyond their means and fall into drink and gambling to make up the difference. Especially if they were born into some wealth…” I thought about men who’d served under me. Thinking themselves better for their breeding or ancient name, yet reduced to something more pathetic than most who grew up without a brass farthing. “Those are perhaps the most dangerous for they come to the table thinking themselves better than the rest. They ain’t. All men but the bank are equals when they sit down to play a game of chance.”
“You make me feel like an ignorant fool.”
“There is nothing like the ignorance of a lifetime of material comfort. I’ll be off. Remember if she asks, I’m seeing my bootmaker about something or other.”
Puck lounged against the column of the portico on the steps of Drexler’s Hell. As always, he was a picture of seductive sin, but when he saw me, his eyes narrowed and all that lithe sexuality disappeared, replaced by something predatory.
“You aren’t welcome here Colonel.” He straightened and crossed his arms. “That little stunt you and the silver fucker pulled? Tying yourself to that family?” Drexler doesn’t—”
“I was already connected. Beatrice has been my mate for ten years.. And for someone who brags about knowing everything, it is incredible you didn’t sniff it out sooner.”
His lips curled back in a snarl. The moment was tense. This was his world, not mine. But he was the one displaying agitation.
“Those damned Hartwells,” he growled. “They are leeches, sucking all that is good out of the world.”
“You sound like Pax before he got his knot into my mate. Protesting too much… Is Polly your poison?”
“That Thornback?”
“Why would you call Polly, of all omegas, an old maid?” I frowned. I’d not be distracted by discussions of my most unusual sister-in-law. “I came here with a challenge. We want to get rid of an alpha called Stimpson. You must know him.”
