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A long moment of silence fell between them, but then she cleared her throat and tapped the book she’d been reading. “There are three books down here, and all of them are tracts on communism. It makes me think that perhaps whoever took us might be part of this movement?”
He stared at the book, stunned that he hadn’t put that together himself. He’d noticed the books while he was searching for something he could use as a weapon, but he hadn’t even read the titles. “Let me see that.”
Dragging the book forward, he opened it to the front page, then leafed through, looking for some sort of notation, something that would give him any hint of who owned it. “The Citizens Committee,” he mused softly. “They bombed a small factory a few weeks ago. We’ve been investigating them.”
She swallowed visibly. “Do you think they are the ones behind this?”
“I don’t know. It’s possible.” He groaned in frustration. Was it that simple? Could it be that his brother had nothing to do with this? It didn’t feel right to him. But the man who’d spoken to him this morning had seemed to be the one in charge, and he definitely wasn’t Danbury.
“If you already know who they are, why are they wearing masks?” she asked.
“We don’t know who all is involved,” he said. “We’ve been trying to figure out who the ringleaders are so we can bring them to justice for the deaths they caused.”
Something flickered in her eyes... Was it fear? Guilt? Whatever it was, she quickly masked it, leaving him to wonder if he’d imagined the whole thing.
“They caused deaths?” she asked in a small voice, sounding shocked.
He nodded grimly. “Two people were gravely injured in the explosion. They didn’t die immediately. They suffered in the hospital for days before finally succumbing to their wounds.”
She gasped and buried her face in her hands. “That’s horrible.”
“Damn right it’s horrible,” he replied, the anger he’d felt upon hearing of the tragedy returning. “They pretend to be helping the common man, but I don’t think this particular group really cares about anything except causing damage and getting their names in the papers.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” she said quietly, her voice choked with emotion. “I don’t know how I got wrapped up in it.”
“I don’t either. I’m afraid you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He sighed and pushed the book away. “We can’t be sure that’s who’s taken us, not from just a few books.”
“You seem like you wish it was someone else.” She paused and bit her lip. “Why do you keep mentioning your brother? Do you think he is behind this?”
“It’s complicated,” he said, uncertain whether he should say anything about Danbury to her. Then he sighed. Perhaps he owed it to her to tell her at least some of it. Especially if Danbury was the one who had taken them. Besides, she’d opened up to him earlier, something he suspected she rarely did.
“My brother is a monster,” he admitted, the words coming from somewhere deep inside. It had been hard enough to admit the truth to O’Brien and Ness, who were used to the very worst things that humans did to each other. How could he expect this sweet woman to understand? “I have reason to believe that he’s done horrible things to women... for years. And I’ve been trying to stop him. When I was taken, I thought maybe he was on to me and that you were taken because he meant to hurt you as well.”
She took a deep breath. “What do you mean, horrible things...?”
He sank back in his chair. “It’s not something I could possibly tell a lady.”
“Well, we’ve already established the fact that I am not a lady,” she said bitingly, reminding him once again that he’d hurt her feelings with his careless statements in the beginning.
“Horrible things. Unspeakable things.” He shook his head. “Trust me. You don’t want to know the details.”
To his surprise, she reached across the table and covered his hand with hers, squeezing gently as he’d done for her earlier. “I won’t pry any further. But that must be very difficult for you. To have spent your life fighting against those who would do harm, only to find out that your brother is one of them.”
The warmth of her bare hand on his was more comforting than he’d ever imagined a woman’s touch could be. The fact that she’d offered him this comfort without any ulterior motive struck him deeply. He suddenly realized that he’d had far too many experiences with women who were after something—wealth, prestige, social standing.
“O’Brien is so suspicious of me,” he admitted, forgetting for just a moment his need to hold his secrets tightly. “He doesn’t believe that in the end, I’ll have the courage to turn Danbury in. He thinks that blood will be stronger than my honor. But I swear it won’t. I was working on this even before O’Brien and Ness came to me.”
“You’re working on this with Quinn?” she whispered, her face growing pale. “But... Quinn is only working on one case.”
Cursing himself inwardly, he tried to think of something to say, but she was already withdrawing her hand. He hadn’t realized she’d be that familiar with O’Brien’s work.
“Is your brother The Viper?” she whispered in horror, but they both knew that she was right. Quinn O’Brien had retired from the police department when he’d been badly injured in pursuit of The Viper. However, he still consulted with Ness and Drake on the matter, since he was the one who’d begun the investigation.
“I never should have said anything,” he said stiffly, withdrawing his hand from the table and placing it in his lap where it felt strangely cold without her touch. “Forget I said anything.”
“How can I forget?” she asked, her eyes brimming with tears. “Evelyn Lindsay was one of my best friends. In fact, I was one of the last to see her alive. Her death haunts me!”
Damn it. It hadn’t occurred to him that Miss Fields might have been friends with Evelyn, but why hadn’t it? Evelyn had dedicated her life to helping those less fortunate. She’d been very active in the women’s suffrage movement, and Allison had briefly lived with Evelyn and her sister Jocelyn before she wed O’Brien, so it stood to reason that Miss Fields had lived there as well. There also seemed to be an entirely inappropriate relationship between her and the O’Briens, but he supposed that made sense, considering what she’d confessed to him about her parentage. His own servants had no idea what he worked on... or at least he hoped they didn’t. Then again, none of his servants was actually his sister. At least... as far as he knew.
