Ethan had fully intended to put his entire focus on sticking to the impressively detailed plans that Heloise and the other Widows had set out.Success was paramount, after all, and it could be achieved only if everyone did their part,each of them a cog in a very intricate machine.
But when the lights had flickered out, and the screams had begun—so much more panicked than any of them had expected—he had known deep in his gut that something had gone wrong.And as his eyes struggled much more than they should have to adjust, that something wrong was made frighteningly obvious: It was too blasted dark.A few meager flames flickered at the perimeters of the room, but the majority of the extra lamps were not lit.Why?But even as he cast wild eyes about, trying to understand what had happened, there was one thing and one thing only that filled his mind: Heloise.
Vivid images crashed through his brain as the crowd surged like an angry, storm-churned sea—of Heloise lifeless, trampled beneath hundreds of feet.Bile rose in his throat and he forced it down.No, he told himself fiercely, as, mask off, he pushed his way through the mass of people desperate to escape the cloying shadows of the boxing venue, she was safe.She was strong, and capable, and would have things in hand.He trusted her.
Trusted her.Those words should shock him, considering how she’d deceived him.Yet they felt right.But he could not think of that now.A woman stumbled in front of him, her towering powdered wig falling to the floor and immediately trampled.He reached out, steadying her, nodding distractedly as she thanked him profusely, even as his eyes strained to make out anything useful in the feeble lamplight swinging in pendulous arcs as his workers guided the horde of people out to safety.They were owed extra pay after this, he thought grimly, squinting through the gloom.
He came to the ring then, taking up one of the lamps hanging on the outside edge, quickly lighting it and peering within.There, in the middle, was Lady Vastkern, propping up a bloodied Mrs.Finch.Mrs.Holburn was there, too,with her manager, and he let out a sigh of relief to see that they were all safe.
“You are well?”he shouted over the noise.
“Yes,” the viscountess called back, her face set in fierce lines of determination.“But something has gone wrong.Heloise—”
But he could not think of her now or he would go mad.“I shall help guide everyone out, and then I shall find her,” he replied.“I promise.”
She nodded, her thanks fairly screaming from her eyes as she returned her attention to Mrs.Finch.And then there was no time for Ethan to think as, turning back to the crowd, he went to work.Lantern held high, he helped guide the fearful people toward the exit, assisting one gentleman who had lost his footing, calming a wailing young woman, directing his employees.All the while he fought the panic that had burrowed like a vole beneath his breastbone, trying to dig in deeper with sharp claws.
Finally, he guided the last of the patrons through the long hallway and into the casino itself.But there was no reprieve from the panic surrounding him.Though the room was better lit than the boxing venue had been, the shouts and cries were more enraged here.Through the gloom he spotted several close masses of people on the floor, men fighting each other for the abandoned bounty at the tables, his employees doing their best to protect Dionysus’s coffers.
But lost earnings were the least of his concerns.He stopped in his tracks, scanning the cavernous room wildly even as patrons flowed around him, like a raging river around a boulder.In one corner, Teagan was assisting a crying woman, guiding her toward the exit.In another, Parsons was using his fists to push back a group of violent young men as they attempted to crawl over a table.Andthere, not ten feet from him, was Isaac, using his body to protect a feminine form against the wall.Heloise.
He pushed toward his brother like a madman, desperate to get to him, toher.But even before he reached them he knew by the height of the woman that it was not Heloise at all.That was proven a moment later as he came abreast of them and Miss Julia Marlow’s pale, fearful face turned his way.
Disappointment crashed over his head, quickly transforming to a strangling panic as he realized Heloise would not have left her sister-in-law’s side.Unless…
“Where is Heloise?”He attempted to keep the fear from his voice, but it was there, coating the words like molasses, thick and clinging.
Isaac’s eyes tightened at the corners, his perpetually smiling mouth a pinched line.Dread snaked under Ethan’s skin.
“Heloise has followed someone to the upper floors.”A footman nearby spoke up in a cultured feminine voice that momentarily shocked him until he recognized Mrs.Euphemia Blount in her disguise.
“Who?”he demanded.“Who did she follow?”
“Copper,” his brother replied, fury threading the word.
“Copper,” Ethan breathed.
Isaac nodded sharply.“Yes, the bastard.I would have gone after them myself, but Miss Marlow was in danger of being trampled.”
Ethan looked to Miss Marlow then, who stared back at him, her expression at once fearful and furious.
“I recognized Mr.Copper’s voice,” she explained tremulously.“Heloise and Mrs.Rumford followed him when the lights went out.”
His heart pounded in his chest, in his ears, in histemples, and his vision went dark at the edges.She had promised him not to do anything unduly dangerous.And yet she had willingly walked into a known danger.But he could not be angry that she had broken that promise.No, right now he just needed to see her safe.
“How long ago?”he demanded.
“Fifteen minutes at least.”
Fifteen minutes.Much could happen in fifteen minutes, especially with someone as skilled as Copper, who had been raised on the same streets as Ethan, who had been schooled in violence.
He recalled Copper’s face then that fateful night three years before, how he had stood with them as they’d looked down at the missing funds in Gavin’s desk, how he had voiced his outrage along with the rest of them, how he had stood grim and silent at Gavin’s graveside.And all the while, he had been the one to put him there.
Bitter gall filled his mouth.How could he have done it?He had grown up alongside the rest of them, after all, had been a trusted friend.And he had betrayed them.Worse, he had committed the crimes that had led to Gavin’s death.
And Heloise had followed him.
Fury and fear battled within him as, without giving his brother or the two women another glance, he stormed through the crowd and toward a reckoning that was long overdue.
