In the moment, she had fully expected Ethan to refute it.She knew he didn’t love her, and so declaring that fact, the right thing to do in that volatile situation, should have been easy and quick.Copper had been holding her hostage to control Ethan, after all.
Yet Ethan had not denied it.Oh, she had watched him, bracing herself for the pain when he did.But the words had never come.Instead he’d looked as if he were fighting some great battle within himself, a battle he lost.Had he been unable to refute the claim that he loved her, then, because it would have been a lie?
She was out of bed and on her feet before she knew what she was about.Was there every chance that she was reading into things?Yes.But that small chance he did love her, that sliver of light at the end of the dark tunnel she’d believed her future to be, could not, would not be ignored.
She lit a lamp and went to the wardrobe, pulling out the first thing she could get her hands on.She would go to Dionysus and find out, once and for all, if they had a chance together, even if she was destroyed in the process.Which, she thought as she pulled her gown over her head with shaking hands, she very well could be.
31
Ethan was exhausted, quite possibly the most exhausted he’d ever been in his life.Yet he knew that no matter how hard he might try, there would be no sleep for him.
Of course, the noise coming from the casino floor alone would have prevented him from sleeping.With no little amount of bemusement, he looked down at the milling crowd, a crowd that was significantly larger than what Dionysus drew in a normal evening.It seemed that the chaos and panic of the night of the masquerade had, instead of ruining them as Heloise had feared, only served to whet the public’s appetite for the club.
Heloise.At the thought of her, so unexpected after he had managed to keep his mind off her for, oh, the past ten minutes at least, he sighed wearily.After her blade had struck Copper, after he had ascertained she was safe while Isaac and Teagan and Parsons had finished subduing the floor manager, there had been too much to focus on to give her proper attention.From relighting the gaslights, to making certain all their patrons were safe, to filling his partners in on what had occurred, he’d not had a moment to spare for Heloise.By the time dawn broke and he was able to draw breath again, she had been gone, without even a note of goodbye.
Not that he had expected one.Give her time, he’d told himself.The night had been traumatic, after all, as well as exhausting.Not to mention there were the jewels to return and her sister-in-law to look after.
But though he’d waited, there had been not even a whisper from her.Which was akin to torture; he missed her so much he could hardly breathe.
“You know,” Teagan drawled from behind him, “if you’re going to sit around brooding all day and night, you may as well go visit her.”
Ethan started, glancing back into the dimly lit owners’ suite.Teagan, Isaac, and Parsons stared back at him, their expressions betraying varying degrees of amusement.Even Parsons, whose smiles of the past decade Ethan could count on one hand, had a vaguely amused tilt to his lips.
He scowled at them.“I’m giving her time.”
“Wasting time, is more like it,” Isaac rejoined.He leaned back in his chair, crossing one foot over the opposite knee.“I’m getting damn tired of waiting for you to make Mrs.Marlow my sister.”
The longing that brought Ethan was physically painful.“As if that’s a possibility,” he mumbled.
Isaac rolled his eyes as if asking for celestial guidance.“Well, it’s not if you don’t get your head out of your arse and ask her.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“Isn’t it, though?”Teagan asked.He held his glass up, studying the amber liquid within as if divining the future.“I thought recent events would reduce your stubbornness, but it seems you’re just as stubborn and thickheaded as ever.”
“What the hell does Copper’s betrayal have to do with my stubbornness?”he demanded.
There was a moment of heavy silence, that betrayal still infinitely painful to each of them.As it would be for some time, no doubt.Their shock and fury at learning the truth of that tragic event three years ago, as well as finding out that the corruption had not stopped in all that time, had been extreme.Especially as it had all been committed by someone they had grown up with, been friends with, trusted.
But while each grieved it in his own way, Ethan had noticed the change that had occurred among them all.There was a closeness there now that had been missing for the past three years, a return of the camaraderie that had been shattered with Gavin’s death.It had started as a fragile thing, as new and green as a spring shoot.But it grew stronger every minute of every day.A fact that Ethan was infinitely thankful for.
“This has nothing to do with Copper,” Isaac said now, the pain of a moment ago having blessedly passed with few residual effects.“Rather, it has to do with your affair with Mrs.Marlow and everything that came from that.Namely an opening up of that rusty piece of tin you call your heart.”
“Shut up,” Ethan grumbled.
“We will shut up when you finally come to your senses and go after her,” Teagan declared.
Ethan glared at them.“Do the two of you enjoy joining forces against me?At least Parsons here has the sense to leave me be.”
The man in question, however, shifted in his seat, looking as uncomfortable as he ever had, and cleared his throat.“Actually…”
Ethan gaped at him.“Not you as well.”
He shrugged.“I may be slow, but I’m not blind.Anyone could see you were happy with her.”
Isaac gave Ethana lookand motioned to Parsons with both hands as if to say, “There, you see?”
But this was all too much, and was making Ethan want things that he could not allow himself to want until Heloise was good and ready—if she ever would be.Thankfully, Keely knocked and opened the door just then.
