“And come midnight, I will be waiting outside the Scotan Castle.” He looks at me with sadness in his deep brown eyes. “There’s nothing you can do, Cate.”
“And what about Callum? How do you know he won’t be there too?” I clasp my hands in front of me to try to still their shaking, a terrible feeling about to swallow me whole.
“Because he’ll be here. With you.”
“No.” My head shakes back and forth, moving almost of its own accord. “Absolutely not. I won’t do it, Harold. I can’t even believe you’re asking me to.”
“She has Andra, Cate.”
My already frozen veins crackle and snap. “What do you mean shehasAndra?”
“I mean, she’s taken your sister. Andra is no longer at the club. If you ruin this plan for us…” He doesn’t have to finish voicing the threat for it to hang in the air.
Tears fill my eyes, clouding my vision and closing my throat. “You would let her hurt Andra, Harold? You’re okay with harming my sister for this woman you just met? For a position you don’t even want?” The betrayal stings, worse than any pain I’ve felt before. “Look at what she’s done to you. Look who you’ve become.”
Look at whoI’vebecome. I didn’t even notice my sister was gone, I’ve been so wrapped up in myself. And in Callum.
“Cate, everything I’m doing, everything I’ve done, has always been to protect you. You need to trust that I’m doing everything I can for you and your sister.”
“You never needed me to get information from him, did you? You just needed me to distract him, get close to him and keep him busy while you stab us all in the back.” I shake my head, clearing away the tears to make room for the anger.
Harold’s face is pained, his lips turned in a grim frown. “I thought you knew me better than that, Caterine.”
“So did I.” I press the heels of my hands into my eyes. “I have to go.” I push my chair back so violently it falls to the ground, but I don’t stop to right it.
“She will kill him, Cate.” Harold’s words stop me in my tracks. “I will ensure that no lasting harm comes to Andra, but I can’t protect him. So if you care about him, you will keep him away.”
I don’t stop to acknowledge his warning, throwing open the door to the office and finding the last person I want to see on the other side. I swallow down my tears, determined not to let her see them. “Lady M.” I brush past her, shivering at the slight contact.
She closes the door behind her, and I make a split-second decision.
There is an alcove to the left of Harold’s office, mostly hidden as long as it’s unoccupied. I duck into the shadows and find the metal latch easily. Before this room was an office, it was used for otheractivities, and all of our rooms have this contraption, mostly used for safety purposes, but sometimes, like right now, used for spying. I slide the thin metal bar, opening a slit allowing me to peer into the room.
Lady M sweeps into the office, her black skirts brushing the floor. Harold immediately vacates his seat behind the desk, allowing her to gracefully fold herself into his chair. He hovers next to her, ready to do her bidding, and my stomach roils.
“Will she do it?” Lady M’s cold, emotionless voice penetrates the tiny hole in the wall, clear as day.
“I think so.” Harold’s shoulders sag, and I wish I could find some pity for him within my heart. But whatever happens next, Harold has brought down on himself.
“Thinkisn’t good enough. I need to know that Caterine will play her part.”
I lean a little closer to hear Harold’s response.
The hairs on the back of my neck rise, but it isn’t Harold’s response setting my nerves on high alert. I reach for the dagger sheathed at my thigh, for reassurance more than anything else. But I’m too slow.
A hand clamps over my mouth, an arm thick with muscle snaking around my waist.
I fight, clawing at the hands and arms that bind me.
Until I hear two simple words, whispered against the shell of my ear. A voice I would know anywhere. “It’s me.”
I relax against his hold and Callum releases me, though the heat of him stays at my back. The weight of him is so reassuring I don’t question how he found me, or why.
It takes a second for my brain to catch up.
Harold’s voice slithers through the slit in the wall. “I told you, Cate is going to do what we ask of her. She—”
I react without thinking, slamming the metal partition closed. Callum cannot hear the rest of that sentence.
