It was a dance of words, the two of them playacting with each other, pretending to be cordial, to make the final betrayal more bitter.
Dyer smoothed a finger over his mustache. “The lady has spoken. You should have learned your place.”
He fought against the guards holding him, narrowed his eyes on Elizabeth. “I could never fall for a betraying bitch like you.”
Dyer placed his arm around her shoulders, pressing her close, staking out his territory. She stared forward, not seeing. “As my fiancée has said, she could never lower her standards to ever consider someone as lowly as you, Mr. Rourke.”
She, who had done more than any other human being to draw him out of the caves of his secret, folded life, now threw him down into the deepest recesses of betrayal and hatred. Thefall was greater than he’d ever known, because he’d dared to venture so far into that emotion and had abandoned himself to it.
He’d been lied to and deceived.
He’d let her spirit enter and stroke his soul where everything was love and sensation and surrender.
She existed the worst of betrayers with nothing but the infidelity of her promises. He’d fallen for another manipulating and slandering bitch.
Elizabeth’s heart dropped into her stomach dreading the role she had play to protect Zachary and Caroline. Dyer’s last warnings: he’d kill Zachary in a heartbeat unless she said the awful words that drove a final stake in his heart.
How devastated she had been when she had tried to get away from her home a week ago. A whirlwind ensued, her mother cackling and clucking that Elizabeth had not escaped. She had been locked in her room again to be served by the grim maid. Her windows were nailed shut.
And now, she faced that same desolation with nothing to do but stand there and listen to Zachary’s verbal abuse echo through her head. Dyer’s skill for the dramatic had done the trick–his ruse irreparably damned her in Zachary’s eyes.
She took another step toward Zachary. Dyer yanked her back. “I am king in New York City. This is my backyard. You are naïve to think my power is not endless. Remember your daughter, my sweet.” Her skin crawled. How could she have ever thought of this man as a beloved uncle?
But it was when she looked at Zachary that she wanted to flee. When he lifted his head and glared at her, his eyes that days before held such warmth, were cold shards of ice. How he hatedher. And she thought for one awful second that if, turned loose, his long sinewy fingers would wrap around her throat.
She had seen him fight before, but nothing like what he had just showed. She’d seen the lion emerge, in his easy, ready stance, composed, but with lethal claws. She feared he’d be like this. Dangerous. Even Dyer stood rattled until ten of his men restrained Zachary.
Dyer smirked and then placed his fingers over Elizabeth’s shoulders, pushing her in front of Zachary. “Lovely, is she not?”
Zachary looked at Dyer, and then back to her, looking like a man who had lost his senses. His eyes blazed through her. Nausea rolled in the pit of her stomach. How Dyer relished his new role. How twisted and warped he was. She wanted to kill him.
Dyer continued his speech. “Elizabeth is the toast of New York, the city’s prized possession. You are not the first to be enticed by this seductress. Isn’t that right, my dear?”
She stared straight ahead. A veritable liar, Dyer had painted her as a very clever, complicit whore, succeeding in sowing distrust and hatred. Now he had made public her earlier shame, multiplying her disgrace a hundredfold in Zachary’s eyes.
“She’ll be my lovely and performing bride—don’t you think, Mr. Rourke? I can’t wait for our wedding night. I’m sure you’ll drink a toast to our—spontaneity and mutual pleasures.”
She could not look at Zachary. He had loved her and for that love he was betrayed. Never would he forgive her. Her head drooped. Dyer mocked the beautiful memories she had with Zachary, turning them ugly. Time had slipped through her fingers.
Dyer pinched her. “Look alive, Girl, act the part.”What would he do to Zachary? Would he release him? Would he harm Caroline?
Part of her died each passing moment watching Zachary’s face go completely blank, numb from the pain of what he could not bring himself to believe and the promise to him she had broken.
Chapter Forty-Four
Dyer’s voice hardened. “I will decide what is proper and what isn’t. And this is not a conversation I will have with you here. You are going upstairs. You will be locked in a room.”
Elizabeth had been moved to Dyer’s home at his insistence and her mother’s exultation, claiming it was for her daughter’s own good.
When Dyer shifted toward her, Elizabeth stepped back. “You have no power over me. We are not married yet. I’m leaving.”
He followed her retreat and grabbed her arm, swung her around. “I do have the power. Your mother and father have given their blessing. My men surround the building. You cannot escape.”
Elizabeth flinched. Did his aggressive demeanor imply future violence? Shaking, she swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. “I will find a way to escape.”
His eyes held the penetrating cold of a serpent. “My beautiful Elizabeth. I’ll give you anything you want.” He snatched papers off a table and presented them to her. “This is my will. I’ve signed it. Everything I possess will be yours.”
Her voice broke, seething with frustration and rebellion. “I want nothing from you.” She’d never marry the oil baron. She shivered from his touch. He was ancient enough to be her grandfather. How could her father have sold her for a railroad? Dyer’s fingers pinched her arm.
