But he shook his head. “I’ll lock you up with Surrey. Don’t step foot outside, Charlotte. Do you hear me?”
“She won’t listen, Investigator.” Preston’s voice came from the doorway. He limped into the kitchen with three men behind him. They were all pointing their pistols at Charlotte.
Michael threw his pistol down and put his hands up. Where were William and Colin? His other men? If Preston or his men had killed them, Michael wasn’t sure he could control himself and not kill the guilty without a trial.
“Where are my men?” he demanded, stepping in front of his wife, blocking their aim.
“If he takes another step, shoot him.” Preston ordered. “I will deal with him next. Untie her.”
“Preston.” Charlotte remained calm, but the set of her jaw told Michael she was not okay. “What are you doing? Why are you attacking this keep?”
“Because you’re in it, Charlie. I’ve come to take you back from this stranger and break the spell he has over you. You have ignored me long enough. You succeeded in showing me that I need and want you in my life. Are you satisfied? I threw Amanda out and prepared my bed for you. I will give you everything you want.”
Michael listened, aching with every fiber of his being to punch Preston’s teeth out. But she had to hear these things once and for all and know where her heart truly stood.
“Preston,” she began. “Tell your men to stop pointing their pistols at me.”
He ordered it and they pointed them at Michael instead.
“Not on him either,” she demanded.
“You overreach,” he said, narrowing his eyes on her. “The pistols stay aimed where they are.”
“Then I will not speak to you.”
“It doesn’t matter. I will still kill everyone here and take you back.”
Michael smirked slightly. He wanted to see him try.
“I don’t want to go back with you,” she told him. “You’re too late. You should have stayed with Amanda. I’m sorry but I’m in love with Michael—”
That was all Michael wanted to hear. Her choice, when offered it, was him. He didn’t need to hear anything more. With a lightning quick movement that no one saw, he pulled his second pistol free from his belt with one hand and a knife from his jacket with the other. He flung the blade and shot the pistol at two different targets and hit them both.
Weaponless, he leaped for Preston but was stopped by the last of Preston’s men. They fought and Michael landed the last, jaw-breaking blow.
But more of his men rushed in. Michael recognized some of the men from earlier. They were the men who had joined his force. Apparently, they had just done so to gain entrance into the keep.
It angered Michael and he fought harder. He fought for Charlotte, to keep her out of the madman Preston’s grip. Setting his gaze on the viscount, now holding Charlotte by the arm and a knife to her throat, Michael punched and sliced his way—using his dead opponent’s swords—through Preston’s men until no more stood against him.
“Take a step closer and I slice her pretty throat,” Preston promise. “Let me pass.”
“What’s this?” Came another voice. Michael looked to his right and saw the Baron of Surrey standing in the kitchen doorway, arms outstretched, palms up. “Preston, just what do you intend to do with that blade?”
“You were supposed to kill him, Sebastian. What happened? Why did you betray me?”
“Who says I betrayed you?” Surrey’s dashing smile appeared as genuine as if he were talking to a beloved brother. He stepped into the kitchen and his gaze settled on Michael. He slipped a knife out of his sleeve and pointed it at Michael, then laughed.
Michael’s belly sank. Charlotte had released Surrey and now Michael was going to die in front of her. How could she defy him yet again? He wanted to shout at her. He wanted to live and save her.
“You let him go,” he said, forgetting the baron and sounding more defeated by her than angry. He would never have all of her heart, and it broke his. She was the first person who’d ever made him forget all his ghosts. She made him want to abandon everything and start his life over with her here.
She looked as if she were about to say something in her defense, but Preston stopped her.
“Sebastian, were you this man’s prisoner?”
“I was. Use caution with him, for he knows how to make do without a pistol. When I went to Croydon to kill him, he nearly killed me instead! With his bare hands!”
Michael didn’t know why the baron was lying through his teeth, but it was good to believe he wasn’t being betrayed by a man who could be his…brother—his head was spinning from it all.
