Morgan did not flinch at the accusation. Instead, he stood very straight and said, "I have done you an insurmountable wrong, Mr. Hunt. I turned my back on you, beat you, when instead I should have offered my hand." His voice broke as he said, "I have no excuse for my actions save that I... panicked. I thought only to get away from what I had done. In truth, I cannot recall thinking at all." He swallowed audibly. "I know words mean little, but know that every day since I have thought of my cowardly actions and despised myself. And I have hoped against hope that you might have survived, that I might find some way to make amends."
"Make amends? For the ten years I spent rotting in the hulks because of the crime you committed?" Gavin yelled.
Morgan turned ashen. "But Grimes' murder... I heard it was ruled an accident, because of a fire..."
"The fire that later got blamed onme. A decade I spent in prison for arson—because of the fireyoustarted."
So consumed was he that he hadn't noticed Percy coming to stand beside him. She touched him on the arm. "Gavin, darling, please calm yourself—"
"I will not calm."
His last vestige of control snapped. He did not even know that he had shaken her off until she staggered backward, losing her balance. Before he could grab her, Morgan caught her first. Set her behind him in a protective gesture that made Gavin want to howl with rage.
"I set no fire that night," Morgan said.
"Don't lie to me. I came to and the place was in flames. Who set it, if not you?" Gavin snarled. "Who else had evidence to burn?"
Silence stretched. Frowning, Morgan said, "Anyone might have come into that room. Anyone who hated Grimes might have seen him lying there and decided to destroy the place." The compassion that came into Morgan's eyes made Gavin recoil. "I am sorry, Mr. Hunt, for everything you have suffered. More sorry than I could possibly say for the part that I played in it. But the fire—that was not me."
Chaos broke through the rage. Threatened to swallow Gavin alive.
"You stinking liar. Of course it was you," he spat. "And I will have my revenge. You ruined my life—and now I will ruin yours. Thanks to Fines, I have the majority shares in your company, Morgan, and I will tear down every brick and mortar of the empire you spent your life building."
Morgan's lips trembled, but he pressed them together. "And that will give you the satisfaction you seek?"
"Aye, and that is not all." He made a beckoning movement at Percy, who was staring at him with wide eyes. "Come here, Percy, and tell him what you've told me. That you love me. That you are going to marry me."
"Gavin." She whispered his name, but made no move to cross over to his side.
"Tell him."Don't you dare betray me. Not now.
"Was this all about... revenge?" she said, her voice hitching. "Our wager, would you have honored it, had I won?"
"You never would have won. I could have seduced you at any time. You love me." The words were coming out harshly, wrong, but he had no means of controlling them. Of controlling anything. Even fury began to abandon him, leaving fear and anarchy in its wake.
"Come here," he said again.
Morgan put a protective arm in front of Percy. "Go outside," he said to her quietly. "Let me finish this."
Percy stood, unmoving.
"If you step foot outside, do not ever come back." Gavin's heart palpitated with desperation, but he could not show weakness, not in front of the enemy.Not you, Percy. Don't you leave me, too.
She looked at him with bright eyes. "Did you ever love me, Gavin? See me as a person—as more than a pawn?"
From the corner of his eye, he saw Morgan's expression—the raised brow, the haughty disbelief.Show no weakness.
"You're mine. You belong to me," he said between clenched teeth.
In a voice that wobbled, she said, "Give up your revenge, then, and I will stay. I will marry you. We can be happy, I know we can."
"Percy," Morgan said sharply.
"Prove that you loveme," she said with sudden fierceness, "as much as I love you."
Even as the words beat in Gavin's weakest organ, chaos ruled the rest of him. You can't trust a woman, lad, and that's a fact. Stewart's voice… but Stewart was gone—No, focus.Was Percy trying to manipulate him, make him weak? He needed to clear his head. Needed to think through the storms of past and present. Yet another voice rang in his ears.You worthless guttersnipe. Who could love you? Who would choose to be saddled with a filthy git?
"I don't have to prove a bloody thing," he shouted.
