“I know,” he murmured back.
“How can I trust you after what you did?” Caldwell hissed, seemingly oblivious to the world of unspoken communication flooding between his two captives. “After the chaos you caused these past six months? For all I know, you’re working alongside Stalwood and he has a dozen men coming here to destroy us all.”
“He doesn’t know,” Oakford said.
Lucas set his jaw and his outrage was plain in every fiber of his being. “Sothisis why you showed up to my home today, told me these stories that Diana was in danger. Were you two in league, using her to get to me?”
Caldwell shifted. “You knew I had her?”
“I knew you’ve been looking for me,” her father said with a shake of his head. “You must know I have done the same for you. I realized you took her and why—I owed you a boon for you to think of granting me one. Your letter to bring Willowby to you was well timed, it convinced him of my truthfulness. We were always a good partnership, Caldwell, even if this time it wasn’t planned.”
“You convinced me to come with you alone,” Lucas breathed.
Her father nodded. “I thought a threat against Diana’s safety might cause you to be undisciplined.” He held Lucas’s stare for a long moment and then looked at Caldwell. “So he’s here. If you let Diana go, we can get rid of him together.”
Diana struggled in her chair anew. Her hands were almost free. “No, no, please. Don’t hurt him, Father. You love him—like a son, you used to tell me.”
“I love you more,” he said, glancing at her. “No matter what you think.”
“Then don’t take him from me.” She stopped struggling. “Please, please don’t take him away from me. I love him. I need him.”
Lucas froze at those words. His eyes came to her and she held them for what felt like forever before he whispered, “Diana, let him do this. Your life is worth far more to me than my own. Look at me.”
She turned her face and met his eyes. “Lucas…”
“I love you,” he said, and it was so beautiful and clear, so true. She believed it even though this was a moment of panic. “I promise you, this is for the best.”
“Well, this is all very romantic,” Caldwell snapped, dragging her back to the moment and the dangers within it. “But there is no letting Diana go and killing him as an escape. Stalwood already knows—he must, if Willowby suspected you.”
“Stalwood knows nothing,” Oakford said softly. “When he delivered the case file to my old home here in London, where Willowby was staying upon his return, I snuck into the house and stole the incriminating facts. If Willowby suspected, it was not with evidence to back up his claims. It will take Stalwood months to sort through this new mess. Enough time for you to complete whatever plans you have and go wherever you desire. All you have to do is let Diana go.”
Caldwell shifted, and it was clear his mind was reeling with all these possibilities. “No. I’m not letting her go. She’s close to Stalwood. She wept on his shoulder at your false grave. If she loves Willowby, she would tell.” He lifted his hand and pointed his gun at Lucas. “It would be better to kill this one now. Then if you return what you stole, you and I can negotiate about Diana. That’s the best way.”
He began to press the trigger, and Diana watched as Lucas braced for it. In that moment, her hands came free at last and she hurtled herself toward him, to block the bullet, to save his life.
The gun made an awful sound and Lucas watched in horror as Diana lunged from her chair, suddenly free of the bonds that had held her there, and threw herself in front of him.
Lucas cried out, and in that same instant, Oakford jumped in front of Caldwell. The bullet hit him instead of Lucas or Diana, and he staggered back as a circle of red spread across the shoulder of his white shirt. He dropped his gun as he fell, and it skittered toward Lucas.
He shoved Diana aside, swept it up and fired as Caldwell struggled to reload his pistol. His shot was true, hitting Caldwell between the eyes. He stood for a moment, a blank expression on his face, and then collapsed in a heap on the floor beside Oakford.
Diana screamed and Lucas turned toward her. He expected her to move to her injured father, but it was his arms she bounded into, her hands smoothing over him as she whispered endless, empty words about his health and his safety.
He pulled her close and kissed her, brief but powerful. Then he turned her toward her father. “He lied, Diana. He lied to protect you. Stalwood was coming all along, he knew it and so did I.”
She gasped and turned to her father, who was lying on the floor, pressing a hand into the hole in his shoulder as he watched them. He saw her expression soften, a bit of her faith in this man returned with the truth the two of them had hidden in order to save her life.
“He needs your help.”
She nodded and dropped to her knees beside him. He was already pressing a hand to his shoulder, and she tore a piece of fabric from his shirt to begin binding the wound as Lucas moved to ensure that Caldwell was indeed dead and unable to harm anyone further.
It was over. One traitor was dead. The other was now in the custody of the War Department, for Lucas had no intention of letting Oakford walk away when his actions had done so much damage.
Now there was just the fallout to handle, and the heartbreak that would flood Diana and put her in grief all over again.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Three Days Later
