Roarke looked at the door. He needed to leave. He had to walk away. Nothing was worth this.
“At least hear me out,” Thomas insisted. “You might not hate what I will suggest so very much.”
“What would you have me do?” Roarke whispered.
Thomas smiled. “Seduce her.”
Roarke took a long step away as those two words hit him in the chest with the same power as a shotgun blast might have. “What?”
“Become her lover, thus helping her along so she will violate the terms of the second payout of the inheritance,” Thomas said. “It seems as though that wouldn’t be much of a chore if the way you look when you speak of her means anything.”
Roarke shook his head. The world was spinning. The idea of seducing Flora sent a dozen images through his mind, none of them unpleasant. But when he looked at the smug expression on his cousin’s face, that melted away. All he could see was rage. He stepped forward and grabbed for Thomas’s lapels. He yanked his cousin closer and shook him.
“Fuck you,” he hissed in Thomas’s face.
Gertrude gasped from the settee behind them and Philip lunged forward as if he would attack, but Thomas raised a hand to stop him, then he jerked free, smoothing his jacket. “Or you could get nothing further from us,” he snapped. “And starve like the pauper you’ll be.”
The world tilted. That suggestion would have consequences for more than just himself. But then again, he was tired, so tired, of groveling to these cruel animals who called themselves his family.
Perhaps this was the perfect time to walk away. To get out from under their thumbs, even if it meant more suffering for himself in the short term.
“I’ll get an occupation,” Roarke muttered, more to himself than to them. “I’ll find something I can do and pay my own way.”
He had no idea what that would be. He’d been raised with every advantage except competency. Men like him were told to shun employment, so he didn’t even know the first step. But he could make it. He didn’t know Theo or Callum well enough to beg them, but he could discreetly ask them to suggest him for a position. Perhaps even Grayson Danford would be open to using his talents, however small they might be.
“You’ll getnothingif I spoil the waters wherever you go,” Thomas promised with a slight smile. “Instead of giving that money to you, I’ll track your every movement with the resources that five thousand can pay for. I will create any rumor I can to ruin your prospects if you do not bend to me. Before I’m finished, I’ll make sure you can’t work at the docks gutting fish.”
Roarke stared at him, trying to find the boy he’d once known in the hard, spoiled man before him. “You hate me that much?”
“I hateherthat much. With every fiber of my being, I hate her,” Thomas said.
“Why?” Roarke breathed.
Thomas blinked, and there was a brief flash of pain over his face. Then it was gone. “She might have tricked my father into thinking she was worthy of our money and position, but I know better. Shenevershould have been allowed into our home, shared our name, replaced our mother. Never. You have a choice. I can use you to simply ensure she gets nothing further. It will hardly hurt her, will it? She has the original fifteen-thousand, I couldn’t take that if I tried. She won’t suffer for what she never had. Or, you can thwart me, lose everything—your mother can lose everything. And then I will choose to punish Flora, instead. Truly punish her.”
Roarke swallowed. “How?”
Thomas tilted his head and gave an ugly smile devoid of all warmth, laced with vicious intent. “If you won’t, Roarke, then I’ll hire someoneelseto seduce her. Bywhatevermeans necessary. So you will sit in your squalor alone, knowing your failed your family and wondering how exactly my minions will accomplish what I want.”
“Thomas!” Gertrude gasped, stepped forward.
He glared at her. “Stay out of it.”
Roarke swallowed back the bile that rose in this throat. He pictured some piece of shit going after Flora. Bothering her, tricking her, even hurting her in order to fulfill Thomas’s demands.
He was left at a crossroads. If he agreed to this, he was the worst kind of bastard. He would use her desire for him against her and take what was rightfully hers as the payment.
But if he refused his cousin, he endangered his motherandFlora. He would fail them both rather than protect either one of them.
“You best answer faster, cousin,” Philip said with a half-chuckle. “I can tell when my brother is serious and I already have some ideas in mind if you refuse.”
Roarke glared at him. “I know he’s serious.”
Thomas’s face was flat and emotionless. Like he felt nothing about this cruel suggestion. It was the same to him as demanding a servant do a better job at making a bed. The lives at stake, the destruction he would create…none of it mattered as long as he got what he wanted.
Roarke’s mind spun. If he accepted Thomas’s terms, at least he’d have time. Options.
“I want a thousand pounds up front,” he croaked.
