She straightened her shoulders and forced herself to breathe as she raised her tied hands. “It wasn’t my choice. This one intercepted your note. Turns out he’s just as much as an arse as you are.”
Her cousin’s eyes narrowed and he looked at Finn. “Why would you do that? I thought you were fucking my pretty little cousin. Protecting her.”
“Of course to the first but the second? Hardly,” Finn snorted.
It was what they’d planned, but that word still stung. Rejection, sharp and harsh that she pushed away.
“I don’t know if I believe you. After all, you’ve been having her come and go from your house and then took her in. Is it possible she appealed to your desire to want to save the world, Delacourt?"
Finn shrugged. “It behooves a man to look like he gives a damn about his lessers. I think you would have learned that lesson fairly quickly as marquess. I was shocked when I found Charlotte in dire straits. I used it to my benefit to bed her. But, as you said, she’s little more than a common whore, isn’t she?”
Jane had been watching the exchange from her position on the chair and her eyes narrowed. She struggled a little against the ropes until they dug into her flesh. Esme wanted to tell her to stop, to relax, but didn’t want to reveal the ruse.
“A common whore you couldn’t wait to fuck,” she muttered, as if she were annoyed. “Goddamn it,Francis.” She drew out his name the way she knew he’d hated as a child. “It’s boiling in here. Open a window.”
Francis let out a growl, but he pivoted and opened the window. Esme let out a little sigh of relief. Somewhere out there,Willowby waited and this was the first step in having his full protection.
“And so you dragged Charlotte here as what? Your prisoner? She didn’t want to come to save her friend?”
Finn let out an ugly laugh. “No. You think you have leverage with the pretty blonde one? What’s her name again? Joan?”
“Jane,” Esme said with a shrug. “Why should I care? We share rent, not anything else. One whore is the same as another.”
Now she saw Jane’s shoulders relax. Her friend understood now, thank goodness, because Jane knew that Esme would never in the world say those things about her. That she did truly care. The ruse was recognized, perhaps she’d even try to play along.
“So you brought her here…” Francis said, his tone laced with confusion.
“As a gift, my lord,” Finn said. “When I intercepted the note for her, I realized you might believe I was playing a game with you. You’ve offered me an opportunity that I want to take, I don’t want to miss out on it for a bit of arse. If you want her, you can have her. And let’s discuss my investing in your operation.”
Francis kept the gun up, but he swung it more fully on Esme now. Terrifying and relieving all at once. This was working. “You wish to invest?”
“Yes. Not the banks. That’s too pedestrian. But I think you and I would match very well for the smuggling. My estate in Delacourt is along the sea, you know. The perfect place for boats to come ashore and items of value to be picked up for distribution.”
Her cousin’s eyes narrowed. “You just decided this? And it happened to coincide with my note demanding my cousin come here alone?”
“I’ve been thinking about it since our last meeting. I intended to come to you tomorrow, now that my sister’s wedding iscompleted. And then your note arrived and I realized I may have miscalculated by taking Charlotte off the street and enjoying a once-lady ride my cock.”
“Pig,” Esme spat, aiming it truly toward her cousin rather than Finn.
Francis nodded slowly. “I see. Well, if you truly don’t care about her or what happens, I suppose you won’t mind if I kill her.”
Jane began to rock against her bonds again and Esme tensed as terror struck through her like lightning in a summer storm. To Finn’s great credit, though, he didn’t even bat an eye. “I don’t care if you kill her. I’ve finished with her. Seems she might be a thorn in our side, I assume that’s why you wanted her here.”
“She always suspected me of killing her father,” Francis said with a smile for her.
There was the slightest flutter to Finn’s fingers, but that was the only way one could see that he was upset by that statement. “And did you? I’d be impressed if you managed it without getting the guard on your tail.”
Francis explored his face slowly, looking for any tell, she supposed. Finn showed none. “I thought you loved my uncle. Like your own father, thought him a man above all other men.”
“I did,” Finn said. “But I can care for him and also understand that his pedantic ways and desire to always do what was right might have gotten in the way of business. He was old, he’d lived a good life. If you took care of him as a problem, I can only respect that. It was harder when I took care of my own father.”
Esme pivoted on him. They hadn’t discussed him lying about the death of his father, something that she knew pained him after their difficult relationship. But he did it calmly and coolly and without showing an ounce of his emotion on his handsome face.
“Really,” Francis mused, and then he nodded. “Well, then you know what it’s like to always be waiting. To know you have to claim your place. To claim your future at any cost. I doubt she can prove what I did though, no matter how much she knows it to be true, but I couldn’t have her coming back into good Society, could I? When I realized she was the one in your bed, I had to snuff that out. Plus, I’ve always wished I’d taken care of her the same time I took care of my uncle. It would have been cleaner.”
Esme didn’t think, she didn’t plan, she just let out a primal scream that came from every pain she’d ever felt, every loss that had burned her soul, every horrible moment of sacrifice and surrender she’d been forced to participate in since she ran from this house in terror. She broke her loose bond easily and launched on Francis, swung out her foot and wrapped it around his ankle. As he staggered, she pressed both hands into his chest and shoved.
He was falling when the gun went off. She hardly felt the pain as the bullet hit her across the top of her shoulder, cutting open the skin as it skidded by. She landed on top of him and began to rain down punches, as hard as she could. He was bigger than she was, but she’d had too much practice. She locked her legs around his sides so he couldn’t buck her, and hit until he whimpered and squealed, until she felt hands grasping her and pulling her back, her legs wheeling out for kicks until she was out of range.
