His dark eyes flashed, the only indication that he was disturbed. “Because he was the one who took her from me in the beginning.”
“Now you want to do the same to him?”
He shrugged. “It seems fair.”
“Does it?” Fleur countered. He tilted his head to the side, as if curious to her reasoning. She took a deep breath and continued, “Two wrongs seldom make something right. You can’t change the past, but you have the ability to redirect the future. Instead of being at odds over something that happened years ago, help me find my brother.”
His gaze shuttered. “What of Porter?”
“Something tells me he won’t be gone for long.”
Avalon snorted. “You may be right about that.” He looked at her hard and her heart pounded in her chest while she waited for him to speak.
“Bring Reynolds to me.” He tossed the command over his shoulder.
One of the men stepped forward and whispered something in Avalon’s ear. Fleur watched as his expression turned dark. “I see.” There was something quite menacing in those two words. To her, he murmured, “Miss Davies, I am feeling charitable at the moment, and you can thank your courage for that. You have a wisdom beyond your years.” He turned and addressed another gentleman standing nearby. “See that Miss Davies is returned to Chelsea unharmed.” The man inclined his head.
Before they left, she asked, “What of Amos? What have you done with him?”
Avalon peered at her, some of his earlier demeanor returning. “I prefer to keep him in my company for now.”
She wanted to argue for his release but she decided that she was being allowed to walk out the door so she shouldn’t press her luck until she had the proper reinforcements. “I’ll return for him. And my brother as well.”
To her surprise, instead of seeming irate, the lines around Avalon’s eyes crinkled with a modicum of respect. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.” He straightened and then offered her a bow that would make anyone in the nobility proud. “Until we meet again, Miss Davies.”
Fleur could feel his dark eyes boring into her as she headed for the door. Although Fleur was anxious about traveling alone with one of the Blue Boys seated across from her, she realized that she was no longer afraid of Avalon nor the men who chose to follow under his leadership. She had never really felt threatened by him, that was all from Drake, but now she understood why there was such tension between them.
To say that she needed to have a long talk with Drake was an understatement. They had much to discuss, including the supposed deal he’d made with Harriette, but that would all be later, after she had discovered what had happened to her brother. She wished she’d paid a call on the courtesan as soon as she’d heard about that dreadful card game. She should have known that something terrible would befall him. They were the same age but Flavian was still very naïve in many ways.
As the hired hackney stopped in front of Drake’s residence, she stepped to the ground. The moment she did so, the door flew open and Drake came rushing down the front steps. “Where the devil have you—” He stopped when he saw the man in the carriage before it headed back down the street. His dark expression pinned her in place. “You went to see Avalon.”
It wasn’t a question so much as an accusation. “I did, because you hadn’t returned and I had grown concerned. Amos accompanied me but he is currently being held under Avalon’s protection.” She turned on him in the midst of the early morning street. “What I want to know is what happened toyou?”
He offered her a stern expression. “Why don’t we discuss this inside?”
She headed up the steps and entered the main foyer to see Amos’s son, Devon, standing there. “Oh, dear.”
“Indeed,” Drake intoned. Addressing Devon, he said, “Make yourself comfortable in the parlor. I need to speak with Fleur in private.”
* * *
Leadingthe way down the hall to his study, Drake attempted to steady the pounding of his heart. It was all he could do not to drag Fleur into his arms and kiss her senseless. When he’d arrived home and found her gone, he’d immediately felt sick to his stomach. He had been about to head back out and tear London apart when he’d overheard the arrival of the carriage. Relief had immediately flooded through him. He’d lost so much already he wasn’t sure he could stand to lose her too. He yearned to show her how much she meant to him, but at the moment he required answers in order to solve this mystery.
However, the moment he shut the door behind them, he found that the scent of her feminine allure was too much to ignore. Pulling her to him, he set his hands on her face and pressed his mouth to hers. Initially, there was a stiff set to her shoulders, but it relaxed as he continued the onslaught. She gave a breathless moan that shot straight to his groin. He wanted to lay her down and lose himself in her wet heat but he reminded himself that there was still the problem of her missing brother.
“As much as I would like to see this moment until its glorious completion, we have things to do.”
She blinked when he pulled away, as if just now remembering the same. “Avalon told me about Elina. I daresay his version of events differs remarkably from yours.”
He stilled. He could tell she hadn’t meant to speak so boldly but now that they were floating in the air between them, he knew he had to clear the air or that mutinous look on her face might never subside. “He never knew when to keep his mouth shut.”
“Is it true? Was he her lover first?”
He shoved a hand through his hair and although he wanted a brandy to ease his mind for this conversation, he refrained, knowing that he needed a clear head more than anything else. “Yes.” When she had a horrified look on her face, he added, “You know I wasn’t a gentleman. But she told me she was finished with him.”
“Apparently, he didn’t know the same.” She looked as if she might be ill. She put a hand to her stomach and he realized he’d never wanted to alter the past so much as he did in that moment. But he couldn’t go back and change anything. It was done. The best he could do was try to repair the present to have any sort of hope for a future.
With Fleur.
