“I didn’t kill them, Gabriel.” He sounded remarkably calm all of a sudden, just like his brother. “I would have happily dispatched them all to erase the past. You didn’t think I knew. Didn’t think Isaw. Iknowwho saved me from them. I know more than you think. Father—”
“He had no right.” Fury laced every word.
“—didn’t have to say a word. I know more than he ever did. She approached me once, did you know?”
“Who?” Gabriel’s voice was deadly.
“Lady Dentry.”
Lady Dentry. L.D. Shivers ran through Marietta.L.D.’s husband returns tonight,and with him his personal servants and guard. L.D. said we need to reinstill the need for total silence into our little avenger.
His father had been the personal butler to Lord Dentry. She put her hand over her mouth as bile rose to hit the back of her tongue.
“I’ll kill her.”
“Of course. That will be perfect.” Jeremy’s sarcasm hardly reached her, as horrified and sick as she felt. The reality of the situation, ofGabrielbeing the man in the book, really hitting her.
“Out of all of them, she is the only one that remains.”
“She never touched me. We left a week later. You succeeded.” Jeremy sounded tired, bitter. “You remained the buffer, took all of the pain. Left me free.”
“It should never have occurred in the first place.” The butler’s voice was filled with self-loathing.
“It did. None of this matters now.” Gabriel cursed fluently. Creatively. A string of obscenities that lasted a good ten seconds. “And now, I have to. A nightmare come true.”
“Have to what?”
“Alcroft, I need you to arrange an invite to the Dentry estate.”
“What?”
“The bitch is the obvious next target.”
“And you are going to save her?”
Gabriel remained silent. She felt the shock of the entire room. She wished she could see Gabriel’s face.
“Gabriel, you can’t possibly—” Jeremy started.
“I’m coming with you,” Alcroft said.
“No. I need you to stay here. To delay the trial. Marietta’s brother”—her vision filmed over at his words—“needs another day. Possibly two. Jeremy, I need you to help Alcroft.”
“But—”
“I am accompanying you, Gabriel.” Marietta felt the stillness in the air at the butler’s pronouncement. “You don’t need Alcroft to do a thing to get you onto the estate. You only need me.”
“N—”
“And I will not accept your refusal. Once is quite enough in a parent’s life to leave a child at mercy.”
“I’m hardly a child. Besides, I’ve seen the bitch since, more than once.”
“Nevertheless, you are not traveling without me.”
Another long silence.
“As you wish.” Gabriel’s voice was subdued, neutral.
