On a roar, Gavin thrashed, attempting to free himself. But the knots held tight.
Frantically, he sifted through his mind for memories of the night before.
After his interviews with Caro and Dom, Gavin had thrown himself into the one solace he’d always had before he’d been attacked—physical exertion. He had challenged one of the guards to a match and had found himself rusty but not as weak as he had supposed he would be. The moment fists were moving, that part of himself returned, even if the strength of his wounded arm had yet to be regained.
Even if it would never be regained, he was still Gavin Winter,curse it, and he was a damned fine fighter. Following the pitched battle with the guard, Demon, Blade, and Devil had found him. Indeed, all had been well until his brothers had swooped in and plied him with drink. He should have known the three of them were not to be trusted.
He recalled Blade pouring more arrack into his glass, and he recalled precious little after that.
Suddenly, the door to the drawing room opened, and an elegant blonde crossed the threshold with haste, closing the door at her back.
Understanding dawned.
He had been spirited away by his own bloody sister.
“Gen,” he growled, struggling furiously at the bonds holding him to the chair. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Protecting you, brother, just as you once protected me,” she said simply. “I won’t be responsible for you cocking up your toes. Bad enough it almost happened once.”
Damn her.He should have known. Gen was fearless, stubborn, and did whatever she pleased, including marrying a marquess and starting the first gaming hell of its kind, for ladies only. She was also protective to her marrow.
“I don’t need your protection, and you’re a fine lady now. Kidnapping gents in the East End ought to be the business of murderers and thieves.”
“In this instance, it’s the business of a sister who loves her brother and is determined to see that he does not do something incredibly foolish, like fight a beast of a man when you haven’t yet regained the strength in your wounded arm.”
Her voice was calm. As if she had not seen him tied to a chair.
He rocked on the chair, and the thing tipped from side to side. “Untie me and let me go, Gen.”
“No.”
“Damn it, Gen,” he growled, furiously tugging at his bonds and making the chair dance a frantic jig. “This is madness.”
But his sister remained unmoved. “If you keep carrying on, you’ll upend the chair and hurt yourself, Gav. I’d settle myself if I were you.”
“How long do you intend to keep me here?” he demanded, fearing he already knew the answer.
“Until you get some sense in your napper or until the appointed time for the fight passes, or until we can see Jeremiah Jones gets the punishment he deserves, whichever comes first.”
“I need to piss. This mad scheme of yours won’t work.”
That much was true. Had his sister never risen to the regret of a night ill-spent? Mouth that tasted as if he’d been licking an attic stair and an urgent desire to find a chamber pot. Sometimes for more than one reason.
His sister grimaced. He could tell she had not thought that far.
“I’ll not be helping you withthat,” she said, “but I suppose one of the footmen might.”
Good Christ.Gen was a Bedlamite.
“Bloody hell, Gen. You’ve brought me to your townhome? What the devil were you thinking?” he asked, for he knew quite well all the efforts she had undertaken to make herself more suitable in the eyes of society and her husband’s judgmental aristocratic family. Her father-in-law the duke would be livid should word of this become fodder for gossip.
She blinked. “I was thinking that my brother is being a complete arsehole, and he needs rescuing from himself. That’s what I was thinking. Jeremiah Jones tried to have you killed, and he almost had Demon murdered instead. Now you’ve gone about announcing you are back from the dead and ready to face Jones in your fight, undoing all the good work our family has done in keeping you a secret.”
His siblings all thought they knew better than he. Had it never occurred to any of them that he knew what he was doing? That he understood and accepted the risks he was taking? That they werenecessary?
“Your husband can’t know you’ve done this.”
“Max? Of course he does.” She smiled. “Abducting you was his idea, in fact. Well, his and Dom’s. The two of them happened upon the notion simultaneously, and it is the only way to keep you from doing anything else that is reckless or stupid.”
