Authors: Melissa Schroeder
“Bloody hell,” he screamed, falling back and releasing her
skirt.
Before the door closed, the carriage was taking off into the
gloom of a late London afternoon.
Nico and Malik were sitting in his library, enjoying a
brandy, when a commotion rose in the hall.
“We need someone dispatched to get Dr. Bingam right now,”
Cordelia said, her voice rather loud and echoing down the hall.
At the sound of his wife’s voice, Nico was on his feet and
hurrying out the door. Sheer terror raced through his blood before he finally
saw Cordelia standing in the hall. She was directing the footmen to bring in
one of the guards.
She must have spotted him out of the corner of her eye.
Without hesitation, she ran to him, and he wrapped his arms around her.
“What happened?” Nico looked around at the chaos surrounding
him. Obviously, something very bad had happened.
“We were attacked and John was shot. We need to bring him
into the library.”
He nodded and waved the men into his library.
He kept his arm around her waist, but he ushered her into
the room. John looked okay. He had a bit of blood on his sleeve, but being a
Born, he had a strong constitution.
“What are you doing sitting up? We need Dr. Bingam to look
at you,” Cordelia admonished John. She shook off Nico’s arm, and he did not
like that. In fact, he almost pulled her back against him, but realized that
would not go over well. She was standing over John, her hands on her hips.
John didn’t know what to do from the look on his face. He
wanted to tell her to leave him alone, but because she was the lady of the
house, and more importantly, Nico’s wife, he would never tell her that.
“Cordelia.” He waited until she looked at him. What he saw
broke his heart. Fear still darkened her eyes. “John is a vampire. He is not
going to die from a flesh wound.”
She glanced back down at John, and her face flushed. “I am
sorry, John.”
He shook his head. “Do not worry, my lady. It is nice to
have you concerned about me.”
She nodded but said nothing else. Nico could tell she was
barely holding on to her emotions. Her embarrassment was easy to see, but he
could also sense she was still recovering from the aftereffects of the attack.
John left, and for the first time, he noticed his mother was
being calmed by his father. Not much upset his mother, since she had nerves of
steel. For her to be so upset, it must have been bad.
“Tell me what happened.”
Stuart, the driver, stepped up. “Sorry for this, sir. We did
not even see the problem until it was upon us. They used a ruse to stop the
carriage. A false accident,” he said, his voice ripe with self-disgust. “I
should have seen it. The gunshot was an accident from what I can tell.”
“What were they after?” he asked.
Stuart looked at Cordelia.
He nodded. “Thank you, Stuart. You can go now.”
Stuart nodded and closed the door behind him.
Nico took a few moments to bring his rage under control. He
did not want his mother or Cordelia to think that he was mad at them. But, the
extra time did not seem to work.
“What the bloody hell is going on!”
His mother gave him a withering look. Cordelia’s eyes
widened, then narrowed.
“Do not take that tone with me, Nico. It isn’t our fault. It
was starting to get dark, yes, but it wasn’t that dark. And we escaped with no
damage.”
“Except for John.”
She frowned. “Of course. John.”
She looked toward the door.
“Don’t even think about going to check on him again. He’s
fine.” He glanced at his mother. “Borns or Mades?”
Cordelia answered. “These were not vampires.”
“How would you know?” Malik asked bluntly. Nico had
forgotten his friend was still there.
“Give me some credit. The one man we saw was not a vampire.
He was short, probably shorter than I am, and he was dirty.”
“We are not immune to shortness or filthy in our ranks,”
Malik countered. “In fact, Mades could come from any walk of life.”
“Of course. But his eyes were not green like yours. And he
did not have the strength. The man who grabbed my dress was not a man who could
have broken down a door,” she retorted, her eyes hot with anger.
Nico glanced at his friend and noticed his lips twitching.
“So, they were human. But why?” Nico asked.
“Could the bad Made have hired him?” Cordelia asked.
“Possibly, but I don’t think so. He would want someone who
is beholden to him for more than some gold pieces,” Malik said.
Before they could discuss it more, there was a knock at the
door.
“Come,” he said.
“Lady Diana is here to see her sister, and she is in quite a
state,” James said. Before Nico could respond, Cordelia’s sister rushed in to
the room.
“There you are,” she said and ran to Cordelia. For a moment,
Nico thought she might hug Cordelia, but at the last moment, she stopped. “You
are not harmed.”
Her voice was filled with relief.
“What are you talking about Diana?” Cordelia asked. “You
look like you ran all the way here.”
“Alex sent a footman with a note saying you had been
abducted.”
Silence filled the room. He shared a glance with Malik, then
he looked at his wife. It took only a moment for her to understand just what
had happened. At that moment, he wanted to wipe away the pain he saw shift over
her face before she hid it.
“You say you received a note from your brother? He is in
town?” Nico asked.
Diana nodded, not taking her gaze from Cordelia. “I did not
know until his footman showed up with the note. I am just happy that it was all
some kind of sick joke.”
He shared another glance with Malik. This had not been a
joke.
Nico turned to Cordelia. “Why don’t you, mother, and your
sister take some tea? Malik and I have some business to discuss with my
father.”
Both his mother and Cordelia gave him knowing looks. “Of
course,” his mother said finally, but her tone told him that she knew exactly
what was going on. Diana followed his mother, but he grabbed Cordelia and
pulled her to stand in front of him.
She was looking down at the ground. He slipped his finger
beneath her chin and raised her head to meet his gaze.
“Whatever your brother did does not reflect on you.”
She looked into his eyes, and he had the idea that she was
trying to read his thoughts. Then she nodded and followed his mother and her sister.
As soon as the door shut, Malik asked, “What do you know
about your bastard brother-in-law?”
“That he’s the only one who is the true son of the late
earl. And that he owes everyone in town,” Nico said. “Not to mention that he
left his sister to her own devices here in London.”
“If he knew she was here,” Malik commented. “I have a
feeling your wife did just about anything she wanted to.”
“I think we need to pay him a visit.”
“Do you know where he is staying?” his father asked.
“More than likely he is in the townhouse now.”
Malik nodded. “Let’s go take care of him.”
*
*
*
*
Cordelia was looking out the window when the tea tray
arrived. She knew it was too late to have afternoon tea, and they had already
had tea earlier, but Adelaide was of the belief that everything could be solved
with a good cup of tea. It had worked on her sister. Diana was the typical
British lady, stuffing her emotions down until it was like they did not exist.
When she burst into the house earlier, it was the first true
emotion Cordelia had seen her sister display since she’d been married.
“Do come and have a little bit to eat, Cordelia,” Adelaide
said.
She wanted to say no and keep pouting. How could you face
people who knew the worst about your family? Her brother had sent people to
abduct her. For money.
“Cordelia?”
She finally turned and did her mother-in-law’s bidding.
“I do not know what Alex was thinking. He never did have a
proper sense of humor,” Diana said.
A nervous laugh escaped before she could stop it. Diana
looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
“Sorry, but only you would think there is a proper sense of
humor.”
“What do you mean by that?” Diana asked. There was an edge
to her voice but Cordelia did not heed it.
“I mean that there is no proper sense of humor. There is no
guidebook that says what is right and what is wrong.”
Diana sniffed. Cordelia realized she might have hurt her
sister’s feelings.
“I am sorry, Diana. I did not mean to be cruel.”
Diana shook her head. “No you never do mean it.”
There was a beat of silence that stretched into awkwardness.
Cordelia sat forward and placed her hand on Diana’s knee. “I truly am sorry,
Diana.”
Diana looked down at Cordelia’s hand, and there was a moment
where Cordelia almost pulled it back. But Diana laid her hand over Cordelia’s.
That seemed to give Diana the courage to speak. “You do not
truly know how cruel he could be. I know he wasn’t that nice to you, but when
we were growing up…” she trailed off, shut her eyes, and shook her head.
“Go on.” Cordelia had never seen Diana so upset.
“Alex took delight in scaring me. And father egged him on.”
“Oh, Diana.”
She looked up at her. “Do not pity me. Do not. Mother did
chastise Alex, when father wasn’t around.”
Cordelia was truly not surprised by this information. “He is
not a nice person.”
Diana gave a watery chuckle. “That is an understatement.”
Cordelia squeezed Diana’s knee. “You do realize this was not
a joke?”
Diana’s eyes widened. “What are you saying?”
“Some men tried to abduct me earlier.”
“But, how did Alex know?” Then comprehension filled her
expression. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh.”
“We must do something.”
“What can we do?” Cordelia asked as she shrugged and pulled
her hand away from Diana’s.
“Do not worry. Nico and Malik will take care of it,”
Adelaide said.
She glanced at her mother-in-law. She had forgotten she was
there.
“What?”
Adelaide smiled. “Nico. He is over there to give your
brother the talking to he deserves.”
Alarm moved through her. “Adelaide, you mean Malik and Nico
went over to the townhouse? Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugged. “I thought you knew.”
“Knew?” Alarm ballooned into panic. “I did not know.”
She shot up out of the chair but did not get far. Diana
grabbed her by the arm.
“Cordelia, what on earth is going on?”
“If I am correct, my husband and his friend just went over
to our brother’s townhouse to kill him.”
“Oh, they won’t kill him.” Adelaide corrected. “But he won’t
ever try to get someone to abduct you again.”
She looked at Diana. “He will kill him if we don’t go over
there.”
Diana nodded and stood. “Although, there is a part of me
that thinks we need to just leave them to it.”
She stopped, and Diana ran into her back. She turned and
looked at Diana. “No matter what you think of my husband, he is not a killer.”
Diana looked confused. “You just said you were afraid he
would kill Alex.”
How could she make her sister understand? “Out of anger.
Otherwise, he would not think of it. Alex is a horrible person, but he is a
peer of the realm. No matter how powerful Gray is, Nico would be in trouble if
he were to kill our brother.”
Diana grabbed her by the hand. “Let’s go.”
*
*
*
*
No one answered the door when Nico knocked.
“He probably fired the staff,” Malik commented. His
attention was on the street behind them.
“More than likely. Cordelia kept the staff on somehow, but
Alex probably could not keep up the payments.”
“How did your wife pay them?”
Nico knocked again. “What? How did she pay them?”
Before Malik could answer, the door was pulled open. The man
who stood there bore no resemblance to his wife or his sister. His hair was the
color of mud, his eyes small and black, and he was short. At least a head
shorter than Nico himself. He was disheveled, as if he had just risen from bed,
but he was wearing evening clothes. Alex had been drinking for most of his
adult life and probably before then. He was bloated, his enormous stomach
hanging over his waistband.
“What do you want?”
He was not standing that close to Alex, but he could smell
the soured liquor on his breath. It was so strong, Nico had to fight the need
to step back.
He squinted at Nico, then looked over his shoulder at Malik.
When his gaze came back to meet Nico’s, Nico noticed how glazed Alex’s eyes
were. He doubted his brother-in-law had been sober much in the last twenty-four
hours.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Nico Blackburn.”
He did not introduce Malik. He saw no reason to. “May I come
in for a chat?”
Alex hesitated but finally relented. Nico followed him in,
waiting until Malik caught up with them after closing the door. In less than a
week, the house had become dirty. He must have gotten rid of the staff
immediately after he came to town.
He led them to the same breakfast area where he had met with
Cordelia. There was no fire in the hearth, no warmth.
“Keep control of your emotions,” Malik said just loud enough
for Nico to hear.
Nico looked at him. “Have I acted out of control?”
Malik shook his head. “I’ve known you long enough to know
you are just waiting.”
Waiting? Nico wondered what that was supposed to mean. “For
what?”