Reckless Desire (Saved By Desire 6)

Joe shrugged. “It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

She waited for him to expand. Her disappointment was rife when he didn’t.

“I trust you,” she murmured.

“Good.” It helped Joe enormously if she didn’t question everything he asked her to do.

“But you don’t trust me,” she whispered, needing him to say the words aloud.

“No.”

Marguerite was piqued at that. She trusted him implicitly after what had happened in the cemetery. She couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t do the same, especially when she had shot two of Sayers’ men in cold blood.

“Just tell me something, Marguerite,” he said quietly. “Why were you kissing the Count?”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Marguerite opened her mouth to reply but was prevented from doing so by their arrival at the safe house.

Joe closed the front door behind him with a loud bang and waited. It didn’t take long for Jacob to appear in the kitchen doorway.

“What’s up?” he asked as he stuffed the last of his bread into his mouth and sauntered into the hallway. When he noticed Marguerite, he slammed to a halt and looked at Joe with brows lifted.

“Sayers has Marcus,” Joe said coldly. “Has Ben turned up yet?”

“Ben?” Jacob went still. “No, why?” Once again, his gaze flew to Marguerite.

“This is Marguerite. She was at the Carmichael’s recital last night and saw Sayers as well.”

“You saw Sayers?” Jacob asked.

Joe nodded grimly. “So did Marguerite. Unfortunately, our man Sayers has taken quite a liking to her, and desperately wants her to go back to his lair.”

The untold story in his tone warned Jacob he wasn’t going to like the details. Jacob waved them into the kitchen, his curious gaze studying Marguerite closely as she passed. He didn’t press for more details. He knew Joe would tell them all everything in his own good time.

Marguerite followed Joe into the kitchen and stopped suddenly when she saw the men seated around the table. They all stood upon her entrance but their attention was focused on Joe.

“Marguerite, this is Brandon, Kerrigan, Reg, and this here is Jacob. Gentlemen, this is Marguerite.”

Joe waved her to a seat. Once she was sitting the men resumed their seats. A deathly silence fell over everyone while they waited to hear Joe’s news.

“We can eat while I tell them what’s happened,” Joe murmured to her.

Minutes later, he frowned when he handed her a drink and she took it with a hand that shook alarmingly. When he slid a plate of food toward her, he waited for her to start to eat before he helped himself to a plate of his own and took a seat opposite her. Joe then quietly explained everything that had happened, both at the recital, and the events leading up to their arrival in the safe house.

“Where are they now?” Jacob asked quietly. “Did Ben say where he was going?”

“To the surgeon, I hope,” Joe replied. “He said he was going to go to Sir Hugo as well, so he may have gone there first. I had hoped that one of you had seen him.”

They all murmured that they hadn’t.

“Well, Marcus has been taken by Sayers, but we don’t know where yet. There is also Eustace, Marguerite’s father. He is also missing. We don’t know where he has gone yet either.”

“Is Mainton’s body still in the house?” Reg asked.

Joe nodded.

“I will go and move it,” he said.