Ecstasy (Notorious 4)

Without answering, Kell rose to his feet and turned toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Raven demanded.

“To find Sean.”

“I intend to go with you.”

“No, I don’t want you within a mile of him. I want you safe. I’ll have Belker see you home.” Kell’s grim gaze met hers. “I promise you, I will deal with my brother.”

Raven felt ravaged to the heart as she numbly climbed the front steps of Kell’s house. When the butler admitted her with a polite greeting, she merely nodded. She would have to inform him and the other servants about O’Malley’s death, but not now. She couldn’t bring herself to talk about it.

She went up to her bedchamber to grieve alone. A fire burned low in the grate, and she sank into a chair, staring blindly at the flickering flames. She felt bruised, hollow inside.

God, if only this were a terrible nightmare. She would awaken at any moment…

She felt tears slip down her cheeks as memories of O’Malley crowded into her mind. His strength and comfort had sustained her over the years, from the first moment her supposed father had repudiated her as a bastard. O’Malley had taught her about life, how to bear the pain and meet her fate with fortitude…

The ashes of her grief filled her throat and choked her.

Bowing her head, she wept again wordlessly, her sobs muted gasps in the dark.

She had no notion of the passage of time, but it was probably no more than a handful of minutes later when she heard soft laughter behind her.

Raven froze, ice forming in her veins.

“I told you I would make you pay.”

Her tears arrested, her heart pounding in her throat, she glanced over her shoulder. Sean stood at the dressing room door, a pistol trained on her chest.

“I wouldn’t scream if I were you,” he said mildly. “You wouldn’t want to force me to use this on your other servants.”

Her fingers dug into the arms of her chair. “What do you want?”

“Why, I mean to take you hostage, my dear. I have a carriage waiting on the next street.” He gestured with the pistol toward the door. “We will leave by the front entrance, if you please.”

She rose and turned to face her nemesis, casting him a glance full of scorn. “You expect me to meekly obey you?”

“Oh, I think you will. Otherwise I will kill anyone who interferes.”

“You won’t get away with this,” Raven declared with scathing bravado. “Kell will stop you.”

Sean’s smile chilled her very blood. “Perhaps. I truly hope he tries. You see, I mean to make my dear brother pay as well, for choosing you over me.”

Chapter Twenty

She had never been so cold in her life, Raven thought as she sat huddled in the chair where Sean had kept her tied for the past hour. After driving through the night in a jolting, swaying coach, they’d arrived at a country estate that Sean said belonged to him. Immediately he had dismissed the caretakers with a brusque command and installed Raven in an unheated bedchamber, without giving her even her cloak for warmth.

At least he hadn’t drugged her this time or rendered her unconscious, but her limbs were so numb, she could barely feel any sensation.

Sean had left her alone only once, to allow her to relieve herself, untying all but her hands and locking the door behind him. One look at the frozen landscape, however, made Raven reconsider attempting an escape, for snow was coming down in swirling gusts. Even if she somehow managed to elude Sean and flee the house, in these near-blizzard conditions she would likely freeze to death before she got half a mile.

And so she didn’t fight him when Sean returned to retie her to the chair. And she kept her counsel as he stood watch at the window, her emotions swinging wildly between blazing fury and despair. When he deigned to give her an occasional glance, she tried not to meet his eyes, fearing that showing her outrage would only earn her more pain.

He would not balk at hurting her further, she had no doubt. Since their arrival, Sean had sunk into an icy calm devoid of any emotion whatever. His passionless detachment frightened her more than any ranting could have done. His eyes seemed soulless, almost dead.

She gave a start when he finally broke the silence. “Kell should not be too much longer,” he murmured tonelessly, gazing out through the snow. “I left a trail even a blind man could follow.”

It was the first time in nearly an hour he had spoken to her.