Darling Beast (Maiden Lane 7)

Ross ignored him, his gaze worryingly focused on Lily. “Where is he? Where is Indio?”

And before Apollo could think of what to do, Lily opened her mouth.

Chapter Twenty

Then the monster rose, his massive shoulders bunched, his hands fisted, his bull’s head lowered, the two curved horns pointed menacingly at Theseus. The lad didn’t hesitate. With a warlike cry he ran at the monster, his sword raised. The monster did not move until the last moment, and then with a brutally swift toss of his head he impaled the youth upon his horns…

—From The Minotaur

“Are you insane?” Lily asked Ross pleasantly. “Do you really think I’d tell you where he is after you beat his mother, my dearest friend, to death?”

“Tell me or I’ll shoot you,” he replied, not very originally, but it still put a thrill of fear into Apollo’s heart.

“Lily,” Apollo said gently.

Lily crossed her arms. “Go ahead, then. I’ll not give my son up to a rat like you.”

“Don’t you mean my son?” he snapped back, stupid and irate.

Apollo lost what little patience he still had. “Damn it, Montgomery, aren’t you ever going to act?”

“Oh, fine,” the duke replied sulkily from behind him and shot Richard in the leg.

Richard fell to the ground, moaning.

Lily blinked. “What—?”

The duke glanced at his pistol and frowned. “Pulls a bit to the right. I was aiming for his groin.” He toed Ross’s pistols away from the writhing man and turned to Apollo. “I’ll have you know this entire business has been a loss to me—a dead loss.”

Lily blinked again and looked uncertainly at Apollo. “How—?”

Apollo pulled her into his arms. He was still quite shaken from having nearly lost her, and the warmth of her body was a balm. “Shh. There’s no point in trying to get him to make sense. Best to just let him ramble. I learned that on the carriage ride to London.”

“He was such a lovely pigeon,” Montgomery said mournfully, watching Richard writhe on the ground. “A secret marriage, a hidden heir. I could’ve milked him for years.”

“You were going to blackmail him for money?” Lily asked.

“Money?” The duke looked affronted. “Nothing so crass. Information, knowledge, leverage. That’s the sort of stuff I adore. But”—Montgomery sighed gustily, folding his arms with his pistol dangling from one hand—“my sentimental heart got the better of me. That, and I really do want this garden finished. Kilbourne is the most imaginative gardener I’ve ever encountered.”

Lily’s eyes widened and she turned to Apollo as if only just now realizing something. “You brought him with you to meet me?”

He shrugged. “It seemed like a good precaution. After all, I intended to flee with you from England and I wasn’t sure if you’d be followed here.”

“But I thought you didn’t trust him,” she complained.

“I don’t, mostly.” He grimaced. “But he did help me get away from my uncle’s house.”

“And I shot Ross just now, too,” the duke said brightly. “Shall I shoot Greaves as well? No doubt he deserves it and I’ve another pistol in my pocket.”

At which point Edwin Stump burst from the shrubbery, followed closely by the Duke of Wakefield and Captain Trevillion. All three were holding pistols and breathing rather hard.

Apollo blinked.

“Are we late?” Edwin asked, panting.

“Yes,” Lily replied from Apollo’s arms. She sounded rather querulous.

“Good Lord, His Grace the Ass hiding in the bushes,” Apollo muttered. “Whatever are you doing here?”