Sutton's Seduction (The Sinful Suttons 4)

CHAPTER2

“You bought Haldringham’s daughter.”

Hart winced, both at the tone of his brother Wolf’s voice and the statement. “It ain’t as bad as it sounds.”

Wolf grimaced. “I don’t see how it can’t be. What the bleeding hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking about Loge, damn it,” he returned, pacing the length of the office at The Sinner’s Palace. “I was thinking about our brother and finding him.”

Logan had been missing for over a year. While their eldest sibling and leader of the family, Jasper, believed Loge had met a deadly end, some of the seven remaining Suttons, Hart included, suspected otherwise. Until recently, none of them had possessed proof. But that had all changed when Archer Tierney had led him to the earl.

Answers. That was what they needed. And their brother, if he was still alive. Hart hoped to God that Loge was.

“You know what Jasper said,” Wolf countered, his voice low and bitter, with an edge of emotion that was unlike him. “Loge is gone to Rothisbones. Taken by one of the badgers, pinked, and dumped into the Thames.”

Ordinarily, Wolf was as immovable as a goddamned brick wall. Unless it came to Loge. Thick as two inkle weavers, those two had been. Until Loge had vanished. Hart understood all too well the pain of not knowing what had happened to their brother. But for Wolf, the scars ran far deeper. Wolf had been the last of any of them to see Logan alive the night he’d left their family’s gaming hell on an unknown errand and had never returned.

“Damn it, I ain’t ready to believe that,” Hart spat, furious and frustrated with himself, the situation, the unknowns, Lady Emma Morgan…everyone. “After what I learned from Tierney, I’m more convinced than ever that Loge is alive. Even Rafe swears he saw him.”

Wolf’s jaw clenched, yet another sign this was a discussion he did not want to have. “And what is it that Tierney told you?”

“I can’t tell you, Wolf,” he admitted reluctantly. “But you know me well enough to know I would not go after a bleeding nob without it being necessary.”

“We earn our bread on nobs trusting us,” Wolf reminded him, sounding very much like their eldest brother Jasper in that moment. “We can’t afford to give any of them cause for doubting us. All we have is our reputation.”

“And our reputation is a damned good one.”

They were one of the most preeminent gaming establishments in the East End, and they were set to open a second venture, in a far more genteel address in the West End momentarily. Their kingdom was growing. So, too, their influence and wealth.

“For now,” Wolf said tersely. “Send the girl back to her father where she belongs. Tell Haldringham he owes us for your silence. He’ll still have your coin lining his purse, and he’ll have his daughter back in his flock. No harm done.”

“I won’t do that,” he denied, wishing he could reveal everything to his brother. But this was a dangerous business, and if what he suspected had happened to Logan proved true, this secret was not just priceless, but dangerous as well. One of them was already missing, and he would protect the rest of his family with his dying breath. “I understand your concern, but believe me when I say this must be done. There’s not any other way, Wolf.”

“What does Jasper think of it?” his brother demanded.

“I haven’t told him yet,” he admitted.

“Christ, Hart.” Wolf raked a hand through his dark hair, looking every bit as wild as the beast that was his namesake. “He’s going to crash you when he finds out you’ve bought an earl’s daughter’s run goods.”

“Jasper won’t kill me,” Hart said, sounding far more reassured than he felt. Well, murder was unlikely. A sound drubbing, however, would not be unlike their formidable older brother. “And I didn’t buy her maidenhead.” Fair enough, per the terms of the auction at The Garden of Flora, he had bought Lady Emma’s virginity. But he had settled a tidy fortune on her for a different reason, one that eclipsed the pleasure of being the first to sink his cock between her creamy thighs. “I bought the power ruining her will give me.”

Ruining her and bedding her were two different things.

Alas.

But any regrets he felt regarding not taking Lady Emma Morgan for his own were solely caused by his own lustful nature. She was beautiful. A cove would have to be dead not to want her. And Hart? Well, he was decidedly not dead.

Yet.

“I don’t understand this plan of yours,” Wolf was saying, dragging him from the depths of his wicked thoughts.

“You don’t have to understand it,” he countered. “All you have to do is help me to make sure she stays where she is until the time comes.”

“In your rooms.” Wolf raised a brow, his expression knowing.

“Yes,” he bit out. “Where else am I to leave the bloody wench? I need to make certain she’s safe.”

Until she wasn’t.

Because if anyone was going to throw this particular pretty little lamb to the wolves, it was going to be him.

All in the name of Loge.

“I don’t like it,” his brother said curtly.

Hart held Wolf’s gaze, unwavering and determined. “Trust me, brother. I know what I’m doing.”

At least, he thought he did.