Page 66 of Her Runaway Duke
“Very well. No time to wait for him,” Levi said, before swinging up on Lucky and taking off.
“Where are you going?” Thornbury called out, and Levi turned, his words flying over his shoulder.
“To London!”
London. The one place he had said he’d never return.
But for Siena, he would go anywhere.
CHAPTER 25
Siena was doing all within her power to stay calm.
She knew that Levi would find her and would rescue her. He had proven time and again he would go beyond any impossibility to protect her, which left her no doubt that he would find her. She just had to stay safe until he did. As safe as possible in this barren, dark, damp room, trapped alone with her captor.
“Why are you doing this?” Siena implored, the rope that bound her to a rickety wooden chair biting into her wrists when she twisted from side to side. “I thought that you were his friend.”
“So did he.”
“But why?—”
“He doesna deserve my friendship.”
“How can you say that?”
McGregor grimaced. “He took everything from me. He might not have realized it, but he ruined my life.”
“Everything? What do you mean?” Siena said, confused even in her panic. “He was your officer in the army. He told me that your family was gone, that you had no one to return to. He gave you a job, a home, a?—”
“He did. And I appreciated that, yes. But then, just when I found the one person who could mean something to me, could become my family, he took him away from me.”
“Who?”
“His brother.”
“What do you mean?” Siena asked, needing to know despite her predicament.
McGregor looked away, his face twisting uncomfortably. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
“You became Levi’s valet when he lived with his brother at the entailed estate, did you not?”
“I did.”
“Did the former duke mean something to you?” Siena asked, noting the grief that filled McGregor’s eyes when she mentioned Levi’s brother. “I can understand the loss of a friend, yes, but?—”
“He was more than a friend.”
“Oh.” She paused for a moment as the realization dawned on her, as shocking as it was. “I am sorry for your loss, McGregor, but it wasn’t Levi’s fault. He loved his brother. He tried to save him.”
“Then how did he walk away from the fire?” McGregor burst out. “It’s not right. It should have been Levi who died.”
The way he made his accusation tugged at something in Siena’s mind, and she narrowed her eyes at him through the dark, dusty air. “What do you mean that itshould have been Levi?” she questioned, peering up at him. “Did you have something to do with the fire?”
He shifted his gaze away from her, looking from one side to the other. “No.”
“You did,” she said, leaning forward in the chair as best she could, her entire body on edge. “How could you do such a thing?”
“He wasn’t supposed to be in there,” McGregor choked out, his back plastered against the wall behind him as he doubled over. “It was only supposed to be Lord Levi.”
