Page 84 of The Duke and Lady Scandal
The envelope was flat, but the glee in Haverstock’s eyes told him whatever was inside was as toxic as an adder’s bite.
Ben reached inside and slid out two photographs, and bile rushed into his throat. He swallowed it back, fighting the scarlet at the edge of his vision. He willed his hand to hold the photographs steady.
They were grainy, one a bit blurred, but he remembered the moment they were taken.
He remembered every moment he’d spent with Alexandra.
One was of them standing on the pavement together in front of Princes. The day after they’d met. He hadn’t even kissed her yet, but he had alreadywanted to. The next was of them on his doorstep, in those early morning hours after a night of bliss in her arms.
He resisted lifting his gaze to Haverstock’s, not because he felt an ounce of the guilt or shame the old bastard clearly wished to stoke. But because he was an adversary now, and the worst part was that he likely always had been, and Ben had been too ignorant to see it.
“I cannot keep you on this case, Drake.” Haverstock swung his hand toward the images in Ben’s hand. “You’ve been compromised.”
“No.” Officially, Haverstock’s decisions trumped Ben’s, but he would pursue this case unofficially if he had to.
“Unless you’ve ended matters with Miss Prince, you are compromised and in a position of authority on a case in which you have a personal interest.”
Ben bit down so hard, the coppery taste of his own blood filled his mouth.
“Have you put the lady aside or not?”
“I have.” Haverstock had no right to any detail regarding his relationship with Alexandra, but Ben would tell the wily old bastard what he wished to hear.
“And yet you spent hours at her shop yesterday rather than attending to your duties here.”
“There was a break-in—”
“And Detective Constable Baker was on hand to see to that.”
“As I said...” Ben did finally lift his gaze andlooked at the chief directly. If he had any currency to use with the man, if there was a shred of allegiance left between them, he meant to leverage every speck of it. “The cases are connected, and I won’t be removed.”
Haverstock rocked back on his heels, almost looking amused by Ben’s vehemence. Usually, that preceded a moment when he intended to revel in his own power.
“You may continue on the case if—” Haverstock lifted a finger and somehow stretched an inch taller. “Ifyou set aside Miss Prince and give your entire focus to it.”
Set aside Miss Prince.It’s what his own logic had dictated as soon as he saw that scrap of paper with the letterMon it in her safe. M intended to strike fear in him, and judging by the photographs, he wanted him off the case.
But logic was no longer his lodestar.
Somehow, Alexandra had excavated his heart, and his love for her had made it louder than whatever logic he’d leaned on before.
He no longer had any illusions about Haverstock, and so the man deserved no access to his innermost thoughts. He would play by his rules. For now.
“It’s already done.”
“It had better be. If you fail and those photographs are exposed, what shall I say to the superintendent?”
“I won’t fail.” He couldn’t. Not because of any bloody promotion, but because of Alexandra. Mhad dared to bring harm to her shop, and if Ben thought too long about other ways the madman could harm her, he wouldn’t be able to concentrate long enough to do his job.
“See that you don’t.”
Chapter Eighteen
By the afternoon of her first day of confinement at home, Allie had started a book and put it down, finished off a knitting project, and, with Lottie’s help, rearranged much of her wardrobe for no reason other than to keep herself distracted.
But once she sat down to take a cup of tea at midday, all she could think about was Ben.
When he’d deposited her at her doorstep the previous night, there’d been a wildness in his eyes that had nothing to do with desire for her. Indeed, he seemed eager to part from her for the first time since they’d met.
