Page 5 of The Mech Who Loved Me
It flavored every encounter she had with the Nighthawks. They all knew. They'd all been there, and seen her slow recovery. Physically she'd been fine, but emotionally.... That was a differentstory.
It was one of the reasons she'd accepted the Duke of Malloryn's offer to become the Company of Rogues’ crime scene investigator. She'd desperately needed to get out of the Nighthawks guild, even for a littlewhile.
Ava's shoulder wilted under his touch. Garrett was like an older brother; the one she'd never had. But sometimes his presence seemedstifling.
"And whatyou'resuggesting," Perry added quietly, "is Ava never gets a chance to spread her wings. Sometimes concern can seem like a cage, Garrett. I've been there. It's a horrible thing to feel lonely, even when you have a dozen people watching over you.Especiallythen."
Garrett opened his mouth to say something, and then shut it. "A wise man realizes when the odds areagainsthim."
"I haven't said I'm going to do such a thing." Ava hurried to fill the sudden awkwardness. "I'm just... contemplating options. At this moment I cannot see marriage in my future, and as Perry says, it's a lonelyfeeling."
"Fine," he growled. "It's your choice, Ava. It always is. Just be careful. I should hate to have to murder someone because they broke your heart. It's not very becoming for the master of London's law enforcement to have blood all over hishands."
"I'll be fine." A sudden kerfuffle drew her attention inside, to the appearance of a liveried footman wearing dark red and silver. Whose House colors were those? She wasn't familiar with the aristocratic Echelon who'd once ruled the city, beyond a peripheralawareness.
But Perry stiffened. As the Earl of Langford's daughter, she had been raised within the Echelon and trained to recognize such things. "Sir Gideon Scott's footman, by the look of it. But why would he be interrupting the wedding of two people he barelyknows?"
Sir Gideon was an official representative of the Council of Dukes who ruled the city, and it was rumored he had the queen's ear. Apowerfulman.
"Here," Garrett called, gesturing the fellow through the glass doors onto the patio. "You look lost. Canwehelp?"
The footman seemed breathless. "Is the dukeinside?"
"More specifics, man," Garrett said. "At last count we had twoofthem."
Lynch, the Duke ofBleight,and—
"Malloryn," the footmanreplied.
The Duke of Malloryn was the head of the Company of Rogues, the group of spies and assassins Ava had been asked to join. "I'll fetch him. Why not sit and rest? You look like you've beenrunning."
"It's ratherurgent."
Perry and Garrett exchanged a look. "We'll keep the bridal party distracted," Perry said, slipping her hand over the crook of her husband'selbow.
"And I'll find the duke," Ava promised, though she had no intention of leaving itatthat.
With thoughts of Perry's mad scheme plaguing her, she didn't plan on remaining for the rest of the wedding breakfast. Especially not with Kincaid intheroom.
How on earth was she going to ever look him in the eyeagain?
Two
THE DUKE RETURNEDwith a placating smile for theparty.
Kincaid watched Malloryn swim through the crowd, murmuring platitudes. Malloryn reminded him of a shark. All white teeth, smooth glide, and hunting eyes. And something was up. With the way Ava had suddenly reappeared and commandeered Malloryn's attention, he knew it had something to do with the work Kincaid undertook for the Company ofRogues.
It was about bloody time somethinghappened.
The Sons of Gilead, a terrorist group they'd been hunting six weeks ago, had vanished off the face of the earth, and there'd been not a single sighting of thedhampirwho'd been working with them either. The Company of Rogues had become restless, none more so thanKincaid.
He'd worked damned hard during the revolution to overthrow the corrupt prince consort and his bloodthirsty pack of blue blood aristocrats. The last thing he intended was seeing the blue bloods that had lost their rank at the top of the food chain everregainit.
Speaking of blue bloods, the Duke of Malloryn crooked a finger at him. "Meet me in the study in fiveminutes."
Then hemovedon.
Kincaid glanced around the room, handing his empty glass of champagne to a passing footman. Finally. Some action. He slipped away from the room, leaving Byrnes and Ingrid behind with the guests in the parlor of Malloryn's ducalmanor.
