Page 118 of You Only Love Twice
"How could you work with the enemy?" he whispered, but the answer was clear.A woman scorned....
It was his own damned fault because he'd toyed with her heart without ever looking closely enough to see the damage he was doing. Their mésalliance had been borne of lust and practicalities; he'd allowed her to seduce him because he'd never, ever thought Isabella Rouchard had a heart. It had always been a mutually beneficial affair in his eyes.
What was the first rule he'd ever learned in this game of houses?
Love and dalliances were both far too dangerous for a man who couldn't afford to let a woman in. He'd had a rule once: One night only. So nobody should be harmed.
You blundered. Badly.
And then he'd accused the others of emotionally compromising themselves, when he'd been the one to walk blindly into such a swamp.
"I wanted to see you suffer," Isabella whispered, the kohl around her eyes leaking down her pale cheeks. "I wanted to make you hurt, the way I was hurting—"
"I never wanted to hurt you."
"Well, I do!" she snarled. "I want you to damn well know what it feels like to have your heart ripped out of your chest."
"Isabella," Gemma whispered, stepping closer. "You're not sounding at all like yourself. Put the gun down."
Isabella curled her fist, and pressed it to her temples. "Stop it! Stop talking to me. You're making it hurt."
Making it hurt.... Malloryn's blood ran cold. Gemma was right. None of this sounded like his old friend.
"The neural implant doesn't always work."Obsidian's voice in his mind."Sometimes, if it's implanted in the wrong part of the brain, you can see changes to its bearer’s personality. It puts a pressure point there that wasn't there before...."
He had a sudden blinding realization: All these years she'd been content to keep their arrangement practical, and yet she'd been so overwrought in the past few months in a way he couldn't understand.
He'd never, ever have thought to question her loyalty. She'd been with him from the start.
But what if herloyaltywasn't in doubt?
"Gemma." He caught her eye and tried to communicate his thoughts with her, tapping a finger to his temples.
Gemma's eyes widened, and then she turned back to the baroness.
"Put the pistol down, Isabella," he soothed, hearing the elevation chamber return, no doubt with Byrnes and Ingrid. His heart started pounding.Thank all the gods. They were nearly here. "You don't want to hurt yourself. I don't want you to be hurt. You can still walk away from all this." He took a step toward her. "I'll make sure you're treated well."
"And I'll make sure he keeps his word," Gemma whispered, just behind him. "Please, Isabella. Don't do this."
Isabella started laughing. "Oh, God. Listen to you. You're saying exactly what he told me you'd say."
"He?" Malloryn's hearing intensified, a prickle of tension running over the hairs on his arms.
Isabella stepped back out of reach, hate twisting her smile into something ugly. "The Master."
"You know who it is."
Everything stopped.
The world around him abruptly stood still.
Time.
Movement.
The only sound was the pulse of his heart. Balfour. It had to be Balfour.
But Isabella had hated the other lord. They'd spent years working together to bring him down. How could she betray him toBalfour?
