Page 70 of You Only Love Twice
"Well, he wasn't. If you think for one second he didn't intend to kill you that night, then you've lost all your wits. Because I was there too, Gemma. I remember everything too. How can you forgive that?"
"Because the only other time I've ever seen a man look that blank when he pulled a trigger is when Jonathan Carlyle murdered Lord Randall," she whispered.
Malloryn drew up shortly.
All this time, she'd summoned the look on Dmitri's face when he shot her, forcing herself to accept the fact she'd been played. The Dmitri she'd known, who laughed at her jokes and deliberately sabotaged her efforts to seduce her mark, had been nowhere in that moment. She'd always told herself it was because the Dmitri she'd known had never existed.
A role. An act. An enemy spy toying with her emotions.
But what if there was another explanation?
"I know you think my mind choked with emotion, but Obsidian kept me locked away in the Duke of Vickers's abandoned manor for days. I've done nothing but bloody well think, and there is something about what happened that night in Saint Petersburg I am missing. And I couldn't help but start thinking about Carlyle." She dragged her hand through her ruined coiffure. "You've always told me to trust my instincts. And they are screaming at me right now that there is something wrong with the facts in front of me. Carlyle broke down in tears when he realized he'd murdered Lord Randall. His story neverchanged, Malloryn, because there was nothingtochange. It was exactly as he believed it. He couldn'trememberwhat happened. He didn't want to kill Randall. And when Obsidian shot me on that bridge in Saint Petersburg, he might as well have been an automaton. There was nothing inside him. Just a blank canvas. A weapon. And he barely remembers it. When he took me this time, Obsidian didn't want to kill me. He refused to hurt me." She took a deep breath. "And when a pair of his fellowdhampirfound us, he fled with me. Malloryn, after all he's done to me, I know it's hard to believe, but Obsidian was trying to protect me."
The duke's face remained expressionless.
"Remember that time I was attacked in the museum?" she pleaded, desperately needing someone else to understand, as if it would give credence to her theory. "Someone rescued me. Someone killed thedhampirwho tried to hurt me. My CV levels went through the roof, and Ava said there was something wrong with my blood. I shouldn't have healed as swiftly as I did, and yet, it was a miracle. Or... more to the point, somedhampirused his evolved blood to heal me. It's the only rational explanation. It was him. I know it was him. He's been following me for weeks now, like some cursed guardian angel, protecting me from his brethren's attempts to assassinate me."
The duke turned away from her, scraping a hand over his mouth. "Did you learn anything?" he growled out. "Please tell me you at least discovered who's pulling the strings behind the scenes."
She swallowed hard, nursing the brandy. "I.... He didn't trust me enough."
A sound of pure frustration vibrated through his throat as he turned away from her.
"If you let me try and reach him again, perhaps I can—"
"For fuck's sake.Fuck." Turning suddenly, Malloryn threw his empty glass at the wall. It shattered with a loud crash. "Stop thinking he's not a threat to you."
He might as well have slapped her.
To see Malloryn undone by emotion was shocking.
Gemma dragged Ingrid's coat tightly around her shoulders, feeling small and cold.You failed. Again.
She'd promised herself she'd never feel this way after those dark days following Russia.
Promised herself no man would ever bring her this low.
"But I—"
"No." Malloryn released a sharp breath, forcibly putting himself back together right in front of her eyes. "No. You're off duty."
"What?Why?"
"I don't know, Gemma." Malloryn's lips pressed tightly together. "Can I trust you?"
She gaped.
"Oh, not your loyalty. Never that." He turned his piercing gaze upon her. "But can I trust you not to let emotion rule you? We both know you cannot confront him and keep your wits about you. If it comes down to a choice between the right thing to do and protecting him, I know which option you will choose."
There was a hollow feeling deep within her.
Malloryn had taken her from the darkness as a child. He'd taught her there was more to life than survival and death. She'd never known a family, but he'd been the one person she'd always looked up to—indeed, she'd spent the last ten years of her life trying to please him. To disappoint him like this felt like carving her own heart out of her chest with a spoon.
He didn't believe her.
No. Worse. He didn't believeinher.
"You're off the Chameleon case," he repeated quietly.
