Page 16 of His Wicked Secret
“It will. We have our true mission to see to first. But hurting my enemies here at home in the process will be a delightful bonus.”
“And what of Avery Russell? I thought he showed promise?”
“It is a pity,” Hugo admitted. “He is a skilled asset. But he is Lucien’s brother, and it would only be a matter of time before he learned too much. Removing him was always inevitable.”
Daniel, if he’d been younger, would have shuddered at the cold look in Hugo’s eyes. “It’s not that I don’t admire the plan, but why not go at the League directly this time?” Daniel held his breath, afraid Waverly would be furious, but it had to be asked. If the League of Rogues were the threat Waverly believed them to be, he would not have waited as long to strike. He would have done it years ago.
“Their weaknesses grow each day. The more they marry and beget brats, the more they have to lose. It is not enough to simply remove them. I want tohurtthem, piece by piece, until they all kneel at my feet, broken and battered. Only then will I take revenge. For Peter, and for myself.” The last had been whispered so quietly that Daniel might have imagined it.
When the carriage stopped outside Daniel’s residence, he nodded at his superior before stepping out into the street. He waited for the coach to turn the corner before he walked up the steps and entered his apartment.
His butler was waiting. “Sir, you have a visitor. She’s in the drawing room.”
Daniel’s demeanor changed, and his heart lifted. He let go of the dark, secretive part of himself that he had to be when he was with Hugo. Only one woman ever came to visit him.
He shrugged out of his coat and hat and handed them to a servant. Then he headed down the hall and entered the drawing room. The room was lit by firelight and candles, accenting the sparse furnishings, but the woman by the fire had never minded his meager bachelor residence. Her blonde hair was pulled up in an elegant coiffure, and the dark blue satin gown she wore hinted at the body he knew he would soon be taking to bed.
“Melanie,” he whispered, and she slowly turned to face him. Lord, she was beautiful. And for tonight, at any rate, she was his.
“You are late, Daniel. We agreed to meet at midnight.” She opened her arms to him, and he embraced her.
“Work, my darling. I was unavoidably delayed.”
“We don’t have many opportunities like this,” Melanie said. “Not without making Hugo suspicious.”
Daniel shut out the thoughts of Waverly. Melanie may have been Hugo’s wife, but she had stopped sharing his bed more than two years ago, just after she gave birth to her first child.
You may own her body, but I own her heart. Daniel kissed Melanie, letting go of the tension that was coiled tight inside him. For so long he’d been torn about his deception against the man who had taught him everything. But love defied logic, defied reason, defied even the strongest loyalties. He had bedded many women at Hugo’s insistence to gain information, but there had only ever been one woman who was in his heart and mind.
“You smell of gunpowder,” Melanie whispered as she curled her arms around his neck.
He chuckled as she bit his ear and pleasure shot through him. “Do I?”
“Yes, that’s what I love about you. You’re so unlike him. You’re real, not a shadow. I married Hugo thinking he was mysterious and charming. But I was never allowed to see behind his mask. Not like with you.” She tilted her face up to him, and he leaned down to kiss her again, losing himself in the building tension in his body, but this was a good tension.
“You’re the only woman who’s ever known the man I truly am,” he assured her. Many thought Melanie vain, and perhaps she had been, years ago. But time and a lonely marriage had led her down a different path, one he’d watched from afar until he could stand it no longer. From that time on, she had owned his heart. He’d done many things in the name of king and country. Horrible things. Things that had to be done. But if there was one thing in his life that he could say he did that was good, it was to love this woman, even if it was forbidden. She was his only hope for redemption.
“I need to be inside you, love,” he growled.
She smiled and pulled him toward the couch. There would be no more talking tonight, not until they had sated their hungers. He would worry tomorrow about Audrey Sheridan.
5
When Jonathan rose from bed just before dawn, Audrey was already awake. It was typical for her to rise early, but the mad escape from the hellfire club had sent a current of unease flowing through her that had left her more alert than she otherwise would have been. She blamed that unease for her body moving toward Jonathan throughout the night, until she ended up almost curled around his body as he slept. She’d woken to his scent and the warm press of his skin to hers. He’d managed to curl one arm around her, holding her to him, and she’d been unwilling to push away because it had felt too wonderful.
But now, with the cold absence of his body, she found the strength to scramble from the bed and dress. She rang for a maid, who helped her do up her corset and the buttons on her gown. She could still hear Jonathan moving about in the other room, and she took a moment to hastily scrawl a note to him.
“Keep your end of the agreement. Our lessons must begin soon.”
Then she went in search of Archimedes downstairs. When she’d seen the cat fighting off those villains last night, she’d recalled a story about the famous Greek mathematician Archimedes and how he’d created a claw weapon that could be swung out from a metal arm and dropped onto a ship, shattering its decks and sinking it. The name seemed to fit the cat perfectly.
Archimedes had charmed the household staff the previous evening, and Audrey found him playing under the feather duster of one of the maids. The girl was laughing as the cat eagerly batted the feathers about.
“Oh! Begging your pardon, miss.” The maid withdrew the toy and curtseyed at Audrey when she realized she was being watched.
“It’s quite all right. I just came to find him. It’s time we go.” She scooped up the cat and hugged him close before she found the butler and had him summon a coach for her. She’d lost her reticule the previous evening and wondered if the coach driver would allow her to pay him upon reaching her destination.
“Here, miss.” The butler held out a pouch of coins. “The master said you might wish to leave early and you would need this.”
