Seeing Danger (A Sinclair & Raven Novel Book 2)

by Wendy Vella

  “Run straight ahead, Lilly, there is a hole in the wall. Once you are through, call James!”

  She left his side as the first man reached him. Turning, Dev swung out with his leg as James had taught him to. It connected and the man went down. But seconds later, the next was upon him.

  Cam had two on him, and the brothers fought with everything they had.

  Dev heard Cam's war cry as he took a fist to the chin that made him see stars. He looked and found James entering the fray, Dev’s sisters behind him. He took a right to the jaw and quickly returned the favor with more force.

  “Don't touch him, you cad!”

  Lilly appeared on his right, wielding a piece of wood like a saber. Dev didn't have time to roar at her, as the man before him was bigger and meaner than the others. He just hoped she stayed healthy so he could kill her for disobeying him when this was over.

  “Leave now!” he managed before taking a fist to the stomach that nearly doubled him over.

  “Take that!”

  Dev watched the man’s eyes open wider and then he simply fell backward, landing hard enough to ensure that if Lilly hadn't cracked his head, the floor would have. James did some sort of swinging kick caught his man unaware and sent him face-first into a wall. Cam, with a well-placed punch, finished off his opponent. Nobody moved for several seconds, all dragging in large lungfuls of salty air.

  “You, madam,” Dev wheezed, pointing at Lilly when he could speak, “promised me you would run when I told you to! Yet I turn around to see you wielding that bloody piece of wood like Zenobia!”

  “Wasn't she Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Roman Syria?” Cam said, grinning.

  “Yes, she led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire,” Eden added, stepping to Dev's side with a handkerchief, which she pressed to his sorely abused lip.

  Ignoring James's snort of laughter, Dev glared at his siblings as best as he could over the white square of linen. He was well aware of what they were doing, but this time it wasn't going to work. Nothing was distracting him from telling Lilly what he thought. He was sure she'd taken years of his life tonight by getting involved in the fighting.

  “Shut up, all of you!”

  “Now, Dev, you've always lectured us on learning about famous women as well as men in history. Surely Zenobia falls into that category.”

  “Cam, I will thrash you if you don't cease!”

  “I had my fingers crossed!”

  Spinning back from glaring at his siblings, Dev gently pushed his sister and her ministrations aside and looked at Lilly as she spoke. The wood was still clasped firmly in her hands and she looked small and fragile, a façade that no longer fooled him.

  “What?”

  “I had my fingers crossed when I promised you.”

  Dev stared at her for several seconds—maybe the events of today were catching up with her, because she was making no sense. “What?” he said again.

  “Oh, well then, that makes perfect sense,” Essie said, rushing forward to take the wood from Lilly and drop it to the ground.

  “Yes, it's a code we Sinclairs have always lived by,” Eden said, moving to Lilly's other side.

  “Eden,” James warned in that tone that told Dev he wanted her to shut up and stop interfering. As he was in full agreement, he followed it up with a glare.

  “You crossed your fingers when you promised me you would leave?” Dev said as it finally dawned on him what the hell she was talking about. She didn't speak, just nodded. His sisters moved closer, pinning her between them.

  “Excellent. Well, I'm glad that's sorted,” Cam said loudly.

  “Nothing is sorted! For Christ's sake, when we cross our fingers on a promise it is over something trivial like raiding each other’s rooms and stealing belongings, not... not”—Dev had never been the type to fly into a rage, but it seemed tonight it was his destiny—”when your life is at stake!”

  “I don't know, when Cam took Miss Pound Cake, I was devastated,” Eden said.

  “She was a doll!”

  Lilly's giggle sucked the anger right out of Dev. It was such a sweet, unrestrained sound, and all the sweeter because it came from a woman who had had very few reasons to giggle in her life.

  “We need to get out of here,” Dev snapped, pointing to the hole in the wall and scowling. “Now!” he roared, which had his siblings scurrying forward, dragging Lilly with them. James, however, strolled. The Duke never scurried.

  “Toby, you are coming with us too,” Dev said, looking to where the boy sat.

  “I-I c-can't.”

  Dev heard the pain and quickly crouched before him. He had one hand clutched to his side and when Dev pulled it away, he saw blood. “Why didn't you say something?” he said, picking him up and running to the opening.

  “It hurts.”

  It must have been bad if he said that because this stoic little boy was not one to make a fuss. Dev found his siblings in the carriage that had been outside the warehouse. James was driving, with Cam seated beside him. He hoped that between them they could get them home safely.

  He climbed in with Toby in his arms and settled him on Lilly.

  “What has happened?” Lilly cried.

  Dev picked her up and held them both on his lap. “He's hurt. I don't know how badly, but we need to get to the Raven residence now.”

  Dev heard Lilly's whisper as she talked to Toby on the journey to the Raven town house. Essie was kneeling on the floor before the boy, inspecting the injury as best she could given the circumstances.

  No one spoke. All eyes were focused on the boy, and he could feel the fear in Lilly as she held him close. Toby lay against her, quiet and still.

  “Cam, take Toby,” Dev said as the carriage stopped. He lifted Lilly to her feet and followed.

  The house was well lit as they walked into the front entrance, yet like Dev, Lilly did not see her brother standing beside the butler until he stepped before her.

  “Are you well, Lilliana?”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to find you.”

  “Why?” she asked, and Dev could hear the confusion in her voice. Placing a hand on her back, he reassured her she was safe and he was there at her side.

  “I am sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “I—everything.”

  “I don't know what game you are playing, Nicholas,” she said, “and why you look as you do, but I assure you I want you to leave here now and never return.”

  Dev let her leave then, to follow Cam, who was carrying Toby up the stairs.

  “She was hardly going to run into your arms, Nicholas.”

  Dev stood silently beside James as he spoke, watching Lilly run up the stairs. He would follow soon, but had a few words to say to her brother first.

  “At least she is safe, and for that I thank you.”

  “I almost believe you mean that, cousin.”

  “Surprisingly, I do,” Nicholas said quietly, looking from Dev to James. “She will not wed Danderfield. I will see to it in the morning.”

  “Dare one ask about this transformation you seem to have undergone in the space of one evening?” James said, the skepticism clearly evident in this tone.

  Nicholas didn't answer instantly, and Dev watched as he thought about his next words.

  “I loved her once, you know, but things changed with my father's death.”

  “The fact she was your sister never changed, Braithwaite,” Dev said. “And there is much you don't know about your sister, or what she does.”

  “What?”

  “The story is hers to tell, not mine.”

  “Very well, I will speak with her tomorrow. And I would thank you for your harsh words; they have made me see just what I have become, Lord Sinclair.”

  “Words will cost you nothing, Braithwaite,” Dev said, brushing past him. “Actions, however, now they are worth a great deal more.”

  Dev helped Essie and Lilly clean Toby's wound. He seemed to
drift in and out of consciousness, and the tension in the room grew with each breath he struggled to draw into his small body.

  “There is so much blood,” Lilly whispered as she once again rinsed the cloth in the bowl, the water now red.

  “Dev says the damage inside him is bad and that he is bleeding. Therefore, I must be honest, Lilly, it does not look good.”

  Lilly's hands stilled as Essex spoke. “Please tell me he will live.”

  “Essie will do everything she can and James has called for a doctor,” Dev reassured her.

  Lilly looked up at him, her eyes wide and pleading. “He can't die, Devon.”

  “We won't know anything until he has been treated, Lilly, but for now, we have to stop the bleeding,” Essie soothed.

  Dev let himself slide into his other vision. The boy was bleeding from the inside, and he could see his color was weaker, the yellow now almost cream. Unless they stopped that bleeding, Toby would die; he knew it, Essie knew it. Lilly, however, did not.

  The doctor came, a ridiculously young-looking man who, as far as Lilly was concerned, did not have enough experience to make an accurate diagnosis. She looked over his shoulder as he checked Toby, and Dev could see the young man was intimidated.

  “He has internal injuries I am afraid, and is losing too much blood. I fear the prognosis is not promising.”

  “Well, then do something!”

  Dev intervened as Lilly glared at the doctor, and he quickly pushed him from the room into James's hands outside.

  After applying a paste to the wound and forcing several sips of herbal tea down Toby's throat, Essie left, muttering about needing a medical book she had in her room. Toby's breath had grown weak and his face was as white as the sheet he lay upon. Dev took the cup of warm tea and buttered crumpet off the tray, both of which Lilly had refused, and moved to her side.

  “Eat this.”

  “I couldn't,” she said, her eyes still on Toby, and Dev wondered where she got her strength. He was wilting and he hadn't been abducted, bound, and left in a small room with no nourishment for hours on end.

  “You will eat this, Lilly, because you will need your strength to care for Toby. If you faint, then it will be me he sees when he opens his eyes, not you.”

  She took the tea and gulped it down, then nibbled the crumpet. He wiped the corner of her mouth when she ate the last bite. The sob came from nowhere, and when she launched into his arms he caught her.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “T-tell me he will live, Dev.”

  “I can't, sweetheart, you must understand that,” he said, running his hand over her hair.

  She lay against him, looking at Toby. Dev lifted her hands, looking at her bloodied and torn gloves, and slowly took them from her fingers.

  “Do you trust me, Lilly?”

  “Yes.”

  Amazing how one simple word could warm him to his toes. He kissed each finger because he knew she liked it, and was rewarded with a gentle sigh. Even exhausted, she responded to him as he knew she always would. Looking at her slender hands, he wondered if his hunch was accurate. It seemed now was the time to test his theory.

  “Did you ever touch another person before you took to wearing gloves, and feel strange sensations, Lilly?”

  She looked at him for several seconds and then slowly nodded. Lord, she was beautiful. Her hair was everywhere, her clothes dirty with bits torn here and there, yet he had never wanted another woman like he did Lilliana Braithwaite. He wanted to take her home with him and keep her safe, lock her away from anyone who would harm her, and that simply confirmed just how important she had become to him.

  Only his family made him feel such emotions, yet now it seemed Lilly could too. Brushing his lips over hers, he kept the kiss light, and then turning to the bed he looked at the small boy lying motionless. Switching his vision, he could see Toby's color was now white, and Dev feared he did not have long to live. Essie had tried everything and was even now looking for something to save the boy, but Dev knew death better than most, and Toby was close. His breathing had grown shallow and he lay still in the big bed.

  “Will you try something for me?” Dev said, once again taking Lilly's hand in his. “Just place your hands on Toby and tell me what you feel.” She didn't speak, just turned and laid one palm flat on Toby's forehead, the other on his chest. The boy twitched instantly and then calmed.

  “What do you feel?”

  “He's so cold, almost like he's—”

  “No, Lilly, he's not dead,” Dev said, placing his hand over hers. If what he suspected was true and Lilly could heal with her hands, then maybe he could help her in some way, use his strength to support her.

  “Now we're going to move your hand slowly down his arm.”

  “I'm scared.”

  “I know, love, but I'm here and I will keep you safe. You said you trusted me, remember.” She nodded as he moved as close to her as he could, his front now pressed to her back, and then cupping her hands with his, he began to run them over the boy. The heat from her hands made his tingle, the sensation not unbearable, but he could feel it traveling up his arms.

  “Focus on your hands, Lilly. We are going to move closer to Toby's injury now.”

  He kept his voice calm.

  “I-it feels as if I am being stung by a thousand bees, Dev.”

  “I have you, love, my hands are right there with yours,” he soothed as her body tensed.

  He felt her hands get hotter as she reached the boy's injury. Beneath her fingers Toby grew restless and color filled his face as he began to murmur and thrash about in the bed.

  “I-I... it's—”

  “Are you in pain, Lilly?” She shook her head. “Tell me what you feel.”

  “M-my hands feel hot, like I am being stung by stinging nettle, but my body is cold.”

  “Pull your hands away if you can no longer stand it.”

  “Am I.... Are my hands healing him?”

  Dev was watching Toby's color to make sure his light didn't go out completely, and saw the yellow steadily grow brighter. The tension in Lilly's body worried him and he wondered what effect this would have on her. He could feel the tingling she spoke of beneath his fingers and the chill that was creeping into her body. Wrapping his hands around hers, he lifted them and saw the wound had healed significantly. There was only a cut that would easily heal.

  “Dear God! He... it is nearly healed,” Lilly gasped.

  Dev felt the boy’s head and checked his pulse, and then looked inside him and saw the bleeding had stopped. Toby was still sleeping but this time it was a healing sleep, and his color and breathing were strong. Lifting Lilly into his arms as her knees buckled, he walked around the bed and lowered her onto the other side, beside Toby. Her color was strong, yet he could see that in doing what she had for the boy she had used the last of her reserves and was now exhausted.

  “Wh-what just happened?”

  Framing her face, Dev kissed her again. “Do you want to discuss this now, or sleep?”

  “Dissscusss.”

  She was asleep before she finished the word. Dev watched her, taking in the long sweep of her lashes, the pallor of her cheeks. He loved her because she was his mate. The other half to him. He had the gift of sight and she touch. She was the piece that completed his family's circle. Dear Christ, he could hardly take it in.

  Pulling the covers up, he tucked them both in. Toby slept, his face young and innocent, the woman beside him looking remarkably similar. Stroking a hand over her hair, he then gave her a last long look and left the room.

  A maid waited outside the door, so Dev told her to have a room and bath prepared for Miss Braithwaite and one for him, and he would return soon to escort her.

  “I have the herb here, Dev, and have instructed the kitchen to bring more boiling water.”

  Dev took Essie's hands as she appeared before him, her face creased with worry. She stilled, looking up at him.

  “No, Dev, please tell me Toby is al
ive!”

  “Yes, he lives, and he is sleeping the sleep of a tired yet recovering young boy, Ess. Now I need you to come with me. I have something to tell you all, but I want to say it only once.”

  “I-I don't understand.” She gripped his fingers.

  “You will, love. Come.”

  She let him lead her to where the others waited in James's study. Nicholas Braithwaite was the first to gain his feet as Essie and Dev entered.

  “How are Lilliana and the boy doing, my lord?”

  His lip was now puffy and purple and his hair stood on end, and at some stage, he had removed his jacket and necktie. He looked vastly different from the previously elegant and pampered Nicholas Braithwaite.

  “I think the boy will make it through the night, and your sister has been taken to a chamber to sleep, as she was both exhausted and hungry,” Dev said, telling the lie as easily as he took his next breath.

  Perhaps Braithwaite was changing, yet Dev was still not about to trust him completely and most especially not with both his family’s and Lilly's secrets.

  “She asked me to request that you go home and tell your aunt you have received a letter from her stating she has left London briefly to visit one of your estates, as she is in need of fresh air.”

  “But she has never done that before. Aunt will be suspicious.”

  “Braithwaite, you are foisting a seventy-year-old reprobate on her, which I may add you had no issue with until this evening. Surely you can use that to your advantage when telling the tale.”

  Dev had believed there were no similarities between Lilly and her brother, but the glare he got suggested they both had the same backbone.

  “There is no need to keep reminding me I have neglected my sister, Sinclair. I will go home at once and tell our aunt. She will believe me, as she would have no reason not to,” Nicholas muttered as he prepared to take his leave. “I will return in the morning with some of Lilly's things. I hope one of your sisters will care for her until I return?”

  “They will,” Dev said, pleased that at last the man seemed to be aware of his duty to his sister. “But remember this while you sleep, Braithwaite. Your sister will not forgive the years of neglect and abuse easily, and she will wonder at the abrupt change in you, as do we.”