He scanned the note.
His heart suddenly racing, he looked up, blinking, then read the note once more with slow care.
Gregory was in Yorkshire?
Shit. How had his own man not discovered this piece of information?
And why in the damned hell hadn’t Brianna said anything about it? Flemming would be waiting for her in the morning.
With a quick glance into the room at her still form, Sebastian shook his head, muttering incoherent blasphemies as he spun on his heel and disappeared down the hall.
~~~
Brianna pulled Moonlight into a slower gait, even though the mare wanted to fly. She had never held back the horse before, but Brianna was in no mood for speed. No mood to get to Mr. Flemming as quickly as she could.
At least she didn’t need to rush to Harry and Frannie in Plarington. It would serve no purpose since Sebastian had moved them. A small favor that there hadn’t been enough daylight to start off to them the previous evening.
Brianna looked up at the leaves rustling in the wind under the grey sky. She had not come through these woods, along this stream alone for some time—not without Sebastian—and where once she had reveled in the solitude, she was now struck by how very lonely the ride was.
Alone. She was absolutely alone.
And now, not just alone—hollow as well. She had so very little left. No emotion. No thoughts. No energy. Just the dull ache of hollowness.
She had slept the night in her old room and Sebastian had let her, did not come for her—and that had cut through her heart even more than his betrayal. And even though it had galled her to do so, she went to Sebastian’s room at daybreak, willing to trade her pride for his help, to ask him to accompany her on the ride to meet Flemming. To not have to go alone.
But Sebastian was gone. She had searched the castle. The stables. He was gone. No note. Nothing.
He had left her again.
“You thought I loved you? Imbecile little twit.”
Gregory’s voice filled her head.
She swallowed hard, holding back a well of panic at his words. His voice had not haunted her for so long. But he was back. Back full force, filling her mind. His mocking laughter. His sneer. His wicked enjoyment of her agony.
A sob tore from her throat, her pain echoing through the woods. Her head dropped, defeated, the leather of the reins digging into her skin as her fists tightened.
Gregory. Sebastian.
She had to stop.
She had to put all of it—both of them—out of her mind.
She could not wallow in her crushed heart. She still had to meet Mr. Flemming. Still had to come up with a plan. A plan to keep Lily far from danger and Harry safe—and a way to have Gregory found and hung for his crimes. As for Harry’s uncle, she knew he was untouchable, she could think of no way to prove he had hired Gregory to kill the viscount, but she also hoped he still fully believed Harry to be dead.
Maybe the duke could help. If he returned from London soon…she shook her head. Now that Wynne was with child, entangling him in the danger did not sit well with Brianna. She could not be the cause of Wynne becoming a widowed new mother.
Brianna’s mind wandered to the blade buried along her skirts. She had grabbed a dagger from the display of weaponry in the library—a small modicum of safety should she need to use it for protection.
Though she tested the blade for sharpness against her thumb, she ignored the fact that it was a bold lie she told herself—she had no experience with a dagger and would truly not know what to do with it. She hadn’t even had a proper way to attach the sheath to her body, so she had secured it to a pouch tied around her waist.
With a sigh, she scolded herself. Do not move ahead in time. She was getting far, far ahead of herself. It was not as if Gregory was going to just jump from behind a bush and attack her. It was not going to happen. He was far too cunning for that.
She was just going to meet Mr. Flemming. A simple meeting. Something she had done before without incident. And depending on what he told her, if she was desperate, she could always still go to the duke for help if it was warranted. Sebastian had deserted her, so the duke was her last option for help. Maybe he could find out where Sebastian had moved Harry.
Moonlight tugged at the reins.
With a sigh, Brianna relented, letting her quicken the pace. Best to get this meeting with Mr. Flemming done quickly.
~~~
Brianna tied Moonlight to the tree behind the abandoned mill, looking around. Mr. Flemming’s horse was not where he usually tied it. She was late, she knew that, but he had always waited for her in the past.
Maybe he had gotten his day wrong, although she had never known him to miss a detail. The man was as thorough as could be—that was why she had hired him to begin with.
She walked around the mill and lifted the tilted old door to wedge it free of the stone frame. Hinges creaking, she pulled it open, poking her head inside the main room. It was quiet, only dust moving through the air as she stepped in.
Wood scraping against stone caught her ear, and Brianna followed the sound, moving around the giant millstones in the middle of the room.
Sebastian.
Her breath stopped. Fear, like nothing she had ever experienced, shook through her body, freezing her in place.
Sebastian tied to a chair. His arms yanked behind him. Feet tied to the legs of the chair. His head hanging limp. Blood covering his body. His white linen shirt, shredded and red.
Brianna tried to rush forward, but it took seconds for her feet to respond to her brain. And when they did, they were out of control, skidding, falling to the bumpy stone floor in front of Sebastian. She crashed into him, landing on her knees as her forehead banged into his chest.
His body jerked with a slight cough.
He was alive.
Brianna gulped air. Alive. He was alive.
“Seb.” Her hands went to his face, gripping him, shaking his head back and forth—harshly, too harshly, but she couldn’t control herself. “Seb.”
His right eye cracked open, his left one too swollen and bloody to see through.
Another cough. “Bree?”
“Seb—”
“Get out of here, Bree.” Even with the ragged whisper, he managed to cut her off. “Out. Run.”
She dropped his face, her hands scrambling down to the pouch hanging from her waist, digging out the dagger she had brought.
Stumbling, crawling on her hands and knees to get behind him, she set to sawing at the rope around his wrists, not caring that she sliced his skin as she went. She just needed him freed. Needed him out of there.
Blade through only half of the rope threads, the door creaked and, hell, footsteps. It only gave her seconds, but it was enough time to slip the dagger behind Sebastian’s arm, hiding it as she clasped the rounded end of the hilt into his palm.
Don’t drop it, Seb, she willed him. Please, just don’t drop it.
A thick hand yanked her away from Sebastian, her body viciously snapping. Cold steel landed long on her throat. Brianna scratched at the arm, a vise across her chest, trying to look back at Sebastian, trying to make sure he was still there. Still alive.
The arm spun her out, turning her, but the blade only left her neck for an instant. Her lower back cracked into the millstone, jolting her to a stop just as the knife landed on her neck again.
She looked up.
Gregory.
No. God, no.
Brianna swayed. The blade pressed into her neck, and she nearly dropped, unable to control her spinning head.
Gregory. Still handsome. Still brutally strong. Still the same dark blond hair.
And still the same sneer on his face. The sneer she’d never recognized as evil—not until he had almost killed her.
The only thing that marred his appearance now was the scar that arched across his temple to his right eye. A right eye that was now glass. An eerie blue eye that stared at her, not moving, cautioning her to l
ook away. To flee.
If only she could.
“My love.”
The two words, low in his gravelly voice, slammed into her, doing more damage than the blade pinning her neck. Words that cut off all breath, cut off all hope.
Two words that told her he was about to wreak devastation.
Gregory glanced over at Sebastian. “Good. I can kill him now that I have you.”
Brianna forced her eyes to Sebastian. His head had fallen down, his body drooping.
“No,” Brianna screamed, grabbing Gregory’s wrist with both hands, trying to wedge the knife from her neck. It only made the blade pinch tighter to her skin.
“He is of no use, my love. The bastard was not forthcoming with information, and I have a job to finish.” Gregory’s one good eye stayed on Sebastian as his glass eye stared into nothingness.
“No. He does not need to die, Gregory. He is not a part of this. He does not know where Harry is.” She swallowed hard. “But I do. That is what you want—Harry? Only I know, so you can let him go.”
Gregory’s good eye swung back to her. “Interesting. Since that is the same sentiment he has expressed—he claims he knows where little Harry is, and that you have no knowledge. So I should leave you be.” Gregory chuckled. “Have I stumbled upon a love affair, my dearest Brianna?”
She met his good eye, her fingers dropping from his wrist as her voice turned to calm threat. “I know where Harry is, Gregory. But if you kill him, you will never find Harry. I will not tell you on principle alone.” Her eyes narrowed at him. “Do not think I cannot withstand you again, Gregory. I can.”
His one good blue eye flickered.
He remembered.
She could see it instantly in his eye. The pleasure. The gleam of vileness.
Her gut churned at the sight.
But there it was. She needed time, precious moments, and in her sea of desperation, a singular beacon. One thing—the only thing she could think of.
She stole a glance at Sebastian. Still limp. Still not moving.
Time. He needed time.
Brianna closed her eyes, taking the slightest second to steel herself. She had to do this. It didn’t matter that Sebastian had left her. It didn’t matter if he had betrayed her. If he didn’t love her. She loved him, and she wasn’t about to see him die. That was the last thing she would let happen.
She needed time. Time for Sebastian to wake up. Time for him to cut his ropes.
She opened her mouth, talking before she had even formulated a plan. Keeping her eyes on Gregory, she ignored the perversity of her own words. “I remember, Gregory. I remember how it lit up your eyes. How my screams pleased you.”
Ever so slowly, her hand went forward, palm lightly onto his chest, her fingertips caressing the smooth linen of his shirt. To her surprise, he allowed the movement.
He was interested now. His good eye fully on her. No more flickering looks to Sebastian.
This was good. This would work.
It would work as long as she could stomach it.
Brianna swallowed down the rock in her throat, forcing her voice even, sultry. She had to make him believe it.
“I saw, Gregory. I saw how you liked it. Even through my pain. The agony. How it tore me. Even through that. I saw it.” Her other hand went up to his chest. “I never wanted to admit it. But it…it awoke something in me. Something I cannot name. Something I have tried to deny. I liked it.”
“Do not think you can lie to me, my love. You will not save him.” Gregory’s jaw set hard, even though the gleam of interest didn’t leave his eye.
“Your control. How you made me bend to you. Scream.” Her palms flattened on his chest. She could feel his heart thumping, his muscles twitching at her words. “What you drew out of me. The blood. The begging.”
Not breaking eye contact, she moved her right hand down to her skirt, pulling, bunching the fabric up as she exposed her right leg. Boot. Knee. Thigh.
Fist wrapped around the fabric, her bare thigh fully exposed, she bent her leg, lifting it as she wedged her heel onto the stone behind her.
“We can do it again, Gregory. Again and again. I can hold out, just as before. You can punish me.”
He swallowed, and Brianna could see him nearly salivate at the mere suggestion.
She had him now. But there was still a flicker of doubt. She needed to prove it.
Movement numb with disbelief at her own actions, but hardened against stopping—against weakness she couldn’t afford—Brianna’s left hand slid across his chest.
Slowly, her fingers trailed to his shoulder and along his outstretched arm toward the blade at her neck. She snaked her hand along the back of his forearm gently, causing no alarm, until she gripped the dagger through his hold, fingers entwined with his.
Bringing his hand down, she set the blade on her thigh. He didn’t halt her motion.
Brianna didn’t stop to take a breath. Didn’t slow. She couldn’t or she wouldn’t be able to do this.
She pressed the blade into her thigh.
Hand tightening over his, digging the sharp edge into her skin, she dragged the dagger across her thigh, cutting deep.
A gasp she couldn’t control choked out. Instant fire in her leg, her head dropped and she grimaced, trying to overcome the pain.
Her eyes cracked. She could see the blood dripping down her leg, puddling on the floor. The bulge in Gregory’s pants pulsating, huge.
“You cut too deep, my love.” His gravelly voice sank to her ears. “We will have to ensure we enjoy this fully before you faint.”
Bile rushed to her throat.
She swallowed the vileness. She couldn’t break. Not now.
Teeth gritted, she sucked air. She could do this. She had to.
When she could breathe again, she looked up, her eyes meeting his. His glass eye had slipped, looking off to the side, but his good eye stayed fixed on her, his face throbbing with hunger. Sick desire.
“I want it again,” Brianna choked out, her voice surprisingly even. “Make me scream, Gregory. Like you did before.”
“No. Shit, Bree. Stop. Stop.” Sebastian’s ragged shout cut through the room. “Good God, Bree, stop it. God no.”
Gregory’s head swung to Sebastian.
Sebastian went frantic trying to free himself from the ropes holding him to the chair.
“He does not matter, Gregory.” Brianna’s voice cut sharp over the noise, her hand tightening over his fingers on the blade.
Gregory looked back to her.
“This is not enough for me, Gregory. You know how to do it. Make me scream. Make him hear it.”
She dropped his right hand with the blade and grabbed his left hand, setting his fingers over the open wound. She leaned forward, making sure Gregory could look nowhere but at her. “Make. Me. Scream.”
Gregory’s mouth curled as his fingers slid through the blood on her thigh to the cut. With a grunt and a sinister sneer, he slid three of his fingers deep into the wound, tearing at her flesh.
Her scream pierced the mill.
Waves of pain ripped through her body. Her agony echoed off the stone walls.
She doubled over, falling, but Gregory quickly pinned her shoulder to the stone before she slipped from his fingers deep in her flesh.
“Well done, my love.”
He twisted his fingers, scratching his nails into her thigh muscle.
Fresh shrieks. Gasping for air.
But in the middle of it, calm.
She had been terrorized by this for years. This very thing. But this time it was freeing. This time it was to save Sebastian. This time for love. Love she knew, without fail, was true.
This time, she could endure.
“Do tell me, my love. Where is the boy?”
Brianna’s head swung side to side, and then she managed to lift her chin, finding his good eye. “No.”
He twisted his hand.
“No,” she screamed, collapsing again, her convulsing eyes sh
ut tight against the wretchedness.
He shoved his body into hers, his fingers dragging through the length of the wound.
And then his mass was on her, crushing her against the curved millstone behind her, dragging her downward. A blade passed in front of her eyes.
She crumpled under his body, fighting for breath beneath his weight. Shoving, kicking, she tried to free herself from suffocating, her head banging into the stone floor.
He rolled off her, his body thunking to the ground.
It took Brianna a gasping breath to realize Gregory was limp beside her. Blood seeped from the side of his neck. Slowly at first, then fast.
She looked up.
Sebastian stood over her, heaving, bloody, straddling her body, her knife gripped solid in his hand.
Neither of them moved for seconds. Sebastian’s eyes stayed trained on Gregory. Brianna’s eyes stayed trained on Sebastian.
Slowly, Sebastian’s eyes swung to Brianna.
“Bloody hell, Bree.”
He stepped off from above her, going to the door.
Brianna’s head rolled to the side, her temple hitting stone.
Sebastian kicked open the door and disappeared.
Leaving her.
Again.
{ Chapter 19 • Earl of Destiny }
“Seb?”
Sebastian’s head popped up. He scrambled to get his face above Brianna’s. “Bree. I am here. Right here.”
Her blue eyes, searching, vacant, found him for a moment before falling closed.
Sebastian smoothed the wet strands of hair back from her forehead. Waiting. Watching. Searching her face for movement.
Surprised that her skin was hotter than he remembered it before he fell asleep, he reached to the wet cloth in a bowl by the bed, dragging it across her forehead, her cheeks.
He waited. Hoping. Watching for the slightest quiver. Something to tell him Brianna was still in there. Still fighting.
In the very second that he thought she had drifted away again, her mouth cracked, but her eyelids did not even attempt to flutter open.
“I love you.” Nothing but her mouth moved, her words sparse whispers. “Every last part of me, Seb. No hesitation. You are here. I am happy… I do not care if it is this minute alone, or a lifetime. As long as I have it, I do not care. I can go. Happy.”
Lord of Fates: A Complete Historical Regency Romance Series (3-Book Box Set) Page 50
