Wicked Exile (An Exile Novel Book 2)

by K. J. Jackson

  “She sounds like she was a fine woman.”

  He shrugged, taking another long sip of his brandy. Almost gone. He reached down with his left hand toward the floor, his fingers searching for the bottle.

  Just as his fingertips touched the bottle her hand jabbed out and grabbed his wrist, stopping his motion. “Evan, I wasn’t going to come to you, but I…I had to. I had to or I will never forgive myself.”

  “What is it?”

  Her hand pulled away from his wrist. “I need your help.”

  The tone of her voice made him pause and look at her directly. She sat at the edge of the chair, barely balanced on the seat, her hands twisting in her lap.

  Now that he thought about it, why wasn’t she still naked in his bed as he’d left her? He was going to return to his room eventually. It was their wedding night, after all.

  His elbows landed on the arms of the chair and he pushed himself up slightly from the low slouch he’d shrunk into. “What help?”

  “It’s Ness. She is waiting for me and I promised I would get her away from Whetland.”

  That sobered him. Slightly. He blinked, trying to focus solidly on her. “What? Why would you do such an imbecilic thing?”

  Her dark blue eyes pinned him. “Gilroy beat her—broke her arm as far as I can tell.”

  “No. Gil wouldn’t do that.”

  “He did. And I am taking Ness away from here and I need your help.”

  “No, there must be some misunderstanding.” He straightened even farther, leaning toward her. “I’ll talk to Gil. He can make this right. He’ll make it right. I’ll talk to him. Ness doesn’t have to worry.”

  “No, you’re not listening to me, Evan. I know my words are not quite getting through that brandy-soaked brain of yours, but you need to hear this—truly hear this.” Her voice snapped. “I didn’t come to you so that you would talk to him. I came to you to ask you to help me get Ness away from here—safely.”

  His head snapped back as her words truly sunk in. “You’re asking me to betray my brother?”

  “I’m asking you to save Ness’s life.”

  “No.” His left hand flew back and forth in the air. “You can’t do this, Juliet. You can’t. You need to put Ness back into her room and tell her it was a mistake. She will be fine.”

  Juliet jumped to her feet, her voice lifting into a barely controlled scream. “That’s not going to happen. I’m getting Ness out of here, one way or another. You don’t understand the severity of what he did—she is afraid for her life. I need your help.”

  Dropping the tumbler onto the floor, Evan heaved his body forward and floundered up onto his feet to lord over her. “You’re telling me to betray my brother after what I just did to him? Marrying you?”

  “The wedding wasn’t my idea.”

  “But ye certainly latched onto the thought.”

  “I what?” Her eyes went to slits as her hands balled into tiny fists that looked ready to launch at him.

  He grabbed her right wrist, squeezing it before she could hit him, leaning over her, his breath seething. “You latched onto the thought and now you’re my damnable wife and I betrayed everything—everything I stood for—everything I swore to my brother. So, you’ll do as I say and stay in your damn room. Leave Ness alone. This is not our business, wife.”

  Even as the words escaped his mouth, they sounded foreign, horrid, like the devil had taken his tongue and slathered it with putrescence. Damn brandy. He should have grabbed the whisky.

  She yanked her arm out of his grip. “Like grandfather, like grandson,” she muttered as she spun away from him.

  “What did you just say?”

  She didn’t turn back to him as she stalked toward the door. “It doesn’t matter.”

  Evan charged across the room, blocking her path. “What did you say?”

  She glared up at him, arrows flying from her eyes. “That there is an obvious path of right here, and you are ignoring it for all the wrong reasons.”

  “You don’t get to decide that for me, Juliet.”

  Her chest lifted in a deep breath and her head shook. Her words came out measured, all anger banished from her tone. “No. But I also don’t need to stand by and watch you make that decision.”

  She stepped around him and left the room. Her boots on the wood floor of the hallway echoed in his ears.

  Damn brandy.

  { Chapter 26 }

  The horse snorted in the cool air. A black, sleek mare that melded into the night, a ghost of a shadow that may or may not be real.

  Hell.

  Juliet was actually going through with it.

  His muscles coiled, Evan stalked along, shadowing her under the cover of the woods as she led the mare a hundred strides onto the trail that led to the main road. Fallen leaves crunched under the hooves on the trail so she couldn’t hear his motion.

  Damn that he’d taken her on this trail every time they’d ridden in the last week. She’d have no trouble navigating it with the dappled moonlight shining down through the trees that had lost half their leaves.

  Far enough.

  He wished the brandy was fully out of his blood at this point, but it wasn’t and he couldn’t chance losing her in the forest. Words would just have to cut through the muddle in his head. Better words than he’d used earlier.

  Evan cut to his left and intercepted her.

  Juliet jerked to a stop and the horse nudged into her back as a small scream erupted from the shrouded figure atop the horse.

  He glanced up at Ness, not able to see her face in the fold of the cloak she had covering her head, and his glare dropped to center on Juliet. He was unable to keep his voice from shaking for the rage in it. “You think to just walk out of here? Slink out in the middle of the night?”

  “If you’re not here to help me, Evan, step aside.” In the shadow of the trees, the smallest fleck of light caught her eyes and he could see fury raging in her blue irises.

  Fury he knew damn well he’d put there. It didn’t matter. She wasn’t going anywhere.

  “I need to talk to you. Privately.”

  She looked up over her shoulder at Ness sitting on the horse. “Excuse us for a long moment.”

  The dark hood and cloak hid Ness from the world, and he couldn’t even make out the whites of her eyes.

  Ness shifted on the horse, her voice a breaking whisper. “But Juliet—”

  “I will be right back, I swear.”

  Before she could turn back to him, Evan grabbed her free hand and tugged her to the side. She dropped the reins and he pulled her into the woods where he could talk to her away from Ness’s ears. Ten paces and her heels dug into the ground, stopping all momentum. Probably not far enough, but it would have to do.

  He turned around to her as she wedged her wrist out of his grip. “Ye can’t do this.”

  “I can and I am. You’re going to stop me? You’re going to set her back in front of Gilroy and watch as he beats her to death? You want her blood on your hands? I know that is not the man you are, Evan. And we are losing time. We need to leave now.”

  “No, you need to come back to the castle.” Notching his voice down to where he could control it in a grumble of a whisper, he stepped closer to her. “We will work this out. Whatever it takes. I will talk to Gilroy. He won’t hurt her. I’ll make this right.”

  Her head shook, her arms in the fold of her cloak lifting to cross over belly. “I can’t do that. I promised Ness I would help her, and the only place she’s going to be safe is far, far away from Gilroy. I know you don’t see what your brother is. But I do.”

  “You don’t understand who he is.”

  “I think I understand perfectly the monster that your brother is.”

  “No.” The word cut out sharp from his mouth. “Gil is the only one.”

  “The only one, what, Evan?”

  “He was the only one when we were children that would grab my hand. No one else would. Our father would leave the room after
railing at me, and Gil would sit with me and tell me that our father was wrong. That I wasn’t a monster sent by the devil. That Father was mean and spiteful and that I didn’t have to let his words into me. I could ignore them. My brother was the only one—the only one that tried to take away the pain.”

  Her eyes closed to him and her shoulders lifted in a deep breath. “Who he was when you were five, six, seven years old is not who he is now. That boy—it sounds like you needed him. Needed him like no other. But that boy is not who your brother is now, Evan. Why can’t you see that?”

  “You don’t know him—not like I do.”

  Her hand waved in the air between them. “It doesn’t matter right now. Ness does. You didn’t see how desperate she was—what she was about to do.”

  He exhaled an exasperated sigh. “I can protect her. You need to trust me.”

  “Can you?” Her head cocked to the side, her harsh whisper cutting into the night air. “Are you going to follow Gilroy around every minute of every day? Never leave the castle again? Never let your brother behind closed doors with her? She’s his wife, Evan. His property. There is nothing you can do and you cannot guarantee her safety for the rest of his life.”

  He exhaled a bitter sigh and his arm flew up at his side. “What about us?”

  “What about us?”

  He leaned in, his face almost touching hers, his words a whisper. “You love me, Juliet, ye do.”

  She winced and her eyes closed, her head shaking. His words cutting her to her core even if she was trying to deny it.

  “Don’t go.” His voice shifted into a low rumble, words he never could have imagined a month ago spilling from his lips. “I love you and you made me want…more, Juliet. Want us. I will do whatever it takes for that.”

  Her gloved hand lifted up to swipe at her cheeks, but she didn’t open her eyes to him. “I have to go, Evan.”

  “No. No, ye don’t.” His hand lifted to cup her jawline. “Look at me, Juliet. We’re the same, you and I. We both have been moving through life, not knowing how we got this way. But us, together, it is the only thing I’ve ever dared to want in my life. Purpose that I’ve never had.”

  Her head shook. “We are not the same.”

  “Juliet—”

  “We are not the same. I was willing to change.” She opened her eyes to him, revealing a gloss of tears reflecting in the moonlight. “You are not.”

  He stared at her eyes, willing the tears to spill from her lids. Willing her to break. To fall into him. To trust him.

  “I have to leave, now.”

  “No—either you love me or you don’t.” His fingers slid down to tighten along her neck. “You leave and it’s a betrayal like no other.”

  Her hand lifted, the soft of the leather on her fingers clutching the back of his hand. “I’m not betraying you.”

  “You’re not trusting me—that’s a betrayal.” His head shook and his hand dropped away from her neck. “Make your choice.”

  Her eyes closed as her face tightened in pain. “Don’t make me choose, Evan, please. Don’t.”

  “No.” He took a step backward. “Make a choice, Juliet. You leave, you are gone. Never to come back here.”

  Her lips parted as she took in a shaky breath. Her eyes opened to him, tears spilling out to roll down her cheeks. “Some things are more important than love.”

  His hand whipped up, pointing to Ness and the horse. “You choose this?”

  “I do.” She nodded. “If it means Ness’s life, then yes, I do.”

  “Go.” The word spit out of his mouth and he turned away from her.

  She didn’t move from her spot.

  “Go.” His head whipped back to her, a snarl on his lips. “Ye made your choice.”

  Her hand over her mouth, she spun and darted back to the horse.

  Within a minute, he couldn’t even hear the clomp of the horse’s hooves on the trail.

  Yet he stood, rooted to the spot. Waiting for her to come back.

  To choose him.

  To choose them.

  She never did.

  { Chapter 27 }

  “I heard what Evander said to you.” The golden hue of Ness’s right amber eye centered on Juliet. Even though her left eye was still swollen shut and the dark purple of the bruises had set monstrosities onto her face, the edges of Ness’s eyes managed to crinkle in pain through the inflamed skin as she shifted her left arm at her side.

  Juliet had to commend Ness—she’d whimpered, took seething breaths, but never once in the last seven hours opened her mouth to complain about the horse ride here to Edinburgh. Admirable, for the amount of pain every jostle must have cost her.

  “What Evan said doesn’t matter.” She looked down at Ness sitting on a crate in a narrow alleyway she’d found close to the departing mail coaches. That Ness was still sitting upright, not passed out from the pain, was a marvel.

  “No, listen to me, Juliet.” Ness didn’t let Juliet escape her gaze. “I heard what he said. I heard what you gave up to get me here. You didn’t have to do it.”

  “I did. Gilroy may get his way with Evan—and then he would hurt you again, or worse. No.” She shook her head, not letting the tiniest crack in her façade give window into how very destroyed she’d been at leaving Evan. There would be time to wallow in that heaping pile of regret later.

  Juliet’s fingers lifted to tug the hood of the cloak further out around Ness’s bruised face. She needed to be hidden as much as possible. “That wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t about to set you at the mercy of that man.”

  “But you and Evander—”

  “What will happen, will happen. Do not fret on it.” Juliet took a step to her left out of the shadow of the tight close and found the mail coach. The horses hitched to it were already straining, pawing at the ground, eager to start running. She ducked back into the lane. “We have to separate our paths here.”

  Ness’s right hand moved from holding her left arm and she grabbed Juliet’s wrist. “What? No—you cannot leave me.”

  “There isn’t time, Ness. You can’t stay any longer. The mail coach is leaving in five minutes. It will not wait. We were fortunate to get here before they’d left.” Juliet dropped to her left knee and reached under Ness’s skirts to grab her right foot. She unlaced Ness’s boot and yanked it off her foot. “There isn’t room on the coach for both of us—I was lucky to get you passage—and you are the one that needs to disappear as quickly as possible. I don’t know what Evan did after we left him in the woods. He could have followed us. He could have gone to Gilroy and told him we left—I don’t know.”

  A gasp gurgled in Ness’s throat. “He couldn’t have gone to Gilroy, could he?”

  Juliet lifted herself to standing and leaned back against the brick wall behind her. Cocking her right leg up, she quickly undid the laces on her own right boot and slipped it off. “I don’t know what he would have done after we left—I was stupid, telling him we were leaving in the first place. I never should have trusted him. I had just thought…” She shook her head, still furious at her own idiocy.

  She’d put too much faith in Evan. How many times would she make that mistake—putting too much faith in a man?

  She motioned for Ness’s right foot and Ness lifted it to her. Juliet quickly slipped her own boot onto Ness’s foot, her words flying. “There are coins in the heel. There is a flap on the inside under the leather. There is more than enough to get off the mail coach at any town along the way and hire a carriage to London—but if you can stand it, stay on the mail coach. It is the quickest way to London with the fewest witnesses. You’ll be there in days and it will keep you the safest.”

  Panic agitated Ness’s right arm, her fingers twitching. “But what do I do once I’m there?”

  “You get to Talen Blackstone.” She tightened the laces on the boot. “You’ve never been to London, correct?”

  Ness shook her head.

  “Ask anyone where Seven Dials is. The driver will
know. Go there and ask any vendor for Blackstone and they will point you to him. It’s not a good area and it will scare you.” She considered for a short moment strapping her dagger to Ness’s leg. But with her broken arm and left eye swollen shut, Ness pulling a dagger on anyone would not turn out well for her friend.

  She dropped Ness’s foot to the ground and tugged the front of Ness’s skirt down. “Once you get to Talen Blackstone, he is the one that can protect you from anything, no matter what. Gilroy could bring an army for you and Blackstone wouldn’t blink. He owns that area and no one in London is going to cross him.”

  “Talen Blackstone. Talen Blackstone. Talen Blackstone.” Ness’s good eye closed as she repeated the name, memorizing it. Her eye flew open. “What do I tell him?”

  “Tell him I sent you. Tell him he’s to protect you, that you’re calling in a favor he owes me.”

  “What is the favor?”

  “The Selkie South Brothel.” Juliet hunched over and slipped Ness’s boot onto her own right foot. A little small, but better that Ness had extra space in her boot than the reverse. “Blackstone will know exactly what I’m referring to and he knows there will be hell to pay if he doesn’t help you.”

  Ness’s jaw dropped, her swollen bottom lip only allowing the tiniest crack of her mouth. “Who are you, Juliet? You keep coins in your boot. A dagger on your leg. How do you know people like this?”

  “I’m just someone that knows the wrong sort of people.” She grabbed Ness’s right elbow and lifted her to her feet. “That, in this instance, are the right sort of people. There’s no time to write it before you get on the mail coach, but I’ll post a letter to Blackstone today to explain everything. With luck it will get there shortly after you do.”

  After a quick survey of the people on the busy street, Juliet ushered Ness out of the close and moved along the street toward the mail coach. A passerby nudged into Ness’s left arm and a half-squelched squeal escaped from her lips.