Sachelle’s eyes slide away from my face and glisten with tears. “I might have got my cousin killed. I’ll never forgive myself.”
I step forward and take her in my arms. “Briar’s fine. She doesn’t hold anything against you, so you shouldn’t either.”
For a moment, she leans against my chest, her whole body quaking.
“You should have arrested me so many times,” she whispers. “Why have you allowed me to go free?”
I smile to myself as I remember. “The tissues.”
Sachelle looks up at me. “Pardon?”
I stroke her cheek. Every time I look at her, she seems to grow more beautiful. “That evening I came here and Lord Anthony bashed me in the nose. You offered me tissues as I sat bleeding on your staircase. You were kind to me, your number one enemy in Paravel if you truly were a radical anti-Royalist.”
After a second, she smiles. “You looked so annoyed sitting on those stairs. I felt sorry for you, getting caught up in our family squabble. But didn’t you wonder if maybe I’m just a really good actor?”
I shake my head. “I trusted my instincts about you. I watched you closely at every meeting after, and you can’t fake some things. Blushes. Tears.” I lower my mouth and kiss her lips. “Being aroused by me.”
Slowly, she kisses me back. I think it’s the first time I’ve kissed her without having to ambush her first. The first time I’ve kissed her when I can feel that she likes me as well as wants me.
Maybe even…loves me? Do I dare hope that the affection she feels right now might run that deep?
Sachelle breaks the kiss and takes a shuddering breath. “You’re not the man who I thought you were.”
I smile down into my bride’s face. “You seemed to hate my guts, so I’ll take that as a good thing. Come home with me?”
Sachelle glances toward the house, biting her lip. “I want to, but I don’t dare. I should pretend to be a virginal little daughter from now on. Mum and Dad are furious with me. This afternoon they tried to persuade me to break off the engagement with you and I…wouldn’t let them.”
I smile wider, and my heart nearly bursts open at the thought of her standing up to her parents for me. I would have loved to see that. Meantime, we’ll just have to find creative ways to spend private time together.
“What’s going to happen to Briar?” she asks.
I kiss her softly. “Eventually, if we don’t catch Tieman, she’ll go into some sort of witness protection program. Right now we don’t have any such thing in this country, so the safest place for her is that City Guard station. And I’m going to catch Tieman.”
There’s no other way to make sure Sachelle is safe. I’ll tear the country apart looking for him if I have to.
In my pocket, my phone rings, and I dig it out. “Yes?”
One of the sergeants in the City Guard informs me that they have CCTV footage of the truck that nearly killed Sachelle and me being stolen, and a witness thinks they saw the thief come out of an abandoned block of apartments. It’s not much, but it’s enough to warrant us immediately searching the building.
“I have to go, little fox. Something’s come up.”
“Is it to do with Tieman?”
It fucking better be. I’ll sleep easier once that asshole is in a jail cell. “I can’t tell you.”
She sighs. “I understand. You don’t trust me after everything that’s happened.”
I grasp her upper arms. “No. This has nothing to do with trust. If I tell you something and one of my men dies, or I’m killed, then what will you feel then? You’ll worry it’s your fault somehow. Or I’ll be distracted, wondering if someone’s kidnapped you and is hurting you to get information about what I’m doing.”
“All right, but can you stop holding me like that?”
“Reynard Desjardins went blabbing to his lovers and got himself fucking killed along with the Levanter brothers. Secrecy is how this works. Secrecy is how it has to work.”
It always has, but now I have someone who actually matters to me and needs to be protected. It fills me with fury when I remember Desjardins’ carelessness, but looking into Sachelle’s big, hurt eyes, I can almost see how the occasional secret might have slipped out.
Almost fucking see it.
“Jakob, you’re hurting me.”
“You’re not to leave this house tonight, do you understand? If you don’t do as you’re told, I’ll lock you up like Briar.”
She glares up at me. “You managed to be a human being for about five minutes there, but now you’re back to being an asshole again.”
“When I’m not like this, people die.” I kiss her hard, and feel her struggle in my grip. “Now get inside. I have to go.”
Sachelle pulls herself out of my grip and turns on her heel. “You can do your job without treating me like an object you have to lock up in a box, only taking me out to play with me.”