“Then why do you keep trying to take responsibility for what happened to you?”
He shrugged.
She raised her face for a kiss, and he took her mouth gently, but possessively. He drew back and blew out a breath.
“I didn’t know if you’d still want me.”
“Why on earth would I reject you after you trusted me with that?”
“Submissive women don’t like weak men.”
“Anyone who acts like they’re not vulnerable – that they’ve never been hurt – is lying. I don’t want there to be lies between us.”
He twirled her hair around his finger then watched it unravel again. “So you really don’t care?”
“Don’t care?” she echoed, her tone cold. “Oh, I fucking care. I want to take a trip over to that bitch’s house and beat the ever-loving crap out of her.” She felt her fists curling but was helpless to stop her reaction.
He smiled then smoothed her hair back affectionately. “Sutton wanted to go after I told her, but I refused. My mother is a calculating woman with enough money and influence to make her own child disappear. I can’t find anything much about my family online – not even my sisters. I assume the money comes from criminal activity. Sending Sutton there... What was she going to do? Knit my mother an angry sweater?”
“I’ll go over there myself and eviscerate her with Sutton’s knitting needles.”
He chuckled, but the humor didn’t reach his eyes. “Someday maybe I’ll go speak to her – but not now. Someday when you and I are settled, and my head is on straight. I have to find my sisters and make sure they’re okay. I tried to do it from here, but every effort I’ve made through investigators gets stonewalled.”
“I’ll go with you. We’ll figure it out.”
“There’s nothing much to figure out. Just a person to tell off and two others to check on.” He closed his eyes. “It’s not like I can go back in time and fix things.”
Chapter Sixteen
The letter arrived in a plain white envelope, hand addressed to S Leduc. Tucked in the midst of several letters of business, Minnow hadn’t noticed it when she left them on his desk, but it probably wouldn’t have drawn her eye the way it did to Severin.
The sender’s handwriting was too similar to his own.
He held the letter at arm’s length, his guts churning, then turned in his chair to suspend the thing over the fire. Burn it? Open it?
Gilbert and Montague roused from their nap in front of the hearth to look up at him then wagged their tails uncertainly. Together, the two of them were already big enough to pass as an overly alert bear rug.
“What would you do?” he asked them.
Both dogs cocked their heads to the side as though they were contemplating his dilemma, but diplomatically chose not to answer.
Minnow paused in the doorway, trailed by Harvey and Theodore. The dogs already came to her knee and they weren’t yet full grown. Husky, German Shepherd, and probably a few other things. He’d taken to calling them the hellhounds.
“Mister Leduc?”
“Come here.” He put the envelope on the desk, then wiped his hand on his jeans, as though holding it had left a taint.
The girl stopped at his knees, just short of touching him, and folded into a graceful kneel. Her canine attendants flopped on the floor behind her in front of the fire with their brothers.
“What’s wrong, Master?”
“A letter. From someone in my original family.”
She gazed over at his desk, brows lowered in distaste. “You can tell from the postmark?”
He hadn’t even thought to check it. “Read or burn?”
“Can you tell who it’s from? Maybe it’s from one of your sisters?” she asked hopefully.