He may have fooled everyone else, but not me. His boldness would falter, and he would fail. And the consequences would destroy us all. I had to get her back, to somehow remedy the situation, but I was out of plays. I had to wait for other pieces to go into motion before I could make a move. I chafed at the waiting, just as I always had.
“Look at that motherfucker.” Lucius shot his hand out toward Gavin.
Gavin smiled down at Stella, genuine pleasure at seeing her written all over his handsome face. I wanted to break his nose. It was ridiculous, that aggression, that need to keep her to myself. But it was there and I couldn’t ignore it. I’d done far worse than beat a man over a slight, but I’d never fought over a woman. Not until Stella. I swallowed more of the bitterness, letting it run down to my center and mix with my own.
“I still want to fuck that guy up.” Lucius slammed his glass down. “Is it against the rules if no one sees us do it?”
I wanted to say we could take Gavin out back and bloody him for even speaking to Stella. That we could end him and dust off our hands like we’d just taken out the trash. But we couldn’t. Too much was at stake to break the rules now.
The rules. I shook my head and finished my drink.
“You don’t know what you’ve done.” I said it too softly for my brother to hear me over the din. But the words were true.
Lucius had taken my spot in hell. He just didn’t realize it yet.
Chapter Nine
Stella
“I get three squares a day and a bed. That’s more than I got when I was on the streets.” Gavin shrugged, his eyes a deep amber. “I don’t even see Bob. I saw him for the ball. Otherwise, I sort of have the run of the guest house on his property. Nobody bothers me. I guess I could try to run, but he’s assured me he’d find me and drag me back. Nowhere to go even if I did. I’m just going to see it through. I don’t really have any other option at this point.” He sighed. “How about you? How’d you get talked into this?”
I sipped the drink he’d handed me. “Betrayal, deceit, lies, and a contract. Same song, different verse.”
“I get it. Trust me, I do.” He glanced around, the glaring strobe flashing in his face, making him ghostly one second and solid the next. “Hey, do you want to get out of this room? Go somewhere we can talk without so much noise and so many ears?”
“Yes, please.” The cacophony of music and the blur of bodies was overwhelming, and I couldn’t help but notice some of the guests pointing at Gavin and me. They knew who we were.
He took my hand and pulled me through the dance floor, past the frenetic dancers and the sex performers. The hall still thumped from the beat within the ballroom, but it was calmer. Delving further into the house, we turned a corner and found a small alcove backed with a stained glass window in a floral pattern. We sat on the window seat thigh to thigh, both silent as our senses became accustomed to the light and freedom from prying eyes. He was warm next to me, his body heat seeping into my bare leg that was revealed by the high slit.
“You look beautiful tonight, by the way.” He leaned back and let his head rest against the panes.
“Thanks. You do, too. Handsome, I mean.” I followed his lead, leaning out of sight from anyone further down the hall.
“Thanks.”
I glanced up at him, his eyes even warmer now that light reflected from them. “Are we going to survive?”
“Yes.” He answered so quickly that I wondered if he misheard my question.
“How do you know?”
“I’ve always been a survivor, and something tells me you have, too.”
I wobbled my head back and forth on the glass. “No, I’ve given up before.”
“Maybe, but I knew the moment I saw you at the ball that you had steel in your spine. The way you stared out into the crowd as if you were above all of them, the way you tried to help Brianne, the way you took the…”
“The whipping?”
He nodded and his hand found mine. “I don’t remember much of that night. Maybe I blocked it out, but I do remember how strong you were, how I wished I could be strong like that, too.”
“I think you have me confused with some other helpless woman caught in an antiquated trial for supremacy among rich sadists.”
He snorted and squeezed my hand. “No, it’s you. And nothing about you is helpless.”
“Don’t let the jewels fool you. I’m just as caged as you are.”