7
Mercy
“Jackass,”I muttered as I made my way upstairs. But as much of a jackass as he’d been, Wylder was right about one thing: I couldn’t very well present myself to Ezra Noble in my current ravaged state, smelling of his son.
I’d never had a problem enjoying sex as something purely physical before. Why the hell should it matter that Wylder had gone cold and distant the second our passion had flamed out?
But it was impossible to forget how he’d looked as he touched my cheek and swore to kill Colt, the intensity in his eyes as he’d pumped away inside me, his usual cool, commanding mask giving way to show something deeper inside.
But maybe I’d been mistaken about that. He hadn’t even asked me if I was okay or if it was good for me. Maybe the smug bastard already knew how much I had liked it. My pussy throbbed at the memory as if it wanted more of him. Traitorous body.
Well, it was done now, and it’d been fan-fucking-tastic sex while we’d been having it. I’d just focus on that and let the Noble heir do whatever he felt like doing with himself now. I certainly wasn’t doing him again while he was being such a prick.
Ducking into the second-floor bathroom, I checked myself in the mirror. As I’d expected, my hair was a total mess. I washed my face and then quickly hopped into the shower, hoping a quick shampoo and rubdown with soap would help me look presentable.
When I came back to the guest bedroom where I’d been staying in the mansion, I found Anthea waiting for me by my bed. She pointed at the neatly pressed pile of clothes on the covers. “My brother has summoned you,” she said, somehow managing to sound both wry and serious at the same time. “I thought you might need this.”
“Thanks so much,” I said gratefully. I had been wondering what I was going to wear to meet Ezra. The only clothes I had now were thrift store tees and jeans that weren’t going to generate much respect, and most of those had cooking oil stains on them courtesy of hostile groupies.
While Anthea waited, I quickly changed into the gray slacks and pearl-pink blouse she’d brought me. The outfit was too feminine and business-y for me to feel totally comfortable in it, but she knew her brother better than I did.
If I thought Wylder was a piece of work, his father was a whole other level of dangerous. He was the power behind the Nobles, the one who’d held them together and even expanded their reach beyond the boundaries of the county over the past couple of decades. What was he going to think of me?
I found myself staring down at the tee I’d just taken off, the fabric scrunched in my fist. My gaze lingered on the faint pattern of the oil stain that hadn’t quite washed out.
Anthea must have noticed it too. Her lips thinned. For a second, she looked oddly uncomfortable.
I braced myself, half-expecting some cutting remark to come out of her after all, to discover that her sudden turn-around on me could turn back just as quickly. Instead, she shook back her hair and sighed.
“Look,” she said. “About before, the things I said to you, the things I did… I was only looking out for Wylder and his boys, all right? It wasn’t anything personal. I didn’t know you. Most of the women who turn up here don’t have anything on their minds except getting as prominent a Noble as they can on the hook. It took me a while to see that there’s a lot more to you than that.”
Was that… an apology, from the deadly Anthea Noble? I managed to catch myself before I outright gaped at her. A smile tugged at my lips, a strange warmth unfurling in my chest.
No matter what an ass Wylder decided to be, I did have at least one friend here now. Which was one more than I’d ever been able to count on in my life before.
“I know,” I said. “I wish you’d seen it a little sooner, but—I’ve got bigger things to worry about than staying pissed off about that. Besides, you do make a really good breakfast. I’m happy staying on your good side and forgetting about the rest.”
Anthea laughed and gave me a sly look. “I wish I’d figured it out sooner too. You are going to make life around here much more interesting—I think in a good way.” She dragged in a breath. “Assuming Ezra doesn’t find any fault in you. Are you ready to go? He won’t like it if we keep him waiting very long.”
In my newfound ease with her, I realized there was one thing I wanted to ask her, and not out in the hall where any of Ezra’s underlings might overhear. “Anthea—Colt was talking as if someone had put him up to taking and torturing me. Do you think there’s any chance Ezra would have done something like that?”
I cringed inwardly as I asked, worried she’d get offended, but instead she knit her brow, her gaze turning thoughtful. At least she seemed to be seriously considering it, unlike Wylder who’d given the idea a kneejerk rejection I didn’t totally trust.
“I can see why you might wonder,” she said after a moment, “but I honestly don’t think so. If Ezra were upset with you or wanted information out of you, he’d have his own men handle it. He wouldn’t trust any other gang, especially one from the Bend, to do the job to his requirements. Why would he? Colt has nothing he wants, and he certainly wouldn’t feel the need to bargain with a man he considers below him.”
That all made sense. Even Wylder hadn’t seen Colt as a real threat for a long time, so it was hard to believe Ezra would be so frightened by him he’d make a deal rather than simply crushing him. I’d have to see how this meeting went, but a weight lifted from my chest. I swept my fingers over my hair one more time and nodded. “That’s good to know. All right, let’s go.”
Anthea led me down the hall toward the opposite wing of the house. I willed my heart not to beat too fast. Even if Ezra hadn’t been behind my kidnapping, he was still no one to be trifled with. “So, what’s he like? Your brother?”
Anthea hummed to herself. “It’s hard to put Ezra in a box. I can spout a whole lot of adjectives, but they really won’t do him any justice. You’ll see when you meet him.”
That was really encouraging. I held back a grimace. I’d only seen the head of the Nobles a few times at a distance when my dad had pointed him out around town. I’d heard the stories, though—horrifying ones about what happened to people who crossed him.
Anthea glanced at me, and her expression softened with a hint of sympathy. “Look, you should be fine. You solved a very large problem we were having and protected me while you were doing it. You just have to be a little careful about what you say.”
I wet my lips. “Okay. Careful how?”
“My brother is very particular, so tell him only the things that he’s asked of you. He has a way of twisting your words and then holding them against you. We don’t want that happening now, especially with how things stand with the Steel Knights.”