Page 56 of The Wolf

“You lied about your name,” Brine said, his voice practically agreeable. “Why?”

“I didn’t lie,” she replied, careful to keep close to the door, with the table between herself and Brine should she really have to escape. One could never be too careful. “Many in Betraz call me Red.”

“Because of the cloak?”

She nodded. And because Arwen wanted to strip one more precious thing from Scarlet.

The name her parents bestowed upon her.

“I’ve heard of you,” Brine said, carefully impassive. Scarlet reckoned that if she could hear his heartbeat, Brine would be keeping it at a steady pace, even though her own was racing. He crossed his arms over his chest as if sensing where Scarlet’s thoughts had wandered, then said, “Or what seems likeseveralwomen dressed in red cloaks, since their motives and actions are so different. So which one is the truth—is it only you, or are there others?”

“Why would I tell you?” Scarlet replied, though she was pleased by Brine’s supposition. It had been what she was hoping most people would think when she began helping out the obviously poor and good people who aided the Hood in their attempts to aid the smallfolk of Merjeri province.

“We were friends before.”

Lies.

“Friends don’t leave friends,” she retorted, before she could help herself. She snapped her mouth shut.

This was the most emotion she’d allowed herself to show in front of Brine so far—in front of anyone, in reality—and it was because he had left her? She’d never evenaskedBrine to bring her with him. She was just a little girl with a crush on an older boy.

Had her young heart been broken since then?

Brine took a step toward her and paused when she wrapped her fingers around the doorknob. He leaned back on his left leg, uncrossed his arms and placed his hands on his hips, as if the conversation they were having was casual and relaxed.

“So you do remember me,” he murmured.

“What of it?”

“In the reception hall, you did your damnedest to look right through me.”

“That meeting was about you not me.”

“I’ll give you that. So what is your agenda, then? Why did I find you surrounded by explosives on your stepmother’s ship?”

He was baiting her. Two could play that game. “And you would believe I was there to do that because…?”

There was a ripple of something across Brine’s expression then. Annoyance, perhaps. After all, he had only seen Scarlet hiding behind a barrel. She hadn’t had a match or flame out. She hadn’t even opened a barrel. So why would he have thought she was blowing up the ship?

Unless he had been there to do that. Unless that was onhismind.

Leverage. Maybe he wouldn’t hold all the power over her now.

Time to rattle him.

“What are you really doing here?” Scarlet demanded, closing the distance between them. Surprise flashed across Brine’s face. Toe-to-toe, she had to look up at him, but she knew her closeness was the easiest way to throw Brine off. For one thing, she’d learned over their last few interactions that there was something about her that the wolf was helpless against.

Her heart thundered in her chest, blood rushing in her ears as she placed a hand on his broad, muscular chest. “Why did you come back?”

He placed his hand over hers, skating his claws gently over her delicate skin. “Oh, what games are you playing, little red?”

An unfamiliar thrill raced through her blood and caused her stomach to flip. She leaned into him, pressing their hands between their bodies. “Any game you like, if you give me what I need.”

Brine gulped. The curve of his throat bobbed, and his ears twitched in agitation, his eyes dropping to her lips. She took in every motion, hoping that just one more second close to him, then another, then another, would cause Brine to reveal the truth.

“Do we have a deal?” she whispered, fighting the urge to succumb to the incorrigible desire held within her to touch him. He was just so warm and big.

Yet the wolf said nothing.

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