Page 69 of Duke of Seduction

“I have my moments,” he agreed.

“It was you?”Duncan seethed, slowly removing his mask from his scarred face, his eyes wide with fury.

“Youdid this?”

“It was payback for what they did to me,” Reuben answered venomously, sneering derisively as he looked at Duncan’s scars.

“If your brothers had genuinely loved you, they would have let you die from your wounds rather than live out the rest of your life in such a state of ugliness. It is not my fault they were weak.”

Time seemed to slow as Helena bore witness to the flurry of horror that unfolded before her. Though he was a large man, Reuben propelled himself at Helena with great speed, avoiding her brothers’ rage-filled lunges. Helena’s weakened body was painfully crushed against Reuben’s foul-smelling chest as his meaty fingers wrapped painfully around her throat.

Helena choked from the lack of oxygen and true fear overcame her.

She gnashed her teeth and pursed her lips when she felt a small bottle being pushed into her mouth. Reuben’s meaty hand moved from her throat, forced her jaw open and jammed the bottle into her mouth.

“Take one more step and I will kill her,” Reuben growled.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“Nightshade,” Reuben ground out, glaring from one brother to the next, his hate-filled eyes stopping on Morgan.

Blood pounded in Morgan’s temples as he froze in place.

“A little at a time just makes you more… susceptible. All of it though… I am told it is quite a painful, horrible way to die,” Morgan’s body flinched as Reuben held fast to Helena. “Much more than this spoiled brat deserves.”

“The authorities are already on their way,” Ezra said, his deep voice a slick promise of death. “We instructed our driver to fetch them as soon as we got here. There is no walking away from this.”

“Let her go,” Ambrose pleaded, his hands outstretched towards his sister. “She has nothing to do with this.”

“Your fathers owed me a fortune. Luke was to use her to get into your business deals and corrupt them from within so that we could make him look like your savior. He was supposed to take your money and come to me. Then it would have been done,” Reuben stated.

Morgan stayed silent, watching Reuben warily as he waited for his opportunity.

“That’s between you and us, not Helena,” Ambrose insisted. “She is innocent, let her go!”

Reuben chuckled wickedly as he shook his head.

“Innocent? Hardly. She has been sneaking out at night, meetingthisfool. He has taken her to theDevil’s Masquerade,you know. I heard they put on quite a show.”

For the first time since the evening had begun, Morgan lost focus. He felt Ambrose’s look of pure betrayal bore into him, felt his own shame slash through him as though he were a flimsy sheet of paper. He had promised Helena that her secrets were safe with him but, all the while, someone had been watching them. His eyes once again focused on Helena and Helena alone, silently begging her for forgiveness.

“I thought it was perfect,” Reuben went on. “Thought that at least Luke would finally have a little fun. She is so prim and proper during the day, butmy,after how she…opened upfor your friend here, I thought Luke could also have his way with her. But do you know what he told me? He said she was as cold as ice and as fearful of the bed as any other maiden. As a father I felt badly for my son, so I gave him this to use, but she was too strong-willed to fall under its full influence.”

Reuben then pulled the bottle of nightshade from Helena’s lips and forced her to look up at him.

“If my son was unable to break you, I was ready to embrace the challenge,” he whispered wickedly, bringing her face close to his.

Morgan felt his rage flare into white-hot flames before it pinpointed its intended target. He flew forward as he unsheathed his dagger. Like a dancer, he dipped under Reuben’s arm, slashing the wrist of the hand that held the nightshade. A roar of pain blasted from Reuben, directly into Helena’s ear as his hand unclenched the bottle of poison.

Predicting that Reuben would reflexively pull Helena closer to him, Morgan switched his dagger to his other hand and delivered a deep, severing slash to the tendons of his right thigh. As the nerves freed from their restraints, Reuben immediately released his hold on Helena, and Morgan caught her.

From behind him, Ezra, Duncan and Ambrose rushed forward, fists flying into Reuben as he struggled to stay on his knees, his hand pressed against his bleeding thigh.

“Look at me,” Morgan commanded, letting his dagger tumble out of his hand as he took Helena away from the beating. He knelt down a few feet away, both arms wrapped around her as his hands searched her body for injuries.

“Are you hurt?”

Helena obeyed his command and looked at him. Morgan choked on a sob as he saw the relief and adoration in her eyes.

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