Page 36 of Kept to Kill
‘Just because I’m safe, doesn’t mean you are,’ he murmured.
Quin frowned. ‘So?’
Bastian gave him a relaxed glance. ‘Well, we saw how quickly things can go wrong in the heat of the moment. If I wasn’t immune to her, I’d be dead by now. If it had been either of you …’ He trailed off. ‘It was only luck that it wasn’t.’
‘And what do you propose we do to mitigate the risk?’
‘Bind her to us,’ Bastian said simply.
A strangled sound came from Mal.
‘Unusual to make a Fourth in such a circumstance,’ Quin said, clearly gauging his reaction.
‘No better circumstance than survival,’ Bastian said with a frosty smile, as if he truly didn’t care. But if Lily was bound, Mal wouldn’t be able to hurt her easily and Quin might even be able to stop him entirely.
He heard Lily clamber out of the water. She stood unmoving, it sounded like, for ages before Bastian realized the problem.
‘She doesn’t have anything to dry herself with,’ Bastian murmured, hoping she wouldn’t hear him. He’d done enough. He didn’t want to humiliate her as well.
Quin cursed, grabbed one of the large folded cloths from the stand by the casement and, not looking, handed it to her from the other side of the divider.
A moment later she teetered across the room and sat heavily on one of the beds, staring at the floor, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. She was shaking, Bastian saw. His fault. He’d done his share of vile things in his life, but he’d never felt like such a cold-hearted bastard as he did at this moment.
Quin took a fresh cloth and disappeared behind the curtain next while Bastian and Mal glowered across the table at each other.
Bastian sneered at him and Mal stared darkly back, neither of them willing to be the first to look away.
‘I didn’t know you could talk,’ Bastian said conversationally.
Mal shrugged.
‘Why did you decide to start?’
Mal didn’t say anything, but, for a split second, his eyes darted to Lily before coming back to Bastian.He wants to speak to her. Interesting.
Then Mal spoke quietly through his clenched teeth. ‘Wanted to call you a cunt out loud,’ he growled low.
Bastian guffawed loudly; he couldn’t help it. ‘Fuck you too.’ He chuckled and laughed harder at the look of furious disbelief on Mad Mal’s face. He was sure this was the first real emotion he’d seen from his silent Brother during all these weeks. Perhaps Mal wouldn’t conspire to get around the wards and kill him after all. Stranger things had happened … ornothappened as the case may be.
There was a knock on the door and the woman from earlier entered bringing their dinner, one of her girls trailing behind her with the second tray. The older one glanced at Lily sitting on the bed and Bastian noticed a concerned look that she quickly wiped from her face when she looked at the men at the table.
She crossed the room in silence and put their suppers out on the table. The girl left quickly, but the elder stayed, approaching Lily, who, when she noticed, tensed.
‘Can I have your clothes laundered for you? Perhaps bring you up a nightgown to wear?’ she asked. Then, drifting closer, she murmured something too soft for Bastian to hear.
Lily nodded, then her gaze locked with theirs for a moment before she shook her head.
‘Very well. If you’re sure. I’ll have it brought up. Or, if you’d like, you could sleep downstairs with my daughters in their room. Might be a bit more,’ she gave a delicate cough, ‘proper.’
‘She stays here,’ said Quin, his booming voice resonating through the room as he emerged from behind the curtain.
The woman stepped back with a small shriek and a hand on her chest, but Bastian noticed that Lily’s eyes drifted over their commander’s broad arms and chest and down lower to where the cloth was wrapped around his waist and his large tattoo disappeared. She looked away quickly, her cheeks coloring, but she was interested, that was certain.
‘Oh, sir!’ the woman gasped. ‘Forgive me! I didn’t know you were there.’
‘The woman stays with us,’ Quin said again, thrusting Lily’s soiled clothes that she’d left on the floor before her bath into the woman’s hands. She took them without comment, giving Lily a look that Bastian couldn’t discern, before leaving quickly and shutting the door quietly behind her.
‘What did she say to you?’ Quin said coldly.
