Page 43 of The Devil Himself
“Good God.” Rys blinked. “Can she even see to cook?”
“The current hypothesis is no.” Luc stared at him, expression serious. “What now?”
“Now we make sure Hannah and her girls are safe. Then we send word to Sauce Box Joe that they’ve come after me, and I give him leave to hire more protection for Gareth. And then? We draw out Daffyd and Arthur. We take the fight to them. I’m sick of waiting.”
Luc nodded. “I’m with you, Rys. You know this, yes?”
“Yes. And tonight, I will do more, but I must apologize now for how I acted this morning. I’m sorry, Luc. I did not mean to be so out of sorts and take it out on you.”
“Thank you. That means a lot.” Luc’s lips twitched into a small, wicked smile. “You can elaborate on that theme at will this evening.”
“Mmm.” He sipped his coffee, the adrenaline starting to fade, his arm throbbing a bit. “Let me send word to Harris at the club, as well. He’ll need to be on guard for possible sabotage.My brothers can be entirely petty. If they missed with me, they might try to damage my business.”
“So you weren’t joking.” Luc forked up some fluffy scrambled eggs. “That’s madness. They’re not well in the head, Rys.”
“No. No, they’re not. And I intend to make sure they don’t hurt anyone else.”
Seventeen
Julian, or Warrington as his title demanded, arrived the next day for breakfast, which didn’t surprise Luc at all. He had, in fact, expected him earlier, but he supposed moving Hannah in with Julian’s aunt had been an all-day affair. Jules had gotten their message and sent one in return that he would see them once Hannah was safe. And then he’d moved a gaggle of females. Women, by the dictates of society, had so many more worries than a man. A stay at his club required no forethought, as no one would remark on him wearing his evening kit home, but if a woman wore the same dress twice, the scandal sheets took her to task.
“So many bags,” Jules moaned, filling his plate with a rasher of bacon while Rys smirked at him over his coffee.
“Well, we appreciate your help.” Luc knew Jules needed a bit of encouraging flattery. It was one of his best characteristics, actually, because it made him strive to be a good man.
“You had better.” Julian came to sit, smiling at the footman who pulled out his chair, then rushed to fill his coffee. “Now. Enlighten me as to what you’ve found out. What is the great emergency?”
He looked at Rys, who inclined his head a tiny bit. “Well, we know that they’re desperate. They attacked Rys right in front of the house yesterday.”
“Good lord.” Jules paused with his cup halfway to his mouth. “This is why you sent Hannah and the girls to my aunt?”
“Yes. They’re losing the thread, I think,” Rys said. “Nothing has gone right for them since Luc asked me to join in on looking into it.”
Julian’s eyes widened. “Your son, Luc. Is he safe?”
“As safe as I can make him at school, yes, but I don’t want to disrupt his life any more than I have to. I really think they’re focused on Gareth and Hannah and the girls.” He was betting on it, in fact, but Damien was under guard.
“So where are we, then, really?” Julian munched his bacon with enthusiasm. “Fill me in.”
Rys chuckled. “Well, we know that Daffyd and Arthur are both saying that in a week or so, now, they will come into a great deal of money. I am told by a reliable source that Daffyd really does intend to force Hannah into marriage. When he told me that, I thought it was bluster, but a ladybird assures me he’s told others. That would give him actual control over Gareth’s inheritance as his stepfather.” Rys was ticking things off on his long, well-shaped fingers, and Luc watched, fascinated by them.
“But Gareth would still be the marquess,” Julian pointed out.
“Until he fell down the stairs or fell off a horse or something equally ridiculous,” Luc put in. He hated the idea of those men having more access to Owen’s wife and children than they did now.
“And we know that after I saw Daffyd at Dionysus, and after my man bought the property they were selling, thinking no one would know, someone tried to kill me on the street in front of my damn house,” Rys said. He sipped his coffee. “So, we’re pushing in the right direction.”
“Indeed.” Luc pondered that. “But we need to push harder. We need to get them to make an obvious move. One that can be used to send them off to gaol.”
“Or ship them off to Australia. I’m sure they would do quite well there,” Rys said, his tone venomous.
“No doubt.” Jules waved his fork in the air, the fat sausage on it rather ridiculous. “All right, so, we’ve taken Hannah out of reach for now. What way will the pieces fall from that?”
Luc looked at Rys, who tapped his forefinger on the table. “That’s a good question. I’ll call in my lead man on the detail following Arthur and Daffyd and look at their movements. I admit, I was a bit scattered yesterday.”
Rys gave him a smoldering glance that told Luc that Rys thought he was more to blame for that than the small wound in his arm was.
Julian munched, looking back and forth between them with glittering dark eyes, a small smile playing on his lips as he wiped them with his napkin. “Like that for both of you now, is it?”
