Lake helped me gather ingredients from the pantry. Along with the porridge, we’d have biscuits and cinnamon and raisin muffins. As I mixed batter for the biscuits, I shot glances at Maddox and Rowan. They stood several feet apart, looking in opposite directions. Like children who’d gotten in trouble and were now forced to make amends.
Rowan had kidnapped me. That was something none of my men could forgive so easily. It wasn’t fair for me to ask them to. Being civil, however, wasn’t too much to ask for.
I hoped.
Once the biscuits and muffins were in the oven, I made three mugs of coffee and two cups of tea—Briar and Lake’s preference—and passed them out. The tension in the room was so thick not even the dagger strapped to Rowan’s thigh could slice through it.
I handed Maddox a mug, and he caught me around the waist, dropping a kiss to my head. God, he was so tall. “Don’t think you’re out of trouble yet, muffin. You could’ve been hurt.”
Rowan rolled his eyes before taking a drink of his coffee. He then studied the contents of the mug. “This is actually good.”
“Actually?” I huffed. “Glad to exceed your high expectations.”
“Expectations lead to disappointment. It’s best to toss them aside.” Rowan went in for another drink. “This would taste better with rum.”
“That would ruin it.”
“More for me, then.” Rowan pulled a flask from his pocket and added a generous amount to his coffee. He took a drink and nodded. “Better.”
“Rude,” I muttered. First, he’d refused to take even a nibble of the gingerbread cookie, and now he was using rum to mask the taste of the—better than “good”—coffee I’d so kindly made for him.
If Rowanwasone of the men destined for me, I had no clue what he saw in me.
The infuriatingly hot jerk then looked at my captain. “Should we get on with this?”
Maddox pressed another kiss into my hair before allowing me to pull away and return to my place at the stove. His eagerness for muffins probably aided in that decision. “You claim the enemy is already among us. How so? Where are they hiding?”
Drink in hand, Rowan slid onto a barstool at the kitchen island and brought one leg up, resting an arm on his knee. The golden cuff that held his long hair in place jangled. “You won’t like my answer.”
“Tell me anyway,” Maddox said. “Are they hiding out in the lower district?”
“No. You won’t find them in run-down houses or holed up somewhere on the outskirts of town. They’re in plain sight. Right under your nose, in fact.” Rowan’s gaze found mine. “You askedwhy I don’t trust anyone to protect you on your journey. It’s because there’s been an infiltration of the knights.”
“You lie,” Maddox growled, closing in on him. “The knights are a brotherhood. We fight and bleed together. Many have given their very lives for the cause. How dare you suggest that any of my men—”
“I’m not suggesting anything.” Rowan wasn’t fazed by his anger. “Simply stating a fact.”
“What do you mean by infiltration?” I asked. “Soldiers from Haran are disguised as knights? How did they get into the kingdom?”
“By my understanding, the plan has been in the works for quite some time.” Rowan drained more from his mug, then wiped at his mouth. “Some are recent recruits who are spread throughout the second and third orders. Others are established knights who switched allegiances. Traitors.”
“I should cut out your tongue for speaking such lies,” Maddox snapped.
“I speak the truth, whether you choose to believe it or not.”
Faces came to my mind. Callum, Duke, Baden, and Quincy. If traitors were among the ranks, my band of goofy and loveable knights were at risk. They expected the man fighting by their side to have their back. Not shove a knife into it.
“Believe you?” Maddox gritted his teeth. “Why should I? You come here unannounced and make accusations about my knights with no evidence to back up these claims.”
“Ah, but the evidence is already there. You just fail to see it.” Rowan placed his mug on the counter and rested his palm over the top. Almost like an impulsive action that came from his mistrust of those around him, covering his drink so no one could slip anything into it.
“Evidence, such as what?”
“That information will come at a price, Captain,” Rowan said with atsk. “I’ve shared all I’m willing to.”
“Which has been very little to convince me of your honesty.” Maddox squeezed his hand into a fist. “I should kill you where you sit and be done with it.”
“That’s not very chivalrous of you.”
