Page 8 of The Scandal You Started
“Zack was a man,” River muttered almost to himself.
Rayna glanced at the slim man at the head of the table, who was her colleague and her best friend Kelly’s fiancé. His grey eyes seemed to startle when he realised everyone was looking at him, and he pulled his hands out of his chino pockets.
River cleared his throat. “I mean the perceived threat of a man is greater, which is probably why Lord Norland reacted with violence. But we haven’t let him speak to a woman yet. And considering what I know about him and his upbringing, he’s unlikely to react to Rayna with the same violence.”
“River’s right,” George agreed. “Lord Norland is meant to be a gentleman, so he might calm down quicker if he knows he’s facing a woman.”
Rayna’s brain stuttered on the spot, trying to figure out if she was supposed to be offended by their insinuation or not, but she swatted the thought away and let conviction spread her shoulders. “We have to try, V.”
The line between Victor’s brows turned into a deep trench. After a moment, he shuffled on his feet, shaking his head almost pleadingly. “Rayna...no. No, I won’t let you. It’s not safe.”
His resolve was visibly weakening, so she gave one last push. “I know you’re worried, but you have to let me. Keeping him in there any longer is cruel and isn’t fair on everyone else observing him either. And if this is the only way, then let me at least try.”
“We can have the guards on standby right outside the room,” Monty added.
Victor ran a hand down his jaw, then over his hair, continuously shaking his head, physically refusing the idea. But eventually, his movements slowed to a stop, and he let out a fiercely displeased exhale.
“Ten minutes,” he grumbled. “You get ten minutes with him. That’s it. And if he lays one finger on you, I’m pulling you out immediately.”
Chapter 3
Rayna
“You give me the signal as soon as he touches you, okay?” Victor said, standing on the other side of the tray Rayna was holding, with a tightness bunching his face.
“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “We agreed I’d give the signal when I want out.”
“No—”
“V, you have to trust me for this to work. The same way I trust you’ll get me out if anything goes wrong. But you have to give me enough time with him first.”
He rubbed his teeth together like he wanted to argue, the faint crow’s feet around his eyes playing hide-and-seek repeatedly until he let out a heavy sigh. “You’re the reason Ash keeps telling me my blood pressure is dangerously high. Do you know that?”
A startled chuckle flooded out of Rayna. She flashed him an audacious grin. “Ash needs to keep his mouth shut, andyou, V, need to stop spiking your own blood pressure by worrying about things you can’t control.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “You. I can’t control you, you reckless child. And as proud as I am, I worry that Yasmin’s cursing my soul for all the things I’ve let you get away with.”
Rayna’s chest expanded with warmth even as a dull twinge clung to her ribs. “No, she’s not,” she said softly. “Mum would be grateful for all you’ve done to raise me, and you know that.”
Victor’s smile didn’t move an inch, but sorrow glazed over his eyes, as heartbreaking as it always was. Rayna was beginning to wonder if there was ever going to come a day when he stopped wearing that look whenever they talked about her mother.
He blinked, and the deep sadness faded to the back of his stare. “Promise me you’ll give me the signal.”
“I promise.”
Satisfied with her reply, Victor walked around her in the wide corridor outside Lord Norland’s quarantine room. She swivelled with him to face the single metal door, being careful not to tip the glass of water next to the covered plate of food and spoon on the tray.
Reaching for the small, square scanner on the wall, he pressed his thumb to the reader, and a click emanated from the metal door. As Victor stepped back, Rayna freed one hand and slowly pushed it open.
The moment she stepped into the brightly lit room, the door automatically shut behind her, sealing her in the eerily silent space.
Her lungs deflated like a pierced balloon.
Bloody woods…
Forget that she could feel the fierce presence of the room’s occupant burning into her side far more than she could see him from the corner of her eye, but the usually clean quarantine room looked just as scarred as everyone who had been dealing with Lord Norland outside of it.
Designed like a spacious, rectangular hospital room with white painted walls, blue laminate flooring, and cool ceiling spotlights, there was a sink opposite Rayna with a small mirror above it on the wall, and a cup with a toothbrush and tube of paste in it by the silver tap.
