Page 103 of Devil in Her Details

“You are so impossible! You can’t mean to carry me the whole way.”

“The hallway is dangerous,” came his instant response as he opened the door. “I can only protect you if you stick this close to me.”

Thankfully, the dangerous hallway was empty, and Lilly resigned herself to the fate of being carried. Which wasn’t a hardship at all. And everyone still seemed to be asleep. And in that case . . . she buried her face in his neck and inhaled deeply.

So comforting.

She was, however, wrong about one thing.

Everyone was very much awake.

And gathered in the public room.

Lilly’s face burst into flames when she met this sight. But she didn’t have time to be embarrassed, for a voice boomed before she could translate the worried expressions directed her and Dagger’s way.

“Lilly Trenton! What the devil have you been up to? And what in Christ’s name have you been doing all night?”

A cold chill swept through her.

Slowly, she turned her head to a figure she hadn’t noticed before that very moment.

Her brother.

Carlisle stood in the center of the room, hat in hand, travel-dusty and visibly haggard. He took in the scene before him, and Lilly flinched, knowing what he saw—his sister, being carried by a large, rumpled, and probably gloomy-faced man surrounded by an entire pack of more dangerous-looking family members. Her brother’s face flashed through various expressions in rapid succession before settling on the one Lilly could never mistake.

Molten fury.

She scrambled from Dagger’s hold, and to her relief, he set her down without complaint and without word.

“Carlisle!” She smoothed her skirts, bewildered and shocked to her core that her brother should appear in Peregrine’s of all places. “What are you doing here?”

“Those are your first words to me?” His face darkened even more. “Have you completely lost your mind? Taking up with a band of ruffians!”

“Never been called that,” Reaper muttered mockingly. “Only every other day.”

Saint whacked him over the head but otherwise said nothing. The others remained still and silent, too. Watching.

“I . . .” Her eyes flicked between Carlisle and Dagger, who had not moved from her side, and all the others who had their eyes on her. “I can explain.”

“Please do,” her brother growled.

“Well, everyone,” mostly Dagger, “this is my brother, Carlisle. Carlisle, meet the Furys.” Think, Lilly! “They aren’t ruffians. They run . . . several businesses here in Brighton and have been kind enough to help me in a time of need.”

Carlisle tossed a paper onto the table nearest to him. “You mean help you with Calvington.”

Her eyes widened on the familiar newspaper page. “That was only supposed to come out today. How did you . . .?” Her voice trailed off at her brother’s glare.

“This was delivered to me by name two days ago. Sent by that blackguard, no doubt. Is there any truth to this claim?”

Calvington, that coxcomb! He was truly on a quest to annoy her to death. How on earth did she explain this to her brother? “I mean—”

“So yes. It’s true.”

Lilly’s temper sparked. “I was in need of protection, so I hired protection. What would you have me do?”

“I’d have you return home!” Carlisle’s gaze moved to Dagger. “This is the man you hired, I presume.”

“Yes, this is Dagger. The man I . . . hired.” The grimaced at how wrong that sounded. This was the riddle of Dagger. She had no idea what he was. He wasn’t simply a client, though that was where it had started. He wasn’t her protector, exactly, though he was that too. He was the man whose shirt she had slept in. The man who had kissed her senseless. The man who gave in to her every demand. He was . . . all the things and yet none of the things.