Page 46 of Devil in Her Details

Saint didn’t move. “We have more important things to deal with here.”

Dagger scoffed, willing his pulsating heart to calm before he made an irrevocable mistake. “When would you ever go back on the word you gave someone?”

“For family.”

“Don’t give me that shite. You’d never go back on your word. If you wanted this matter to be nipped in the bud, you shouldn’t have allowed Reaper to approach me. This is your fault as much as it is my oversight.” His gaze dropped to the coat he hadn’t noticed draped over Saint’s arms. His coat armed with daggers.

Saint tossed it at him. “Don’t move around without this anymore, or Maxen will skin your hide.”

Dagger scowled. Damn Maxen, and damn this entire bloody affair. “If you’re not going to help me, stay out of my way.”

“I am helping you.”

“You can sell that to anyone else, but not me. If you wanted to help, you would have come for me the moment you learned she was leaving.” That angered him the damn most. Maxen and Drake decide. They were the biggest damn culprits when it came to veering off the Fury path, and now they were trying to manage him? Why was Saint here, then, and not them?

Not a chance he bowed out now.

He’d already entered a contract with that lynx, verbal though it may be. Until she offered payment and ended their agreement, he would keep his end of the deal. It was no less than any one of his brothers would have done.

His temples started to throb, as did his body where that damn wretch had struck him. The thrill should be wearing off. It should also be wearing off for her as well. The more he thought about it, about her, his brothers, the more his damn rage sparked.

“Dagger.”

“Stay out of my way,” he growled, turning on his heel again. He needed to get out, get away, or he might do or say something he would regret later.

A hand clamped down on his shoulder and Dagger whirled, a dagger already in his hand as its blade lay without hesitation against Saint’s throat.

“I said. Stay. Away.”

His brother lifted his arms in surrender and stepped back.

Dagger held the blade there a moment longer—long enough to make his meaning plain—before lowering it. “Don’t bloody test me,” he said coldly. “You know better.”

Without waiting for a reply, he turned and strode for the door.

This was not over.

Not by half.

Chapter Ten

Lilly lay on her bed in the rented townhouse she’d taken in Brighton’s growing fashionable quarter near the seafront, staring at the canopy above, the events of the day replaying in her mind. Had she done the right thing by leaving the tavern? She and Dagger were from two different worlds, and she hadn’t fully grasped how different until her encounter with his brother. Saint. Lilly wondered if the other one, Knight, was still lurking outside in the shadows. Well, perhaps lurking wasn’t the best word. He had mentioned that he’d scout the surrounding neighborhood for any suspicious characters.

She ought to be grateful.

Instead, Lilly only felt guilt.

She couldn’t trust that they had her best interests at heart. Men like them only lived for their own interests. She was probably simply a novelty for Dagger. A forbidden intrigue.

Yes, she’d made the right choice.

But now . . . To get rid of Calvington once and for all. That was Lilly’s new mission. It would certainly distract her from thoughts of Dagger.

Her mind raced through all the prospects. How to go about this new plan? It would have been so much simpler if she’d been in London with her brother to put their heads together. But this was just as good. No, this was better. She would deal with Calvington. This was her problem. It had been from the very start, so it was only right that she claimed full responsibility for it now.

A pox on that reptilian.

Just where could she plunge a dagger, proverbial of course, that would hurt the most?