Page 108 of A Deal with the Devil

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You might be the only one who dares.”

She knew that wasn’t true. Mayfair might tremble before him, but it wasn’t fear he inspired in the men of the house behind her. It was loyalty.

“I’ve never seen you gamble. Godric and Wulf sometimes play dice outside the shop to pass the time, and your brother talks about cards and horse racing. But you never do. And you didn’t play during the Devil’s Night, not once.”

“I don’t care for cards.” He shrugged. “Have more cake.”

“I’ve had a slice already.”

“Have another.”

She dipped her finger into the bowl of clotted cream and licked it off. He watched her. “Absolute devil,” he murmured appreciatively.

“If you don’t care for cards or dice, why a gaming hell? Why open the Seven Deadly Sins? Why bother with the biggest gaming hell London has ever dreamt of?”

“It’s not for me,” he said quietly.

“It’s not?”

He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “No. It’s for them.”

“Them? Ah. Macleod and Brutus and the brothers Winchester.”

“And Tom.”

“How?”

“When we came back to England, it was…an adjustment.”

She reached for his hand, and he turned his palm up to let her. It was as intimate as anything they had done to each other’s bodies. More.

“I had the estate, my title,” he continued. “But the other men had very little, mostly scars and nightmares. And my brother… Well, you’ve seen what it can be like for him.”

She nodded. “I’m going to buy more gold paint, the kind that burns.”

His mouth quirked. “The Sins is not just a place for them to work and support themselves. Especially with some of the injuries we collected between us.”

“It’s not?”

“It’s power.”

She thought of the women who came to the shop in the dead of night. The ones she sent to the Spinster Society or the house in Covent Garden. She thought of her sister, powerless and sold to someone like Portsmouth. “I understand.”

“Holding the bank for Devil’s Nights gave me access to secrets, as much as it made obscene amounts of money.”

“And the Sins will do the same?”

“For my men, it will. They will have employment and, better than that, power to protect themselves.”

“Your brother.”

“He was alone when I was gone,” he said tightly, jaw clenching. “He won’t be vulnerable like that again. No one will dare touch him, not when he’s a partner in the Sins.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I won the house on a wager.”