The Heart of a Hellion: The Duke’s Bastards Book 2

by Michaels, Jess

  “No,” Derrick whispered.

  Barber ignored him. “‘Slim.’ And here’s another: ‘Moving with an unexpected grace.’” He glanced up at Derrick. “And this one is perfect. ‘Quick as a fox.’” He set the papers down. “I could go on and on. Perhaps we’ve thought of this wrongly, to the benefit of our quarry.”

  Derrick fisted his hands at his sides. “So you are determined that the Fox is a woman now.”

  “And you are desperate for her not to be,” Barber said.

  “I’m desperate not to falsely accuse someone,” Derrick said, throwing his hands up. “Selina is not the Fox.”

  Those words felt weak coming from his lips. They tasted bitter and false.

  “Because you don’t want her to be,” Barber said softly, almost gently.

  “Because she isn’t,” he insisted, even though it only served to dig a deeper hole in the sand for the water to fill. He was already up to his neck.

  Barber moved toward him and caught his arm, holding tight as he looked up into Derrick’s face. Barber’s eyes were kind, but they offered no escape. “Do you really believe that?”

  Derrick shook away. “I was not truthful with you, I admit that. And perhaps I let my feelings…my attraction…interfere in my investigation. That was wrong. All those things were wrong, and I admit that. But you won’t accuse me of protecting a criminal. I-I wouldn’t.”

  He pivoted on his heel and left the room before Barber could respond. But just because he’d ended the discussion didn’t mean that it didn’t hang in his mind, his doubts and Barber’s doubts merging and taunting him. Like poisonous eggs laid and now hatching, spreading the venom through every part of him. Threatening a future he’d never dared to hope he could have.

  A future he could see fading away with every step he took.

  * * *

  Selina burst into her chamber and slammed the door behind her. “Vale!” she called out into the empty room as she crossed to the connected door. “Vale, where are you?”

  As she reached the door it opened and she staggered back as Vale entered the bedchamber. “You needn’t call the house down. I’m here.”

  “Why was my glove in Lady Winford’s chamber?” Selina asked. It was blunt, but she had no emotional energy for anything else.

  Both of Vale’s eyebrows lifted in surprise and she shook her head. “What are you going on about?”

  She strolled past Selina into the main chamber and settled onto the settee before the fire. Selina pursed her lips at seeing her there, where she and Derrick had made love such a short time before. That was a sacred place, and Vale was lounged across it like it was nothing.

  Selina hated being irritated at her friend. She hated doubting her when Vale had always been loyal.

  She shut her eyes and drew a long breath to calm herself and then forced herself to explain better. “One of the gloves I was wearing last night was found by a servant in Lady Winford’s room. It was ultimately turned over to Derrick. How did it get there?”

  One of Vale’s hands clenched and her gaze narrowed. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten as you traipsed around here all lady of the manor, but I’m not your actual servant, Selina. It’s not my bloody role to keep track of your things, no matter how we’ve asked the world to see me.”

  “But—”

  Vale interrupted her. “Perhaps you’re just getting careless in your distracted state and left them there while you were fruitlessly searching the room.”

  “No,” Selina insisted. “No, that’s not it. I had the gloves on when I came back here last night. I was wearing them.”

  Vale pushed to her feet. “How do you know?”

  “Because—” Selina felt blood rush to her cheeks as she recalled Derrick peeling each glove off, his mouth on her palm, on her wrist. She blinked away the images and the emotions they forced in her. “I just know. And I never returned to Lady Winford’s room afterward. I cannot think of many ways they could have been transferred to that chamber.”

  “Wait,” Vale said, stepping closer. She folded her arms and there was a spark of deep anger…rage…in her eyes. “Are you asking me or accusing me of something after all we’ve been through together?”

  Selina stared at her a beat. Vale had been her friend, her partner for years. She’d depended on this woman with her life and her secrets and never doubted that decision because Vale had always kept them close.

  But right now everything she knew and felt and understood felt…shaky. Probably because the person she distrusted most was herself.

  “No,” she whispered. “I-I’m not accusing you. I’m asking for your help in determining how the glove could have possibly gotten there, especially if you truly don’t know.”

  Vale moved closer again, and Selina fought the desire to step an equal distance away. Vale extended a finger and pressed it against her sternum, jabbing not entirely gently. “Have you ever considered that your lover has already guessed your true identity? That perhaps he took your damned glove and planted it in the room himself because he hasn’t figured out how to prove your guilt otherwise?”

  Selina’s lips parted at that horrible idea. Derrick was certainly hunting her, but until today, until the incident after they made love, she’d never felt his suspicion fall on her.

  “No,” she whispered. “He wouldn’t do that.”

  “But you thought, at least for a fraction of a moment, that I would,” Vale said. “I can see you’re certain in this, though. I see it all over your face. You know him so well after fucking him a few times?”

  Selina turned away, moved past Vale to the fire and stared at the flames as she tried to gather herself. “I do know him,” she insisted.

  And it was true. She knew his good heart, his brave soul, his honorable actions. She knew how he made her feel, that flutter she’d never believed could move her. She knew how he looked at her, passionate and protective all at once. And she knew how much he respected her. He thought her clever. He thought her bold. He liked those things, even if many in Society would ask her to be different. To be quieter. To be smaller.

  And in that moment, as she easily listed the many reasons she had for having faith in him, another fact became powerfully and completely obvious.

  She loved him.

  An audible gasp escaped her lips at that realization, and she gripped the mantel before her with one white-knuckled hand to stay upright. She loved Derrick Huntington, despite the fact that he hunted her, despite their short acquaintance, despite the fact that it was all doomed. They were doomed. They could never be, and that shook her as much as the realization of her heart did.

  Everything hurt. And she had to pretend it didn’t. But then, she’d been doing that all her life.

  She drew in a long breath, wiped all her feelings from her expression and turned back to Vale. “It wasn’t him,” she insisted. “There has to be another explanation.”

  “Fine. There’s some other mysterious explanation,” Vale spat. “I’ll let you live in your fantasy world if that’s what you insist upon. How did you explain it to your lover, then? How did you keep him from putting you in irons, and not the fun kind?”

  Selina explained her “missing” earrings and the discussions that had followed, and Vale nodded slowly. “I’m impressed, Selina. That’s the old you, jumping quick and not worrying about who you hurt with a lie.”

  Selina flinched again. Was that the old her? In some ways, certainly.

  She shrugged her tangled thoughts away. “We must formulate some kind of plan for how to deal with this turn of events.”

  Vale wrinkled her brow. “You steal the fucking necklace and we get out of here. Today, tonight. Grab and go, Selina. That’s the plan and it’s always been the plan.”

  “No.” Selina shook her head. “The necklace is a loss now. If I take it and disappear, everyone will know that I’m the Fox.”

  “Why does that matter?” Vale breathed. “You’ll be legendary. Stealing the jewel out from under the noses of two
investigators at your own brother’s party? They’ll talk about it for decades. We’ll sell the necklace at an even higher premium and use the spoils to move on. London is a bad market for us regardless. The Fox is too well known. The mavens actually hope for your arrival at their parties. We go to the continent. We move from country to country, never in the same place more than a few nights. That’s the next step in the evolution of the Fox.”

  Selina blinked. “But…but that would mean never seeing my family again.”

  “What family?” Vale snapped.

  Selina turned her face, for it was almost as if she had been slapped. “My—my brothers,” she insisted, but oh, those words sounded weak.

  Vale’s expression turned to something almost like pity. “Selina, you can’t be so soft. They’re your half-blood brothers. You want a connection to them, but you must consider them with open eyes. The Duke of Roseford has his own past, certainly. But he’ll disown you the moment he realizes who you are. Hell, he might do it just because you’re a suspect. That lot doesn’t care about family if it makes them look bad.”

  “No,” Selina whispered.

  “Yes,” Vale said firmly. Not unkindly, but without quarter. “And as for your other two brothers? Morgan might have once stood by you. He was as desperate as you were, running the streets and making trouble. But he’s different now, isn’t he? He married to a lady of the highest order. He’ll follow Roseford’s lead. And I’ve heard Gillingham is up for a title, himself. He’ll take his army friend’s side if only to cover up what you did. You don’t have any family, Selina, no matter how much you want it. People like us never do.”

  Selina flinched, for Vale had just laid out exactly her worst nightmare. That this persona, this Fox she had created to protect herself, to exact some tiny justice…would destroy all she loved in the end.

  It would destroy her family. It would destroy whatever sliver of a future she might have once hoped for with Derrick.

  “You’re asking me to start over,” she whispered.

  Vale tilted her head. “I’m telling you not to go soft.”

  There was an edge to Vale’s voice now and Selina wrinkled her brow at it. “Or what?”

  Vale drew in a long breath and shook her head. “Just don’t.”

  Vale said nothing else, she simply turned and left the room. Left Selina to stand by the fire, her hands shaking, her pulse throbbing, her heart breaking. She realized now that the point of no return had gone by a long time ago.

  And that meant every choice she had to make now was bleak. No matter what she did, she wouldn’t win. In fact, she would surely lose.

  Lose her life. Lose her freedom. Lose her family. Lose love.

  And she sank to her knees, rested her cheek on the settee, and wept for the damage she had created.

  Chapter 20

  Since he walked out on Barber the day before, Derrick hadn’t left the table in his chamber. He hadn’t eaten, he hadn’t slept, he hadn’t shaved. He’d just gathered, compiling evidence on a long chart, putting together elements he’d feared to bind.

  And now he looked at the fruits of his labor. The facts of his own obsession. All of them pointed to one truth. One bitter end.

  He had no doubt that Selina Oliver was the Faceless Fox. No one else fit the profile so exactly. No one else had so much evidence that pointed to them.

  He leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh and rubbed his eyes. It was a truth he’d suspected, of course. Something that had made him hesitate, that had made him question. But knowing his suspicions were correct…that was something different. That was something final.

  Of course, all of it was different than knowing what the hell to do with the truth. Duty said to march up to Barber, show him what he’d gathered, admit Barber’s accusations were correct. Derrick’s duty said to pursue her. To put her into custody. To turn her over to the guard, along with the evidence, and be a part of her downfall. He’d done it with other criminals in the past. He’d been proud of his part in their trials, convictions. Justice was important in a world where sometimes there was very little.

  But watching Selina burn didn’t feel like justice. Not to him.

  His heart screamed at him to protect her. To find out why she had created the Faceless Fox. Why she had robbed the first time, why she had continued to do so over the years. Mostly, his heart wanted to figure out a way to save her from the consequences the truth would bring when it came out.

  Because it would come out. Barber was as hot on the trail as Derrick was, and he would figure out the same answer.

  There was only one night left at the gathering. Tomorrow the first of the guests would begin to leave. The rest would follow in the next day or two. That meant the Rosefords were hosting a final ball tonight. The perfect place for a Fox to strike.

  Or to fall into a trap.

  So he needed to figure out exactly what he would do before Barber overtook her and everything ended in destruction and tears.

  * * *

  “Selina, I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  Selina started from her position seated on a garden bench, looking over the rosebushes, and stared up to find Robert coming toward her down the winding garden path. His expression was worried and her heart sank.

  “You’ve been looking for me?” she asked weakly, scooting down to give him room.

  He nodded as he took a place beside her and drew in a long breath. After he exhaled, he smiled. “You know, if you had told me even a few years ago that I would be contentedly observing my garden during a country party, I would have challenged you to a duel.”

  She laughed despite the concern she had over this encounter. “I think you might have. You were very convinced that your roguish life was perfect and you never wanted to leave it.”

  He shrugged, and his expression darkened as he glanced up toward the house. Toward Katherine, she supposed. Toward the life he had built for himself here.

  “I’m not sure I ever thought it was perfect, no matter what I said and did,” he said with a sigh. “I understand now that some part of me believed emptiness was all I…I deserved. That it was all there ever could be for a man like me.”

  This vulnerable side of her brother was one she hadn’t seen. Robert smiled and laughed and still played the rogue, if no longer the rake. But this was different. This was her brother opening his chest and showing her his heart.

  A gift, to be certain. Perhaps one she didn’t deserve, considering how duplicitous she, herself, had been.

  She turned toward him and reached out to squeeze his arm. “I’m glad you were disabused of that foolish notion. Watching you with Katherine is a joy. You’re happy, anyone with eyes can see it. And you do deserve that, Robert. You truly do.”

  “Thank you.” He smiled at her. “So do you, you know.”

  She shifted. He had no idea. “Hmmm,” she murmured in what she hoped was a noncommittal tone.

  They sat in silence for a moment, both staring out at nothing, though she thought with very different reasons. Finally, his voice cut through her spinning mind again. “Do you ever intend to tell me the truth?”

  She jolted and glanced over at him. He was still staring away from her.

  “The—the truth,” she stammered, as she pondered what truth he could be referring to. Did he know about the Fox? Had Derrick told him, or perhaps Barber? Was everything about to end, including her relationship with this man she had come to see as truly her brother? She mourned that intensely in a moment.

  “Your cameo earrings,” Robert said, and looked down at her sternly. “I was informed last night that they were taken by the Faceless Fox. Imagine my surprise when Mr. Barber spoke to me about it because he assumed you’d told me about the theft.”

  She sucked in a breath. Barber would surely count that fact against her. Rightly, of course. Her lie that she would tell Robert about the fake theft would only be more evidence in the pile against her.

  “Oh, yes,” she whispered when she re
alized Robert seemed to be waiting for an answer to his statement. “That.”

  He caught one of her hands and held it gently. “You and I weren’t raised together. We didn’t really know each other at all until very recently. That was my failing, amongst a great many other failings.”

  “No,” she interrupted as she pulled away from him. “I won’t let you say that. Our father is the reason all of us were kept apart. You have been nothing but kind and accepting, probably more than all of us have deserved. Please don’t judge yourself too harshly.”

  He smiled at her. “I appreciate that. My marriage put a great deal into perspective for me. I realized how much I feared getting to know you all. And how much I was missing out on by avoiding you. I’ve tried to make up for my shortcomings. Now I wonder how good a job I’ve done. Selina, why didn’t you tell me about the earrings?”

  She swallowed and ducked her gaze because she didn’t trust her brother not to see through her. He and Derrick were very similar in that way, actually. Two men who could read a person down to their soul. Perhaps for different reasons, but the result was the same.

  “I didn’t want you to worry,” she said, and that was true. As was what she said next. “I didn’t want you to be angry.”

  “Angry?” he repeated. “How could I be angry when you were a victim of a thief? One who came into your room while you slept in your bed.” He shivered. “I shudder to think what he could have done that would have been far worse.”

  She flinched. “The Faceless Fox has never been violent,” she whispered. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in danger from that person, if that helps.”

  He rubbed his hands along his thighs, his jaw set with emotion. “I don’t share your assessment. I was always concerned about this investigation coming into my home, threatening those I love. Now it has come to pass and I hate myself for allowing it. For ignoring my instincts when Nicholas asked for my assistance. And when Mr. Huntington and Mr. Barber presented their case to me to allow things to play out.”