the guilt and rage in his heart had mattered. But then she fell into his life and he hadn’t pushed her from it when he knew better.
Because with every touch, smile, and conversation she had brought such warmth, peace, pleasure, happiness to his cold existence. With her he felt things that were not guilt or hate; with her he hungered and craved a future he hadn’t even dreamed could exist.
He was a damnable fool to risk such a precious treasure slipping from his grasp. Maryann was his future. It was time he laid the past to rest. And that meant there would be no long game with the wolf—the guiltiest of them all.
For Nicolas could not bear letting her wait weeks, months, years while he played the long game of merciless ruination. And not only because she deserved all happiness, but because he knew his Maryann was fierce and indomitable enough to eradicate him from her heart and never look back.
“I must speak to you in private,” Nicolas said.
“How perfectly ominous,” David mocked, but there was an unfathomable look in his eyes, and a fine tension had invaded his frame.
“In your study, perhaps?”
He waved for Nicolas to precede him inside.
They made their way inside the ballroom, and it was as if he felt her gaze upon him. Nicolas’s steps slowed, and the advantage of his height allowed him to scan the crowded room until he found her. Maryann stood still, staring at him, her eyes wide and almost afraid. A quick scan showed no immediate threat to her, and he had to prevent himself from going to her. He would deal with David first and then visit her after.
She glanced away from him, and it was clear she struggled to regain her composure. Maryann wore a fashionable dress of vibrant green silk, which accentuated her slight but curvy figure. Her hair was piled high atop her head in intricate curls, and a single strand of pearls encircled her throat. Their gazes collided, and she pushed her glasses up to her nose.
She was nervous and so breathtakingly lovely.
He looked away and continued on his path which led him to the hallway and to David’s study. Once there, he went over to the window overlooking the gardens. Feeling suffocated, he wrenched the windows open and breathed the crisp night air into his lungs.
Nicolas turned when David closed the door, ambled over to his desk, and sat on the edge of the furniture, folding his arms.
“What did you want to talk about?”
Nicolas thrust his hands in the pocket of his trousers and stared at his friend. A man he had loved as his brother for so many years.
“You are the wolf…”
David frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I never shared with you the first line of Arianna’s letter. Nor a section of the end.”
David stiffened, his expression drawing tight.
“The eagle soars indifferent while the wolf betrays the dove. You always called her dove. With that very first line I knew she referred to us, even as I found the notion improbable,” Nicolas said, “The wolf…he was all of them, cruel, brutal, unholy, and savage, yet he was more, for in him once I found love.”
David flinched and scrubbed a hand over his face. “I… There is not a day that I do not grieve for Arianna.”
“The reason she sat at that table was because you were there.”
“I was drunk,” David said hoarsely.
Nicolas flinched. “Is that the distinction you’ve used to justify your cruelty to a girl you loved?”
Remorse and something darker gleamed in David’s eyes. “Where do we go from here?”
“I am certain you know it.”
A sneer curved his lips and his eyes narrowed. “Do you think I will stand idly by and watch you destroy me as you did the others?”
“Surely you knew this reckoning was coming…or did you really believe me ignorant of your participation? You were the enemy, David, thus the perfect place for you was by my side. Is that why you aided me all this time, to stay close to keep abreast of what I knew? No, my friend, you were there by design, and with each of your friends taken down, you worried more. You started to hide your unentailed wealth and assets, things I didn’t even know you owned. They are now under my control.”
His former friend fisted his hands at his side and surged to his feet. “You must be mad if you think I will allow you to ruin me as you did the others!”