dare to place her before me? You dare to judge that one moment of mistake against a lifetime of friendship? A fleeting moment ten bloody years ago and you have the nerve to still hold it against me!”
With his free hand, David thumped his chest. “You damn well hurt me, and I am going to hurt you now by taking the single most important person in your life. Her loss will cripple you in such a manner, you’ll never recover to chase after me, will you? And it will also soothe this hatred in my heart for you. You took my peace for years. I’ll damn well take yours, too.”
Maryann’s hands shook. “You are wrong,” she said shakily. “He…I am not the most important…”
Her voice died at the look of disbelief on David’s face, and as if someone else controlled her, she turned and stared at Nicolas. It was then the pieces fell together in her mind, that he had been right on their heels in the hallway. He hadn’t lingered with Arianna but must have pushed her aside immediately to chase after them…
To protect her.
And now Maryann could read everything in his face that was so normally shadowed and inscrutable—stark fear and so much love.
“Nicolas?” she sobbed, pressing a hand over her heart.
Still he did not look at her; all his attention, his readiness was pointed at David. But that man had a primed pistol pressed against her hips. There was no room for an attack.
“David,” Nicolas said, “you are right. Lady Maryann is the lady most important to me.”
Behind him, Arianna closed her eyes as if pained, but then she swallowed, opened her eyes, and squared her shoulders.
Nicolas took a step forward. “I love her. She is my everything.”
A few people in the crowd gasped.
“My heart is laid upon the ground…and you have the power to stomp on it and cripple me,” Nicolas said, his voice throbbing with undefinable emotions.
Maryann stared at him, her heart a shivering mess. He was declaring himself in such a way before everyone. And it was not for David’s benefit. He wanted her to know beyond a doubt what she meant to him, and with a jolt of fear she realized he dreaded not saving her in time.
“David,” Nicolas continued. “I want you to understand something.”
The hand that stabbed the gun harder against her body trembled.
“You have one chance to do damage and escape. That is not achieved by harming Maryann. You turn that pistol to me and do the damage where it will have the most effect.”
“No,” she cried out, raw fear filling her.
David laughed. “The most damage will be with her. You will be broken.”
“Yes,” Nicolas said with icy promise. “And there is nowhere you can go to escape what I will do to you. Arianna was the girl I loved in my youth, and even then I loved her as a friend more than anything else. And you see what I did to those who hurt her.”
Nicolas took another step closer. “Lady Maryann is the woman I love with every fucking emotion in my soul. Can you comprehend, you fool, what I will do to you should you harm a hair on her head?”
More gasps and a ripple of whispering went through the crowd, but nothing distracted Nicolas’s hawkish and remorseless regard from David.
Anguish cast her love’s expression in a savage mien. “Can you imagine the hatred I will have for you should you take her from me? Do you imagine I would be content with hunting you to the ground? You threaten everything you hold dear, my good fool. Your mother…”
David paled, his eyes widening with disbelief.
Something dark and dangerous flashed in Nicolas’s gaze. “Your three sisters. Your cousins. Your mistress. They will all stand guilty for your crime, and they will repay life with life.”
The violent promise was like a solid blow to the center of her chest. A fierce swell of intangible emotion ripped through her and left her shaking. A loud thud sounded as someone fainted, and to Maryann’s shock, a smile trembled on her mouth. In his eyes, she saw the absolute truth. She felt breathless and terrified as she stared at Nicolas.
“I love you,” she said tenderly, her eyes wet with tears.
A tiny, almost indecipherable smile touched his mouth, but he never took his regard from David.
“Pointing the gun at me is your best option. Stopping me is your only choice. Harming her will be your irrevocable downfall. All I want is her by