Sound of Madness A Dark Royal Romance - Maria Luis Page 0,129

any of this?” he finally demands. “Besides the obvious, which is that her father wants you dead.”

You make me feel like I’m dancing with madness.

Words that heated me in a way that nothing else ever has—not rage, not vengeance, not the ever-present hum of no mercy that begs me to relent and succumb to sweet, fucking temptation. Rowena Carrigan isn’t meant for me but damned if I won’t hold on to her for as long as I can anyway.

“She breathes,” I tell him roughly, “even when the world tries to destroy her—even when I tried to destroy her. She went into Broadmoor Hospital for me, brother. She risked death for me. And even just now, when I’m sure she wanted her own vengeance for what Guthram did to her mum, she passed the torch because I need the bounty off my head. The strength she has . . .” Slowly, I shake my head, even as my fingers bite into the stiff muscles beneath my trousers. “I need the chance to live and I won’t let you take that away from me.”

He doesn’t meet my gaze when he returns to scraping the back of his bloodied hand with his shirt. “Do you love her?”

Air pumps hard and fast into my lungs.

War and hate are what I’ve always known. I’m the man who unburied his mother, the man who felt no remorse in bringing a wounded woman pain. Never in my life has there been a moment of kindness, softness, until Rowena stripped off that bandage and brought her violet eyes to mine. And I want to keep it—God, I want to bend that softness to my will and submerge myself in it, in her, until happiness is as familiar to me as breathing.

“I don’t . . .” Clearing my throat, I smooth the heel of my palm over my right shoulder, squeezing the nerveless flesh. “I don’t know how to love but if I could . . . I would give it to her,” I husk, “I would give her all of me, if I could.”

Guy’s nod is barely detectable.

Without speaking, he makes a start for the door but remembers too late that I’m still propped up against it. He stops abruptly, just out of reach.

I lift my chin, the back of my head glancing off the wood, and bring my gaze to his. “I’ll leave the missing anti-loyalists to you,” I tell him, knowing that he won’t have it any other way, “but Guthram is mine, brother. Don’t touch him.”

“Whatever you’re planning,” he replies, his voice dark, “it’s suicide. You know that, don’t you?”

“I would rather die trying to live than die knowing that I never tried at all.”

39

Rowena

“Blackmail,” Gregory deadpans with his right fist balanced on his knee, “you’re telling me that you want to blackmail the police commissioner—and you want me to join you?”

With his arms linked over his chest, Damien crosses his long legs at the ankles. Behind him, Holly Village’s patroness judges us all from her portrait above the marble fireplace mantle. “Sounds about right.”

Gregory swings his wide-eyed gaze to me before turning back to Damien. “Why the ’ell not? Never did like the wanker.” Slapping his thigh, he releases a maniacal chuckle that makes me squeeze my palms together in my lap. “Sign me up, Priest. I’m yours.”

The corner of Damien’s mouth hitches as he shifts his attention to the redhead seated next to Gregory. “Once upon a time,” Samuel drawls, threading his fingers together between his spread legs, “there was a man who actively tried to avoid all confrontation. That man, in case it’s not obvious, is me.”

Damien arches a brow. “Is that your way of telling me to piss off?”

“It’s my way of acknowledging how far I’ve fallen that I didn’t even bat an eye when you mentioned blackmail.”

“So, you’re in?”

“Damn me to hell and back, but yes.” Samuel hooks a finger over the collar of his shirt, pulling on the fabric as if the conversation alone has him feeling anxious. “We aren’t about to hug now, are we? Because if I’m being honest—”

With a bark of surprise, Samuel goes flying when Gregory’s gigantic fist makes contact with his bicep. “Try to ’ug me and I’ll ’ave more of where that came from.”

Awkward laughter climbs my throat, and I can’t help but tap Damien’s foot with my own. “Is that about how it went when he pushed you from the roof?”

“Too bloody soon,” Damien rumbles but his blue eyes glitter with suppressed