Evangeline, my sweet, this will only hurt for a moment.”
“Ervin,” the name whispered from my lips.
He clapped his hands slowly. “There you have it! Aren’t you a clever lass.”
I should have known. I should have recognized my step-brother the moment I’d seen him at the dowager’s house. Oh God, he was back from the dead.
Somehow, in some way, he’d claw his way out of the pits of Hell. Damn him, he wanted me afraid. Was addicted to the fear and power he wielded. I wouldn’t show it. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “Aren’t I a little old for your liking?” I hissed.
“Yes, but you’ll do. I’ve been waiting for this moment, dreaming of this moment, for as long as I can remember.” He surged to his feet. “Oh Evangeline, I have so much to tell you! So very much. Where to start?”
I tugged on the ropes behind my back, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “How about starting with why you’re such a sick monster?”
“Dear, dear Evangeline. We’re all sick in some way. Most people try to hide it behind a façade of societal normalcy, while I…I just embrace my sickness.”
“Oh no,” I muttered. “I think you’re unique in your evilness, Ervin.”
He paused, his hands behind his back, and quirked a brow. “What about the man you’ve been fucking?”
I stiffened. Gabe. He knew about Gabe? I swallowed hard. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you? Earl Chambers, I believe.”
I jerked at my bindings. “Gabe is a million times your worth!”
He laughed. “Indeed? Did you know he’s not really the earl? You see, your wonderful lover has been keeping a secret. He’s not the true heir. His uncle had a son. A legitimate son. And Gabriel hid the boy away, hid is identity, so he could keep the title for himself. Really, I’m quite impressed.” He shrugged. “Although, personally, I would have killed the boy, tie up loose ends and all that.”
“That’s not true,” I whispered. “He didn’t do that.”
“Oh, but it is true, and he did.” He crouched down in front of me. “Think, Evangeline. Think. You know him, don’t you? Deep down, you know what that man is capable of. What he would do for money, a title, greed. Why, he’d even marry you, a bastard. Certainly, he’d steal a title from dear little Tommy.”
Tommy. My stomach clenched. I’d seen a note from Tommy two years ago in Gabe’s study, right before he had taken me to that ball. Was Gabe truly that desperate for a title?
Ervin stood. “I see it’s all settling in now. I sense it pulsing from your body…betrayal. Heartache. You never were very good at hiding your emotions.”
“What do you want,” I hissed.
“Want? Why…you, of course. I want to finish what I’d started with you those many years ago.”
My stomach clenched. I was going to be sick. “Go to hell.”
He pulled a knife from his boot. “Gladly, but before, I will see you pay. I was very angry that you told on me.” He tsked. “When I’d asked you not to. Angrier still that you had me sent away.”
He was insane. Utterly mad.
His pacing grew agitated, his voice sharp with anger. “Do you know what it’s like to be taken against your will? Put on a ship and sent to the orient? To be used and abused?”
“I think I understand,” I snarled.
One of the loops around my wrist gave away. I sucked in my cry of happiness. One more. Just one more.
“But in all those years of torture, I knew, knew I would return and seek my revenge. It gave me life. And now, now the universe is working in my favor. First, Mother finding you, then my escape from the Orient. Even Gabe’s mother telling us about Tommy. It’s all working out, dear Evangeline. The tides are turning.”
Gabe’s mother had betrayed him? Why? Did she have some nefarious plan to retain control, or was it merely to get back at him because of me? “I didn’t betray you, you fool! James recognized the scar on my wrist, had seen it on some of the girls in town! And how in bloody hell could I have sent you away? I was a child, for God’s sake!”
He hesitated a moment, seeming confused. For the first time in his life, the story that his mad mind had concocted, wasn’t making sense. Would he realize? Or would he fall deeper into madness?