“Sure.”
If I was still here later. For all I knew, Claudia already had one of the guards firing up a cement mixer to make a special pair of shoes just for me. But I had been summoned, so I stepped into the library.
Claudia was sitting in her chair in front of the fireplace, as regal as any queen. Devon was in the chair next to her, with Grant perched on the white velvet settee across from them. Grant was leaning forward, talking in a low voice and gesturing with his hands, as if he was trying to convince Claudia about something. She didn’t seem to be paying any attention to him. Her green gaze focused on me, already frosty with anger. Terrific.
“There you are,” Claudia murmured. “Finally.”
“I did have a gash in my leg, in case you hadn’t heard.”
Her mouth tightened. “Grant, please leave us. I would like to speak to Lila and my son alone.”
Grant wet his lips, looking from me to Claudia and back again. “Are you sure that’s . . . wise?”
“We’ll be fine,” she insisted in a hard voice that left no room for argument.
Grant got to his feet. “Good luck,” he whispered as he passed me.
We both knew I was going to need it.
Claudia made a motion with her hand, ordering me to sit in the spot that Grant had vacated. I plopped down on the velvet, digging my bare toes into the rug to keep from sliding off.
Everyone was quiet, although the mantel clock kept tick-tick-ticking to fill the silence.
“My son tells me that you saved his life—again,” Claudia said. “That he and Felix would have walked into an ambush if you hadn’t realized that someone was outside.”
I shrugged. “Just doing my job and being a good little Family soldier.”
Her eyes glittered with even more anger. “I gave you a chance to keep your head down and make some money. Not put my son in more danger. Once again, he was almost assassinated while in your company.”
Devon sighed. “It wasn’t Lila’s fault. She didn’t even realize that Felix and I were following her until she saw us at the library.”
Claudia fixed her icy stare on him. “Well, she should have, if she is half the arrogant thief she claims to be.”
Sadly, I couldn’t argue with her about that.
“And I can’t believe that you were so reckless as to traipse all over Cloudburst Falls after a girl,” Claudia continued, still staring at her son. “You know the dangers out there. You know we’ve been having problems with the other Families. You were lucky those men didn’t kill you.”
Devon stiffened, sitting up to his full height. “And I’m your second-in-command, the Family bruiser. I can’t hide here in the mansion all day, every day. It makes me look weak in front of our own people, and it makes the Sinclairs look weak to all the other Families. That’s more dangerous than anything else, even—”
He cut off his words, but I knew what he’d been about to say, and why Claudia was so worried about his safety.
“Actually, the men would have killed me and Felix, but they would have let Devon live,” I said. “At least for a little while.”
Claudia frowned. “And how do you know that?”
“Because the mystery man wasn’t trying to kill Devon,” I said. “He was trying to kidnap him.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Claudia’s face remained blank, but her gaze flicked to her son, just for a second. But that was long enough to confirm my suspicion that something else was going on here than someone simply trying to kill Devon.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The guys who attacked us all had swords, and they were very eager to use them on me, and Felix, too. But when the mystery man finally got close enough to Devon to kill him, he didn’t run Devon through with his sword. Instead, he clamped his hand over Devon’s mouth, put a dagger to his neck, and tried to drag him off. If he wanted your son dead, the mystery man could have stuck that dagger in his back easily enough. But he didn’t. He wanted to take Devon—alive.”
Claudia and Devon didn’t respond, so I decided to fill in the blanks for them. I knew most of the answers to my questions. All I needed now was some confirmation.
“Forget about the mystery man,” I said. “The really interesting thing is what happened during the attack.”
Devon tensed before he could stop himself, although Claudia remained calm.
“Oh?” She arched an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”
“I killed two of the men, but I was injured and the fight wasn’t going my way. In fact, one of those guys was about to take my head off—until Devon opened his mouth and asked him to stop,” I said. “And surprise, surprise, the guy froze. Just like that.”
I snapped my fingers, and they both flinched at the sound.
“The guy stopped cold, even though I could tell exactly how much he wanted to kill me.”
I paused, but neither one of them said anything, so I continued.
“And not only did the guy not kill me, but Devon barked out a few more commands and the guy actually turned on his friends and started killing them instead. All on Devon’s orders. He said exactly five words to the other man—stop, turn around, protect us—and that’s exactly what the guy did, even though I could tell just how much he didn’t want to.”
They still didn’t respond.
“On the ride back to the mansion, I started thinking about the first fight in the Razzle Dazzle. And it occurred to me that the guy who attacked Devon didn’t actually swing his sword at him. Instead, he grabbed Devon’s neck. At the time, I thought the guy was going to choke him to death. But really, all he was doing was keeping pressure on Devon’s throat so he couldn’t speak. To keep him from giving any of his special orders.”
Silence. Absolute silence.
A minute ticked by, then two, then three.
Finally, Claudia sat up straight, raised her chin, and fixed me with a ruthless glare.