As she stared, he slowly began to lower his hands. Sanity, she could see, was returning. His eyes were demonic red, the white cornea obliterated from burst blood vessels.
“I didn’t . . . oh, my God, I . . . didn’t mean to . . .” Horror filled his face. He looked at Aldridge. “Your Grace . . . Duke, I do not . . . I do not know what came over me! I swear!”
The Duke stared at him with matching horror. Carefully, he set the vase he held on a nearby table. His hands, Kendra noticed, were shaking, almost as much as hers. He looked at her. “Miss Donovan, are you all right?”
“Yeah . . . no lasting damage.” Her voice was only a little hoarse.
His gaze fell to her throat. Fury sharpened his features and he wheeled around to confront his nephew, who was getting to his feet. “Dear God in Heaven, Gabriel! You nearly killed her! What kind of monster are you?”
The flush had receded, leaving Gabriel’s face ashen. In contrast, his red eyes stood out, looking even more fiendish.
“I-I beg of you . . . I did not intend harm!”
“You put your hands on her throat! You throttled her! And you have the utter audacity, the bloody gall, to tell me that you did not intend harm!” Aldridge yelled, staring at his nephew as if he’d never seen him before. “Dear God, Gabriel, did you kill those women?”
Gabriel looked like he was going to cry. “No. I . . . I . . . no!”
“How can I believe that? You attacked Miss Donovan!”
“I don’t know . . . I didn’t intend . . .” He shook his head miserably. His fingers trembled as he ran them through his hair.
Kendra felt nauseous. She laid a hand on the Duke’s arm. “Enough. Let him go.”
The Duke shot her an astonished look. “I’m thinking of calling the bailiff!”
Panic crossed Gabriel’s face. “I swear to you—”
“Let him go,” she repeated. “I’m fine.”
She didn’t know who looked more stunned at the dismissal—Gabriel or the Duke.
“Miss Donovan—”
“Please.”
Aldridge frowned. “I am not certain—”
“Please.”
He sighed. “Very well, Miss Donovan. But only because you insist. Gabriel—leave. Go to your room. And stay there.”
Gabriel hesitated only for a second, then he moved toward the door, his gait like that of an old man, measured but unsteady. The aftereffects of an adrenaline rush, she knew—she was feeling the same jittery nerves.
Gabriel opened the door and paused, glancing back at them. He looked as though he wanted to say something, his face twisting, but in the end he simply shook his head and left the room.
The silence was profound.
Aldridge sank down on the sofa as though his legs could no longer support him.
Kendra glanced over at the decanters that Gabriel had been coveting earlier. “I think I could use a drink. Do you want one?”
Aldridge stared at her like she was crazy. “Gabriel attacked you, Miss Donovan!”
“Yeah. I was there.” Screw the sherry, she thought, and selected the more hard-core scotch. She splashed the amber liquid in two glasses, surveyed it in the soft light of the room, then added some more—what the hell? She brought a glass to the Duke.
“Cheers,” she said, taking a hearty swallow. The alcohol burned its way down her tender throat and lit a merry fire in her belly.
“How can you be so calm about this?”
“I’m not calm.” She sat facing the Duke, and lifted one hand. It was trembling violently. “Adrenaline’s a bitch.”
He stared at her for a full minute, then shook his head. “Miss Donovan, I don’t know what to make of you.”
When she said nothing, he lifted the glass to his lips and tossed back a healthy portion of the scotch. “God. Gabriel . . . I cannot believe it. I simply cannot believe that he attacked you!”
“I deliberately pushed him.”
“There’s no excuse for what he did!”
“No. He’s definitely got problems. I didn’t anticipate his reaction to become so . . . physical.”
“Miss Donovan, this is not amusing! He most likely killed those women! He most certainly would have killed you. I still believe I should send for Mr. Hilliard. Alec . . . Alec will be devastated.”
She took another swallow of scotch. “Gabriel isn’t our killer.”
He stared at her, bewildered. “You are now sitting there with bruises on your throat because he tried to throttle you!”
“I told you. I pushed his buttons, and he lost control. The unsub wouldn’t have lost control so easily. I would’ve had to apply a lot more pressure than I did just now.”
“You do not believe Gabriel killed those women?”
“I believe if Gabriel had killed those women, it would have been in a frenzy. That’s not what we’re dealing with.” She thought of the calculated cutting of the torso.
Aldridge rubbed a shaking hand over his face. “Dear God. This is incredible.”
“I don’t think he’s responsible for the murders, but I think he’s hiding something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.” She frowned. “I’d like to find out.”
“You truly do not believe he’s responsible for the murders?”