“Yes, I already know that. The secret women’s club.” Her eyes widened. “Are you telling me my stepmother is involved in that organization?”
“I believe she is the head of it.”
Her mouth dropped open.
Oliver couldn’t help but flash a grin, and he leaned in close to ask, even though he already saw the truth reflected in her eyes. “Tell me, Lady Louisa, are you with them as well?”
Chapter Nine
Louisa stepped intoThe Raging Stag, still irked at the irksome duke who questioned whether she was in collusion with her stepmother. She inwardly snorted for the hundredth time. How ludicrous! On some level, she knew he had been teasing her, but she couldn’t help being bothered by it. She would rather chew glass than be cut from the same cloth as that woman!
She glanced at Mortimer.
Lawks, the man was tall. And aloof. And impossibly vexing. His facial muscles rarely moved. She supposed that hunting criminals as a duke, it was a rather good skill to possess. If one could even call it a skill.
“Keep close,” Mortimer said in a hushed voice.
“I shall be fine.”
Sharp eyes flicked over her face. “I suppose you are right. Nevertheless, don’t storm the castle’s soldiers.”
What isthatsupposed to mean? But she had no time to dwell on it for immediately she felt the prickle of four shrewd gazes falling on them.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” One of the men with a scar slashing through his left brow said, rising from his seat at the bar to his full height. “A little bird and a hawk.”
Louisa’s eyes widened to saucers before she caught herself and smoothed out her features. Goodness, that man was even taller than the duke! Bulkier too. Big and scary, just as Leo had said. Her eyes narrowed on them. So, these were the men whoapproached a small boy? She understood now why her brother had done what these men told him.
Scoundrels!
“Gentlemen,” Mortimer greeted.
“There are no gentlemen here.”
Lord, spare her the dramatics. Louisa narrowed her eyes at the man. Since he was the one who rose to speak, she focused her attention on him. “You are right, clearly there are only dogs. Were you one of them, sniffing around the boots of my brother?”
The man suddenly gave a low laugh. “The lady chirps.”
“Reaper,” the man behind the bar said. A scar split his lip, just like Leo had described, butbigandscarydid not do his presence any justice. The man looked nothing short of menacing. Deadly. “What brings a duke and the daughter of a duke here?”
And they knew who they were.
“Good,” Mortimer spoke up with a low drawl. “There is no need for an introduction. You must be Maxen Fury.”
The man didn’t smile. He also didn’t confirm or deny the duke’s assertion. “You won’t get what you came here for.”
“Hah!” Louisa exclaimed, annoyance flaring. “You resemble the likes of big, bad brutes, and yet you had to resort to browbeating a boy to get what you want.”
Those dark, almost black, eyes settled on her. “We still got what we wanted, didn’t we? And we merely asked the lad for a favor. He provided.”
“Then, doyouowe him a favor now? This is how your world works, no?”
The man called Reaper laughed. “I quite like this one. If only she weren’t one ofthem.”
“One of whom?” Mortimer stole the question from her lips.
“That pesky women’s club or whatever they call themselves,” Reaper bit out with a scowl.
“I am not part of that club,” Louisa snapped, irritation surging anew. Of the four brothers present, he was the most talkative, and the most infuriating. Every word from his mouth seemed designed to prick at her patience, like stepping barefoot onto a bed of thorns.
