Page 34 of Dangerous Exile

Still, four little words she’d uttered haunted him.

Not like my mother.

She’d said the words brutally, like she’d dredged them up from a raw, deep wound that she’d had to tear open. Tear open for him.

And the despair that had been in her eyes had pinpointed onto him, as though he was the one that had just inflicted some horrifying terror upon her.

He didn’t care for it. He wasn’t the one looking to own her, to kill her. He was the one wanting to keep her safe.

But the accusation had been there in her eyes. How could he do this when he knew full well he was the only person she trusted at the moment?

How could he do this—of all things—to her?

It didn’t make any sense. He shook his head, the drama of her reaction worming far too fast into his head when he’d already made up his mind.

Stay the course.

It was just a room he’d put her in. A simple room where she would be taken care of. Warmth, food, drink. All of her basic needs met. Everything she had at the Alabaster, though not as opulent.

He’d even had his driver bring into the caretaker a crate of the books Ness had been reading. Strips of ribbons marking pages in a dozen books. She wouldn’t be bored.

Sure, the adjoining rooms were full of the mad and insane, but she had to see that this was the safest place for her. Didn’t she?

He closed his eyes and the instant image of her betrayed, tear-filled eyes engulfed his mind.

He held the image in his head for a long moment, then inhaled a deep breath, capturing it in his chest before it escaped in a long sigh.

His eyes opened and he shifted, banging on the top of the carriage.

“Bring it back around, Tom,” he shouted, and the carriage instantly slowed.

“Right away, sir.”

Talen sat back against the cushions as Tom went a stretch farther before he could turn the carriage about.

Dread filled his chest with every clomp of the horses’ hooves on the gravel of the drive back to the asylum.

There was one other place he could take her.

He didn’t want to do it. Shouldn’t do it. Hell, it was idiotic to do so. But she’d be safe there.

Within minutes he was back at her door in the asylum, watching the caretaker turn the key in the lock. He pushed past the older woman as soon as the lock cleared and strode into the room.

Ness sat on the floor, unmoved from where he’d left her, now crumpled into a ball, her face hidden under her right arm, sobbing to herself.

She didn’t even bother to look up at the sound of his footfalls by her head.

He dropped down to rest on his heels, his fingers dropping, drifting lightly into her hair along the side of her head.

She jerked into herself, then shifted her arm covering her face, peering up at him with visceral terror in her amber eyes.

She blinked hard, disbelieving it was him.

He held his open palm out to her right hand. “Come.”

It took her three full breaths before she lifted her hand, her fingers shaking as she set them into his grasp.

What he was doing was stupid. But stupid had its place. And apparently, this was it.