Page 48 of Sherwood
“Some asshole put a bug in it,” she said, walking right past me. “Where is he?”
“Just ahead.”
I followed the heavy tread of Lox’s boots on the unfinished concrete, and I saw her shoulders slump with relief as she saw that Will was here and indeed unhurt. She turned to me. “Are you really letting him go?”
I pulled a small knife from my pocket, and with a few tidy movements, Will was free and on his feet. He scowled at me as he rubbed his wrists.
“Come on, Lox,” he said, his voice low. “We can leave right now. Together. You don’t have to stay.”
Lox’s green eyes flicked over to meet my gaze, and then she shook her head. Slowly. Almost sadly. “No, Will. You go. I need to stay.”
“You won’t be followed,” I said to him without taking my eyes from Lox. “I give you my word.”
“That means fuck all coming from you,” Will said, but Lox just gave him a look.
“Will,” she said. “I need you with the others, do you understand? For whatever might come next. They’ll need you. Marian will need you.”
Will softened a little at that, but he still gave me a poisonous glare. “If anything happens to her on your watch, I’ll make sure you die a miserable death.”
It was a threat I’d heard thousands of times before, but this morning, it had some sting. Everyone assumed I wanted to hurt Lox, make her suffer, and it was starting to wear on me.
I just wanted her safe,andI wanted my country safe,and…
And…
And I didn’t know what either of those two things meant anymore. Definitely not in conjunction with one another.
With a final, reluctant look at Lox, Will went out the entrance and down the dirt track through the trees, his shoulders hunched and his head swiveling from side to side, as if expecting an NSA agent to pounce on him at any moment.
Once he’d disappeared from view, Lox turned to face me, her jaw tight.
“So I’m here,” she said. “What do you want with me? You want to humiliate me before you detain me? You want a little light interrogation before Lackland gets his hands on me?”
“I wanted to say I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “For Marian. For last night.”
Her lips pressed together before she spoke. “You told me that love would lead me to make mistakes and you were right. I was so certain that you were using Marian against me that I didn’t even see the catch and release. Lure me in, bug me, and let me go. You didn’t need me to talk or confess, and you didn’t even need me zip-tied to a chair. I led you right to the castle all on my own.”
“It was a brilliant place, Lox,” I said softly. “I was sorry to see it burn.”
“I’d be a fool to believe you.”
“Even so. And I’m even sorrier about Marian,” I told her, taking a step closer. “Bringing her into this was fucked up, and now she’s part of it all, and I never wanted that. I only wanted to get close enough to you to get what I needed for the job.”
“And now you’ve cornered me. For what? For me to cooperate? Because that’s what this is, isn’t it? You thought if you could get me here by myself, I’d fall prey to those pretty eyes and give you everything you want?”
“I don’t know,” I said quietly, and it was the truth. “I don’t know what I’m thinking anymore.”
She stepped forward too, distrust written all over her face. Distrust and anger and every simmering feeling that had always been between us, ever since the beginning.
“Am I supposed to believe that Rafe de Lacy is growing a conscience?”
“I’ve always had one, Lox. You don’t have a monopoly on giving a shit.”
She was close enough now that she had to tilt her face upward to look at me. “So what are you saying, then? You’re choosing to give a shit about this?”
“I don’t know.” I ran my hand over my face. “I’m saying that I’m willing to listen to what you’ve found.”
She scowled, her soft mouth turning down at the corners in the way that I’d always found so adorable. It made my cock hard. “This is an interrogation tactic.”
