“Oh, you made it!” Tansy said.
“How was your flight?” Beryl dropped my grip with his question, voice light.
Tansy’s thick wood chair slid along the marble floor, a servant at her back. A smile still lingered on my face when I saw who’d captured their attention. The mood didn’t vanish; it faded like smoke.
Standing in the arched doorway was the asshole terrorizing Abigail.
He ruffled his hair, lazy smile landing on Abigail. “The flight was too long, but I’m here now.”
I had him pressed against the gold-trimmed doorway before I could think. It was instinct. My forearm was at his throat, digging into his Adam’s apple, applying just enough pressure to keep him conscious.
Tansy Crowne’s shrill voice rang out behind me, telling me to let him go.
“You’re here early.” Abigail’s voice shook, and for that, I dug the forearm at his throat deeper.
Wait—early?
“Couldn’t wait to see you, babe,” he coughed the words, face purpling.
My glare deepened into an ache. Did she know he was coming?
Tansy had welcomed him. Beryl had welcomed him. He had gotten into one of the most fortified houses in the world. This guy wasn’t just one of them, he was somehow close with the Crownes. I stared at him, and as if reading my thoughts, he fucking smiled.
“Have you lost your mind?” Tansy shouted once more. “Let go of Abigail’s fiancé.”
Twenty-Two
THEO
“Theo, let him go,” Abigail said, suddenly at my side.
A good Crowne employee let him go, because whatever he’d done to Abigail, he was in their good graces.
I would fucking kill him.
“Let him go,” Abigail beseeched. She pressed her splayed hands into my side, trying to push me off.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Crowne guards making their way toward me. Mr. Crowne was getting out of his chair. While he had a smile on his face as he reassured Mrs. Harlington, there was nothing but coldness in his eyes.
I weighed the pros and cons of snapping this guy’s neck right then and there. As if sensing what I was doing, and knowing the outcome, his blue eyes glittered smug and assured.
My grip at his neck tightened, happy to see him grow red.
“Theo, please,” Abigail begged. Fucking begged.
I stepped off, shaking out my arms so I wouldn’t wring his neck.
His collar was wrinkled, and he rubbed his neck, but the fucking grin stayed on his face.
I let Abigail shove me out of the dining room, into the hall and all the way back to her wing, until we were in her room. Then I yanked my arm out of her hold. I dragged my hands through my hair, looking into her searching eyes. Everything in my body wanted to beat the shit out of him, end this fucking problem right now.
All my helplessness came rushing out in rage. “You fucking lied, Abigail. Again. You know him.”
What other secrets had she been keeping? She was sand. Slipping and slipping through holes I couldn’t see. She looked away, to an ornate silver mirror cutting our reflections in half.
“How long have you known?”
“Spain,” she admitted. “Well, I knew I’d gone to boarding school with him at the afterparty…”