Abandoned to the Night (The Brotherhood Series, Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

their right. “You are certain you will make it home safely?”
    “I am certain,” she replied. “I need you to be well. I need you to take care of the children. And I need to hurry home and get out of these wet clothes. Sylvester will be along to see you tomorrow.”
    Placated, Herr Bruhn nodded vigorously. They escorted him to his door, bid him good night and then simply stared at each other.
    “Well?” She thrust her hands on her hips as soon as Herr Bruhn closed the door. The wet garment clung to her womanly curves, enhanced the shape of her perfectly round breasts and Leo groaned inwardly.
    “Well, what?” he snapped, being somewhat agitated by his reaction to her shapely figure. Damn it all. He had spent years lusting after women. To some extent his cock possessed a mind of its own, responded to the female form as opposed to the character of the woman within.
    “Are you going to kill me where I stand or are you coming with me?”
    Leo jerked his head back. “Coming with you where?”
    An image of the forest flooded his mind, quickly followed by the dark, suffocating confines of her carriage, and the stone stairs curling up to the demon’s chamber.
    A smile touched the corners of her lips, but it did not reach her eyes or illuminate her face. “I do not like lying to Herr Bruhn. You will escort me home. We will change out of these wet clothes, drink to suppress our hunger. I will tell you what you need to know, and you will decide what you wish to do with me.”
    She was not using manipulation to persuade him to follow her, but as she sauntered past him, he felt a tug deep in his gut that forced him to traipse along behind.
    Christ, if Elliot were here, he would think him fit for Bedlam. Indeed, in the hours he had waited at the window of the tavern in the hope of catching sight of her, he could never have predicted this was how the night would end.
    The tavern!
    “Wait,” he cried, remembering the maid he had instructed to sleep until he told her otherwise. “I’ll be but a minute.” They would find her in his room and believe he had administered poison, or an opiate to drug her into submission.
    She stopped, picked her sodden cape off the ground and shook it out. “My carriage is waiting further along the road. I shall wait for you inside.”
    Leo swallowed down his surprise. She could have climbed into her conveyance and sent the horses bolting for home. He would never catch up with her. He would never reach her once she’d passed through the iron gate of her fortress.
    He nodded and then made his way back up to his room. The water running from his clothes left a slippery trail across the wooden boards. Giving the maid a vigorous shake and a command to wake, he was gone before she had a chance to sit up and rub the sleep from her eyes.
    Pushing through the wind and rain, Leo continued along the deserted street. The thin streams of light escaping through the shutters did little to illuminate his way. The hulking black shadow of her carriage loomed into view. He could have been invisible and still the coachman, sitting muffled in his greatcoat, could not have paid him any less attention. An attempt to listen to his thoughts proved futile, and if it had not been for the twitch of a finger on the reins, Leo would have staked his life the man was a sitting corpse.
    Leo paused at the carriage door. A sudden sense of foreboding gripped him, and he pulled his sword from its back harness and held it at his side. Elliot’s voice echoed through his mind. The voice of logic and reason reminding him it was sheer folly to climb into her conveyance.
    But Leo had nothing left to lose.
    He had lived the same nightmare every day, made all the worse since Elliot found love. The woman’s curse had left him alone, abandoned to the night that had so cruelly claimed him. The escapades of the brotherhood would become a distant memory, leaving him no choice but to forge ahead, to carve a new life for himself.
    Do you