Page 24 of The Hellion is Tamed
Baron von Delton had won a substantial sum at thevingt et untable, which happened on occasion but made Simon feel like diving into a bottle of gin and never crawling out. The puerile poet who’d been coming in every night for two weeks finally depleted his reserves, then got into a drunken altercation with the third son of an earl that was sure to hit the scandal sheets. Karina, Simon’s oft-companion and currently one of the most popular actresses in London, had shown up at the alley entrance, eyes puffy, dress hanging off her shoulders, looking gorgeous and pitiful, a skill she employed to no end. He’d ushered her into a private salon promising to return when he had no intention of doing so, leaving her in the capable hands of the Blue Moon’s manager, Benjamin Squires. Who’d looked like he wanted to rip Simon’s head off for giving him such an odious duty. Simon imagined Benji, a former rookery thug, would have liked to show his displeasure in a way that would’ve had him scuffling on the gaming floor with his employer.
And, while reviewing the evening’s annoyances, there was Finn.
Overprotective, interfering Finn.
The single person he’d loved above all others.
Simon glanced over his shoulder at his brother, who sat sprawled at the desk in the dimly lit alcove of a space Simon liked to think of ashis, a fountain pen’s nib pressed to his bottom lip, his index finger trailing slowly down the ledger columns as he added figures in his head.
“Don’t you have a newborn to attend to?” Simon shoved aside the urge to swipe the etched gold cufflinks Finn had left sitting on the edge of the desk and instead tugged his hand through his hair. The strands were overlong. Bedraggled, Karina had said. Although she’d whispered it like it was agoodthing in that dry tone she used to great effect in darkened bedchambers.
“Just making sure you don’t bankrupt us with this von Delton debacle,” Finn murmured, his gaze tracking the figures before him. The pen had left a spot of ink on his lip that Simon guessed half of London would love to lick off. “I only gifted you forty-nine percent, my pet. I hold the remaining fifty-one if you recall. The final decision, and responsibility, for this establishment is mine.”
Simon bounced his fist off the railing and rose to his full height. “That’s a crock of— ”
Finn threw his head back and laughed, his cerulean eyes dancing. Simon hated it most days, but he could see why thetonthought his brother the most gorgeous man in England. Hewashorribly pretty. A pretty jackass. “You’re so easy, lad.Soeasy.” He flicked the ledger closed, tossed the pen atop it and stacked his hands behind his head with a stretch and a smile that ceaselessly won people over from the first tilt of his lips. “We’ll make a killing tonight, no worries. Fairly, I might add, unlike most gaming establishments in the city. Thankfully, we’re not required to send ourselves to hell in order to run one.” Finn yawned and gave another heroic shrug of his broad shoulders. “When the men arrive worse for drink and not too bright to begin with, it’s an economical gambit from the get-go. Heck, we offer a service no other hell can by having a professional read their minds. To save the despairing few who would throw themselves into the Thames over their foolishness, I share my supernatural gift. I don’t want their downfall on my conscience for a fistful of blunt.”
Simon wiped his thumb over his lip. “Saint Alexander, champion of the exploited, you have a spot of ink on your…”
Finn popped his boots on the desk, dashing his hand over his mouth. “Ah, these pens with endless streams of ink. I can’t get over it. Technology proving its worth, right before my very eyes. How your girl lived through her era, what with tallow candles and oil lanterns and water arriving at the house in buckets, I can’t fathom.”
“She isn’tmygirl. And it wasn’t that bad,” Simon murmured, thinking of the candlelight washing over Emma in the dreary depths of the public house, his first glimpse of her in years. The way his heart had clutched and released in a feral flutter.
He’d known at that moment that nothing had changed.
“Not your girl,” Henry scoffed from the dark corner where he’d decided to settle himself.
“I hope you enjoyed traveling back, possibly being unable to return. Because that’s thelasttime.” Finn’s voice splintered, a familiar argument about to rise between them. The League wanted to know everything about Emma and her gift—but Julian and Finn didn’t want that to include letting Simon test it out and travel again with her.
Ever again.
Simon pushed off the balustrade, realizing the fight he’d wanted may be coming from his brother and not Benji, which wouldn’t be the first time. “Do you realize you’re making these threats to a twenty-seven-year-oldman? I’m not a grubby urchin, begging for your advice.”
Finn’s polished-to-a-high-sheen boots hit the floor with a thud as he rose to a stand. “Eighty or eight, that was the last time-travel you’ll be doing if I have anything to say about it.”
The brothers stepped forward at the same time, two paces apart, fists clenched. Finn had Simon by a solid inch in height. But Simon was younger. And meaner. Finn didn’t like to fight, and honestly, wasn’t very good at it.
The study’s door hinge squealed, and Simon looked over Finn’s shoulder to see his eldest brother, Julian, stepping into the room. The viscount took one look at their harsh expressions, the fighting stances, and sighed behind his fist. “Not again.”
A beast of a man barreled into the room behind Julian, sending the viscount forward two steps he hadn’t counted on taking.
The only ungifted member of the League, Humphrey was Julian’s best friend from childhood and as close to Simon as his brothers. Humphrey’s gaze bounced between the two men, squaring off in the middle of the room. “Christ, am I going to be fixing split lips again? I suppose I have to take my brother-in-law’s side, even if he’s just a daft, beautiful bloke.”
“Take his side, fine by me,” Simon snarled and gave Finn a shove, his temper heating. “You married his sister. I didn’t. All’s fair in war and family, right?”
Finn reached to rub his chest, his smile growing. Rolling his shoulders, he whispered a vile obscenity, then knocked Simon off his feet before he could take a breath. The clip to Simon’s jaw that followed was trifling and rampant with brotherly love.
Before Simon could return the favor, Finn rolled to his back, his hand going to his temple and pressing hard. “She’s here. In the cloakroom again.Injured.” Closing his eyes, he released a muted growl that had the men surrounding him, Julian dropping to his knees at his side.
“Who?” Julian whispered.
Finn flicked his hand toward Simon with a grimace. “His woman.”
Simon scrambled to his feet, pushed past Humphrey and stumbled down the staircase, the raucous activity in the main salon lost to him as he muscled his way through the crowd, the sights and sounds of a vibrant gaming chamber a blur, his skin gone clammy and cool.
Injured.Injured.
She’d traveled in time. Against their agreement. Against therules.