The Bachelor Bargain (Secrets, Scandals, and Spies) by Michaels, Maddison (short books to read TXT) 📕

out here? Three of my men are lying in wait around the lodge. When he enters the lodge, my men will kill his men who will be sneaking around the back, trying to surprise me. But do not fret, I’ve told them not to kill him. He must be alive to see the things I plan to do to you.”

Reluctantly, Livie resumed walking down the overgrown trail. “Is revenge so important to you that you would spend nearly every day working for your mortal enemy when you despise him so?”

“Despise him?” Clint started to laugh. “I don’t just despise him. No, no, no. That’s far too bland a word to describe what I feel for the man. I loathe him. I completely and utterly detest him. I put up with being in such close proximity to him for the last year only because how else can one properly observe one’s enemy, apart from being as close to them as possible? It’s the only way, unfortunately.”

Up ahead, a few hundred meters away, a light glowed from a window of what appeared to be a hunting lodge.

“Ah good, we’re nearly there,” he said from behind her. “And it looks like a mutual friend of ours has arrived as I asked them to.”

Livie stopped, and Clint nearly ran into her. “What mutual friend?” She was beginning to think it might be preferable to take her chances out here with him, instead of inside a confined space, especially if another person was inside.

“You shall see once we get inside,” Clint confirmed, pressing the pistol firmly into her back. “Now move. I don’t want to have to shoot you prematurely.”

For a moment, Livie contemplated using her cane as a weapon, just as Kat had taught her to, not the blade part of it, but the shaft itself, to disarm Clint. But with the uneven ground and her leg paining her from the long walk, she was already at a distinct disadvantage.

But she knew she needed to do something as each footstep she took brought her closer to the hunting lodge ahead, with him following right behind. Livie got the sense that her time was desperately running out.

She had to do something, she just had no idea what. “If you think I’m going to make raping me easy for you, I assure you I will not.” That had to be what he had in mind. Otherwise, why take her, instead of simply killing her? “I will fight you to the end.”

“I hope you do,” Clint answered as they got to the door of the lodge and he leaned in from behind her and pushed the door open, the barrel of his pistol pressing against her waist as he did so, his breath hot on her neck. “I like it when my ladies fight me.”

A shudder of repulsion ran through her at how close he was. But then he snatched her cane from her and pushed her over the threshold. She stumbled inside the room and away from him.

There was a lantern sitting on a table in the middle of the small space, burning brightly and casting light and shadows everywhere. Dust covers were spread over what little furniture was scattered about the room, with a layer of dust at least an inch thick across the tops of them.

But then her eyes fell upon one of the seats at the table. A seat that was filled by none other than Lady Chilton.

Chapter Forty-Eight

“I thought she was already meant to be dead.” Lady Chilton exclaimed, looking past Livie to Clint, a finger pointed at the man. “You have failed to fulfill your promise.”

“Lady Chilton? What are you doing here…” Livie stumbled to the chair that Clint was pushing her toward as slowly she processed what she was seeing. “You’re the one trying to have me killed? But I don’t understand…”

“I wouldn’t expect you to.” Lady Chilton looked down her nose at Livie. “I did warn you to stop looking into Alice’s death, but you kept persisting, stupid girl that you are. Things did not have to end this way.”

“This night shall prove great fun, I do believe.” Clint chuckled as he took a seat beside Livie, his gun pointed at her side. “Did you bring the money?”

“Yes, I’ve brought the thousand pounds you requested.” Lady Chilton turned her attention to Clint, motioning with her head to a carpetbag by the door. “But why is she not dead yet? I shall not pay you until she is.”

“She will die tonight,” Clint assured her with a smile. “But I have great plans for her first, after Colver arrives.”

“How could you betray your sister like this?” Livie spat out the words to Lady Chilton, her initial shock giving way to anger. “You would rather prevent a scandal than see justice served on your sister’s murderer?”

“Oh, you silly, foolish girl,” Lady Chilton chided, swinging her head back to stare at Livie. “Lord Daverell might have been the unscrupulous bastard to seduce and get Alice with child and then abandon her, but he certainly didn’t kill her.”

Livie shook her head vehemently and stood, banging her fists against the table. “No. I will not believe she took her life. Alice would not do such a thing!”

“Are you not going to rein her in?” Lady Chilton directed the question to Clinton.

He shrugged. “No. I’m more than happy to sit back and enjoy the show.”

“Answer me!” Livie yelled to Lady Chilton, banging her fists on the table again as the woman gasped and swiveled her gaze back to Livie. “I know Alice would never have taken her life, and especially not that of her unborn child. So tell me what happened to her.”

“You are correct, she didn’t take her life,” Lady Chilton bit out. “Though I did do a very good job convincing the authorities she did.”

“Oh God…” And suddenly the truth of the situation dawned on Livie. “You killed her, didn’t you?” Her heart felt broken for her dear friend. “You