Lady Mutiny

Twenty-Five

Cass pursed her lips and nodded once.

"Well, rest assured, Lilia Cortova made good on her word, or at least tried to."

She peered at the Lord before her. "Lilia was the best at what she did-"

"So, you're admitting that you knew about her second life?"

Cass blinked as her heart pounded.

Shit, shit, shit...

"She was a silk merchant by trade," she added quickly. "She was never one to leave an obligation unfinished, regardless of its nature."

"Of course," he mused, his eyes remaining on her as he talked.

"Were you at least kind to her?" she hissed.

"More than kind," he assured her, his voice taking on a softer tone. "Lilia meant much to me."

"So much so you were more than ready to replace her with a new whore the moment the right time arose?"

Andro raised a brow at her insinuation. So what if he knew she was watching him—she was beyond pleasantries. "Sometimes, Lady Cortova, there are obligations that must be fulfilled, especially in certain positions of power."

She did not appreciate the look he gave at those words, which solidified the underlying meaning she knew he intended.

"Did you at least wait until her body was in the ground?" Cass pressed, her temper flaring. "Or did you not even bother to bury her?"

His dark brows raised to his hairline. "What kind of monster do you think I am?"

"The kind that would coerce a woman to ignore her family, her life, for his own selfish needs."

Andro's fingers went to the bridge of his nose, running at the skin while he closed his eyes. Cass's teeth clenched so hard she felt they may shatter, but she watched him while he tried to defend himself.

"I cared for your sister, Cassandra," he finally said as his eyes opened, meeting hers once again. "Perhaps I even loved her. Yes, the circumstances surrounding our relationship were unorthodox, but we grew fond of each other. I'm sorry that it kept her from you."

Cass said nothing as her eyes burned from forming tears.

"But it can also be well-known how your sister felt towards Lord Sebastian Gaylen, and when he visited my private residence with the threat of returning her to the hell I had saved her from, one cannot blame Lilia for acting the way she did."

Cass couldn't hide the surprise written across her face as she listened.

Andro's attentions softened slightly, the look in his gray eyes dulling to one of the calm seas after the storm. "You didn't know they kept Lilia within Lathos for months, enduring their torture before I demanded her release?"

The last thing Cass knew, Lilia escape custody to track down Andro.

She swallowed. She couldn't show this weakness- this new uncertainty. She wouldn't let him know she almost believed him. "How do I know you're not lying to me? Trying to paint a picture that puts my fiancé in a darker light? Just as it is known my sister and Lord Gaylen did not get along, so too is it known neither you nor Baz - Sebastian- share any friendly ties."

Andro maintained his stare, and Cass suddenly felt extremely vulnerable under his gaze. She had been trained to withstand the harshest of interrogations should she ever get caught, but being alone with Lord Andro Millian, the only other person in this world who may have known Lilia as well as she did, perhaps better, left her heart bleeding. She wanted to know more and was more than willing to beg for that information.

She even went so far as to open her mouth, willing the words to form on the tip of her tongue, but the slamming of the parlor door against the wall had her jumping out of her seat, and Lord Millian drawing a knife she didn't even know he had on him.

Wil stood in the entryway, chest heaving as if he ran the city in its entirety. Maybe he had, but his eyes were intent on Andro as he tried to catch his breath. She dared a glance to see if Andro was going to question the assassin's presence within her house, with his fighting leathers on and armed to the teeth, but Andro seemed calm despite Wil's intrusion.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asked, her attention returning to Wil as he took a step into the parlor. Only then did she realize he had something akin to paper crumbled within his fist, but she reminded herself that she needed to maintain her front of being a Lady who didn't normally hire assassins to monitor her home.

Wil, it seemed, had to pull his attention from Andro as well, looking to her when she spoke as if only then remembering the reason for his intrusion.

"It's Baz," Wil said levelly. "He's on his way here. Now."