Kiss of the Betrayer (A Bringer and the Bane Novel) by Boone Brux Page B

the water again. “Far from it.”
    The woman harrumphed.
    He straightened, his gaze snapping back to the whore. “Why are you still here?”
    “I don’t want to leave until I know your friend is all right.” She looked at him, her face pinching into a sour expression. “Feel like this mess is my fault. I should have been more careful around Pascal. He has eyes everywhere. There ain’t nothing that happens on the docks that he don’t know about and that Shillings…” She shook her head. “He’s one nasty piece of work. Do just about anything for Pascal.”
    “None of this is your fault.” Luc sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, then lowered them. “It’s mine.” When would he stop ruining Jade and Esmeralda’s life? “It’s always my fault.”
    “I find there are usually no extremes in relationships, even friendship. One is not always right or never wrong. I doubt things are always your fault.” She shrugged. “But I could be wrong.”
    “You are,” he bit out. “And we are not in a relationship.”
    The whore gave a nod that said less about agreeing with him and more about knowing something he obviously didn’t.
    “She hates me.” He picked at a worn strand of rope that lay draped over the side of the ship. “For good reason.”
    Her eyebrows lifted but she didn’t look at him.
    “You don’t believe me?”
    She smirked and looked up. “Who am I to question your story? All I know is what I thought I saw.” She shrugged again. “The heart wants what the heart wants.” She let go of the worn hem, stood and stretched, arching her back. “I find there ain’t no use fightin’ it.”
    “Rubbish.”
    She didn’t argue with him. An awkward silence grew between them, her words chipping away at what little calm he maintained. It was nonsense to think Jade harbored anything but hatred for him. Complete foolishness.
    He crossed his arms and glared at her. “You’re very blunt.”
    The woman gave a quiet laugh. “So I’ve been told.”
    “Not surprising,” he mumbled.
    He found the whore to be a complete puzzle. Willing to sell her body to make a living, but wouldn’t accept charity, intelligent, with a rough kindness that grew out of hard times. He lowered his arms and relaxed his stiff stance. “What’s your name?”
    She bit her bottom lip as if contemplating whether to lie. After a few seconds she said, “Delphina.”
    “Pretty name.”
    “It’s the one beautiful thing my mother gave me before selling me to a pleasure house.”
    Words momentarily escaped him. He was well acquainted with the seedy side of life. Had been facedown in it more times than he cared to remember. But to come face-to-face with the stark rawness of what happened to the innocents rallied a sense of morality and honor he didn’t know still existed within him.
    In an effort to lighten the mood, he changed the subject. “Thank you for your help tonight—after the thieves fled.”
    Delphina smoothed one hand down the front of her skirt, not meeting his gaze. “I didn’t do anything. Like I said, I caused more trouble than I’m worth.”
    Her words echoed the same thoughts he had about himself. He fumbled with the frayed end of the rope, plucking apart the threads. Her unwillingness to accept praise was understandable. Each day was a struggle to live, with few kind words and even fewer offers of freely given help. There was no reason she should believe him to be sincere.
    “You helped lead us out of the forest and probably saved Jade’s life.”
    She lifted her gaze and gave him a hard stare.
    “I’m fairly certain those men didn’t give you a choice,” he continued before she could protest.
    “You’re very understanding.” She walked toward him and stopped a few feet away. One arm cradled the other and she eased a hip against the rail. “There’s something different about you. I’ve seen a fair bit of earth magic in my day, but what you did was like nothing I’ve seen before.”
    Luc