The Promise

And suddenly the knife was skidding across the terrace and both men were diving for it. Alexi landed on top of the pilot, grunting, as he seized it. A loud, sickening crack sounded. And Montgomery went still beneath Alexi, cheek pressed against the stone terrace.

Suddenly neither man was moving.

Elysse froze. Alexi got onto his hands and knees, staring down at the American—and she saw that Montgomery’s eyes were wide-open, eerily so.

Elysse gasped in shock. Montgomery was dead?

Alexi slid off him slowly. As slowly, he looked up at her, the answer in his eyes.

Her own horror began.

Alexi looked back down at the pilot. “He’s dead.”

She cried out. “He can’t be!”

Alexi inhaled harshly. “He’s dead. He hit his head on the stone.”

William Montgomery had hit his head—William Montgomery was dead?

“Damn it,” Alexi gasped, trembling. He was fighting his emotions now.

And it hit her. This was her fault—wasn’t it?

Alexi looked up at her again. “Elysse,” he said thickly.

She began shaking her head, backing away. Then she seized her skirts and fled.

CHAPTER FOUR

STILL IN SHOCK, Elysse ran into the house, choking on a raw sob. She could not believe what had happened. William Montgomery was dead!

She stumbled, leaning against the wall. They had been fighting because of her. They had been fighting over her. Oh, God—this was all her fault.

Elysse collapsed against the wall. She couldn’t stop shaking. She was so sick. How had this happened? She hugged herself, crying. Montgomery had wanted to court her! Yet he had turned into a beast! He had said he loved her, but if he had, he would have never treated her with such disrespect! Alexi had been right about him! And now he was dead!

Gasps sounded.

Elysse started, wiping her wet face with her fingers, looking up. A pair of women stood at the other end of the hall. They were frozen, staring at her in shock.

Suddenly Elysse realized how she must look and what they must be assuming. She knew that her hair was coming down, her face was tearstained, and her skirts probably dirty. Any rational person would just think that she had been accosted—and she had.

She recalled William Montgomery’s hands and mouth and she felt even more violently ill. Why hadn’t she listened to Alexi, who was her oldest and dearest friend? What would have happened if Alexi hadn’t come outside and intervened?

“Miss O’Neill,” one of the ladies began.

No one could know about the horrid events of that evening! No one could know that she had allowed a kiss and that it had turned into something more, and that William Montgomery was now dead! Crying out again, she whirled to flee back down the corridor. Alexi was rushing up it.

She had never needed anyone more! She shouldn’t have left him alone outside with Montgomery’s body! She rushed to him. Alexi seized her arm, their gazes locking. Then he jerked his head and turned, dragging her back down the hall with him. Behind him, she heard both women in a frenzy of whispering.

Oh, God.

She was ruined now.

Alexi pushed open a door and they fled inside the room there; he closed and locked it behind them.

Trembling, her heart pounding with sickening force, she managed, “They know.”

“They know nothing,” he said, pulling her into his arms.

Elysse cried out, collapsing against his chest, her cheek against his lapel. He held her, hard, in a bearlike embrace.

When he spoke, his mouth moved in her hair. “Tell me you’re all right, Elysse. That he didn’t hurt you.” His tone was raw.

She was crying now, incapable of speech. She reached for his shoulders and clung as never before. He rocked her. Why had she allowed William Montgomery to kiss her? Why had she ever even considered his suit? The events of that evening began to replay in her mind—her terrible, endless flirtations; her argument with Alexi; the awful, aggressive kiss; and the fatal confrontation she had just witnessed between the two men.

“I am so sorry,” she wept. “I never meant for this to happen. Oh, my God! Alexi!” She looked up at him. His face was spinning. She felt faint. The horror was consuming.

He clasped her face in his hands. Tears shimmered in his eyes, too. “I know you didn’t. Damn it, Elysse. Why did you go outside with him?”

She buried her face against his chest. She didn’t want Alexi to ever know that she had allowed Montgomery to kiss her.

“I would never let anyone hurt you.”

It was so hard to think—all she could remember was that William Montgomery had turned into a beast and he was now dead and it was because of her. “This is my fault, isn’t it? Because I played him—because I went outside with him. Because I didn’t listen to you.”

Alexi’s face hardened. “Stop!” He pulled her tightly against him. His taut body was shaking as wildly as hers. “He had no damned right to kiss you—he knew you were trying to fight him off!”

His embrace felt so safe. She had never been so scared. All she could think of now was that she was safe, finally. But Montgomery was dead—because he had been fighting with Alexi over her. Surely Alexi would not be blamed? Elysse didn’t speak, breathing hard, fighting the tears, her cheek pressed against his chest. She wrapped her arms around him. “It was awful. Don’t let me go,” she managed. She wished they could stay that way, in one another’s arms, forever.

Images whirled wildly in her mind. She would never forget the sound of his skull hitting that stone staircase! Worse, those two ladies had seen her in the hallway. She started to cry, soundlessly.

Alexi was in trouble and she was ruined….

His grasp tightened. She didn’t know how long they stood there that way, each grappling with their own demons. She finally became aware of his harsh breathing, which sounded suspiciously like choked sobs, and her own heavy, anguished breaths. The sound of a shutter banging against the house filled the night. A clock was ticking loudly in the corner of the room. The trembling of Alexi’s body had slowed. Her own wild shaking had not.

Slowly, she looked up.

He slid his hand up her jaw, then into her hair. His cheeks were damp. “We need to get you home.”

“I’ll be fine,” she whispered. “It was an accident, Alexi, wasn’t it? Everything was an accident!”

He inhaled loudly. His gaze blazed through his tears. “I warned him not to take liberties.” Agony flickered in his eyes and she knew he was thinking of what she had suffered. “I wanted to kill him, Elysse.”

“What are we going to do?” More tears fell, slowly but steadily, an outpouring of torment and guilt.

He caught her face in his hands. “I’m going to take care of everything,” he said.

Their gazes locked. Suddenly the nausea roiled, too much to bear. She ran across the room and retched in a small wastebasket. A man was dead because of her foolish flirtation. This was her fault, not Alexi’s!