Chapter 63
DRASKO
An expensive suit over a skinny hunched body. A bowler hat over the gray hair. Small vulture eyes. An ivory cane with a gold eagle head, the diamonds for the eyes sparkling maliciously.
The memories assaulted Drasko.
Uriah’s hatred had infected his life a long time ago. That hatred was contagious, now taking over Drasko’s entire mind in this single moment of facing the man he had once admired and then hated with all his heart. The man who was supposed to be dead.
The guns were lowered.
The men stepped back, widening the circle.
Grace pulled away from Drasko and lifted her chin at the man.
“Who are you?” she asked so bravely it made Drasko’s blood boil at the way Uriah’s eyes sharply snapped at her.
“Your relation, dear, your uncle by blood. I am Uriah Mawr,” he said.
Disgust coiled inside Drasko at the sound of his voice.
Grace gasped and looked at Drasko. “But…”
“But you thought I was dead.” Uriah chuckled, the wheezy nasty chuckle of a sickly man. “I must admit, I quite enjoyed living incognito. Watching you, my boy”—Uriah shifted his gaze to Drasko—“as you had a grand time with your wife.”
“You are a monster,” Grace whispered, and Drasko put his hand on her waist, holding her in place.
“You enjoyed my little present, did you not?” Uriah nodded toward her. “You see, she was going to marry that title. For money. Just like her mother once did. But I had to gift her to you, Drasko. You deserved to use her for as long as you did.”
As long as you did…
Drasko ground his teeth, though harsh words from Uriah were nothing new.
Uriah leaned heavily onto his cane, wincing, seemingly in pain, and walked up to Grace.
“She turned out quite splendid, did she not?” He flicked his hand toward Grace, but his spiteful stare was on Drasko. “Did you tell her everything?”
Drasko kept silent.
“But of course, you did!” Uriah chuckled.
“I bet you could not keep your mouth shut. You have been following her like a loyal dog for years, kissing the ground where she walked. And now she’d started sinking her claws into you, hey?
” He laughed, the sound sharp, followed by a coughing fit.
That ugly smile was back on Uriah’s face. “Did you not learn anything, Drasko?”
“This is between you and me,” Drasko finally said, letting go of Grace and taking a half-step to shield her, as if he could.
“You are fooling yourself, and you know it, my dear boy.”
Drasko hated the words, hated the fact that he owed his success to this man who still had the upper hand.
“Let her go, and we can sort it out,” Drasko said.
Uriah clicked his tongue. “No can do. You see, despite me being alive and well”—he chuckled again—“I knew you would have your goons with you. Which, I have to admit, were quite difficult to get rid of. But not impossible! Not impossible… Keep that in mind for the future. As for her”—he nodded toward Grace—“you already gathered that she would be crucial to our little game.” His chapped lips widened in a smile that did not reach his eyes.
“So, I made arrangements with a third party. It is all done. There is no way to turn things back. No way out of the deal, my dear boy. A deal is a deal. We have agreed, signed with blood, remember? And, yes, yes, the men I hired will finish this game one way”—his eyes shifted to Grace then back to Drasko—“or another. If anything were to happen to me, you know what I mean?”
Drasko knew this, was prepared for this, and the confirmation only made him madder.
“What is he talking about?” Grace muttered.
“A deal is a deal.” Drasko nodded, keeping his eyes on Uriah. “Though it will not end the way you wanted it to.”
“No?” Uriah raised his brows. “I know you failed the previous task. But there is still time.”
“What way?” Grace asked in a shaky voice.
Surprise flickered on Uriah’s face. “She doesn’t know?”
“Know what, Drasko?” Grace demanded.
“That the Crimson Tear has to appear at the auction, or else…”
“But you said that you would have it, Drasko,” Grace insisted. “You said that. Where is the diamond?”
Uriah’s eyebrows rose slowly. An amused chuckle escaped him. “You did not tell her… Oh, my… What a gentleman. I am impressed, Drasko.”
“Tell me what?” Grace shouted and turned to Uriah. “Tell me what!”
Drasko saw the dangerous glint in Uriah’s eyes, wanted to stop the words, but they’d already left the man’s mouth. “That if the diamond is not at the auction, Drasko forfeits his life.”
Drasko grunted. “Uriah, let her go, and we will?—”
“But the diamond,” Uriah said loudly, turning his eyes to Grace, “is inside you, dear.”
Grace gasped. “But…” She covered her mouth with her palm, her eyes wide with shock. “But… The doctor…”
Drasko took a step toward her. “Grace, don’t listen to him. He is?—”
“It’s true,” Uriah cut him off. “Fifteen years ago, it happened, yes. That scar you have, dear, have you wondered where it came from? Have you imagined that you might be the biggest treasure in London? And not because of your silly talent, but because you are carrying the rarest stone in your body. That’s something, hey? ”
Drasko’s insides turned at the words.
Uriah shifted toward him, his chapped lips curled into an ugly contempt. “You were supposed to get the diamond at the doctor’s.”
“Let her go. It’s between you and me,” Drasko said through his teeth.
“But we need the diamond, my boy.”
“No.”
“But that was the agreement. Or else… Six o’clock at the auction. It’s out of my hands.” Uriah raised his one palm in the air with an innocent expression on his sinister face.
“You are a spiteful man. You truly think that you can win?”
“But I will. Do you see what we have going on? An auction. Six o’clock. The Crimson Tear.”
“The Crimson Tear won’t be there.”
“Pardon me?”
“It won’t be.”
“Or else.”
“So be it,” Drasko stated.
Confusion etched Uriah’s stare. “Don’t be a fool, Drasko. I raised you well. I taught you that a man of power?—”
“Always has a choice. I’m making mine. That was the deal.”
Uriah shifted his stare to Grace. “Your mother was a whore,” he said sharply. “Your father a drunk. And your husband is a fool in love. A life for a diamond, the deal was. And you still have a chance?—”
“No!” Drasko said loudly, contemplating strangling the man or beating the life out of him, though that would not change much.
“You have a chance,” Uriah continued, stepping toward Grace. “We can retrieve the diamond, and your husband will be spared.”
“Madman,” Drasko spat out when Grace suddenly stepped toward him and fisted the lapels of his jacket.
“Drasko,” she pleaded with quiet despair, “I will do what he wants?—”
“No,” Drasko said sharply.
“But you cannot?—”
“No!”
“There has to be a way!” she shouted, pushing away from him and turning to Uriah.
“No!” Drasko roared and drew her into his arms.
Her eyes were misted with tears, lips trembling.
“Listen to me, Grace,” he said urgently. “I made a deal. You are not part of it. And you are not going to do anything reckless.” He brought his lips to her ear and whispered a lie, “I shall sort it out.”
He kept consoling her, tried to talk sense into her, promised that it would be all right, though he knew it would not.
She cried and argued and thrashed in his arms, trying to push away, but he held her tightly against him.
“It will be all right, Grace. It will be all right. Let me do what I need to.”
“But—”
“It’s the way it is.”
He kissed her forehead, his heart breaking into pieces. He murmured another promise, words of consolation, disregarding the men around them, the hostile stares, and the sharp impatient tapping of Uriah’s cane against the floor.
Until she went quiet in his arms, sobbing.
Finally, he looked at Uriah and took him in—his cruel smirk, the triumphant glint in his eyes, the noticeable anticipation of this tragic ending. This was the last lesson from a man who had no compassion.
And yet, in this last silent standoff, Drasko met Uriah’s eyes and did the one thing he never thought he would.
He didn’t say it out loud but pleaded with his gaze.
Please, don’t.
Please.
Please…
The man had given Drasko everything and was now robbing him of the most precious thing.
But it was too late to reason with him. Others’ pain was Uriah’s lifeline.
So, Drasko averted his eyes.
In the end, it wasn’t between him and Uriah. In the end, it was between him and Grace.
He took her face between his palms and gazed for the last time into the beautiful hazel eyes that had made him feel so alive in the last months. They were full of tears, and he prayed that she would never have a man who would cause any more.
“I love you,” he whispered. “I should have told you from the start that I always loved you, that everything I did in the last years was with the hopes of one day sharing it with you.”
“No, Drasko,” she sobbed. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Don’t you dare…”
He smiled, despite the weight that was crumbling his heart. The tragedy wasn’t in him giving himself up. The biggest tragedy was that he was madly, deeply in love with his wife. And he didn’t have any more time left.
“No, no, no,” she whispered, grabbing his hands and holding them tight against her as if she had a say in what would happen next.
“I talked to Zeph,” he said. “He knows what to do.”
Uriah signaled to his men, and the three of them stepped up to Drasko and motioned toward the door.
“No-no-no. Drasko!” she shouted.
But Drasko couldn’t prolong this. If he did, he would break down in front of her or beg Uriah to change things. But this was the deal, the fucking deal.
“The months with you were the best months of my life,” he said in a shaky voice.
“Don’t you dare,” she sobbed, shaking her head.
“It was a privilege to hear you play for me.”
With a deep breath, he smiled softly, let go of her, and followed the men to the door.
He heard Grace’s desperate shout. “Drasko!”
Her heels clicked fast against the stone, suddenly cut off by the sound of a struggle. “Let me go!” she screamed. “Let him go! Drasko!”
Her voice cut into his heart, making it bleed.
But he didn’t turn.
Grace was the beginning and—he always knew—would be the end. But he’d hoped that she would fill many happy years in between.
Now that they’d run out of time, he was glad that he was the first one to go. For the first time, he wouldn’t bear the pain of living in a lonely world. He couldn’t, would not live in a world void of her. Not again.
Grace’s screams followed him to the door. He fought an urge to rush back, to break the arms of the men who dared touch her, break Uriah’s face at that, make him cry, and turn him into a bloodied mess with his punches.
He wanted to tell Grace the last words, but there were so many. Touch her one more time, but it would never be enough. Promise her again that it would be all right though it certainly was the biggest lie he had ever told.
Rakshasa roared, trying to break out of its invisible prison.
But Drasko didn’t fight.
For her sake, he wouldn’t.
He had made a deal. And a man was only as good as the promises he kept.
Drasko knew what was to come. He closed his eyes as he stepped through the doorway and thought of Grace, his heart silently screaming for her.
And she answered, her loud voice echoing behind him, “I agree!”
His eyes snapped open.
He made a move to protest, but a rope suddenly snaked around his neck, choking him. A hand pressed a cloth over his face, and the nauseating stink of chloroform suffocated him into darkness.