Blackmailing Belle (The Lost Girls, #4)

by Holly Roberds

"Ah, cousin, always the wit. Tell me, does he treat you well? Or has he tortured you into submission? Taking from our family because we took his?" "What are you talking about?" Isabelle asks, her words coming out stiff. She asks so I don’t have to, but an icy tremor of something foreboding shivers up my spine. I feel Lucien and Tock tense behind me. "Don’t tell me you didn’t know," Roman presses with that light laughter even as his attention volleys between the four of us, drinking in our tension. "Surely you took Isabelle because we were the ones who had your family killed." His words drop like a bomb, echoing in the freezing air. Time freezes the blood in my veins as my mind blanks. Beside me, Isabelle sucks in a sharp breath. I stay perfectly still, my mind reeling. Then my vitals heat, and speed up. My blood rises to a simmer before it begins to boil in my veins, burning me from the inside out. "Really?" Roman says, his tone shifting to incredulous amusement. "You didn’t know? And here I thought this was some grand revenge plot. Marry my cousin, make her yours, then torture her, keep her, kill her eventually, perhaps. A beast of your wrath, I expected more. This feels so. . .calculated."