The Duke's Masked Wife 2: The Prince's Outcast Bride-Chapter 242: Advice (3)

"You never corrected her. If it weren’t for my promise to our mother, I would have gotten rid of you long ago. You do know that, right?" Quinn asked.

Cassius nodded his head.

"Speak when I ask you a question," Quinn said, his voice soft, but the tone threatening.

"I know," Cassius replied.

"I gave you a little free will when we came to Lockwood, and you ran with it. You’ve done something without my command, and now it’s causing trouble for us. Again, I should kill you," Quinn said, considering it. "But, I love my mother too much to do it."

Cassius sighed in relief when Quinn stepped away from him, but his troubles were not over.

"I messed up," Cassius agreed with Quinn. "She’s not worth it, but she proved her usefulness to me. Harper mentioned that Penelope warned her that I made her uncomfortable. The prince-"

"I don’t care about that. Many men make women uncomfortable. Penelope can’t get upset with only one. Get rid of that woman," Quinn ordered Cassius.

Cassius’s eyes widened. He didn’t think their plans were going to move forward so fast.

"Penelope?"

Cassius ducked when Quinn picked up the small wooden box he was carrying earlier and threw it at him.

It was a grave mistake. Not on Quinn’s part, but on Cassius for ducking when he shouldn’t have.

"Duck again and you’ll have a gun to your mouth," Quinn warned Cassius.

Quinn picked up a large book that he had on the table and threw it at Cassius’s face. It wasn’t satisfying to see the book connect with Cassius’s face, but it would do for now.

Cassius winced, but he stood still not to upset his brother any further.

"Not Penelope, you fool. The lady who foolishly came to speak with you. She’ll be back, and the more she comes around, the more attention she will bring to us. She thinks she has the chance to wed you, and with that, she’ll speak of you to her peers. Kill her," Quinn ordered Cassius.

Quinn gave Harper the chance to stay away, but she wouldn’t listen.

Harper wasn’t on Quinn’s list, but she would serve as a distraction to throw the court and town guards off his track.

"You don’t touch the Collinses until I say it is time. I already told you to forget about Penelope. It’s the duchess and duke that we have set our sights on. Now you have the prince being curious about you," Quinn said, frustrated.

Quinn rubbed his temple.

Cassius didn’t understand his brother. "You made me crash into her carriage."

"To get the attention of the duke, and you don’t have a place to question my orders. Do as you are told if you want to be paid and fed," Quinn said, looking away from Cassius so he didn’t give in to the urge to kill his brother.

Quinn gave one simple instruction to Cassius, and they had successfully gotten the attention of Edgar, but then Cassius went further without speaking with Quinn first to place himself in Penelope’s path.

"Kill her. Put her with the others. I don’t care what you do as long as she isn’t searching for you anymore. No," Quinn said, changing his mind. "I’ll give her a little lesson."

Cassius thought it was better to just kill Harper. She would be better off if he crossed paths with her and killed her.

Cassius had plenty of reminders about his brother’s punishments on his back.

"Go to her father’s home and act as though you want her hand. Get him to do business with you. I’ll set aside the money for you to offer him. Make sure he keeps quiet about getting the money from you," said Quinn.

"You want them to hand her over in the end?" Cassius asked.

Harper wasn’t meant to be one of the women Cassius took. She was simply something fun for him to mess with in his spare time.

What did Harper say to Quinn for him to pull her into their plans?

"Is that not what we have done with the other families?" Quinn asked, not in the mood for Cassius’s lack of sense. "Each day I speak with you, I am given more light on how the difference in fathers makes you a fool. Mother should have picked better."

Cassius bit his tongue.

It was an insult Cassius heard one too many times when he was growing up, and his mother wasn’t the kind of person to care to correct Quinn. She had other issues to be concerned about over the fights between brothers.

"The prince will come," said Cassius.

"Of course, he will come when you have been foolish enough to show interest in his wife. It is what husbands do. The prince has already tried to get to you, and it cost me having to send back the heads of his guards," Quinn reminded Cassius.

Quinn sat down.

Quinn preferred to be in the background whilst he sent out Cassius to speak with others and make useful friends around the town. Quinn stayed in the background, like a wallflower, gathering all that he needed for his plans.

Cassius was the puppet while Quinn pulled the strings, but there were too many times when Cassius would forget where he stood in the plans.

"We’re not going to move. We cannot get away from the prince trying to hunt you down. Running means that we have something to hide, and it will make him suspicious. Right now, he is searching for you because of his wife. He doesn’t know anything else," said Quinn.

Quinn wanted to keep it this way for the prince to never have any clues about what they had done since they came to Lockwood and long before Quinn returned.

The plans Quinn had started long ago when he was just a boy. He was only a boy when his world fell apart thanks to Edgar Collins.

Quinn had set up these plans too well for Cassius’s interest in Penelope to be what ruined it.

"If this all starts to fail because you went after her when I told you not to, then I will kill you to get the prince off my back. Never think for a second that you are not disposable. My promise to my mother only goes so far," said Quinn.

The second the town guards got close to suspecting Quinn, then Cassius would take his last breath.

"Now that we understand each other, go pick out your finest clothes. You need to impress Harper and her father," Quinn said, sending Cassius off.