Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tommy coughed as he finally sucked in enough air to roll to his side and push himself up to his feet.
He had failed Minnie. He had failed himself, if he was being honest.
He had promised to keep her safe, and instead, he had done the exact opposite, bringing her to the lion’s den, where she had been captured and hauled away, to God knew where and with God knew who.
He stumbled to the door, grabbing the ledger from the desk on the way, stuffing it into the bag they had brought with them and slinging it over his shoulder.
When he opened the door, he found Jenkins on the other side of it, also injured, blood trickling out of a cut on the side of his head, but alive at least.
“You best get out of town,” Tommy said, wiping blood off his face, knowing that Jenkins would be useless to them if he stayed, for Blackwood was sure to see him dead.
Jenkins nodded and groaned as Tommy dragged himself out the door. His nose was dripping blood, and it felt like his organs had been rearranged in his stomach, but he was alive, he could walk, and he was determined. He was going to find Minnie.
He had to.
How, especially alone, he had no idea, despair filling him as he looked one way through the shipping containers and then the other, wondering which would follow her and which would lead him nowhere.
“Tommy!”
He whirled around at his name, relief coursing through him when he saw Jonny running toward him, Rhys and Colin close behind.
“Am I happy to see you,” he breathed out. “How did you know where I was?”
“Heard from a friend who saw you enter the customs office,” Jonny said, his brow furrowed. “What the hell, Tommy? Why did you go without us?”
“Thought I could do this on my own,” Tommy said, only to meet Rhys’s disapproving glare.
“We’re a team, Tom,” Rhys said in a gravelly voice. “You don’t do things alone. Especially something like this.”
“Where’s Minnie?” Colin demanded, and it felt like a vise had gripped Tommy’s throat.
“They took her,” he said, forcing the words out of his mouth.
“Who?”
“Blackwood’s men.”
Rhys swore as he and Colin looked around, their eyes as confused as Tommy was.
“Follow me,” Jonny said, much more confidently. “I know where they would have gone.”
“How?” Colin demanded, but Jonny waved him away.
“We’ll discuss that over tea sometime,” Jonny said in response, rolling his eyes. “Now, let’s go.”
He led them through the maze of shipping containers and merchandise stacked on the docks, Tommy’s eyes on alert as Colin passed him a handkerchief and Tommy pressed it against his nose, surprised to find how much it was bleeding. He hadn’t even noticed in his panic to find Minnie.
He felt some relief that Jonny seemed to know where to go, what to do, and he put his faith in him as he led them through the docks, knowing the way like he had been raised in these back alleys.
Perhaps he had been. Tommy didn’t know the extent of his story, and he doubted they would discuss it over tea as Jonny had promised.
“Shh,” Jonny said suddenly, motioning for them all to get down and be quiet.
When they heard the lapping of the waves, the sound of wood upon wood that meant a boat was being prepared to leave the docks, and the low murmur of men’s voices, it took everything within Tommy not to rush out and try to immediately save Minnie, but thankfully, the little reason he had left prevailed.
He would be no help to Minnie if he were dumped into the river.
“What do we do?” Tommy whispered.
“There are three of them, four of us,” Jonny muttered, having become their unofficial leader in this endeavor, before his eyes flicked over Tommy. “Well, three and a half.”
Tommy snorted in disdain, but it hurt his nose to do so, and he winced as Jonny continued. “When I count to three, we three each take one of the men. Tommy, you get Minnie out of here. Understood?”
“I can fight,” Tommy argued, but Jonny shook his head.
“You’re at a disadvantage and would be in our way. Just save your wife, all right?”
Tommy nodded, not admitting to them that his vision was slightly darkening from time to time, and nausea swirled in his stomach. Jonny was right, as much as Tommy hated to admit it.
Suddenly, there was a shout and a splash, which was enough of a signal for them all to spring into action.
Tommy leapt forward into the clearing beyond the shipping containers, his mouth gaping open when he saw Minnie not in the river as he had worried, but standing there unencumbered, just out of reach of Garrick and one other man.
She was ready to bolt, her skirts already flying as she turned, until she saw the four of them appear, her eyes widening in surprise as she came to a sudden stop.
When the two men whirled, they spotted them in turn, and readied to defend themselves, there was a shout from below, and Tommy quickly realized that, somehow, Minnie had landed one of them in the river.
But he’d have to wait to hear that story for another time, as right now, they had to get out of here.
As the other men engaged in fisticuffs, Tommy grabbed Minnie’s hand and led her away from the docks, back the way they had come.
They hadn’t gone particularly far when Tommy realized he had no idea where he was going.
If somehow the other men got away from Rhys, Colin, and Jonny, however, he knew exactly what to do.
He had been preparing for these situations his entire life. He just hadn’t realized it.
Footsteps echoed toward him, and Tommy shifted, ready to stick out his foot and send his pursuer sprawling. Then he caught sight of familiar faces and let out a breath of relief.
“We’re good, but we have to go,” Jonny said, and Tommy took Minnie’s arm as they followed Jonny, Rhys leading with him and Colin following behind them to make sure no one took them unawares.
It wasn’t until they neared the blacksmith shop that some of Tommy’s tension eased, although he was wary as they climbed the stairs.
As soon as they entered the door, Tommy dropped the bag, and Minnie turned to him, sagging into his arms. Despite his need to sit down himself, this was the respite he needed.
He wrapped one arm around her, the other encircling the back of her head as he lifted her face to his and crashed his lips down upon her, though he tilted his head to keep his nose from being hit again.
He kissed her like a drowning man desperate for air, needing her more than he ever thought possible.
When he thought that she had been lost to him, he had been beside himself, wondering how he was ever going to live with himself if she was taken, if anything unspeakable happened to her.
Despite his best intentions, he hadn’t been able to protect her, and now all he wanted to do was to hold on tightly to her and never let her go.
If she’d let him.
He was lost in her, in the feel of her soft curves pressed against him as he used his hand to tug her even tighter toward him. His other hand laced through her hair as his tongue sought hers, arresting her, taking her with all the desperation he had felt over the past day.
He never should have taken her with him, but then, it would have been even worse if she had been captured while they had been apart.
A throat cleared from behind them, and reluctantly, Tommy pulled back and away from her, as three knowing, smiling faces stared back at him. Right. They had an audience. This would have to continue later.
“We’re safe for now,” Jonny said. “But they’ll be coming for us. Especially you, Tom. What are you going to do?”
“We need to take Blackwood down even more desperately now,” Tommy said grimly. “We have a game in two days. This all needs to be taken care of before then.”
“Or else what?” Rhys demanded.
“I don’t want to find out,” Colin said. “We practice tomorrow. Let’s meet afterward?”
“Afterward,” Rhys agreed. “We should bring the ladies. I don’t want to leave them alone, and we know they won’t want to sit this out anyway.”
“Agreed,” Colin said, and they all nodded. “Tommy, do you want us to call a doctor? Not sure about the angle of your nose, and from the way you’re walking—”
“I’m fine,” Tommy insisted, but then caught Minnie’s worried gaze. “Really, Minnie, I promise.”
“You didn’t look fine when you were flat out on the floor,” she said, biting her bottom lip, which, if he wasn’t wrong, had been quivering slightly. Had she really been that worried about him?
“I’m fine,” he said, even as he had to take a seat in the kitchen chair for fear of falling over. “I just need some rest. If it makes you all feel better, I’ll go get checked out tomorrow. You’re all worse than my mother.”
“Who I will go tell about all of this if you don’t take care of yourself,” Colin promised, and Tommy just frowned at him.
“Go on, Colin,” he said, unable to stop from looking at Minnie, needing her in ways that scared him to even think about. “Get out of here.”
“But—”
“I just need time with my wife,” he finally said in exasperation, and finally they understood as Colin clapped a hand on his back and made his way to the door.
“Anything either of you need, you tell us,” Colin said, looking at both of them. “Understood?”
Tommy nodded as Rhys added, “Don’t do anything like this alone again. We go together.”
“I don’t want my problems to become all of yours,” Minnie said in a soft voice, and it was only then that Tommy truly understood.
Just as he didn’t want Minnie taking this on, neither did his teammates want him to be alone.
Caring for someone meant making sure that they were no longer going through the hard times by themselves.
Watching them do so only made things all the worse — for everyone.
“They are our problems together,” Tommy said much more confidently. “Got it. We won’t take on anything alone, men. We promise.”
“Good to hear it,” Colin said, a look of understanding in his eyes. “Goodnight, Tom, Minnie.”
“Goodnight,” Tommy said, but he didn’t look at them as they left.
His eyes were solely trained on Minnie.