Chapter 3
Jessica remained, her gun still on him, as he crossed his arms over his chest, the muscles flexing with the movement, and quirked an eyebrow.
“A fine way to repay me for an afternoon’s pleasure.” His gaze flicked down to where her legs and sex were still uncovered, her stomach damp from where he’d spilled all over her.
She sat up, tossing her skirts down to conceal herself. She got to her feet and put as much distance as she could between them. Her legs were decidedly unsteady beneath her.
“Repayment is what this is about,” she answered. “You have stolen from hundreds of travelers on the Essex road, and the time has come for you to recompense them for their losses.”
He hadn’t moved. “Are you the law?”
“Adjacent to it.”
“Someone hired you.” At her obstinate silence, he cajoled with a flirtatious smile, “Come now, you have me at the firing end of your barking iron. The advantage is yours. Surely there’s no harm in telling me who engaged your services.”
After a moment, she said, “Sir Harold Mowbray.”
Whatever teasing smile Ezra had been wearing fell away. “What do you know of Mowbray?”
“What I know of him is of little consequence in this matter. Get dressed. Make haste, but no sudden moves.”
“I can’t make haste without sudden moves.”
“Now,” Jessica snapped.
“As my Lady Vixen wishes.” He pulled on his shirt and waistcoat, but didn’t bother with his neckcloth. “If your intent all along was to arrest me, it seems a precarious diversion for us to fuck.”
“I recognize a good time when I see one.” It had been a rash impulse, but she couldn’t quite regret it, not when she’d had the best swiving of her life.
“Perilous, all the same. I could have found your pistol, should I have insisted on disrobing you.”
“Easy enough to explain being armed on a dangerous highway.” A wash of heat moved through her at the thought of his hands removing each garment from her body, until she was naked.
It was a shame they couldn’t have that. There was only going to be this one encounter.
He paused in the act of donning his coat. “You like the risk.”
She hadn’t before.
“I don’t need to explain anything about what I like or don’t like.” She gestured with her pistol. “Hands up and head out. We’ve an appointment tonight, and we aren’t going to miss it.”
Ezra held his hands up and left the room.
Before Jessica left the little chamber, she scooped up his pistols, as well as a satchel that slumped in a corner.
She placed the pistols into the bag, slung its strap over her shoulder, and followed Ezra into the main area of the house.
Tej and Rhys weren’t inside, so Jessica pointed to the fabric covering the open doorway.
“Out,” she commanded.
Wordlessly, Ezra did as she bade. There was a small clearing in front of the cottage, and Tej and Rhys were crouched there, reviewing the contents of their take from the carriage. Their voices joined in deep murmurs.
They both looked from Ezra to the pistol in Jessica’s hand, both men lifting their brows in surprise.
“Didn’t enjoy yourself, my lady?” Tej asked.
A hint of heat crept into her cheeks. Owning one’s pleasure was not shameful, but even so, she didn’t precisely relish the idea of anyone else listening in.
And yet…the way Tej’s gaze now moved over her in carnal assessment…the manner in which Rhys licked his lips when he regarded her…
“That’s not what it sounded like,” Rhys noted.
They heard her, all right, and what they heard, they liked.
She had a pistol in her hand and a mission to accomplish. All the same, a flush of desire stirred in her, low and fast.
For the love of everything holy, she’d never, never entertained the thought of having someone hear her during sex.
But still…did Tej and Rhys get hard when they heard her screams of ecstasy?
Did they picture themselves with her? Not just them alone, but all of them, together?
A seething, sweaty tangle of flesh—her open in every way to all of them.
Not just one cock, but three, and her mouth, and her cunt, and her… arse.
Why the devil did that idea stir her so unbearably? Good God—she had to be deranged, to grow aroused by the notion of more than one bedpartner at a time, in the filthiest positions and postures known to humanity.
Mentally, she shook herself. This wasn’t the time, and these were not the men.
“Both of you, up,” she commanded. “Hands, too.”
Slowly, Rhys and Tej rose, holding up their hands. Jessica kept her pistol trained on them as she strode forward and pulled their weapons from holsters and belts. These she added to Ezra’s firearms in her satchel.
“Get me some rope,” she said to Rhys.
He looked to Ezra, who gave him a slight nod. The sandy-haired man went into the cottage and returned with a length of rope.
“Give it to me,” she commanded.
Rhys did as she bade him, handing her the length of hemp.
“Stand next to each other,” she said.
The three highwaymen did as she asked.
“Hold out your hands.”
When they obeyed, Jessica quickly tucked the pistol into her pocket before wrapping the length of rope around their wrists and knotted them securely. Then, she took up her pistol again.
They seemed awfully compliant. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, but if they were willing to let her bind them without putting up a fight, she wouldn’t complain. Yet she would remain on alert, in case they attempted anything suspicious.
“Those are good knots,” Ezra observed.
Jessica gave him a grim smile. “My brother was in the navy. He’s a bodyguard now.”
“He taught you well,” Tej said. “What else have you learned?”
“Not to talk to prisoners,” she replied.
Knowing that the men couldn’t get far lashed together, she hurried to the structure they used as a stable and quickly bridled one of the horses.
She didn’t bother with a saddle as she swung herself up onto the animal’s back.
It whickered slightly, but accepted her as its rider as she quickly rode back to the cottage.
The three highwaymen stood right where she’d left them, waiting calmly as if they were planning to escort her to the shops.
With her pistol pointed at them, she commanded, “Walk.”
“Give us our direction,” Ezra said.
“Back to the Essex road.”
“We won’t make it there until after nightfall,” Tej noted.
“And moonrise,” Rhys added.
“Walk,” Jessica said again. “Stay ten yards ahead of me. And if you do try to escape, I’ll shoot you through the back.”
“Not very honorable.” There was no anger or recrimination in Ezra’s voice.
“Stealing hard-won valuables and possessions from innocent travelers isn’t particularly honorable, either, so we’re not going to debate who between us possesses more integrity. Now, move.”
They did as she directed, keeping the requisite ten yards in front as she rode behind them. They moved with leisurely, unhurried strides, all of them loose-limbed and comfortable as they wended their way through the forest.
“Quiet,” she commanded, when they murmured to each other. Were they…laughing? Chatting as though it was a fine evening for a stroll?
She was taking them to be arrested. There was no conceivable reason why they should behave so insouciantly.
Dusk began to fall, shading the sky above in deepening hues of blue and lavender. Night creatures began to make themselves known, owls hooting, nocturnal hunters trotting through the brush.
She hadn’t much experience with the outdoors, especially after dark.
The winding streets of London were far more familiar.
They held their own dangers, but she was experienced with those dangers and how to protect herself from them.
When Charlie had begun working as a bodyguard, he made certain to educate her on all the ways she could be safe, all the means of breaking a chokehold or disarming an opponent, and how to load and fire many different types of firearms. She could wield a blade with a fair degree of efficiency, too.
Fortunate that her brother didn’t see her sex as a liability, or that, as a woman, believe she was too fragile to know all the critical skills one had to possess to survive the streets and beyond.
Here in this Essex forest, she might not know everything needed to fend off a wild animal, but she was more concerned about the men she’d captured. Wily, they were, and alarmingly unconcerned about what awaited them. Did they not understand? Or was it a matter of simply not caring?
“Douglas Bremmer challenged us to a football match Thursday next,” Rhys said to his colleagues.
“He enjoys humiliating himself,” Ezra answered.
“Or his memory’s faulty,” Tej noted.
If her timing was correct, she’d get them to their destination at the precise moment she needed. Fortunate that she hadn’t lingered in Ezra’s bed…tempting as the idea was…
She pushed the thought from her head. It had been a risk to bed him, but he’d been simply so delicious, and it had been so long since she’d done anything for herself, so focused was she on her employment.
There weren’t many women like her in London, or, hell, anywhere, and that’s what made her services as private security so in demand. Few ever expected a woman to be employed for security purposes. It galled sometimes, but it also allowed her the opportunity to do her job, unlike many others.
Fortunately, Ezra, Tej, and Rhys hadn’t put up much of a fight. Which was, as she’d earlier considered…odd. Suspect, even.
According to accounts, they’d been holding up carriages on the road to London for three years.
They’d never killed anyone, though occasionally a coachman would receive a bullet in the shoulder or leg if he attempted to be heroic.
Yet the three highwaymen were criminals.
That was never in doubt. And the punishment for robbing carriages was, at best, imprisonment or transportation.
Hanging was the most severe sentence. It would make sense that Ezra would at the very least try to take her pistol from her.
Or that Tej and Rhys might attempt the same.