Chapter 14 #2
Instead of freezing, she moved. She ducked beneath another reaching arm and darted around a stack of crates.
One attacker cursed. “There!”
Both men gave chase. Hector exploded forward. The third thug intercepted him. Hector drove a brutal punch into the man’s stomach. The fellow doubled over. Hector grabbed the man’s coat and hurled him aside like discarded baggage.
He sprinted after Jane. She rounded another stack of crates just as one of the men caught her arm again. This time his grip held.
The fellow laughed. “I’ve got—”
He never finished. Hector slammed into him like a battering ram. The force launched the man sideways into a pile of empty barrels. Wood crashed thunderously. The barrels rolled across the warehouse floor.
The final attacker lunged toward Hector from behind. Jane saw him first.
“Hector!”
He spun, but he was too late. The cudgel descended. Jane reacted without thinking. She grabbed the attacker’s sleeve and yanked with all her strength. It was hardly enough to stop him, but it ruined his balance.
The cudgel missed Hector’s head by inches. Hector seized the opening instantly. One crushing punch. Then another. The man crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Silence settled once more over the warehouse. Hector turned immediately. Jane stood a few feet away, breathing hard. Her hood had fallen back. Several loose strands of golden hair framed flushed cheeks. Her sleeve hung partially torn where the man had grabbed her. Otherwise, she was unharmed.
Relief hit Hector so suddenly it nearly weakened his knees. He crossed the distance between them in three long strides. His hands settled firmly on her shoulders.
“Are you hurt?”
She blinked. “I—I don’t think so.”
He searched her face. No obvious injuries. Only then did he release a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
“You used the escape.”
Jane looked at him. “I remembered.”
“You did.” A flicker of pride softened his usually stern features. “It was perfect.”
A tiny smile appeared despite everything.
He was already scanning the room again. He looked toward the deeper reaches of the warehouse. “If this was merely an ambush, there should be more men.”
Jane glanced around the cavernous room. “There aren’t.”
“Which means we’re missing something.”
Or someone.
He bent long enough to retrieve one of the discarded pistols from the floor, checking that it was loaded before slipping it into his coat. Better to have another weapon than leave it behind.
Then he looked toward the darkness beyond the rows of crates. “Stay behind me.”
She gave a tiny nod. “I will.”
Together, they moved farther into the warehouse. The front portion had been arranged to resemble ordinary storage, but the farther they walked, the less convincing the disguise became.
Many of the crates stood empty. Several had been hastily abandoned, their lids left open as though someone had departed in great haste. A lantern still burned atop one crate, its flame turned low.
Someone had been here recently.
He continued forward. Each step heightened the strange feeling growing in his chest. Something waited ahead. He could feel it.
The warehouse opened into a larger central chamber where the stacks of cargo gave way to an open floor. Moonlight poured through broken panes overhead, silvering the dust that floated lazily through the air.
Then Hector stopped so abruptly that Jane nearly walked into him.
“What is it?” she whispered.
He didn’t answer. He simply stared. In the very center of the room sat a single wooden chair. Someone was bound to it.
Jane’s breath caught. “Oh…”
The man’s head hung forward. His wrists were tied behind the chair. Ropes circled his chest and ankles. His clothes were filthy, torn in several places, and stained with dried blood.
Dark bruises covered the exposed skin of his face. One eye was swollen nearly shut. There were cuts along his jaw and temple that had crusted over days before. His dark hair hung across his forehead, matted with sweat and blood.
For one terrible moment, Hector thought they were too late. Jane whispered only one word.
“Colin!”
She took a hesitant step forward. Then another. Hector moved with her, though more cautiously. His eyes swept every shadow surrounding the chair. A trap remained entirely possible.
Nothing moved. No hidden gunmen emerged. No ropes were released from the rafters. Only silence. Satisfied for the moment that they were alone, Hector approached the prisoner.
Jane was already kneeling beside her brother. “Colin?”
Her voice trembled. She reached toward him with shaking fingers but stopped just short of touching his face, as though she feared what she might find.
“Colin…” There was no response. Her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, please…”
Hector crouched beside them. He studied the man’s injuries with the practiced eye of someone who had seen more than enough violence. He was bruised, beaten, and malnourished.
He looked carefully at the earl’s chest. There was a slow rise, and then another. A long breath escaped Hector before he even realized he had been holding it.
“He’s alive.”
Almost as if the words themselves reached him, Colin stirred faintly. A weak, ragged breath escaped his lips. His head shifted only a fraction.
Jane immediately took one of his bound hands between both of hers. “Colin.” Her voice broke. “It’s me.”
Another faint movement. His eyelids fluttered. They didn’t open fully, but just enough to show that somewhere beneath exhaustion and pain, he was still fighting.
Jane let out a choked sob of relief. “Oh, thank God.”
She bowed her head against his hand for only a moment before forcing herself to regain control. “We have to get him untied.”
Hector was already reaching for the knife he’d taken from one of the attackers. “Move back slightly.”
She obeyed immediately. The ropes had been tied tightly enough to leave angry red marks around Colin’s wrists. Hector began sawing carefully through the first knot.
As the coarse fibers started to give way, he glanced once more around the warehouse. Something still troubled him. This was all just far too easy.
They had found Colin. Alive and waiting, almost as though someone had wanted him to be found.
The thought settled heavily in his mind. He cut through another rope. Behind him, the warehouse remained unnervingly silent. And somehow, that silence frightened him more than the fight ever had.