Chapter 15 #3
“Fine. Don’t shoot my brother,” he said, tinging his tone with defeat. “He may be a clod, but my mother would have my head if I sacrificed him.”
A gleam of satisfaction lit the man’s eyes, and Simon knew he had to keep him talking. “Look, we’re just trying to get a piece of the pie. What say you join the two of us and we split the profits three ways.”
A muscle in the man’s jaw ticked as he readjusted his aim.
“Well done, Astley.” Edeen whispered behind him.
“Let me try.” Edeen said as she walked past him.
Simon grabbed for her arm, but she scooted to the side and let out a giggle as if it were all a game.
The little girl in her arms hid her face further into the crook of Edeen’s neck.
Edeen’s hips swayed as she provocatively closed the distanced between her and the man with the gun.
Taking the bait, the man moved toward her while pushing Payne in front of him, the cocked pistol to his head.
The guard’s eyes rounded as he gazed in Robbi’s direction. “Hey!” he yelled.
The man kicked the tied-up guard in the head as they passed him. “Shut your gob,” the man sneered, knocking the guard down with a curse before his unknown ally could warn him about Robbi. The guard stayed down, limp and unconscious. Then the man only had eyes for Edeen.
Payne tracked the shadow to his right, where Robbi was progressing along the wall.
“Girls,” Simon said under his breath. “When I say run, you run behind the staircase screaming as loud as you can. But stay together.”
Robbi separated from the shadows, pistol drawn, now behind the man with Payne.
“One,” Simon whispered.
Edeen’s voice, low and sultry, in a tone that caught him off guard the first time he’d met her, dripped with sexual innuendo as she spoke. “I think we can come to some sort of arrangement.”
The man grinned and stepped closer.
“Two,” Simon whispered over his shoulder. “Three, run!” Simon shouted.
Payne dove.
Simon ran for Edeen, his arms pumping as fast as he could.
The girls screamed and ran in every direction.
Simon raced toward Caillen’s sisters. The man grabbed for Edeen, but Robbi jumped on his back and slammed her pistol down repeatedly on the top of his head.
He fell with Robbi on his back, taking down Payne as a gunshot exploded through the air. Smoke billowed.
Payne was at Robbi’s side as she shoved the half-conscious man’s face into the floor.
Payne drove his knee down onto the man shoulder and twisted his arm behind his back, the gun clattering to the floor.
Simon grabbed the gun and shoved it in the back of his waistband.
He turned toward the guard who was attempting to stand up and Simon raised his own pistol.
“Make one more move and I’ll blow your head off. ”
The guard froze on bended knee.
“It seems I can’t leave the Blair sisters alone for two minutes before all hell breaks loose,” an all too familiar voice said from the doorway. Sir Williamson strolled into the warehouse as if he were walking into an afternoon musicale.
“Blair sisters?” The man with his jaw shoved to the ground repeated.
“Tremayne!” Cora squirmed out of Edeen’s arms and ran to the man on the floor. She ineffectively pushed at Payne’s leg and screamed, “Get off him. It’s Tremayne!”
“You know this man?”
“Tremayne’s my mama’s protector,” Cora said.
Robbi scowled as if the name left a bad taste in her mouth. “Lucas Tremayne?”
“The one and only,” the man said then grunted when Robbi used the side of his face to push herself up. Payne released Tremayne’s arm and Simon took a step back to keep an eye on Tremayne and the guard.
Cora jumped into Tremayne’s arms as he rolled over and Tremayne hugged her as if she were his missing little sister.
“Williamson,” Simon said. “I need to go. Caillen’s in danger. Can you handle this fiasco?”
Williamson nodded. “What has Lady Bredlebane stirred up now?”
Robbi turned on him, “The mess you left when you didn’t arrest the man who killed our father.”
Neither Edeen nor Robbi noticed the nearly imperceptible tick in Williamson’s jaw.
“Violet!” A man yelled from the doorway, and Viscount Pembrock walked in with his gun pointed at anyone who moved.
“Put that away, Pembrock. The time for shooting is over,” Sir Williamson ordered as he shoved the guard back down on his arse.
Lord Pembrock turned to Edeen, wearing only a corset and drawers and Simon’s jacket. His gaze traveled the length of her in a silent but scathing rebuke, which only made Edeen’s chin rise further as she turned to go to the other girls.
“Where is my sister?” Pembrock demanded.
“I’m here,” Violet called out, her voice cracking with emotion as she came from behind the staircase. Her composure broke as her brother closed the distance between them.
Pembrock put his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace. “Why are you dressed like a maid?”
“Edeen thought we should dress our parts.”
Pembrock sent another furious look in Edeen’s direction, before saying, “I told you I didn’t want you socializing with that whore.”
His insult changed Simon’s course of direction, and he stepped in front of Pembrock.
“Unless you would like to meet me at dawn, I suggest you apologize to the young miss who is responsible for rescuing all these kidnapped girls.”
It was only then that the young girls who had been taken from their homes, began coming out from all directions in the warehouse as they ran toward Edeen.
“Edeen and I couldn’t let them get away with taking Elizabeth.”
Lady Elizabeth stepped forward. “My brother wouldn’t pay my ransom.” Her chin quivered as she held it high, a single tear tracing a track through the dirt on her cheek.
Pembrock looked down at his own sister. “Is this true?”
Violet nodded and he hugged her more tightly and said, over her head, “My apologies, Miss Blair.”
“Not accepted, you overly pompous arse,” Edeen replied with a toss of her unruly brown locks.
“Williamson. I’ll be taking the Blair girls with me. Payne as well, if you think you and Pembrock can get the rest of the girls to safety.”
“I have men arriving as we speak. We’ll get the girls home.”
“If any need a place to stay, bring them to Harding House. Lady Elizabeth, I will see you there later,” Edeen gave the young lady an encouraging smile.
“There will be men returning with more girls tonight,” Lady Elizabeth told them. “They planned on kidnapping at least five more.”
“We’ll be waiting.” Sir Williamson assured them. “There’s a wagon and blankets coming.”
“He broke my arm!” The guard yelled out.
“I plan to make sure your neck is broken within the week,” said Williamson.
“I didn’t know there were girls upstairs,” The guard whined. “That was all Crookes’ doing. I’m just his bodyguard. I don’t usually work here. I had no idea what he was into, but I’ll help you bury him if you go light on me.”
“I imagine if you go to trial alongside your boss,” Simon said, “Crookes will take one look at his number one bodyguard and say, ‘et tu, Brute?’”
The guard looked confused. “Huh?”
Robbi rolled her eyes. “Simon, you cannot expect a bloke from the East End to know Caesar’s last words to Brutus when Brutus betrayed him.”
“Go on, Astley,” Williamson said. “Take the Blair girls and go stop that bastard, Crookes. Then this arse won’t need to understand.”