Off Kilter
Page 20
“What does he want?” Catherine asked.
“He’s after asking for all kinds of things, and barely rational, Miss Delaney,” Fagan said to Catherine, his eyes still raised to the roof. “We want this man in custody, but not at the cost of your sister’s life. One moment he says he’ll trade her for safe transport, the next that he’ll kill her if we don’t do exactly what he asks.”
“If he kills her, he’ll have nothing with which to bargain.” Catherine’s voice sounded remarkably steady, but James could feel her terror, just as he could feel everything else inside her.
“He’s been raving for hours and is in a perilous position now. Unpredictable,” Fagan admitted, “which is one of the reasons I sent Tate Murphy to inform you your sister’s life is in danger. I can’t tell what he’ll do at this point, but if ’twere my wee sister, I’d want to know.”
“Yes,” Catherine breathed. She tipped back her head the better to peer at the figures on the roof. “Do you think he’d trade her for me?”
“No,” James said immediately, just as he had in Mrs. Pidgeon’s kitchen.
Catherine did not so much as flick an eyelash toward him, though her fingers clenched hard on his hand.
“I would not advise you to attempt that,” Fagan said. “’Twill do us little good to exchange one hostage for another. What we want is for Boyd to take our deal on offer and release her.”
“Your deal?”
“We let him go via airship to Toronto. Our associates in the Toronto constabulary will be waiting for him when he gets there. I’d rather he had no hostages at that point. For he will be trading desperate, his back to the wall, and I would not like to say what he might do then.”
“He can’t hope to get clean away after all this,” James breathed.
“He thinks once he’s on his airship he’ll be home and dry,” Fagan said. “If we do send it in, though, he’ll have a small surprise. It may not be so firmly under his control as he imagines. But first we must get him to take the deal.”
“What kind of surprise?” Catherine asked.
Fagan flashed her a look. “One of our men will be on board disguised as crew. ’Tis not much, but it may be enough to tip the scales in our favor.”
“Then,” Catherine said, “there should be no risk if I persuade him to trade her for me.”
“There is great risk. This madman intends to take steam cannon on a dirigible. And he’s unstable as a ferret in a sack. The only thing we wish to do is persuade him to trade your sister for escape, nothing more, do you understand?”
James squeezed Catherine’s fingers and willed her, Nothing more.
The figures on the parapet moved closer to the edge, and Brendan Fagan raised the bullhorn to call, “Boyd! Have you decided to accept our deal? Your airship is fully fueled and ready to fly!”
“About time!” Boyd returned. Even after so many days James recognized his voice, full of arrogance but with an edge that betrayed his instability.
A shudder passed through Catherine; how much did she remember?
“I have told you, Officer Bog-Jumper, the airship picks me up here. My pilot can hover and drop a line.”
“Aye.” Brendan ignored the insult. “But first you release the girl.”
“Ha! You think me a fool? As stupid as you, perhaps? If I let her go, then with what will I negotiate?”
“You won’t need to negotiate,” Fagan called. “We’ve already sent word to the landing strip. By now the airship will be on its way.”
“I don’t believe you. I refuse to release my hostage until I land in Canada, a free man.” He drew the drenched figure of Becky closer to his side.
Catherine stepped forward, drawing her fingers from James’ at last. “Will you agree to take me, instead?”
James’ heart fell to his feet. Sluiced down and diminished by the rain, Catherine looked such a small, desperate figure to stand on her own.
Boyd pressed himself to the parapet and peered down. He pushed the girl he held with him; James saw her hands fly up wildly.
“Cat?” she cried.
Boyd echoed, “Miss Delaney! They told me you died from that cannon blast.”
“I was hit,” Catherine agreed, “but as you can see, I’m not dead.”
“You led me a hellish chase,” Boyd cried bitterly, “and cost me a great deal of money. You also forced me to go back to the well for what I wanted in the first place.” He twisted Becky’s arm, and she cried out.
“Becky!” Catherine shrieked.
“Cat, please!”
“ ‘Cat, please!’ ” Boyd repeated in a mocking snarl. “You betrayed me, bitch, and went back on the bargain we made. You attacked me! No one gets away with that.”
“Then,” Catherine called, “you’ll want revenge on me, not my sister. You’ll want to take everything out on me, not her.” She glared up at Boyd, the rain running down her face like tears. “Let her go and take me in her place.”
“No,” James said again, a gut reaction.
“No,” objected Fagan at the same moment. “Miss Delaney, I tell you it will do no good to exchange one hostage for another.”
“It will do her good!” Catherine turned on Fagan, unleashing a sudden storm of emotion. “Can’t you see how frightened she is?”
“Catherine,” James began desperately.
She ignored him as if he weren’t there, but Boyd leaned further over the parapet. “And who’s that there with you, Miss Delaney? The ugly, lying dog I hired to guard you, who bit my hand instead?”
“Leave him out of it. Will you or won’t you trade my sister for me?”
Boyd pondered, while the rain crashed down and the police line wavered and James weighed his heart’s ability to go on beating. For he knew, even before Boyd spoke, what his answer must be.
“I will!”
“But it must be a fair exchange,” Catherine pressed immediately, even as Fagan began to object. “Do you hear me?”
James reached for her arm. “He doesn’t know how to be fair! You can’t do this—”
She shook him off, not so much as glancing at him, her attention all on the girl Boyd now held pressed against the edge of the parapet.
“Don’t do this, Miss Delaney,” Fagan warned. “If you do, you are acting against our official recommendations. There’s no telling what he’ll do to you.”
“Am I supposed to leave her in his hands, and no telling what he’ll do to her, either?”
“He has no axe to grind with her, though, does he? I know it’s difficult to think clearly when your emotions are involved, but if worse comes to worst, we’ll trust our colleagues in Toronto to rescue her.”
“I can’t.” Catherine raised both hands in a gesture of sheer helplessness, still refusing to look at James. “She’s nothing but a child. Better he takes out his anger on me.”
Fagan looked grim. “I won’t allow it, Miss Delaney. ’Tis far too dangerous.”
James let out a breath. Perhaps Fagan would halt the madness in its tracks.
Over the sound of the rain and the crowd behind them, he suddenly heard the drone of engines; the airship approached, trailing steam against the lowering sky.
Fagan called up to Boyd, “Release the girl and the airship can pick you up. That’s the deal on offer, the only deal.”
“I want Miss Delaney, or she dies.” Boyd hoisted Becky up onto the edge of the brick ledge with unholy strength. For the first time her face, white with terror, came into view and James saw her clearly. As wet as the rest of them, eyes stretched wide in horror, she balanced like some large bird with clipped wings, arms held tight behind her back.
The crowd caught its collective breath as rage twisted Boyd’s face. James felt sure they would all see Becky fall to the street below.
Desperate, still ignoring James, Catherine turned to Brendan Fagan. “Officer, you have to let me do this. I am the only one who can get her away from him. I can’t fail her.”
Without waiting for Fagan’s
approval, she called up to the roof, “Send Becky down and open the door. I’ll exchange myself for her there.”
Becky teetered on the parapet while Boyd thought about it. “Very well. But my steam cannon will decimate the first person who makes a wrong move. Do you understand?”
Catherine nodded. The breath whooshed in her lungs as Boyd pulled Becky from the ledge. With the drone of engines now loud in the air, she turned at last to James.
Eyes wide, face pinched from the rain and terror, her gaze met his, full to overflowing. “I’m sorry, Jamie. I wanted a future with you. But I remember him, something inside of me does, and I don’t think he will let me go.”
He caught her hands in a desperate caress. “That’s why you can’t turn yourself over to him.”
Sorrowfully, she shook her head. “It’s exactly why I must. There are only two choices—either he takes his anger out on Becky or he takes it out on me. It can’t be her, Jamie. I hope you understand.”
He did, and it broke his heart.
“I just want to tell you,” she hurried on, “I love you, and—well, you’re perfect as you are. Understand me? Perfect.”
Fagan pushed Tate and his fellow officers back as the door swung wide, revealing a mechanical with a steam cannon in one arm and Becky Delaney caught fast in the other. The steamie aimed its weapon not at the girl, but straight at Catherine.
Desperation rose to James’ throat in a wave that nearly choked him. Catherine pulled her hands from his and stepped forward, reaching for her sister. The steam cannons stationed in all the windows shifted, trained on her; in that instant James saw her dying all over again.
“You come,” the mechanical clicked. It shoved Becky out into the street with force enough to send her to her knees and reached for Catherine all in one movement. Becky cried out; Fagan bellowed, and one of the cannons on the right fired with a belch of scorching steam. Fagan hit the bricks and covered Becky’s body with his own.
At the same moment James leaped forward in a desperate attempt to snatch Catherine back. He ducked through the doorway, just dodging a blast from the steamie’s cannon. In the narrow confines of the portal, the heat of it seared his legs. His fingers closed on Catherine’s arm, and the armored steam unit pulled with inhuman force. All three of them tumbled inside together, and the door crashed shut with a resounding slam.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Is this not amusing?” Boyd taunted in his smooth, arrogant voice. “Not only the prize I sought so long but her faithful hound, as well. I miscalculated there, didn’t I, Catherine? I chose the wrong guard dog for you. But he’ll pay for it now. You both will.”
“Leave him out of it,” Cat said, fear washing over her in an icy wave. “Any score to settle is between you and me.”
She cast a single glance at James, who now knelt at her side. As soon as they reached the roof of the building one of the steamies had knocked him down, delivering a brutal blow that took him to his knees. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and terror possessed Cat’s heart. Steamies, most armed with cannon and no doubt the same that had been stationed at the windows, circled them; she had a sudden conviction she was about to see Jamie die.
Anything would be better than that, including being forced to board the airship, now hovering above the roof, with this man she began to remember all too well. The sound of his voice had triggered memories that came tumbling in a horrific horde to her mind.
She fastened her gaze on Boyd’s, willing herself to stand strong. Showing him weakness would gain her—or Jamie—nothing. “I know what you want: what you didn’t have from me before. I’m willing to give it. Just leave him behind when we board the airship.”
Jamie groaned in protest, and Cat willed him to silence. What happened to her paled in comparison to what could happen to him.
“So it’s that way, is it?” Boyd’s lips twisted. He looked much the worse for wear; the slick, well-tended man Cat had begun to remember replaced by one as battered by the rain as she. But the cruelty remained. “Who would have thought? One of the loveliest women I’ve ever seen and this blighted monstrosity.”
He aimed a vicious kick at James where he knelt under cover of the steam cannon. Cat moved quickly and imposed her own body between them.
Boyd laughed. His gaze scoured Cat’s face. “Not so pretty anymore, though, are you? Hardly what I purchased back in Toronto. All your lovely hair gone, and dressed like a ragged boy. No matter, I suppose. Your mouth can still provide sinful pleasure.”
Jamie growled again even as Cat shuddered. Somehow she held Boyd’s gaze. “Whatever you want. Just so you leave him behind when we go.”
“Oh, Miss Delaney, I think not. You’ve provided me with far too powerful a weapon, more effective, I suspect, than even these steam cannons. It looks to prove a most edifying journey.”
“Why? Where are we going?” Fagan had said the constabulary awaited them in Toronto. Cat needed only to survive, and keep Jamie in one piece, till then.
But Boyd’s face creased with unholy mirth. “That, my dear Catherine, you will discover in due time.” He glanced up at the airship, which now hovered directly over the place where they stood. The engines throbbed deafeningly, and even as Cat watched, the pilot dropped a line.
“Bring him,” Boyd ordered the steamies. “And shoot anyone on the ground who moves.”
****
James lay with his good cheek pressed to the steel decking of the gondola and fought to keep hold of his senses. The throb of the engines came up through the floor and beat into him; it seemed his heartbeat pounded the same rhythm, every beat a twinge of pain.
He knew Catherine must be somewhere close by; he could feel her as well as catch the cadence of her voice from time to time, along with Boyd’s harsh tones. He homed in upon his connection to her and tried to gather his strength.
Boyd must now feel himself on top of the world—his escape made successfully, the prize he’d sought in his hands, and revenge his for the taking. James regretted having placed further scope for hurt in Boyd’s grasp, but he could no more have let Catherine go through that doorway without him than put out his own eyes.
He wondered what use he might be to her now. Here on the deck of the gondola, they were surrounded by crew both human and mechanical—he’d had a good look at them while being hauled aboard. Most seemed to be mechanicals; three of those now stood around him holding the inevitable steam cannons. He shuddered at the thought of one of those going off here even by accident.
Struggling mightily, he drew himself up and raised his head. He hadn’t even seen the weapon one of the steamies had used to fell him, but it had taken him in the maimed side of his face and dropped him like a slaughtered cow.
Blood now trickled down his face and filled the inside of his mouth. Ignoring it, he swept a look round at his guards and concentrated on staying upright.
He’d always wanted to voyage aboard an airship, longed for the thrill and adventure of it. Now, over the rail of the open deck, the view met his wondering eyes. He saw the waters of the Niagara flowing away to his right, the river beside which he’d lived all his life. Beneath the belly of the beast slipped the city. Lake Erie spread open ahead and to the left, arms wide and gray, half obscured by rain.
At the bidding of his heart he tore his eyes from the view and found Catherine. She stood a dozen paces away, her slender back toward him, arguing with Boyd. Abruptly, the rain slackened, and he blinked it from his lashes.
How much did she remember? Clearly, things had begun to return to her. She recalled her sister. And she’d mentioned what Boyd had wanted from her back when they first met.
But what of the connection that existed between her and James? Did she sense how deep their bond extended? Was she as aware of him as he of her? If he willed her to, could she feel him?
Fighting the pain in his head, he concentrated. Pain was just pain; he’d endure far more for her sake. He believed his love for her could endure anything.
Joy and regret tangled inside him: joy at the authenticity of their bond, regret that Boyd would be able to use it against her.
Boyd, armed with his sharp cruelty, did not miss that glance. “I will keep your hound alive a while, Catherine. Just so long as you do everything I say. You have a great deal of recompense to make.”
“I’ve told you I’ll do whatever you ask, just so long as you release him.”
“Would you like me to release him now?” Boyd gestured over the rail to where the water slipped by. To James’ surprise, he saw the airship begin to maneuver away from the beckoning arms of the lake and the standard airship route to Toronto via Fort Erie.
What the hell? Spinning like a dancer in the air, the dirigible swung its nose right to follow the river northward.
“No.” Catherine did not look at James again.
“Then you had better be an obedient girl indeed.” Boyd gestured at one of the mechanicals standing by. “Take her.”
Looking terribly small and fragile, Catherine followed the steam unit from the open deck into the interior of the gondola.
“Where is she going?” James bellowed. His voice sounded stronger than he felt.
Boyd strolled up to him with his guard of two steamies, both armed, flanking him. His gaze raked James before he said, “Fancy yourself a hero, is that it? Well, I suppose ugly dogs can still bite. It was you who helped hide her from me, wasn’t it? And I suppose you’ve enjoyed her as well. Difficult to imagine that exquisite jewel letting such an ogre between her legs.”
It was, and James didn’t care how Boyd insulted him.
“You’re in for an interesting time,” Boyd said. “You can watch me use her before I pass her on to my associates, whom I go to meet. And then you’ll pay for helping her defy me.”
Rage rose to James’ head. Somehow, he fought it down.
“And,” Boyd continued, “you’ll pay for decreasing the value of a very costly possession. I suppose it was you who had her first? Or did her stepfather lie to me?”