The Art of Persuasion: Book 4 of The Swashbuckling Romance Series

by Myers, Heather C.

  “Actually, no,” Matt said. “Sarah, Henry is the murderer. I believe Isla went to tell you, but Henry was there as well.”

  “Henry…?” Sarah still looked confused before she shook her head. “No. Henry can’t be” –

  “He can and he is,” Matt said. He didn’t intend for his voice to come out harsh, but it did and he wasn’t going to apologize for it. Instead, he cleared his throat. Perhaps he could be direct without being mean. “He had an affair with one of your girls – Stephanie – and seeing as how she was young and naïve, told her friend, Briyella. Karina caught them together, which is why he killed her. Stephanie didn’t know any better and ran away.”

  “That’s why she disappeared,” Sarah said. Her eyes found her brother’s. “I assumed she killed the two.”

  “So did I,” he said. “Apparently, Isla knew for a while. Said she ran into Stephanie during the girl’s departure.”

  “But why didn’t Isla come and tell me about it sooner?” Sarah asked. “Why wait until now?”

  “Come on, Sarah,” Matt chided gently. “You know why. You’re intimidating to say the least and she wanted to be certain before going to you, out of respect to you. Henry is your husband, after all. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her to go to you in the first place. It wasn’t easy for her to tell me when she did. I didn’t believe her.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  “Besides the fact that she would have no reason to lie to me?” he asked. “Besides the fact that I should have trusted her?” He shook his head, clenched his jaw, crossed his arms over his chest. He was still so angry with himself. There was a chance that if he gave Isla the benefit of the doubt, things would still unfold the way they had, but at least they wouldn’t have been on separate sides. At least they would have been a cohesive unit. “Henry showed up here himself, told us everything. What Isla told me was fact and Henry confirmed it himself. The man killed those girls and was going to kill Stephanie before she decided to leave. Isla essentially gave herself away and that was why he came – to make me choose between you and her.”

  “And you chose me?” Sarah sounded genuinely perplexed, not touched.

  “Isla took that choice away from me,” he explained. “The stubborn fool chose to go with him so I wouldn’t have to choose at all.”

  “She must care for you for her to put herself in such danger,” Sarah said, but it sounded as though she were talking more to herself than to Matt.

  For some reason, Matt felt compelled to answer. “Of course she cares about me!” he snapped.

  “There’s no need to get defensive about it,” Sarah said, narrowing her eyes at her brother. “Getting on me about it isn’t going to bring her back.”

  Matt clenched his jaw to keep from responding. He knew Sarah was right but it felt good to let go of his frustration, even if it meant taking it out on his sister. Then again, it wasn’t Sarah’s fault. None of it was. If Isla had told him sooner, if he had immediately believed her, if, if, if. This was doing him no good. He needed to solve this and he needed to do it now.

  “Sorry,” he said finally. It took a lot out of him to say even that. “Sorry.” The second time came easier and it sounded as though he actually meant it. “I just.” He ran his fingers through his hair. He had never felt this helpless before, not even when Sarah had been taken by the Navy. He had a plan for her. With Isla, he had nowhere to begin. “I’m just.”

  “I know.” And then Sarah’s hand was clapping him on the shoulder, pulling him into a tight embrace. “I know. We’ll find her, Matt. I promise you, we’ll find her.”

  A scream ripped through the air and every single hair on Matt’s body jumped to attention.

  “I think we found her,” Sarah murmured to herself.

  “She’s still here,” Matt said. His eyes went wide and he could feel the color drain from his face. “Henry might do something to her for that stunt. Sarah, I have to go to her.”

  “Wait, Matt, wait,” she said in a rush, tightening her grip on her brother. There was no way she could overpower him but she needed him to listen to her before he rushed into something he didn’t have a plan of attack for. “We have to think of something before you rush off.”

  “Sarah, she just screamed bloody murder,” Matt said, his eyes blazing. He was pulling away from her but resisting just enough where her grip was not yet compromised. “I can’t wait.”

  “You also can’t rush to her, knowing absolutely nothing,” she said. “We have to come up with something together in order to assure her safety as well as ours, or this would all be for naught. Please.”

  Matt bit his bottom lip to keep from letting out a growl. He didn’t want Isla to stay any longer with that son of a bitch bastard, especially when he had no idea what Henry was doing to her. But Sarah made a compelling point. He couldn’t rush blindly in, either.

  “What is it you have in mind, then?” he asked through gritted teeth, turning his eyes on her.

  She gave him a small smile and loosened her grip on his frame. “Well, I took a page out of your book, brother,” she said, and then proceeded to give him a rundown of her idea.

  And it was bloody fantastic.

  Chapter 22

  “You’ve ruined everything.”

  I look up from my lap, trying not to notice how uncomfortable my butt is, sitting on this hardwood chair for the couple of hours I’ve been here. Henry has been silent for the most part, probably because he’s keeping me in the storage room in his wife’s brothel. You know, his wife, the one he’s cheating on with one of her working girls after he thought she’d be sentenced to death? Except her brother ended up rescuing her without said husband’s help and brought her back to her establishment that she created by herself.

  How could I have ever thought Henry was clever?

  Because, quite frankly, he’s an idiot. And that’s being nice.

  “I’m sorry?” I ask, quirking my brow. Certainly he’s not blaming me for the predicament he’s currently in.

  “You heard me,” he says again. He’s not aggressive about it but he is firm, his eyes narrowed on my face.

  He could have been handsome, I suppose, if his terrible personality didn’t get in the way. I honestly wonder what he was like before all of this. He must have been different because Sarah does not tolerate fools. Or assholes.

  “Can I ask you something?” I say. I don’t wait for him to answer before I go ahead with my question. “Why are we still here? You know someone’s going to find us, right? And if not, Matt won’t stay in that room forever. Someone will eventually let him out. I can hear him pounding on the door from here, and we’re three stories below him. Did you think about that in your grand scheme? What are you even going to do with me? I’m no one. I’m unimportant.”

  “I beg to differ,” Henry says, cutting me off. I’m trying to distract him, trying to ramble and keep him going so I can figure out how I’m going to get out of here. The problem is, Henry tied my wrists pretty tight together so even though I’m trying to be subtle in my struggle, nothing seems to be working. “You are incredibly important.”

  I give him a face that basically says he’s an idiot for thinking so. I don’t mean to, but it’s difficult for me to control my face from reacting. It just happens. I don’t think about it. I don’t think about how that will affect me or anyone else.

  “Don’t look at me that way,” he says, and I can hear the subtle offense gathered in his tone. His brow wrinkles as his eyes narrow further. “It’s the truth. Shall I explain?”

  He likes talking, doesn’t he? It’s another issue idiots have – they don’t think they’re as dumb as they are so they never know when to shut up.

  “You probably should,” I respond.

  “Do you realize Matt Scott is not the sort of man to fall in love with anyone, let alone some young woman from…” He squints his eyes as a thought occurs to him. “Where are you from, anyway? You have a funny accent and an unfamiliar dialect.”

&
nbsp; “The Americas,” I say because it’s the truth and I can’t think of anything else to say.

  He doesn’t look like he believes me but he doesn’t argue either.

  "How is it that Matt found you?" Henry asks me. He steps in my space, which I don't appreciate because I can't deal with people in my space unless I specifically have okayed them to get close with me. Like Matt. Like my parents. Not like Henry. "A girl like you. From the Americas. How is that he fell in love with you?"

  "I don't understand your line of questioning," I tell him. And honestly, I don't. "Why are we here? Matt is going to find me. You know that, right? If you want to get away and" -

  "Why would I want to get away?" he asks, looking at me like I'm a fool, like an idiot. He takes a step back and I feel my shoulders sag with relief. "Matt is going to be blamed for the murders, you see. He's going to get caught. I'm going to set up this one as well. You'll be dead just as Matt walks in. At that point, I'll have wakened Sarah and told her everything. She'll rush down and see Matt, caught with your blood on his hands." He smirks at his plan because he thinks he's clever and, I will admit, it's not a bad plan. Except for one stitch. "It's hard to rinse blood off."

  I give him a look. "You would know," I say. "There's one little problem in this grand scheme of yours."

  He perks his brow, a condescending smile on his face. "Oh?" he questions and it's pretty obvious he doesn't believe me. Which is fine. He will after I say what I'm about to say. "And what would that be?"

  I smirk and lean back against the chair. "Sarah," I say simply and shrug.

  "Sarah?" He barks out a laugh. "How would Sarah be able to stop me?"

  "You misunderstand me," I say. The smirk is still on my face and I feel so cool and calm on the outside that it's easy to ignore the erratic pounding of my heart. There's a really good chance that I'm going to die in the next few hours or moments or whatever timeframe is in Henry's plan and it scares the shit out of me. It really does. But as long as I play it cool and keep talking, keep Henry talking, maybe that'll give me enough time to figure out how I'm going to get out of this one. "Sarah's not going to buy that Matt killed the girls. She's not going to buy that her brother would betray her. You know that."

  "I don't, actually," Henry replies, but his eyes darken a fraction because he realizes I've made a point, a point that hadn't yet crossed his mind. He looks dangerous. I tense, waiting for him to lunge at me, waiting for him to attack me, but he doesn't. Not yet.

  "You said so yourself," I try to explain. "The reason you and Sarah don't feel married is because she goes to Matt rather than you. She holds Matt higher in regard than you, her own husband."

  "Exactly," he agrees with a quick nod.

  "Right. So if she trusts him more than she trusts you, what makes you think she's going to believe Matt betrayed her? She won't. You know it. I know it. This plan of yours, while clever, isn't going to work out Henry."

  It's a weird sight, watching the exact moment when someone goes from confident and secure to furious, knowing the plan they've slaved over to ensure its success implodes right before their eyes. I can tell the exact moment when Henry realizes that I'm right, that Sarah will never believe Matt would kill those girls and then kill me. I can't describe the way his face changes, the way the light leaves his eyes and wrinkles permeate his face and how everything in his body seizes up with tension.

  Before I can blink or take a breath or even scream, Henry lunges at me. I flinch away, turning my face as far away from him as I can. I'm pretty sure I'm going to bruise from that slap he gave me upstairs; I can't afford any other damage done to it. At that moment, the door bursts open and there's Matt, standing with his cutlass poised, ready to take on an entire army let alone one man. I let out a sob of relief. It's weird and I've never made a sound like it before but I'm just so thankful that Matt is here. I guess I didn't realize how much emotion I was pushing down while with Henry. I was scared shitless and didn't realize it until after the fact. I don't know how I'm feeling right now, in this moment. I don't even care. All I know is that Matt's standing in front of me like a beautiful god and now everything is going to be all right.

  "I'm surprised," Henry says. He's stopped himself from touching me - I have no clue what he would have done if Matt hadn't shown up - and turns his body to Matt, covering the majority of my body so Matt can't see much of it. "You chose her."

  "Sarah was never in any real danger," Matt says and he sounds like he knows that as fact.

  I don't know if it's because he somehow rescued Sarah in the couple of hours of our separation or if he has confidence that Sarah is able to rescue herself. I'm not even upset about it, if that's the case. I can't rescue myself and I'm not deluded to think I am. I have the ability to talk myself out of situations but I can't fight my way out. And I'm hoping that once things settle down, Matt can help me remedy that.

  "I hope you're right," Henry says but he knows, he's not an idiot. He knows.

  "She's sleeping, Matt," I tell him. I don't know why I feel compelled to say something when it's clear Matt isn't worried about Sarah right now but I do know how much she means to him and I want to put his mind at ease and let him know that he's right, that as far as I know, Sarah is okay. "She doesn't even know what's going on."

  "Shut it, you twat!"

  I know if Matt wasn't pointing a blade at him, Henry would have slapped me again. I can feel his rage rolling off of him the way bubbles rolled off a steaming hot cauldron. He's losing control over himself. And if he doesn't get a hold of it, if the situation isn't treated delicately, things could go very bad for someone.

  “I know, darling,” Matt says but he doesn’t even look at me. His eyes are focused on Henry, like he doesn’t trust Henry at his word. I can’t say I blame him. “She knows everything. In fact, she’s on the way to retrieve the Royal Guard herself.”

  This seems to shake Henry and he wavers, but just for a bit. “There’s no way Sarah would risk capture once more,” Henry says, but there’s clear doubt in his tone, like he’s not quite sure what to believe. Which is great, because doubt can be manipulated and twisted so it’ll work in our favor. “You’re bluffing.”

  Matt shrugs his shoulders. “Personally,” he says, “I could care less whether you believe me or not. I’ll be long gone with Isla before they get here, but you’ll be tied to that chair” – he points his cutlass at the seat I’m currently sitting in – “just waiting for them to hang you. But, if you leave now, I’m not going to stop you.”

  “I slapped Isla, tied her up,” Henry began but stopped himself. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Like I said,” Matt says, “I don’t particularly care.”

  I have no idea how Matt manages to stay so cool during this entire process. I’m trying to read his face and even I can’t tell whether or not he’s telling the truth. I slide my eyes over to Henry, trying to read his back, any shift in weight, pop of muscle, anything. The only thing I can see is that he’s tense but unmoving. I’m going to assume that means he’s thinking about it.

  “When did she leave?” Henry asks. He starts walking to the desk, grabbing his stuff.

  “I couldn’t say,” Matt responds, “but I do know you’re wasting time asking me these questions instead of just taking off.”

  Henry says nothing more. His stuff is in his arms and he crosses the room, thrusts open the door, ready to leave, when a surprised grunt comes from his mouth. My eyes snap over to him, and that’s when I see a long blade protruding from Henry’s back. I’m so shocked, I need to blink three times before I realize that what I’m seeing actually happened. I’m not seeing things.

  “That’s for the betrayal, you bastard,” Sarah snarls through gritted teeth.

  She’s on the other end of the blade. She’s the one who stabbed him.

  He drops to the floor with a thud, and though the sound is simple and insignificant, I think it will echo in my head for the rest of my life. I’ve never seen anyone get killed in such a viol
ent way before.

  His eyes go wide, like he’s surprised it’s Sarah who finally kills him, but honestly, the ending is poetic. After everything he’s done to her, it’s only fitting Sarah is responsible for ending him. And I think she wants to be the one who did it, too.

  Immediately, Matt rushes over to me and slices through the ropes with expertise aim. The ropes loosen, and after some tugging, fall to the floor. I leap up, but my butt hurts so much, I nearly fall forward and faceplant onto the floor. I would have, if Matt doesn’t reach out and catch me, offering me steady arms and a good balance.

  “Are you all right, love?” he asks, furrowing his brow to take me in. “You screamed.”

  I nod. “I screamed,” I say. “He backhanded me for it but he knew he would get caught eventually. I think that’s what he wanted.”