The men looked distinctly inhospitable. Attired in brown jackets and trousers, and mostly bearded, I got the feeling they had been on the road for some time. Each carried a pistol.
Coming so close on the heels of our activities in Muckford, and understanding Colton met with someone, these men must be related to the conspiracy involving my father. Great. Still more people who believed I knew something I didn’t. This would not end well.
Waving his gun to get my attention, the man leaning over me beckoned for me to get up. None too gently, I shrugged off Colton’s arm and got to my feet. Quickly, my arm was grabbed and I was pulled clear of the blanket and Colton.
Instantly, or so it seemed, Colton was on his feet. He appeared ready to fight the entire group, except a baritone voice coming from my left stopped him. “I wouldn’t do anything foolish.” Because of the gun at my head, I was unable to turn and assess the speaker. I wondered why I was always the one with the gun to my head.
“Advice you might wish to follow as well.” Though he appeared relaxed, I recognized the tautness of his shoulders and the weight balanced on the balls of his feet as signs Colton was waiting for the right moment to launch his attack. Not for the first time, I wished the man wasn’t so bullheaded. We were outnumbered, and I was completely unhelpful. There was no hope. We would just have to negotiate and see what happened.
“We have no quarrel with you.” The same voice addressed him. “Your father is expecting you. We’ve even saddled your horse for you.”
“And the girl?”
“She stays with us.”
“Unacceptable.”
“I thought you might say that.” From the corner of my eye, I gained the impression of the speaker. His beard was black, his frame large. Obviously the leader, he was big and burly enough to break me in half if he so chose. Colton was crazy if he thought he could fight this man and win. “Unfortunately, she has information for us. She stays with us.” At those words, the man holding me dragged me backward, out of sight. I caught a glimpse of the men gathering together to block his path to me.
“This is your last chance. Give her to me.”
“I hope you negotiate better than this.”
“She was never part of the deal.”
“That is not what her father said.”
The rest was lost to me. The conversation ended, and I heard only assorted sounds; the grunts, fist smacks, and other noises commonly heard when men settled disagreements with fists.
All sound abruptly ceased.
“Hold him steady.” The first voice again.
I began to imagine all sorts of reasons they’d need to hold him steady. None of them were pleasant.
“Now that you have decided to stay, you might be useful. I cannot have you getting in the way however.” A final sound of fist hitting flesh then silence again. Not so much as a whisper was heard. “Bring him.”
A short while later, Brutus was led to where I was being held. I looked from the horse to the man who had finally holstered his gun in favor of twisting my arms behind my back.
“I am not going anywhere until I see Colton.” I stuck my nose in the air. I may be a prisoner, but I was certainly not going to be easy about it.
“He‘s right there.” The man holding me pointed back toward the trees.
“What have you done to him?” I couldn‘t help the words. Balanced between two men, Colton was half dragged, half carried toward me. Obviously unconscious from the way his head flopped backward, I anxiously scanned his body for signs of wrongdoing. Except for a few darkening bruises on his face, he appeared physically fine.
“Nothing. Your boyfriend is simply fatigued from the length of your journey.” The man snickered, quickly tossing me up into the saddle. I saw a rope had been threaded through Brutus’s bridle, the ends of which were tied to the saddles of two other horses.
It took two men to heft Colton onto the saddle behind me. His body was dead weight against my back, forcing me awkwardly forward. This was not going to work. I lacked the strength and the patience to counterbalance his weight according to Brutus’ stride.
Perhaps I could poke him awake?
No response to the finger I poked between his ribs. Hmmm. Whatever they’d done, it appeared Colton would be down for the count, at least for a little while. That meant I was going to have to come up with an escape plan.
Well. There were eight of them, and only one of me. Brutus was carefully restrained, meaning I couldn’t just ride away. I was not very handy with my fists, but even if I was, at most, I would be able to attack only one at a time, leaving the other seven enough time to subdue me. Oh, and they had guns.
Since fighting my way out was not very wise, that meant I was left with negotiation. I might be able to convince them to let Colton go, but me? I was pretty sure they wanted whatever I could tell them about my father. Did they also want the pendant?
Without a word, the men mounted and began leading Brutus down the path. Thankfully, we remained at a walk, as anything faster would have sent Colton and probably me tumbling to the ground. I turned my attention to the men riding beside us. They weren’t a very talkative bunch and I had yet to see a smile. I suppose they could be a traveling bunch of mercenaries, or soldiers, or scouting teams for the army, but what did they want with me? They hadn’t even asked our names when they’d take us hostage.
Well, and the man from Lisbon had been spotted riding this way. I didn’t see him among the men around us, but that’s not to say he hadn’t warned them he was being followed. But how would he know he was being followed? Unless he’d seen us in Muckford, or Colton had met with him while Bennett distracted me.
What if Colton was working with my father, the man in Lisbon, and now these men? What if the reason he wasn’t killed was because he was one of them?
Before I panicked, there were some key elements arguing against Colton being in cahoots with the men. First off, the man in Lisbon reacted rather strangely to Colton’s presence. It hadn’t been a favorable response, either. He’d seemed quite disturbed to know Colton was traveling with me. That tended to point toward the men being on opposing sides.
Then there was the fact everyone Colton met so far mentioned his father. I may very well be the only person in the world who did not know who Lucas Colton was. The name certainly did not ring a bell, yet sometimes, when looking at him, I received the impression he was familiar. I was certain we hadn’t met before. I wouldn’t have forgotten such a gorgeous man.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling Colton knew much more than he let on. He hadn’t seemed unduly alarmed at the appearance of strange men in the forest. Had he recognized them? Or did he know what they wanted? What was it the leader asked, about negotiation?
Abruptly, Brutus sidestepped beneath me, causing Colton to start a slow slide toward the ground. “Stop!” I cried, desperately reaching around my back to hold him in place. Thankfully, Colton fell forward and I was able to keep him behind me in the saddle.
We came to a halt. The leader nodded at one of his men, the one riding directly to my right. He rode up to me, while the man riding on my other side suddenly reined his horse close beside Brutus.
A cloth pressed securely over my nose and mouth and I, too, fell forward into blackness.
I wasn’t woken by a word, but more of an unspoken message. My eyes opened and the world began blurring toward the edges. I blinked, and my vision cleared. Beneath me was a hard wooden floor and I felt a heavy weight across my legs. Though vaguely uncomfortable but not overly so, I was tempted to let myself drift away on the tide of drugs again.
Another nudge and my eyes opened again. The weight across my legs was Colton. He was alert and trying to wake me. Since my head was slightly averted, he couldn’t see that I was awake and began tapping insistently on my leg.
“I’m awake! Stop hitting me!” I shifted myself up on my elbows, found the room tilted alarmingly, and fell back against the floor.
“Gently,” was his only comme
nt. I noticed he also remained reclining. Then I remembered he’d sustained some kind of injury that caused him to faint, which landed us in this situation.
I propped myself up on my elbows. This time the world steadied after a moment. Colton lay on his back, head turned toward me. I couldn’t see any bleeding—other than his lip—or any other kind of injury but the man had been unconscious. Something must be wrong.
How did I get him to let me take a look at it? Men could be very protective of their injuries, insisting it was nothing even as they passed out from the pain. I could always pin him down with my own body, and force him to allow me to check him over, but somehow, Colton didn’t seem the type to suffer an examination. He was lying rather awkwardly over my legs. Perhaps he’d sustained a rib injury?
“I can see the gears shifting in your brain. Out with it.” A smile tipped the sides of his mouth.
“Come here and let me take a look at you.” I used my best schoolmistress tone.
“There’s nothing to see.” Colton’s eyes were lazy on my face.
“Then you have nothing to worry about.” I narrowed my eyes.
“Besides a few bruises, I am perfectly fine.”
“I don’t believe you.” Mutinous, I crossed my arms over my chest.
“You certainly are suspicious, sweetheart.” Colton sat up, running fingers lightly over his face. I couldn‘t be certain in the dimness of the room, but I swore he smiled when he found the blood on his lip.
“I wonder why.” Sensing that was all the conversation he’d allow about his fainting spell, I turned my attention to the room. Empty of furniture, a pile of blankets had been tossed in front of the closed door and a single window, boarded up, was the only ornamentation.
I didn’t have much experience with war or the treatment of captured enemies, but even I knew placing them together in an empty room wasn’t the norm. Shouldn’t we at least be leg shackled and gagged and separated for good measure?
His father must be very important indeed, to grant us this type of treatment.
Taking a deep breath, I began, “Please convey my regards to your father for the pleasant accommodations.”
I felt more than saw the tautness enter his muscles at my words. His eyes burned into me, but I refused to look up. Instead, I studied the grains of the wooden floor beneath us.
“I fail to see how my father has anything to do with our current situation.” His voice was nonchalant.
I shot him a sharp look. “Sparing your life says much more than any denial you may offer.” I was hardly stupid. Since when did marauding bands of men spare the lives of men they took women from?
“Perhaps they don’t like to murder.” I gave him an ironic look.
Could I have misinterpreted what I’d heard about his father? No. Three separate people mentioned his parentage. That was more than coincidental.
Why was he so secretive? Did he have reasons for wanting his parentage to remain a secret? Why? What was it? Who was he? Looking at his face, I recognized the stubborn line of his jaw and knew Colton had no intention of revealing his identity to me.
Fine. He could keep his secret. I would hold onto my suspicions and pay close attention to what happened in the future. Right now, I needed to focus on the current circumstances and how we were going to escape. The quickest route to freedom lay before me.
“How are we going to escape?”
“We’re not.”
Immediately, I pressed the back of my hand against his forehead. “Are you feverish?”
“No.” He thrust my hand from his face. Our fingers entwined briefly, before I snatched my hand back.
My tact left me in that moment. “Are you crazy? Of course we’re going to escape.”
“You may leave whenever you want.”
“Of course I can.” I gave him a look meant to convey the absolute absurdity of that statement. “Want to tell me what is going on?” If it turned out he had been working with these men all along, I would kill him.
“Not particularly.”
“So there is something going on.”
“Obviously.”
“You do realize you are five seconds away from being strangled.”
“I wouldn’t recommend killing the one person standing between you and a potentially dangerous situation.”
“You’re not standing.”
“True.”
“You know those men.” It wasn’t a question. He shrugged. “What kind of an answer is that?”
“A very good one.”
“You have pushed me as far as I go. Tell me right now who those men are or I shall do something very horrible to you.” That was the best I could do as my imagination didn’t extend to causing pain with only a couple blankets.
“I would like to see you try.” His mouth turned up in a half smile. “The one rule in negotiation is to always know the value of what you have, and you, sweetheart, have nothing of value with which to bargain.”
I almost shot back That’s what you think, but closed my mouth tightly before the words could escape. The last thing I needed was to alert Colton that I did have something of value. The pendant. “Those men mentioned my father. Why?”
“Your father is very instrumental in the plans of many.”
“Explain.”
“Sweetheart, you are not ready to hear what I have to say.”
“I am ready for anything you care to tell me.” I met his eyes steadily.
“Cadrian, enough of your world has been turned upside down. Can you not trust me on this?”
“You don’t know the first thing about me. Do not presume to tell me what I can and cannot handle.”
Another long moment passed as we stared at each other. “No,” he finally said. “I will not be responsible for destroying your good opinion of your father.”
“Someone has to. Why not you?” I had to know. And if he refused to tell me, I would find someone more forthcoming.
“You already hate me enough as is.”
“I don’t hate you,” I answered before I could stop myself. Was I frustrated with him? Yes. Did I suffer from frequent urges to scream at him? Yes. That didn’t mean I hated him. “Much,” I added.
His smile was slow. “Too late. You rather like me.”
“The way I like headaches.” Our eyes met and the moment spun longer. The slant of his cheekbones, the shape of his upper lip, and the length of his fingers tempted me. I simultaneously wanted to leap at him and run away.
The moment broke as a door slammed in the hall, causing me to jump and remember I was effectively a prisoner and I would not be going anywhere for a while. I shivered, remembering the demeanor and the fact each man I’d seen carried a gun.
My gaze left the closed door, returning to Colton. He stared at me intently before asking, “How are you holding up?”
I held his sapphire gaze for a mere second before averting my eyes. I thought of coming up with some flippant answer but decided against it. “I’m fine.”
Sitting up, Colton abruptly rearranged himself so he sat close beside me, legs extending behind me. His hands came up to frame my face. He titled my head to one side and then the other, carefully deciding what I was not saying. Slowly, so slowly I had opportunity enough to pull away if I wanted, Colton pressed his mouth to my mine.
My heart began pounding at the tenderness inherent in this kiss. Everything about Colton at the moment was gentle. The fingers framing my face were mere wisps of fingertips to skin, his mouth barely brushed my lips, and there was no other contact between our bodies. I wished he’d pull me into his arms and kiss away my fears.
For whatever reason, the fact I was terrified resonated deeply within the man in charge of my life. I read his concern in the tight lines around his mouth and the way his body practically hummed with tension.
“There is no reason to be scared,” Colton told me, his hands dropping from my face as he stood. “No harm will come to you.”
“You speak as though you control wh
at happens.” I rolled my eyes. “Your arrogance astounds me.” I, too, stood.
“At least I have found one way to impress you.” He shrugged.
“Why are you so concerned, anyway?” My eyes narrowed. The earlier feeling of tenderness was rapidly fading. “I am nothing to you.”
Colton didn’t look away as he answered. “You are not nothing to me.”
I stilled the leap of my heart at his words. “Oh? Then what am I? If not for my father and this stupid spy business, you and I never would have met!”
“And my life would be less without you.” A crooked smile rearranged his lips.
“Less what?”
“I don’t believe either of us is quite ready for me to clarify.”
“Convenient.” Turning to face him, I put my hands on my hips and glared. I concentrated on taking deep breaths. Feeling if I looked at him one second longer I would strangle him, I began pacing in quick angry strides. Colton watched warily.
“I see I’ve upset you.”
“Apparently.” I completed a circuit of the room, repeating over and over to myself that murdering him would not solve anything. Just when we were finally starting to settle into a less combative relationship, he pulled out the old you-might-mean-more-to-me-than-a-friend card in the hopes of distracting me from anything he’d said previously.
I did not for one second buy any of what he’d told me, which was basically nothing. What had begun as a conversation about our current situation had derailed into a personal discussion of why exactly Colton was so attached to me. To find out I was his personal brand of amusement heated my temper. While I was completely terrified and fearful for my life, Colton was completely at ease.
That meant he knew exactly what was going on.
“I will only ask you this once, Colton. What is going on?”
“That’s twice, actually.”
“Do not tease me. I am not in the mood.”
“I‘m not teasing.”
“You are.”
“Not.”
“Are.”
“Are you always this difficult? “
“Only with you.”
Shades of Truth (The Summerlynn Secrets) Page 12