by Rebecca King
God, I should be shot for the thoughts I am having.
Angus was snapped out of his revere by her persistent command that he should look at what she as pointing at. The frustration rife in her voice, and in the angry glint in her eye, was enough to force him to turn his attention away from the feel of her curvy backside against him to the scene outside. When he did, he mentally cursed because he only just managed to see a darkly garbed figure dart furtively out of the shadows.
Charity, oblivious to his thoughts, was too busy watching the hooded figure scurry down the road to even notice that Angus had barely looked up.
“Come on,” Charity cried without thinking. “Let’s go after him.”
When Angus didn’t immediately burst into action, Charity, whose thoughts remained locked on finding out where their quarry was heading, stepped around him and raced out of the room.
To his horror, before Angus could do little more than blink, he was left staring at an empty room.
CHAPTER FIVE
Charity suspected Angus was right behind her somewhere. He would follow, if only so he could scold her for being so bold as to race out into the dark all alone.
Well, I am not alone. He will be here in a minute, she assured herself as she yanked open the back door.
With only half an ear cocked to the sound of movement behind her, Charity raced down the narrow garden path and out onto the disreputable cart track that ran along the back of all the houses.
Unsurprisingly, it was empty and dark, but in a strange way it was reassuring to know there was nobody about to see her. She was sure anybody who witnessed what she was doing would think she had lost complete control of her faculties. It still didn’t deter her from lifting her skirts and racing at an unladylike speed down the cart track toward the small road that led out of the village.
“Where are you going at this time of night?” she gasped as she ran after the dark shadow she had just seen leave the house next door to the Lawrences.
It is that Mr Horvat fellow, I am sure of it, she thought as she raced after him.
But while she contemplated the man’s identity, a small voice warned her that she needed to wonder what she would do if it wasn’t Mr Horvat she was chasing. What if it was a stranger? What would she say to them if they stopped and asked her what she was doing? What would she do if the man was dangerous?
To her disbelief, when she reached the end of the cart track, Charity turned right just in time to see the cloaked figure, completely oblivious to the fact they were visible, disappear into the small copse of woods that led to a field, and another larger wood on the outskirts of the village.
Without thinking, she started to follow only to realise that she couldn’t hear anything behind her. Warily, she stopped and looked at the cart track behind her. It was worrying to realise Angus hadn’t followed her. Instead, he had quite clearly chosen to remain inside the house or had gotten lost or something. Whatever had happened to him, he quite clearly wasn’t going to provide her with any protection if she ran into difficulties.
Charity’s stomach immediately coiled into a tight knot of nerves. Suddenly, her gung-ho approach to chasing the kidnapper didn’t seem such a wise idea. It was with renewed wariness that she turned to focus on the woods the man had disappeared into.
Should she go alone? What would she do if he jumped on her, or tried to accost her like he had the other girls who had been kidnapped?
But they were girls. I am six and twenty. That should make a difference, shouldn’t it?
Charity couldn’t be sure. The man was a criminal, and dangerous, and perfectly capable of sweeping a woman out of sight and making her vanish whatever her age. There was nothing to say he couldn’t do the same thing to her if he chose.
Charity contemplated what to do.
“Angus, where are you?” Of course, she received no answer. “Great. A wonderful support you have turned out to be.”
Maybe he hasn’t followed me because he wants me to be scared? Maybe he knows exactly who the man in the cloak is and that is why he has chosen not to follow?
Whatever the case, Charity knew she was going to have to face this all by herself. Should she therefore carry on and take the risk?
“I cannot go back without finding out something,” she whispered. “He may be going to meet with someone. It cannot harm to go and look.”
Charity had never been afraid of the dark before, and usually had no qualms being outside all alone whatever the time of day, or night. Given she was a single woman who lived all alone, in winter she had no choice other than to walk the street at night alone to get home. The alternative was to sit beside the fire every evening and not socialise. That was something she could never do. The tapestry group, as eccentric as it was, was far too important to her. The ladies of the tapestry group were the closest thing to family Charity had. Whatever she had to do, wherever they met, Charity would always meet with her friends.
“Well, I can pretend I am going home after one of our get-togethers, can’t I?” she muttered aloud.
Bolstered by this pretence, Charity set off for the woods.
Angus cursed bitterly. The urge to call out to Charity was so strong that he took to mumbling epithets beneath his breath to stop himself from yelling her name repeatedly at the top of his lungs and waking up the entire street.
“How in the Hell a woman in a skirt can disappear so bloody easily is beyond me,” he grunted, although that very sentiment was enough to send cold shivers down his spine. “It is exactly what the kidnapper does, but given what I have seen Charity do, can now understand how it is so easy for him. When a woman like Charity makes her mind up to do something she damned well does it. Doesn’t give a damn about the consequences, or those left at home to worry about her. Oh, no, as long as she gets to do what she damned well wants.”
“Talking to yourself again?” Jasper drawled with a grin. His teeth flashed white in the darkness so suddenly that while enshrouded in shadows he suddenly looked like a sinister set of teeth.
Angus cursed bitterly and explained, quite succinctly, what Charity had done.
Jasper’s face turned grim. “Well, she has to be around here somewhere.”
“Just go and fetch help. We need to find out where she has gone,” Angus growled.
Without moving, Jasper let out a long, low whistle. Suddenly, Niall and Phillip stepped out of the shadows and began to make their way toward him.
“Damned if I know which way she went,” Angus growled when he had finished explaining to them.
“She hasn’t gone up the road,” Phillip assured him.
“Nor has she gone across the road.”
All the men turned toward the dark woods beside them.
“Damn it all to Hell,” Angus snarled. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “We need to split up.”
“We need to be quiet,” Jasper growled. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find her.”
Together, the men fanned out and began to search the woods.
Angus, for the first time in his entire adult life, was completely distracted from his job by a female; a stubborn, alluring, decidedly feminine, reckless female whom he suspected was going to haunt him for a very long time to come.
Charity stood in the shelter of the trees and watched the hooded figure disappear into the woods across the field. She wanted to follow but knew she would be just as visible as he had been. What he was doing going over there at this time of night was intriguing. So much so, she was positively bursting with curiosity. Unfortunately, there was no way of getting across the field without putting herself in danger, and alerting Mr Horvat that she was on to him. With nothing else to do, and confident in the knowledge that the only danger to her was nearly half a mile away, Charity settled her shoulders against the tree behind her and settled back to watch and wait.
She had no idea what she was looking for, or why she was waiting for him to return, but something compelled her to wait where she was, to see how long Mr H
orvat would be gone, and if he returned with anything in his hand which might indicate what on earth he was doing out and about so late at night.
Angus struggled to contain his rising fear the longer he searched. His head ached, his fingers were sore from having been clenched into tight fists of fury for so long, and he was tired. More importantly, he was incensed by his need to find Charity safe; at how much her safety mattered to him on a purely personal level. The feelings that pummelled him had nothing to do with his work, his job, his entire life. His need to be assured of her safety was purely a private problem, something that mattered to him – the man, not him, the undercover operative for the Star Elite.
It was annoying just how easily, and so very, very quickly Charity had thrown his usually ordered existence into chaos. He was a man, who lived in a man’s world fighting criminals, challenged danger at every quarter, who went where he wanted when he wanted, and didn’t have to account to anybody – except for his boss - for his actions. To be turned inside out so easily by an air-headed female, whose wayward streak was designed to drive a man out of his mind at the blink of a feminine eyelid, was enough to make him want to beat his head against one of the solid tree-trunks.
He wished he had the strength to cast her to the Devil, turn around and head off to bed without a backward look, and not give a damn what happened to her. He wished he could. But he wasn’t that kind of man. Not only was she one of the citizens he had spent his life inadvertently trying to protect from cut-throat criminals and the seedy underbelly of society that threatened people in their own homes, but he had been raised to look after the females of the world; the people less able to fight to protect themselves. To abandon Charity to the likes of the kidnapper, who would do God knows what to her once she had been snatched, was enough to make him white with rage. He would tear the very woods apart if she didn’t re-appear.
Thankfully, he and his colleagues didn’t have to go far before Angus’s attention was captured by the very faint snapping of a twig. At the same time, Aaron materialised beside him and pointed toward a dark shadow standing silently beside a thick tree. Even from a distance, Angus could see the pale material of Charity’s dress.
“I will deal with her,” he breathed into Aaron’s ear.
“What is she looking for?” Aaron asked.
“I don’t know,” Angus growled. “But I damned well will find out.”
Rather than stomp up to her like he wanted, he studied the woods she was staring intently at. He had little doubt that was where the man had gone, but what was she waiting for? Why wasn’t she going home where she was safe? The more he contemplated her stupidity, the angrier he became. Eventually, he had no choice but to creep up behind her.
Charity was bored. Fed up, bored, cold, scared, and starting to feel completely foolish for racing off like she had. After all, Mr Horvat might just be heading off to meet an illicit liaison or something. Whatever he was doing, it was late, she was tired, and she would get nowhere standing where she was.
Before she could turn around, though, she was suddenly painfully aware that she was not alone. Her eyes widened. Her gasp was loud in the silence of the night, but she didn’t get the chance to scream. Fear locked all protest in her throat. She spun around but couldn’t see anything. She knew she had heard movement, though, and could still sense someone out in the woods with her. Panicked, her gaze flickered around the dark and empty woods.
“Hello?” she whispered, then winced at just how foolish she had been.
Don’t be stupid enough to alert the man to where you are, a dark voice warned her.
“Angus?” she whispered. Her fear grew when Angus didn’t reply.
The urge to flee was strong. Rather than move, Charity remained still and silent. Her heart thundered heavily in her ears. Amid a rising sea of panic, she struggled to decide what to do. The urge to run to safety eventually got the better of her. Without even stopping to think, Charity bolted for the road, and the safety of home.
Angus watched her go. Rather than stay where he was and let her return home unhindered, he tugged the hood up on his cloak and set to work. He felt an eel for deliberately scaring her but had to do whatever was necessary to ensure she didn’t behave so foolishly again. Thankfully, Jasper appeared to feel the same way. He too positively surged toward her out of the shadows, making sure he was visible; as a sinister, dark shape that appeared macabrely out of the darkness.
Angus watched Charity flinch when she saw him and race off in the opposite direction. When she stumbled, Angus beckoned to Jasper to back off a little, only to surge forward himself, an equally dark, dangerous, faceless figure in black.
Charity glanced up when she sensed movement on the path behind her. All she could see was a dark shadow heading her way. A scream locked in her throat. Instinctively, the need to protect herself became palpable. Her fingers, already on the littered floor of the woods, clasped tightly around a thick branch. When the dark figure glided silently closer, Charity vaulted to her feet and took a wild swing at him with her heavy weapon.
Angus cursed bitterly when he was hit with a heavy object. Pain shot up his arm. With a snarl, he snatched the damned stick off her and threw it onto the floor. Angrily, he reached out to grab her, but she was already racing Hell for leather back toward home.
“That should teach her,” Jasper grunted in satisfaction.
“Look,” Aaron whispered. He pointed toward the woods, at the exact point Charity had been staring.
“It’s the neighbour,” Angus growled. He barely gave the man a second glance, though. He was too busy staring at Charity’s rapidly retreating back and plotting all the things he was going to say to her when they came face-to-face again.
“Go and make sure she gets home,” Aaron growled.
“Don’t accost him. It isn’t Lawrence, but I want to know what he has gone out for. Nobody should be out at this time of night,” Angus snapped, and with that set off in pursuit of the person he really was starting to suspect he wanted to capture.
Charity was struggling to contain her shakes by the time she yanked open the gate at the end of her garden. Her fingers fumbled with the bolt, making it clang loudly in the silence of the night. She froze and looked up, but her heartbeat didn’t stop thundering. She suspected it wouldn’t stop thumping for a long time yet given whoever had just chased her was most probably watching her right now. With a shiver, she turned toward the sanctuary of her nice, warm home, only to slam into an immovable object – a very tall, very commanding, and very, very, angry Angus.
“Do you want to tell me what the Hell you think you were doing?” he snarled in a voice barely above a hushed whisper.
Charity’s mouth opened and closed. She glanced around the empty garden but knew there was nowhere he could have hidden.
She pointed one long, trembling finger at him. “How did you get there?” she gasped.
“Don’t change the subject,” he bit out.
Furious, at her, at himself, at the kidnapper, at Mr Lawrence’s neighbour, whoever the Hell he was, Angus grabbed Charity’s arm and began to propel her down the path toward home like a recalcitrant child.
Charity glanced over her shoulder worriedly. At any other time, she would have protested at Angus’s physical determination to get her indoors, and his manhandling of her. As it was she was just glad he was there – at least until she reached the kitchen.
Once the door had closed behind Angus, and she felt safe once more, Charity turned to glare at him.
“Just what do you-”
She got no further before she was hauled bodily forward and propelled into a solid, masculine frame that remained unmoved. Charity found herself engulfed in Angus’s hard arms which held her firmly against his solid length. Her gasp of astonishment was swiftly swallowed by his hungry lips, which effectively silenced any further protest she might make.
What startled Charity even more was that she wasn’t angry, and didn’t protest, against the force of his kisses. In
stead, she leaned against him, and bolstered by the success, if not the fear of her little adventure, began to return his kiss with a hunger that shocked her just as much as it left him speechless.
CHAPTER SIX
“Damn it,” he growled when he finally lifted his head.
Dumbfounded, all he could do for a moment or two was stare blankly at the door above her head and will his senses to cool.
“I refuse to apologise for that,” he eventually growled.
Charity tipped her chin up. With a boldness that was completely uncharacteristic of her she lifted her brows at him.
“I cannot believe I asked you to,” she retorted crisply.
At least now I can say to Mrs Applebottom that I have been kissed – properly – by a man not one of those boys she keeps trying to palm me off with, Charity mused.
She was a little awed by what had just happened despite her false bravado.
With a curse that made her cheeks blush, Angus grabbed Charity by her shoulders, but with startling gentleness, nudged her away from the door. Once he had a clear exit, he took it, but had to force himself not to slam the door as he so desperately wanted to do. Instead, he closed it so very carefully that the quiet click of the catch snapping into place was as effective as gunshot, it was no less sinister.
Charity couldn’t believe he had just left; walked out without an apology, explanation, or a backward look. Insulted, and embarrassed at her own waywardness, she nonetheless refused to allow him to get the upper hand. She suspected that if he did, Angus would believe he had every right to manhandle her to get what he wanted. There was no earthly way she was going to allow that to happen, not after what she had faced tonight – and survived.
Without thinking about what she was doing, Charity yanked open the kitchen door and raced after her quarry for a second time that night. This time, though, the man she was after was someone who wouldn’t escape her, no matter where he tried to hide.