Captive of Sin (31 page)

Felix called out from inside. “You forget—I have Trevithick.”

Charis was sickeningly familiar with her stepbrother’s defiant tone. For one surreal moment, it transported her back to their first meeting. He’d expressed his contempt for his new stepsister in just such a voice. And received a cuff from his hulking father in return. A cuff he’d returned with interest when he got Charis to himself.

He’d always been a sneaking, sadistic little bully. Bile filled her mouth as she imagined what state Gideon was in, bound and at Felix’s mercy.

Akash strode toward the cave, his guns held ready, his body tall, straight, and reeking confidence. “We have your brother.”

“You won’t hurt Hubert. I, however, have no such scruples about my hostage.”

Charis could wait no longer. She stumbled upright on shaking legs, her heart racing with a turbulent mixture of hope and trepidation. “Gideon, are you all right?”

There was a silence. Hope shriveled like an old walnut in her breast. Her heart faltered to a stop.

Were they too late? In a fever of anguish, she darted forward to stand beside Akash.

“Charis?” Gideon’s voice was rusty, but the mere sound of it sent joy fizzing like newly opened champagne through her veins. She swayed briefly and closed her eyes as dizzying waves of relief battered her.

It was a miracle. She had no other explanation. He was alive. And aware.

And blisteringly angry. “What the devil are you doing here?”

In spite of the danger and his audible displeasure, she couldn’t contain a choked laugh. She raised trembling fingers to dash burning tears of happiness from her eyes. “Saving you.”

“Go back to the house. Now.”

“I told you,” Akash muttered.

“I want to negotiate,” Felix shouted. “My freedom for Trevithick’s release.”

“Don’t be a fool, man,” Akash snapped, taking a step closer to the mine. “We’ve got you surrounded. You can’t escape.”

“Then there’s no reason to keep Trevithick alive.”

Charis’s throat constricted with renewed terror. Her relief had been premature. The threat Felix posed was as real as ever.

“He’ll kill Gideon if we push him too far,” Charis said unsteadily. “He’s not bluffing.”

Akash frowned down at her. “A murder charge won’t help his case.”

“He’s smart enough to know his case is hopeless.” She raised her chin and stared unwaveringly into Akash’s deep brown eyes. “I don’t care what happens to Felix. Kill him, let him go free, whatever you have to do. Just as long as we save Gideon.”

His eyes darkened as if he realized what it would cost her to let Felix get away with his crimes. Then he nodded and faced toward the mine, cocking his guns. “All right, Lord Felix. I’ll come in.”

“I’ll go with you,” Charis said quickly.

Akash cast her a glance that mingled astonishment and disapproval. “Out of the question.”

Her jaw firmed. “Make me stay.”

She saw him consider getting one of the Penrhyn men to restrain her, then clearly he thought better of it. Or perhaps
he took pity on her frantic need to see her husband. His tone was low and adamant. “You are not to speak. You are not to move unless I give you the word.”

“I promise.” Her voice shook with gratitude. “Thank you.”

“I hope I don’t live to regret this,” he said grimly. He raised his voice. “Don’t try anything, Lord Felix.”

“Drop your weapons first. And remember, any tricks and Trevithick’s a dead man.”

Akash glanced at Charis, who nodded. Both of them laid their guns on the ground, then approached the mine entrance.

With every step, her heart beat faster. Fear closed her throat and made her skin itch. If Felix decided to shoot them, they had no protection.

Surely he couldn’t be so stupid. He wouldn’t be able to kill every man here. Then she remembered his vanity and recklessness.

“Watch our backs,” Akash hissed to Tulliver, as they passed under the heavy wooden beams that supported the entrance. Tulliver nodded while Charis and Akash edged inside.

Momentarily, the dimness blinded her. The dank tunnel was deathly cold. The air was rank with bats, stale air, and decay. Carefully, she moved forward, conscious of Akash as a silent, reassuring presence beside her.

“Damn you, Charis,” Gideon cursed from farther along the tunnel. “Get out of here.”

“No, she should stay,” Felix said in a silky voice. “A foolish, but noble gesture, my dear stepsister. You’ve presented me with yet another hostage. I must thank you.”

As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, lit by one lantern, she saw that Felix aimed his pistol squarely at her chest. It was one of the big clumsy horse pistols from yesterday. She glanced at him, long enough to read the desperation in his face. Then her attention flitted past him and settled on Gideon. He stood, hands bound behind his back, a few paces beyond Felix in the center of the brothers’ makeshift camp.

He glared at her like he wanted to kill her. His black eyes
blazed in his pale face, and his mouth was a long line of displeasure. He should have appeared powerless. Instead, he looked indomitable, magnificent, undaunted.

There was blood on his jaw and bruises under his torn shirt. The visible evidence of Gideon’s ordeal made her heart slam to a shocked halt.

“Gideon…” She took a shaky step toward him, only to come to a trembling halt as his eyes narrowed with temper.

To think she’d fretted about this man’s ability to cope with captivity. He’d walk through a raging hurricane without turning a hair. His bruises and abrasions only emphasized his invincible spirit.

Gratitude punched the breath from her lungs, made her hands shake. She blinked back more tears. They weren’t safe yet. She couldn’t relax her guard.

“You spineless toad,” she spat, turning on Felix. “How dare you beat a bound man?”

“Charis, I’m fine,” Gideon snarled. “But you won’t be when I get my hands on you. Akash, blast you, what were you thinking, bringing her here?”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, making plans for what you’ll do once you’re free,” Felix said snidely. He backed against the wall, his gun still trained on Charis. “I have to ask myself if I really need three hostages. Perhaps I’m better off disposing of one of you.”

“You must know this rash gamble has come to its end.” Gideon’s voice rang with authority. “Surrender while you have a chance at convincing a judge you deserve leniency.”

Felix’s expression hardened. Charis shivered as she thought of a rat caught in a trap. She didn’t fool herself that this particular rat was harmless. He knew he’d lost, and he’d take them all down with him if he could.

“What I’ve done is a hanging matter,” Felix snapped. “I’m not a fool. I won’t offer myself up like a lamb to the slaughter. There’s fight in me yet.”

“That’s lunatic.” Akash stepped closer with unconcealed threat. “What can you hope to achieve?”

“Damn it, stay back!” Wildly, Felix swung the gun toward Akash.

Charis used Felix’s momentary distraction to dash across the rubble-strewn floor to Gideon. With a broken sob, she threw her arms around him and buried her head in his chest. She drew in his familiar scent, felt the steady thud of his heart against her breast. Relief thundered through her.

He was alive. He was alive. They would come out of this yet.

His skin was chilled, and his tattered shirt was clammy from last night’s downpour. He stood rigidly in her hold, his muscles taut. For one horrified moment, she wondered if his affliction had returned.

Then she realized he wasn’t sick, he was angry. He vibrated with incandescent fury.

“How dare you put yourself in danger?” he growled, resisting her clinging hands.

“I’ve got a knife,” she whispered, looking up at him.

At last he glanced at her. His jaw worked as he fought to master his temper. She read his anxiety for her, his rage. But more, she saw the mirror of her own longing in his black eyes.

“Oh, hell, Charis,” he muttered, his mouth turning down with annoyance. He bent his head and kissed her, briefly but hard. She knew it was meant as punishment, but she felt the blazing love underlying the rebuke. “Now get out,” he said softly but firmly.

“Not yet.” She fumbled in her pocket for the small blade she’d taken from a display of arms at Penrhyn. It probably hadn’t been used since Black Jack’s day, but she’d tested its edge, and it was sharp.

She cast a quick glance across at Felix and took advantage of his focus on Akash to slide behind Gideon. Watching her stepbrother out of the corner of her eye, she sawed at the binding around Gideon’s wrists. It was dark where she stood, but still light enough for her to see the broken skin
under the coarse rope. Her anger at her stepbrothers hitched higher.

“She’s not going anywhere.” Felix sidled in Gideon’s direction, keeping his pistol aimed at Akash. “She’s my surety I’ll get out of here.”

“There’s a dozen guns outside, more if the militia have arrived,” Akash said dismissively. Charis wondered if he guessed what she was up to and kept Felix occupied deliberately. Biting her lips, she worked more furiously at the rope. “Even if you do kill us, you won’t get far.”

Felix gave a scornful grunt, his eyes darting around the mine as if he sought an escape route. “Oh, yes, I will. Nobody will risk hurting her.”

“What about Lord Burkett? Do you intend to abandon him to his fate?” Contempt sizzled in Gideon’s words.

Felix shrugged without shifting his gaze from Akash. “He can take his chances. He’ll get to plead his case in the bloody House of Lords, whereas I’ll be treated like a common criminal.”

“You
are
a common criminal,” Akash said coolly.

Felix took a menacing step toward Akash. “Shut your mouth, you black bastard.”

“Give it up, Farrell,” Gideon said steadily. “If you come quietly, I’ll see what I can do about a lighter sentence. Transportation at least leaves you your life.”

Felix flinched in horror. “To that filthy hole, Botany Bay? I’d rather be dead.” He was considerably closer to Charis and Gideon than he had been. She applied the knife with renewed energy and prayed the shadows hid what she did.

“Keep this up, and you will be,” Akash said grimly.

“You speak as though my defeat is a foregone conclusion.”

“It is.” Gideon bunched the muscles of his arms, jerked his wrists hard, and snapped the last threads of his bindings.

“Not when I’ve got Charis.” Felix lunged, but Gideon moved faster than a striking cobra and grabbed him before he laid hands on her.

“Little slut untied you, did she?” Felix grunted, fighting to get purchase on the larger man.

For a sickening moment, the two men teetered, casting a dance of grotesque shadows onto the mine’s walls. Then they fell and struck the ground with a thud that Charis felt in her bones. There was a sharp rattle as pebbles shot across the floor in all directions.

“Damn you, Trevithick!” Felix grunted, then finished on a loud exhalation as Gideon landed a hard punch to his stomach. The sickening sound made Charis flinch back.

She couldn’t tear her eyes from the struggle. The fight was cruel, frantic. Over and over, they rolled in a clumsy, murderous battle. She desperately tried to see who gained the advantage, but darkness and constant movement made it impossible to tell.

A storm of punches and groans punctuated the ungainly violence. Charis’s belly cramped with dread, and she backed on unsteady legs to press against the cold rock.

Felix fought dirty, and he was strong and wiry, for all his fashionable languor. Gideon was bigger, but he’d been bound and beaten. Heaven knew what injuries the brothers had inflicted on him during the night.

A pistol shot rang out, resounding as the noise ricocheted off the rock.

“Gideon!” Charis screamed, lurching forward. Her heart slammed against her ribs. Her eyes went blind.

Akash caught her around the waist and stopped her flinging herself on top of the combatants. “Charis, it’s all right.”

She hardly heard him through the clanging in her ears. If Gideon was dead, she didn’t want to live. Without him, there was nothing in the world she wanted.

Akash spoke more sharply. “Charis, they’re alive.”

At last she heard and understood. She realized how tightly he gripped her against his chest. Her fingers dug into his arms with bruising force.

The bullet must have gone wild.

Her sight cleared, and her terrified gaze focused on Felix
and Gideon. She realized both men still moved, still struggled to best the other. Her aching heart started beating again. She sucked rancid air into starved lungs.

Dear heaven, thank you, thank you, thank you.

She trembled convulsively in Akash’s grip. The tall body looming behind her bristled with silent tension. His support was welcome. She wasn’t sure her legs would hold her. Her mouth was dry as cotton, and her heart pounded like a mallet wielded by a madman.

She stifled her urge to call encouragement to Gideon. He needed all his concentration to defeat Felix. The now-useless gun bumped across the floor as a wildly kicking leg sent it sliding. Gideon rolled over and kicked it more purposefully, propelling it out of reach.

She straightened, ashamed of her weakness. Akash must have realized she’d regained control of herself. He released her and edged around the fight to pick up the gun.

The men on the ground grunted and gasped and wrestled for dominance. They writhed across the rough floor. Felix flung out one leg and sent a tin kettle rattling against the rocks. The sharp metallic clatter made Charis jump. She raised one shaking hand to her mouth to hold back a scream.

The bone handle of the little knife she clutched in her other hand was slippery with sweat. If only she saw a chance to intervene. But all she could do was stand in agonized suspense on the conflict’s edge.

Felix rolled on top of Gideon and clawed at his throat. For an endless moment, time hung suspended. Then Gideon twisted with what seemed impossible strength and dislodged his attacker.

The battle continued. Charis’s hand dropped from her face to twine with painful tightness in her skirts. More thumps. More hoarse grunts and gasps. With a shuddering groan, Gideon jerked onto his knees, straddling Felix and gripping his neck.