Just This Once (40 page)

So someone had written the note for him.

It doesn’t matter, he told himself as he
stooped to pick up the gold ring. Turning it over and over in his
fingers, he remembered how he’d balked at presenting the
chestnut-haired pickpocket with his own ring to wear during their
wedding ceremony, how he’d made Latherby hand over his ring
instead. And now—now he would gladly give Josephine Cooper
everything he possessed or ever might hope to possess.

No gift would be too much, no jewel too
precious. She was the most precious treasure in his life.

The worried faces and voices of the servants
swirled around him as he strode to his dressing room, tore off his
finely tailored suit coat, and threw it on the floor. His mouth
grim, he lifted his gunbelt from its hook. As he strapped on his
guns, he struggled to take in the plot he had to contend with.

Josie’s life was at stake. And where in hell
was Ham?

Then, as if summoned by the sheer intensity
of Ethan’s will and need for him, there came a pounding at the
front door, and even upstairs they could all faintly hear the low,
gravelly voice raised in a frantic shout.

“Let me in, my lord. Ethan! Ethan, lad, let
me in.”

Ethan was already halfway down the
stairs.

“I know!” Ham announced as the door swung
open. He stumbled inside, a picture of disrepute, his clothes torn
and dirty and soaked, his boots laden with mud. But there was
triumph in his eyes as Ethan eagerly gripped his arms. And as he
looked at the man whom he’d mentored as a young boy, there was also
devotion—and a burning, frightening urgency.

“I got away as soon as I could. Ran into
some trouble...” His breath was coming in heaving gasps. “Don’t
worry, lad, I’m fine, and so will she be if we hurry. But there’s
no time to lose. I been following her all day, just like you
wanted, and you were right about those bloody bastards coming for
her. But not to fear, lad, not to fear. I know! I know where she
is.”

T
he thunder had
begun by the time Snake and Spooner returned to the room with a
tray of food and a tin cup filled with ale. They’d left Josie tied
to the bedpost, where she’d been struggling in vain ever since,
trying to unknot the thick rope.

“Give up, honey,” Snake advised, noting her
flushed, disheveled appearance. Her hair hung into her face in damp
tendrils, and the pretty gown she’d been wearing when they’d
grabbed her was now hopelessly creased and wrinkled. “You ain’t
getting away again. This time I’m going to watch you like a
hawk.”

“Then I’ll just have to kill you, won’t I?”
The words flew out before she thought, and she instantly regretted
them for Snake’s eyes began to glitter.

“You back-talking me again, girl?”

Use your head,
she told herself, and
lifted her eyes to show him what she hoped was a cowed expression.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it,” she mumbled. “But...”

“But what?”

“My arm hurts, Snake. And I don’t feel so
good.” She watched Spooner set the tray down on a broken table
beside the bed. It held a bowl of thin-looking brownish soup and a
crust of bread. Both looked disgusting.

“I never had any dinner tonight. And you
know how I get when I’m hungry.” She tried to smile at him, hoping
to pierce for an instant the armor of blustering pride and
vengeance in which he’d encased himself.

“Then go ahead and eat your grub. Just quit
complaining.”

The dangerous glitter had faded a bit, and
his voice was only irritable, no longer angry.

“Can you untie me for a little while so I
can eat? I can’t hardly get away with you and Spooner here.”

Snake was pacing the room. “Go ahead,” he
told Spooner, as the broad-shouldered outlaw threw him a
questioning look. “But only till she’s done eatin’.”

It took Spooner several moments to work her
wrist free of the rope. “There you go, Josie,” he said almost
apologetically.

Josie rubbed her raw flesh. She’d tried to
watch how he’d defeated the knot, but had a sinking feeling it
would be too difficult for her to manage one-handed. She’d have to
find another way.

Forcing herself to spoon up several
mouthfuls of the vile soup, and to chew the chunk of bread, she
studied Snake and Spooner thoughtfully from beneath her lashes.
Snake had sat himself down on the stool and was trimming his
fingernails with his knife. Spooner paced restlessly, glancing out
the window each time thunder split the rain-soaked night.

At last Snake noticed that she’d finished
eating and was simply sitting on the cot, cradling the ale cup
between both hands and quietly surveying the dirty confines of the
room.

He slipped his knife back in his pocket and
stood, glowering at her. The din coming from downstairs in the gin
house grew louder between rumbles of thunder.

“What are you up to, girl? Whatever it is,
it won’t work.”

“I just... got a cramp in my legs. Before
you tie me up again, can I just walk across the room, loosen up my
muscles?”

Snake reached her in two strides. “Sure,
honey,” he sneered. “So long as I’m holding on to you.”

Spooner backed away from the window, saying
nothing as Snake slipped a heavy arm around Josie’s waist. She
teetered across the small room, toward the window. There wasn’t
much she could see in the inky night with all that rain slashing
down. She thought she could just make out a maze of crumbling
buildings and twisting alleyways, but she wasn’t sure.

“Forget it.” Snake’s arm tightened around
her waist. He spun her to face him, his breath hot in her face. “I
know you’re getting the lay of the land, thinking where you’d run
if you had the chance. You’re not going nowhere. You hear? We’ve
got to settle our score, you and me. So you’re staying put, right
here in my arms where you belong.”

“Like hell I belong in your arms,” she
muttered, pushing against his chest. His hold grew more
restrictive. “That’s enough, Snake. You’re hurting me....”

“You hurt me, honey. Hurt my feelings real
bad when you ran off. Didn’t she, Spooner?”

Spooner swallowed, looking at the floor.
From the main room of the gin house came a roar and cheers and wild
crashing and thumping.

“Snake, I’m thinkin’ we should maybe get
back out there. Sounds like some fightin’—could be Noah and Deck.
They told me before they thought Pirate Pete was cheatin’ at cards
and they weren’t goin’ to put up with it—they’ve been drinking
pretty heavy since Noah got back....”

“You go. I’m busy.”

“But... they won’t listen none to me. And
you said we all oughta keep a clear head for later.”

“What’s happening later?” Josie gasped,
still trying unsuccessfully to get free of Snake. He bent her
slightly backward and lowered himself over her.

“Nothin’ that you need to worry your pretty
head over, honey.” His breath reeked now of gin and onions and
tobacco. His mouth covered hers, wet and sucking. In disgust, Josie
tried to twist her face aside.

When he pushed her down on the bed and threw
himself down heavily on top of her, she was filled with as much
repugnance as terror. This—Snake’s painful groping and panting, the
smearing together of mouths—was an abomination, as different from
the ecstasy she’d known with Ethan as horse dung from meadow
flowers.

“No... damn you! No, Snake—I’ll never let
you do this... to me again.”

His fingers closed, pinching over her
breast. “I am doing it, and I’ll do it whenever I want to—you
savvy?”

With all her might, Josie jerked her knee
up. Snake let out a yell. His heavy frame went rigid with pain,
then he doubled over and rolled off her with a tortured moan.

“Why, you... bitch.” His face was purple
with rage, contorted with agony. “I’ll... teach you to—”

Another crash from below, this one louder
than the first. “Snake, you’d better do somethin’.” Near the door,
Spooner shifted from one foot to the other. “If those are our boys
fightin’ with Pete and Tiny...”

“Son of a bitch... all right.” Snake took
several deep breaths and grunted as he tried to stand. He was bent
over, clutching his groin. The look of fury on his face made
Josie’s heart stop.

“Tie her up again—tight!”

His eyes pinned Josie as Spooner looped the
rope around her wrist into a hard knot, then tied it to the
bedpost. When Spooner at last stepped back, his shoulders drooped
and he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Snake, still breathing hard but able to
straighten up slightly, nodded with satisfaction. “I’ll be back
pronto.” Painfully, he lumbered toward the door. “And then I’m
going to make that last beatin’ I gave you look like it warn’t
nothin’ at all.”

Josie stared at the ceiling as she listened
to the sound of their boots stamping down the hall. The rope was
cutting painfully into her wrist, chafing the skin that was already
tender.

“But not for long,” she muttered between
clenched teeth, and with her free hand, yanked Snake’s knife from
the pocket of her gown.

It was a good thing she hadn’t lost her
touch. She inched herself up into a sitting position, twisted
around as far as she could, and began to saw at her bonds.

* * *

At the mouth of the alley, Ham paused to
drag in a deep breath. “It’s this way.” He wiped pouring rain from
his eyes. “Down around that corner there, behind that wall, is the
gin house. The very worst section of the rookery. She’s in a corner
room, upstairs. There’s steps from the outside, broken
ones....”

A noise had Ethan spinning about, ready to
strike. From the gloom a hunched figure materialized. But it was
only an old drunken beggar, who glared at him with red, blank eyes
and then hobbled away, muttering something indistinguishable. The
stink of sewage filth, rats, unwashed flesh, urine, and liquor
seemed to rise from the broken pavement. The crumbling buildings
almost moaned with the echoes of human misery.

His stomach sickened at the thought of Josie
trapped here in the bowels of London. “Show me where,” he growled,
his eyes narrowed against the rain.

As the downpour grew even more intense, they
crept forward into the deeper darkness of the alley.

* * *

Josie had only just freed herself when she
heard footsteps in the hall. She dashed to the window and struggled
to open it.

Before she could do more than throw one leg
over the sill, the door burst open. “Ehh! What ’ave we ’ere?”
Pirate Pete boomed.

Tiny didn’t waste words. He hurtled toward
her.

Josie threw Snake’s knife. It struck Tiny
full in the chest. She saw his eyes widen as blood spouted out.

“I’m goin’ ter kill ye wi’ me bare ’ands!”
he roared, even as Pirate Pete dodged forward and hauled her back
from the window’s edge.

But Josie moved fast. She grabbed his pistol
from his belt and gripped it in both hands, backing away.

“Stand back!” She cocked the gun. “I’ll
shoot you if you make a move!”

“The ’ell ye will. Ye don’t ’ave the stomach
fer it,” Tiny grated, and yanked the knife from his chest with a
grunt. Blinking, he advanced on her, the knife raised, blood
pouring down his shirtfront and pooling on the floor with each
step.

Without hesitation, Josie swung toward him
and squeezed the trigger. The report sent pain ricocheting through
her arm. It also sent Tiny whirling backward in a hideous explosion
of blood and bone.

“Yer mad, girl!” Pirate Pete exclaimed, and
then he dived toward her with a snarl.

She fired again. Pirate Pete doubled over
and lay writhing on the floor, even as she heard more footsteps
running down the hall.

She dashed to the window. Her whole body was
shaking as she clambered over the ledge, gripping the gun as
tightly as she could in hands that were slippery with sweat.

“Ye can’t get away...” Pirate Pete gasped as
blood seeped across the floor beneath his shuddering form.

“Watch me.”

Even as she swung out the window and
balanced precariously on the narrow platform, she heard the rumble
of Snake’s voice as he and the boys burst into the room.

“She went... out the winder.” Pirate Pete
managed no more than a weak gasp. “She’s got me... gun!”

“Damn her to hell! You boys git
downstairs—head her off in the alley!”

Hugging the wall, Josie started down the
crumbling outside stair. She risked one glance back and saw Snake
shoving his burly frame out the window after her.

She raised the gun, letting go of the wall
long enough to fire a shot. It missed, but the explosion shook her
and almost made her lose her balance. Through the pouring rain,
Snake’s features were a mask of venom.

“You’re dead, girl. Dead!” he roared, and
started down the stairs.

Josie reached the bottom and hurled herself
toward a corner, but suddenly she was seized from behind and pulled
backward. She fought wildly and tried to point the gun.