Page 59 of Beloved Sacrifice

Chapter Ten

“Anderson,” said the man holding the sword.

Rose held very still, not wanting to accidentally slit her own throat. The man had been careful not to touch the blade to her skin.

It was turning into quite an interesting day. Kidnapped, botched escape attempt, botched rescue attempt, imprisoned in a basement, and now a second failed escape leading to being held at sword point.

She was starting to feel like the token female character in an action movie. It wasn’t a nice feeling.

Wes looked past her at the man. “Knight. Can I ask what you’re doing here?”

There was a pause, then she heard the man sigh. “For fuck sake, Anderson, you had one job.” The man’s accent had slipped a little, from crisp upper-class British to something a bit more guttural, so it came out, “Fuh fuhck sahk.”

“Give me a week and I’ll be out of your hair for good,” Wes promised.

“You don’t have a week, mate.” The man behind her moved a tiny amount, probably just shifting his weight. Whatever it was he’d done, Marek now switched his gaze from Weston to the newcomer. What had Wes called him? Knight.

“Mr. Lee,” Knight said. “I was sent here to find you and help you.”

Wes whirled on Marek. “You’re with the Admiralty?”

Marek shook his head. “No, I’m not.”

“Your family asked that we locate and aid you,” Knight said carefully.

Marek sighed. “My grandmother can be rather aggressive.”

Knight snorted.

Rose’s irritation started to bubble up. She forced it down. There was clearly a lot going on here she didn’t understand—most confusingly of which, both Wes and Marek seemed to know Knight. But Marek and Wes didn’t know each other. Or was that some elaborate lie?

“Where’d you get the gun, Wes?” Knight asked

“I’m going to plead the fifth.”

“And if we were in America you could do that. But we’re not.”

“Fair enough.”

“So where’d you get them?”

“I’m not going to answer that.”

“Damn it, Anderson. You were seen with a very large gun you should not possess. I can’t overlook that.”

Wes stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“I can’t help you anymore.”

“I never asked for your help,” Wes said with a bit of a growl in his voice.

“No, but you asked for protection, and that’s the same bloody thing.”

Marek put his hands on his hips in his Superman pose and looked at Wes. “You’re under the protection of the Admiralty?”

“Asylum,” Wes ground out. “They gave me asylum and protection.”

Rose tried, she really did, to stay silent, but she was damned sick and tired of this. She was tired, not the kind of tired that required sleep. The kind of tired where she felt like she needed a new life.

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