Page 102 of Polestar
“Will the two of you stop damaging my goods?Please,” he shouted, no longer willing to conceal his exasperation.He sighed, running his fingers through his dark hair.“Control your tempers.Ulla, since your ex-husband appears to have escaped his inescapable prison and chains, where would he go?We’re on an island.His choices are limited.”
“He’s banished.No one would dare defy the king’s edict by helping him.”
“Well, it appears the lockmaster has, or Magnus Bjornson overpowered him despite his predicament.”
Ulla turned back toward Adolf’s prisoner.“He knows his woman is bound for the black market.He’d go after her.”
“So all we have to do is wave her around as bait to lure him to us,” Yvan said.
Adolf said, “Ulla, you mentioned he had connections to the GPSA.If he brings them here, it would ruin everything I’ve—we’ve built.We’re too close to lose it all now.”
“Yes, so we have to find him as soon as possible,” Yvan agreed.
Or I need to get out of here as soon as possible.
He glanced between his partners and his property seated across from him, weighing his options.
TWENTY-FOUR
“JesusChrist,Ihadno idea the kind of shit Ana gets into in her line of work.No clue.”Antony muttered as he drifted through the Barentian stronghold, seeking anything or anyone that could help him help Ana escape this crazy situation.“This isn’t what normal people do.”
All the time they’d lived together, when he was on shore leave, he’d always thought Ana was a ranked pencil-pusher at a government office in the town they lived in.
Boring, safe, easy.
“I thoughtIhad the exciting life.”He poked his head through a thick stone wall, expecting to find another bedroom.“Oh-ho!What’s this?”he moved into the dark space between the rooms.
“Of course, an ancient castle has secret passages, on an island with people that turn into polar bears… and is aggressively occupied by a squid man that sells humans for money and a magician that can send me to oblivion.Of course.”He threw his hands up in the air.
He followed the dark corridor to an intersection, where he saw movement.“I hope there aren’t also giant-sized talking rats in this place.I don’t think I could handle that.”He drifted toward the movement, which turned out to be that of a large man.
Ana’s large man.
Relief and jealousy ripped through Antony.
Relief because help was close by for Ana.Jealousy because her lover was close enough to rescue her while Antony couldn’t.
Just because that guy had a body and Antony didn’t.A very ripped body.
Yeah, he’d seen them in bed together.Accidentally.He wasn’t a voyeur or anything.But it was enough to make him realize what he’d missed out on with the woman he’d never asked to marry him, and should have.
Instead, when she’d finally confided her secret ability to him, he freaked out like the coward he was and broke it off, convincing both of them that friendship was the best option.
Until she’d persistently tried to save his life with her warnings of the pending accident on his ship.
Such a coward.
“I never deserved her,” he mumbled, following Magnus along the secret passages, hoping he was making his way to Ana to get her off this damned island so they could get back to the business of rescuing his men from the human traffickers.
His men.His crew were still alive because of her.And they would be rescued because of her, too.
“I know it.Just like Iknowyou’ll get her out of here,” he said to Magnus’ broad back, ignoring how much more muscle he had than Antony ever did.
Magnus paused, facing the wall, running his hands over the surface.
“You’d better be worthy of her, or I’ll haunt the fuck out of you,” Antony growled in his ear.
Magnus’ head jerked toward the sound of Antony’s voice.He stood still, listening, nose twitching as though he was scenting something.
