Page 46 of Veiled in Stars and Silver
She held a revolver to her uncle’s head.
Reuben’s gaze narrowed. “I see you found the one I stored in the top drawer.”
“Let him go or die.”
The older man’s lip curled. “You wouldn’t.”
Wendy’s face was deadly. “You taught me, Uncle. You know I would.”
Reuben’s mouth twisted, his teeth flashing in the dull light.
But he dropped the saber. “Yes. You’ve always been as ruthless as I.”
She didn’t move, her expression dark, cold, like when she first pressed a knife to Hook’s throat, and he’d wondered if she really might end him. He recalled seeing his man, Aaron, lying in the sand. Wendy wasn’t simply capable of killing. She was a killer.
And right now, she looked as if there wasn’t anything she wanted to do more than pull the revolver’s trigger.
“Father?”
Hook turned. A man around Wendy’s age lingered in the doorway. He held a pistol in his hand and had it trained on Wendy. Hook blinked. How many weapons did this man keep in his house?
“Ezra. Shoot them,” Reuben said.
“No, Ezra. It's not what you think,” Wendy said quickly.
“Do as I say,” her unclesnarled.
“We only want the dagger and then we’ll go.”
Ezra looked between them, uncertain. “Why do you have a gun shoved against his head?”
“Do you really have to ask that?”
Ezra lowered the gun. “I guess not.”
Despite the pain in Hook's stomach, he pushed himself to his feet. Relief flashed across Wendy’s face, and she turned to Hook.
Reuben moved. He gripped the barrel of the revolver, pushing it up, and backhanded Wendy. Like watching another one of his men go down, horror filled Hook as she fell to the floor, dagger clutched in one hand, the other gripping her cheek. The gun clattered to the carpet, away from both of them. Her uncle lunged onto her, wrapping a fist around her throat, squeezing.
Red flashed before Hook’s vision, an uncontainable fury curling in his chest. He no longer felt any pain.
Reuben was a dead man.
“She finally shows her true colors,” her uncle snarled down at her, as she struggled to breathe. “Tell me. Did you sell your worthless body to this low life, you shitty little whore?”
Hook charged him from the side, his good hand slamming into his face over and over. Blood bloomed across the other man’s skin, splattering as his nose shattered under Hook’s blows. He cocked his arm again but didn’t strike. Reuben lay on the floor, dazed. He dug the tip of his hook into the man’s abdomen, ripping through his nightshirt and drawing blood.
“Hook.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Hook’s eyes heated, warming to what he was about to do. It was said by those who’d watched him gut his victims that they swore two red spots appeared in his eyes. He never knew if it was Pan’s doing or his. Right now, he didn’t care.
“Hook.”
He dug deeper, and terror flashed across the man’s face. He wasn’t yet deep enough to cause damage, only deep enough for Reuben to realize what he was about to do. Hook had rarely gutted a man who deserved it, so of all the deaths he had caused, this one he might actually enjoy.
“James.”
He glanced up.
