Page 31 of Dangerous Exile

Without a word to Ness, he stood and went to the door, following Declan into the hallway. The two men that had attacked Ness had already been dragged out of there. Better their arses in the gutter. Dropping them face down, if his men were smart. He pulled the door closed with a snap. “What is it?”

“Jasper from the Den of Diablo just stopped by. He said there were four men there, looking for a small woman with dark hair and amber eyes.”

“What?” Ice snaked down his spine.

Declan gave him a curt nod. “They mentioned Juliet like they knew her, but Jasper said these were not the type of men Juliet would have dealings with.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly. He just wanted you to be aware, as he hasn’t heard from Juliet in weeks. He’s sent word north to his cousin in Scotland to have him ask her about it. But he wondered if we’d heard from Juliet.”

“You didn’t tell him anything?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Good. But dammit.”

Declan nodded.

His heart started thudding hard in his chest, a pit of fear expanding upward from his gut.

Fear? He didn’t feel fear.

Not since he’d been a whelp on the ship.

But there it was, a rising tide in his lungs.

He needed to find out the true reach of Ness’s husband. Clearly, Gilroy had connections to the London Underground if he had men sniffing about the Den of Diablo.

Damn. Why had she picked tonight, of all nights, to show herself to far too many people in the house?

He needed to find out exactly who the men were that were searching for Ness. The sooner the better. How many. Where they were from.

And in the meantime, he had to get her somewhere impenetrable.

The Alabaster was no longer safe.

{ Chapter 11 }

“You are positive this is safe?” Ness leaned forward in the carriage, pulling the dark curtain open a crack to find sheep dotting a hillside. “Oh, we are in the countryside.”

Talen swatted her hand away from the window and the curtain swung back into place. “You need to trust me on this. It is the safest thing I could think of.”

She looked at him. Studied the hard set of his jawline. The dark stubble that had appeared overnight. A night with no sleep, she’d deduced.

He’d found out last night about the men looking for her, but he didn’t tell her until this morning. He’d said he’d wanted her to sleep soundly after the attack in the hallway. Yet the look on his face when he’d woken her soon after dawn had said volumes. He’d told her about the men searching for her, that they had yet to be found, and then he’d set Verity onto her to get her ready to leave.

She’d been fighting waves of panic ever since.

As expected, Gilroy had sent men after her. She was his property. And he hated nothing more in this world than losing what was his. She’d thought she would be safe at the Alabaster under Talen’s watch, but she’d been silly to think it would be that easy to escape Gilroy. If his men were at the place where Juliet had worked, then they were only streets away from finding her.

The wheels crushing on gravel, the carriage lurched to a stop.

“Stay in here.” Talen shifted forward from his seat, reaching around her head to tug the hood of her cloak up and around her face. “Declan came out ahead of us to arrange privacy as we entered, but I need to verify it before you set one foot out of this carriage. Trust me on this.”

His look met hers, his light blue eyes indomitable. She trusted him. How could she not? He’d kept her safe thus far, just as he’d sworn he would.

She nodded.

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