“We must…catch our breath,” he gasped.
Lanterns were lit at the end of the close, giving light to the soiled space around them. It was far from ideal, but preferable to being caught by the earl’s men.
Rapid footfalls rushed past the close.
“I can’t see ’em!” one voice said.
“They’re around here somewhere,” another replied. “Keep looking.”
The voices faded, and Heather let out a deep breath.
Low, grating laughter echoed around them, and the hairs on the back of Heather’s neck stood on end.Who?—
“No,” Percy whispered, interrupting her thought.
The rosiness that had flooded his cheeks after their run abruptly fled, and his breath stuttered.
“Did ye think tha’ ye could get rid of me?” the voice taunted. “Tha’ ye couldstealfromme?”
Percy turned a fearful and urgent gaze to Heather. “I’m afraid we have to run again, sweetheart.”
She nodded.
“Go.Now.”
Click.
Heather paused in the middle of her first step. That sound was unmistakable. It was a pistol being cocked.
“Ye took summat from me, Percival,” he drawled. “So I shall take summat fromyou.”
“No!” Percy pressed his back to her, protecting her from the man.
Heather turned, peering over his shoulder at a hulking form with red hair, a grizzled grey-and-red beard, and horrific scars marring one side of his face. He had broad shoulders and a barrel chest, over which he wore…a bastardized Redcoat.
She gasped.
Butcher.
It’s a ghost.Percy’s pulse raged through his body as horror washed over him.
Impossible.The man had survived. After all Percy’s sodding confidence in his plan, it had failed bitterly. He’d thought the nightmare of Butcher was gone forever, but he was sorely mistaken.
“Tha’s right,” Butcher sneered, the pistol aimed at Percy’s chest never wavering. “I’m alive. Me own son betrayed me, like th’ fucking coward ’e is. Couldnae even face me.”
There was no time to think. He had to act.
Butcher scoffed. “And now th’ bastard has nae words fer?—”
Percy ran at the man, gripping his wrist and lifting.
Crack!
Blinding hot pain shot through the flesh of his arm, but he gritted his teeth against it as he fought with the enormous, muscular man.
“Percy!” Heather called. “You’re—” She broke off with an echoing scream, and Percy’s chest constricted.
“I got ’er, lads!” a voice said behind him.
