Nicholas turned to the guards holding him.“Just six of you this evening?”Never a problem.
One of the thugs smacked his toothless gumstogether. The edges of his beard and moustache were yellowed withhis drool. “What do you mean, just six?”
“Can you do subtraction? Your othercompanion is obviously rendered useless.”
“I don’t understand,” said the runt of thelitter. He was short, narrow shoulders, long arms that dangled andfeet that might serve for shovels.
Nicholas growled. “Anthony, do you rememberthe night in London near Hyde Park and Piccadilly?”The night wepummeled six hoodlums who attacked us.
“With pleasure,” Anthony said.
“I told you blokes to keep yer mouths shut,”the giant said. The wart on his face was spectacular. Could bewhere his brain was stored. He put his gun down on the desk.
Dimwit. Westbrook didn’t hire the brightest.A little more intellect and the giant could be a cabbage.
“Now,” shouted Nicholas.
Anthony leaped like a panther, taking careof the two thugs closest to him.
Nicholas zeroed in on the three in front ofhim. They formed up like an advancing line of slovenly soldiers,hands loose by their sides. In the middle stood the giant with longape-like arms, feet thick like cotton bales, his neck as wide as aman’s hands splayed side by side, and his shoulders, wide enough tohold a double oxen’s yoke. His two flanking companions looked likechildren, folding out in front. They’d receive his first line ofattack. Easy enough. The giant would need trimming.
His father grabbed the gun off the desk andswung it on the sixth man.
The thug to the right dropped an iron barfrom his sleeve, ready to hit Nicholas. Before he raised his hand,Nicholas hit him with a right hook. The bar clinked on the woodfloor and the thug fell face first on the planks. Nicholas kickedthe iron behind him for his father to pick up.
The other runt gaped, seeing the fate of thefirst thug crash to the ground in front of his eyes.
He who hesitates is lost.
Nicholas slammed him with a full-on punch.He crashed over his companion’s body.
The surprise was over, and the giant wasn’ta total idiot. No, this guy wanted to use his brute strength whichmeant he believed he was superior. The remedy for hubris was alwaysa humbling defeat and this man’s head was held too high, trying tobreathe from his own vapors. Like Damiano who was divided in twoand met his watery grave. Except there was no ocean nearby for thegiant to fall.
Nicholas and the giant stood linked togetherin a hushed, unchanging rectangle, tense, rocking a little, stayingloose, staying limber, eyes locked on each other.
Did the giant wonder why he wasn’tretreating?Come right ahead and find out.
The giant came, his wart beet-red and withjust a trace of uncertainty in his face. His legs braced, his elbowrising, his intention easy to read. He was going to launch himselfat Nicholas and bring his fist down on Nicholas’s head.
Nicholas charged, a long, fast stride,aiming to finish a helpless opponent, and in less than a second,all the giant’s previous certainty disappeared. He collapsed out ofa storming move into a defensive panic. His back arched and hiselbow raised. With his momentum, Nicholas shoved the giant’s armup, making the big man’s punch useless. Nicholas swung high andhard, and with the flat of his knuckles, caught the giant’s jaw. Hemust have smashed into his back molars, assuming he had any, andthe hinge of his jaw hung limp. The giant grasped his jaw, unableto speak turned tail and ran.
Alexandra screamed.
Nicholas looked up.Lord Westbrook?He looked like a charred piece of meat…and he had Alexandra in hisgrip and his gun leveled at Nicholas heart. “I’ve deadly aim,Nicholas.”
“Nicholas, Cornelius is the one behindeverything.” Alexandra fought him. Cornelius gripped her around theneck. Alexandra choked, tore at his arm with her fingers.
“She’s right. I bribed the guards at Newgateto get Percy Devol and Cuthbert Noot out. We hated all of you.”
“You, sick bastard,” said Duke RichardRutland.
Nicholas took a step closer to Westbrook. Hehad to get to Alexandra. “All these years, you’ve harbored a grudgeagainst our family?”
“Stop, right there, Nicholas. I’ll shoot herfirst,” Westbrook warned. “Isn’t it obvious? You had my Lucretia. Ihave her now. I will kill all of you.”
Nicholas sweated, inched closer.Lucretia?Alexandra had told him how Cornelius called herthe name of his long dead mother. His obsession with Nicholas’smother never left him after all these years. Alexandra had beenuncomfortable about Cornelius from the start. “You have one shot.After that, I’ll kill you.
“I trusted you, loved you like a father.Why?” said Nicholas.
