“Elizabeth!”
At the far end of the room, his eyes settled on her. Rawlins Dyer stood next to her.
Zachary stopped in front of her. “Tell me it is not true, Elizabeth. Tell me to my face.”
Dyer leaned over and whispered in her ear.
Her face turned white. “Mr. Rourke, I’ll say this once. I’m not going to get into a silly squabble with you. If you misinterpreted–”
“Tell me it is not true…after we—” he rasped out, biting off each word like a bitter taste in his mouth.
Several people inhaled from his crude remark. He didn’t care.
Dyer was smiling. He was enjoying his part. How he wanted to plant his fist in the man’s face. “Mr. Rourke, you are indeed interrupting what I consider a sacred and festive occasion for me and my bride-to-be. You should leave before I have you thrown out.”
“I look forward to it.” He threw the paper at them announcing her betrothal to Dyer.
“Elizabeth,” he demanded. “Tell me your engagement is not true. I want to hear it from you.”
“It is a mistake,” she said. “That you assumed an attraction.”
Zachary couldn’t keep the venom from his voice. “The mistake was mine for trusting you.”
“Enough,” said Dyer, flicking an end of his mustache. “You are insulting my intended. Men get rid of him.
Men jumped him from all sides. In answer, Zachary released a horrific howl. He chopped one in the nose, making a popping sound, dousing him in a shower of blood. With lightning quick ease, Zachary broke free and swung his elbow into a man’s windpipe. The guard emitted a shuddering breath and flipped backward. He kicked the next guard in the knee. The man went down in a sea of agony. He’d not be walking for a long time. The rest backed off. So did the guests, a screaming rush of lemmings, filing to the sides and out the door. The chaos would give New York a lot to talk about.
Zachary’s eyes fixed on every one of his quarries. Three down, six to go. He’d been looking for a fight.
A burly, six-foot thug spoke. “You’re in so much trouble you couldn’t dig your way out.”
Zachary scoffed. “Are you talking to me?”
“Damn straight I am.”
“Save your breath.”
“We’re leaving and so are you.”
The big man launched forward with a wild grimace on his face. Zachary danced to the side and took a left hook to the shoulder and put a straight punch to the center of the scowl. The guy stumbled back, shook his head. Zachary forced him backward and dropped his chin to his chest and snapped a reverse head butt that made solid contact. Zachary found his footing and met another guard. He dodged an incoming right and snapped a blow of his own to the guy’s jaw. Zachary followed with a flurry of heavy punches, a fast deadly rhythm, four blows, right, left, right, left. His blows rocked the man enough to open him up for a colossal left to the throat that put him down. Zachary kicked the legs out from beneath his next assailant, and he pancaked to the floor. Zachary kicked him in the head.
No holding back.
He stepped inside the next thug’s swinging arm, shot an elbow upward to his abdomen, taking his center, rolling into a palm heel strike to his groin. Zachary danced back. Leaped high, spinning mid-air, snapped a hook kick to his opponent’s chin. The man didn’t see it coming. More power. More force. It lifted him back up and then dropped him like the earth had opened up.
“Boys!” Dyer ordered, and out of nowhere an army fell on Zachary.
Before he could wrench free again, ten men lunged, seized him in their arms. Pure opposing numbers his undoing Grappling him to the floor, they kicked and punched and manacled him. When he was physically subdued, they stood him up with his legs and arms spread wide, none of them braveenough to be near him alone. Several more men held guns on him, keeping their distance after witnessing what had happened to their comrades.
The bravest of the bunch came forward, delivered eight blows to his abdomen. Suddenly, Elizabeth stood in between them.
“Stop. I order you to not hurt him anymore. Zachary,” she begged, her face ravaged. “I’m marrying my long love interest. I’m sorry, Mr. Rourke. How you ever concluded that we would be a couple is unfortunate.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Dyer looked him over with his blue eyes that had no pupils. “It’s simple really. There’s the door. Elizabeth, come to my side. Now. You are making a spectacle of yourself and I won’t have it.”
Elizabeth walked stiffly to stand beside Dyer. “Mr. Rourke, I’m sorry if you were misled and took it to heart. You’re not the type I like at all. Why, you’re a cowboy.” She fluttered her fingers to him. “There’s no way I’d step beneath my station for a man like you.”
