Go and hide where I showed you.The male voice from her dream filled her head. She held onto it like a lifeline as it gave her directions.You know how to get in.Ashes raining from walls, a voice coming through a wall of brick…
Suddenly, Xenia remembered.
She ran toward the mahogany cabinet. It was heavy, but she just needed to move it enough so that she could squeeze behind it and hide—in the fireplace. Grabbing one side of the cabinet, she nudged it a small distance from the wall. Dashing to the other side, she evened the distance so that the cabinet’s placement would not betray her hiding place.
Exhaling, she squeezed herself into the narrow alley she’d created between the cabinet and the fireplace. She twisted, lowering herself into the fireplace opening and fitting herself inside the little cavern as the door yielded with a loud crack.
“Find her.” Lady Jo’s voice filled the library. “She’s in here somewhere.”
As boots thumped on the floor, Xenia curled deeper into her hiding place.
Hurry, Ethan,she prayed.Find me.
The voice that answered was his but not his.
Don’t be afraid, my love. Darkness can be a sanctuary.
She felt a ghostly touch against her hand. It guided her fingers over the brick surface of the firebox, fitting them to a subtle indentation. She pressed…and a faint click sounded. She felt something shift behind her…a new opening? A side of the firebox had swung open to reveal a hole just large enough for her to squeeze through. She slipped inside the secret refuge and closed the panel behind her, sealing herself in darkness.
Don’t come out until I tell you it is safe.
ChapterThirty-Seven
“Isawmy bleeding daughter run in here. Keep looking, you bacon-brained fools!”
Ethan charged into the library, his brothers at his back. No sign of Xenia, but that was a good thing since Lady Jo was there with a pair of lackeys. The gang leader’s face contorted with fury.
“How in blazes did you get free?” she snarled.
“It’s over,” Ethan said. “You’re surrounded and outnumbered. Surrender now.”
The two brutes flanking Lady Jo gave her questioning looks.
“Don’t be idiots,” she fumed.“Attack.”
The pair bared their teeth and lunged. James and Owen leapt forward to take them on, leaving Ethan to deal with Lady Jo.
“Set down your weapon,” he said.
“Which one?”
She yanked a small pistol from her skirts, letting off a shot. Ethan dove, the bullet whizzing past his ear. He hit the ground rolling and was on his feet in a blink. A groan sounded behind him, and he twisted around, afraid she’d hit one of his brothers…but no, she’d caught one of her own men. The cutthroat Owen had been grappling with lay writhing on the ground, clutching his side.
“Are you all right?” Ethan asked his brother.
Owen nodded, sprinting off to help James.
Ethan returned his focus to Lady Jo, who’d tossed aside her pistol and was now brandishing a dagger.
“Give up,” Ethan said. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Her laugh was derisive. “You couldn’t hurt me even if you had two functioning hands.”
The jibe sharpened Ethan’s focus. His opponent was ruthless and lethal, but he had advantages: his greater size and his determination to see this villainess behind bars so that she could never hurt Xenia again.
Lady Jo came at him with the quickness of a cat. He dodged the swipe of her blade, trying to grab her weapon arm. She kept to his weak side, and while he had to fight his ingrained impulse not to hurt a female, she had no qualms about inflicting damage or fighting dirty. She stomped on his foot, and he barely evaded her attempt to knee him in the groin.
When he managed to grab her wrist, twisting it and forcing her to release the dagger, she smiled, another blade appearing as if by magic in her other hand. She struck out, and he moved but not quickly enough, steel slicing into his upper arm. As he retreated a step, she tripped him. He stumbled, nearly hitting his head on a cabinet.
