She couldn’t help but smile, and he looked down at her with a glare. “You knew, did you? Saw them coming?”
She shrugged her shoulders as best she could while tied. His anger returned, and he backhanded her. Her lip smashed against her teeth and she tasted blood. Some trickled from the small cut there.
“Good,” he said. “A little blood will help. Now, let’s get ready for our visitors, shall we?”
He left the room, tugging a pistol from his waistband as he walked, and she pulled against the bindings. “Boyd!” she called out.
He ignored her, of course. She drew a few long breaths. She could not focus on what was happening with Lucas right now. What she had to do was get herself free. Pain shot through her wrists as she twisted her hands, trying to get a sense of the knot he’d tied at her wrists. She could feel the loops of it against her flesh, and closed her eyes as she pictured the image of it.
When she had it in her mind, she slid her fingers along, trying to find the end of the knot. There it was, against her left palm. She began to push, twisting the rope, attempting to trace it backward through its path. Slowly, she felt it working, loosening by tiny fractions toward her freedom.
She heard voices outside, male sounds, shouting. Too far away to identify them. She had to hurry. She pushed more, pulled more, closer and closer but not quite free.
The door to the parlor opened, and she stopped fiddling with the rope as she looked up. Lucas entered first, his face drawn with anger and emotion. When he saw her, his expression lit with relief.
“Diana,” he breathed.
Tears prickled and she blinked at them, not wanting to show weakness. “I’m fine,” she whispered. “I’m fine—oh, you shouldn’t have come.”
“As if I wouldn’t come for you,” he said.
She glanced toward the door, expecting Boyd to walk through next, but instead it was someone else. And as she stared, her heart nearly exploded from her chest. There was her father, in the flesh. A bit thinner, perhaps. His cheeks covered in scruffy facial hair. But here, alive.
And everything Caldwell had said was true.
“No,” she moaned, her eyes coming closed as the world began to swim before her eyes. “No, no, no!”
In his years on this earth, Lucas had heard many a terrible sound. Death was common in his line of work and he’d listened to many a deathbed confession, many a pained moan.
But he’d never heard anything worse than the sound coming from Diana’s mouth as she stared at her father and her world came crashing down around her. And even worse than that, he could do nothing in that moment to comfort her. He couldn’t even touch her.
Even if he could, what would he say or do? Her father was alive and she had to accept that everything she’d ever believed about his heroism and goodness was a lie. He understood it, for he had endured the same set of emotions when he saw the man.
For her it had to be multiplied a hundredfold.
Caldwell entered the room, gun pointed at Oakford’s back, a wide grin on his face. “Look at our little family reunion,” he said, that cruel lilt to his voice like a file against Lucas’s spine. “Say hello to Papa, Diana.”
She had not stopped looking at her father since he entered the room, and Oakford had not looked away from her. She shook her head. “Why?” she whispered. “Why would you do this?”
“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “The situation spiraled out of control and I should have protected you better. But I shall now.”
With that, he turned to Lucas and pulled a pistol from his boot. Lucas staggered and Diana screamed as they both realized what was happening.
“You bastard,” he growled. “You ever-loving bastard.”
Oakford bent his head slightly. “I have to do what’s best for Diana, and this is the only way.”
Diana stared as her father backed up and glanced at Caldwell. His partner looked as shocked by this turn of events as he did. “You had a gun?” Caldwell murmured.
“Yes. We can talk about this, Caldwell,” Oakford said.
Caldwell half pivoted toward him. “Talk about what? You betrayed me and you stole my money and my information. Do you know how much trouble that’s caused for me since you pretended to be dead? I had a price on my head for a while, Oakford, and it’s your fault.”
“I have what you want,” Oakford soothed, that same tone Diana had heard him use with injured men a dozen times, a hundred. “And I have Willowby here to boot. We can mend our relationship, can’t we? Go back to our partnership.”
“Father!” Diana screeched, struggling against her bindings. “Please don’t do this. Please!”
Her father ignored her, but she saw Lucas watching her. His expression was twisted in pain as tears streamed down her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered and wanted to say so much more. “I’m so sorry.”
