Ridge gave a curt nod to his second in command. “Splendid work, Grayson. I trust it’s all accounted for?” As the man concurred, the agent spun on his heel, but just as they reached the rowboat, Logan gave a shrill whistle. The crew glanced around in confusion, but it was too late. Within moments, they were surrounded on three sides by a sea of red coats — guns drawn and closing in fast.
Several shouted curses rang out as theClaraBelle’screw struggled to push the skiff into the water in a last ditch effort to escape. But seeing their first mate’s boot on the rudder — his own pistol directed at them — they realized any hope of getting back to their ship was in vain.
“Damned cur traitor!” One of the men snarled, spittle flying out of his mouth in his rage. “The captain will hear of this!”
Ridge simply tilted his head back and laughed. “I sincerely hope so — for he is next to face the Crown’s retribution.” He discarded his eye patch as he left the men in the care of the British military and he jumped down to return to where Travell and Logan were shedding their masks.
Logan shook hands with Ridge. “Good to have you back with us safe and sound, Claymoore.”
“It’s good to be back,” the other man admitted. “I must say I already miss the intrigue, but I daresay I’ll be back in the thick of things before long.”
“Indeed.” Travell gave a scoff. “You do have a knack for trouble — whether it’s a mission or not.” He motioned toward theClaraBelle. “Does anyone care to go with me to take care of the rest of these traitors and rescue my sister?”
“Why not?” Ridge shrugged as the three men made their way toward the rowboat and climbed in. “I must say I can’t wait to see the expression on Spalling’s face.” As he grinned, his two compatriots grabbed an oar and began to row, their chuckles drowned out by the lapping waves against the hull.
***
Triana didn’t know what it was that first alerted her to the trouble, except that her cabin door was suddenly splintered into pieces. She gave a startled cry of alarm, as the captain strode in with murder in his expression. He pointed an accusing finger at her, and shouted, “Ye’re responsible for this!”
Triana paled as he grabbed her arm and dragged her behind him to the top deck. From there, she could see that the shore was swarming with red-coated soldiers.
She wanted to cry in relief.
It trulywasover.
She yanked her arm free of the captain’s brutal grip on a burst of defiance. “I’m afraid that’s where you have it wrong on that account, Captain Spalling. If you wish to point the finger of blame at anyone, it should be yourself. You should have been intelligent enough to figure out that the life of a smuggler never ends well.”
His eyes narrowed, but before he could do anything in retaliation, Travell, Ridge, and Logan vaulted over the side of the ship, with pistols drawn. She watched in awe, and perhaps a bit of pride, as her brother and Logan began to take control; shouting orders and rounding up the last of the stunned crew, while Ridge walked toward the captain.
Triana was wondering where Gabriel was when Spalling captured her in a vicious grip, a pistol pointed right at her temple. “I’ll no’ hang for this, ye treacherous snake!” he roared as the agent continued to move toward him in slow, calculated steps. But when the captain’s fingers dug into Triana’s waist, causing her to wince, Ridge paused. “’Ow dare ye show yer face t’ me again, after I granted ye such leniency o’ me ship, ye dirty scoundrel! This was t’ be me retirement and I’ll no’ end up wit’ nothin’!
Ridge held up a hand as Travell rushed over, while Logan continued to watch the subdued crew. “Is that really how you want to end this, Spalling?” he asked calmly, and Triana noticed that not only was his eye patch missing, but any trace of his broken, cockney accent had disappeared. “Do you honestly want to live with the knowledge that you have an innocent lady’s blood on your hands? It doesn’t matter if you escape, you’ll hang for her murder.”
The pistol against her temple wavered and Triana began to pray. “I’ll swing either way!” he roared. He abruptly turned the gun on Ridge. “An’ it’s all because of ye!”
Ridge merely shrugged, while Travell began to idle closer to Triana, the tension visible in the set of her brother’s shoulders. “You do have a point there. But it’s still your choice how you meet your maker. You’re under arrest for piracy against the Crown. Do you really want to add cold blooded murder to your crimes?”
After a moment’s hesitation, the captain seemed to come to some sort of conclusion. “Ye’re right. It is me choice.” With that, the captain cocked the pistol and fired on Ridge. He must have been expecting this retaliation, for he quickly rolled out of the way, and returned fire, his target meeting the mark as the captain stiffened and then dropped to the deck in a lifeless heap.
***
Gabriel awoke with a sharp jerk.
He was lying on his back on the floor of Cordelia’s overturned coach.
Alone.
He immediately jumped into action, but the moment he moved, his breath hissed between his teeth. He glanced down and saw a patch of blood staining his shirt. Apparently he hadn’t completely deflected the gunshot, although he felt confident that it was only a flesh wound and the bullet wasn’t lodged in his ribcage somewhere.
Either way, it stung like the devil.
He held on to his left side in an effort to staunch the bleeding, as he grabbed his knife and climbed out of the wreckage. The pistol was missing.
Gabriel gave a curse as he saw a Lady Worthington’s still form in the middle of the road, her mysterious cloaked and masked coachman standing over her.
When the man noticed Gabriel, he slowly turned.
“Is she dead?”
