Anna stepped closer, something like anger propelling her forward—
Movement out of the corner of her eye.
Everything went slow as one of the men from the floor found his feet.
A knife was in his hand.
Anna raised the unbroken bottle in her hand—was she walking or running?—and slammed the bottle down over the man’s head.
Glass and liquor sprayed, filling the air with the eye-tearing aroma of good whiskey and making the clothesline strung overhead with what looked like bank notes sway haphazardly.
The man slumped to the floor like a marionette who’d had his strings slashed.
Tension was rife in the air as everything went quiet, the man in Jackson’s hold having lost consciousness with the rest of the men. Then...
Heaving breathing. Anna’s.
The shuffle of feet. Roberts as he came around the corner.
Anna stared down at the criminals, not sure what she’d expected. A rough round of fisticuffs? Home Agent Roberts announcing his authority and everyone coming quietly? But no. Her gaze went around the room. More than one blade was visible. And—she swallowed hard. There was a dueling pistol sticking out from under the nearby shelf as if it had been kicked out of reach during the scuffle.
Jackson had warned her these men were dangerous.
The counterfeiting ring wasn’t a bunch of criminals wielding that which was mightier than the sword who occasionally partook in carriage sabotage.
There were footfalls in the direction of the storage room door.
All three of them turned as a fifth man came around the shelves and stopped.
There was a nearly comical pause as the man glanced at each of them. Then his gaze went to the four men on the floor. There was an instant change in the man’s face, a hardening that had fingers of fear trailing up Anna’s back.
The man reached inside his jacket, pulled out two matching pistols, and raised his arms.
A body barreled into her the same time the guns went off.
Twinbangsthat left her ears ringing.
The bitter smell of smoke and gunpowder filled her nose.
Jackson’s arms were around her, his face above her. His eyes were wild. His mouth was moving.
“What?” she said, but her question was muffled.
He made a sign with his hand:Are you all right?
“Yes,” she shouted. Whispered?
They both glanced back at the gun-wielding man... to see he was reloading with some kind of weird funnel.
Sound came crashing back as Anna clawed at Jackson’s front. “Jack, he’s—”
“I know.” Jackson’s gaze traveled between them, the man, and back.
Even Anna knew the distance was too large for him to disarm the man before he finished reloading.
They both looked over at Roberts at the same time.
He’d rolled out of the way, right into the path of the gun under the shelf.
