Holly’s fist shot toward the man who attacked her while Melody swung her blade at her own assailant. Blood sprayed through the air, some of it splashing across Samantha's lap. She pulled air into her lungs. A soft gasp, though not from concern but rather from hope.
Melody’s opponent attempted to grab her arm, but she foresaw the attack and spun sideways. Swift as lightning, she turned and thrust one of her steel blades straight into the side of his gut.
Face dark with fury, he reached for her, but she dropped to the ground, pivoted, and leaped back toward him. Even as he tried to land a punch to her face, she dodged it with perfection. He muttered a curse. Though she'd managed to strike him, the wound wasn't severe enough to disable him completely.
She tried again but he sidestepped, while Holly found herself caught in a headlock by the brute she was fighting. Samantha watched as Holly reached down and pulled a knife from her boot. Sweeping her arm in an upward arc, she shoved it into his chest.
A howl of pain tore through the room, distracting his colleague enough for Melody to gain the upper hand on her opponent. She slashed her blade across his torso in three rapid moves.
He too cried out, his bulky figure teetering backward, away from the danger Melody posed. Holly’s attacker, meanwhile, had dropped to one knee, his hand clutching his chest as air wheezed in and out of his mouth.
“Kill them,” he rasped, eyes blazing with rage. “Kill them all.”
But his comrade was in no position to do such a thing. Instead, he made a wild reach for the door behind him. His hand slipped on the doorknob and he fell, crashing onto the floor, legs splayed out before him.
“Untie me,” Samantha said, addressing her friends.
Working as one, Melody and Holly made quick work of the cords that strapped Samantha to the chair. They fell away, allowing her to rotate her sore wrists. The restraints on her ankles were cut away too, and she finally pushed herself onto her feet.
The wounded men stared at her, their eyes wide with fear as she surveyed them both.
“Please,” Melody’s opponent stammered. “We was just followin’ orders.”
“No,” she said, her voice flat and cold. “You enjoyed watching me suffer.”
“That ain’t true,” said the man who sat by the door.
Lacking the energy required to argue, Samantha merely turned one hand toward Melody and waited for her to give her a weapon. The solid hilt of a dagger settled smoothly against her palm, and Samantha drew a deep breath as she curled her fingers around it in a firm grasp.
She felt better already.
“Please,” both men now whimpered, but there was no pity for them in her heart. They would have killed both Melody and Holly if given the chance. They would likely have killed her next, and with her, the child she carried.
So she crossed the floor in her mud-stained silk slippers, and finished Melody’s opponent off with a swift slash to his throat.
“No!” His colleague screamed as he started scrambling about in a futile attempt to flee. “Help! O’Leary!”
But no help arrived before he too was sent off to hell, his blood dripping from the blade that now hung at Samantha’s side. She’d never felt number inside or more ready to kill anyone who stood in her path.
“You returned from Italy just in time,” Samantha told Melody before shifting her gaze to Holly, then back to Melody. “Thank you for coming.”
When both women stared at her mutely, she realized they were probably shocked by her battered appearance. Which reminded her… “I want to carve the Irish bastard behind all of this into pieces,” she said. “Help me move this body away from the door.”
“You shouldn’t be going after him when you’re wounded,” Melody said, her voice gentle, almost careful.
“Don’t try and stop me,” Samantha warned.
“But—”
“He did this,” Samantha snapped, cutting Holly off while gesturing to her own face. “And I want him to pay.”
Neither Holly or Melody moved. They shared a brief look and finally nodded.
“Very well,” Melody said. “Let’s go find him.”
They worked to shove the heavy man blocking the door out of the way. As soon as he was rolled to the side, Samantha pulled the door open, stepped onto the landing, and proceeded toward the stairs.
It was time for her to show O’Leary how wrong he’d been not to kill her when he’d had the chance.
