9
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM
Taryn willed her hands to stay steady, her muscles to stay strong. She couldn’t waste this moment—she knew she wasn’t going to get another one. Everything inside of her revolted against the thought of having to fight James, but she could see no other way out of this.
“What is yer plan here, Taryn?” James asked, all too calm to be standing on the wrong end of the sword.
She could see how much the situation angered him. It was clear from the way his green eyes shone through thin slits. She might have considered that a victory if she wasn’t still trying to figure out what she was going to do next. Escape was her ultimate goal, but first that meant tying James up, stealing his horse—again—and then trying to find her way back to Kincaid Castle.
These were all things she knew she could do, things she had done before. In fact, she had gotten herself out of much harder situations than this time and time again. Of course, she always had Aila and Sorcha by her side, but she felt just as capable now. Yet, she made no effort to move.
“Too scared to follow through with yer plans?” James taunted haughtily, despite his current position.
Staying silent, Taryn earnestly contemplated his question. It wasn’t fear that held her back, but something else she couldn’t quite place. She craved freedom from James. She wanted to be as far away from him as possible. At least, she tried to convince herself that was the case. But the longer she stood there, staring at him, his sword pointed at the veins in his neck, Taryn knew there was something more that she wanted.
Answers. Taryn wanted answers. She wanted to know just why, after all these years, James had tracked her down and stolen her like a thief in the night. She wanted to know why he was being so secretive, so cold. She would get her answers, and then she would be on her way.
With her mind made up, Taryn started to circle around James, pacing back and forth. She kept the borrowed sword trained on him the entire time she moved, if only to make it clear that she was still very much the one in control. All the while, her mind raced with just what question to ask first.
“I dinnae ken why I did nae see it sooner,” he all but spat. “Ye have always been a snake, a tricky, sly creature.”
She sighed, having long since grown tired of his insults.
“What are ye talking about, James?”
“Ye ken exactly what I am talking about. That whole show ye put on last night, the shivering in the cold and the crying in yer sleep.” His eyes narrowed even more, his mouth pinching as he spoke. “It was all a show, an act to make me pity ye.”
Internally, she winced. He had caught onto her plan much sooner than she had expected him to.
“Ye tricked me just so that I would get close. Well done, Taryn. That is the last time I will ever make the mistake of trusting ye again.”
He seethed. With the cold of the morning, every breath of his left a puff of smoke in the air, making him look almost like a dragon, stewing and stoking his flame of fury.
It took a great deal of self-control not to answer James’ baited taunts. It took even more effort not to show him just how much it wounded her to know that he no longer trusted her, if he ever had in the first place.
The reality of it was, she knew she deserved his barbs. She had tricked him. She had pretended to be cold, shivering with chattering teeth. But her reasons were not what he suspected. It wasn’t merely a ploy to get him close enough so that she could steal his dagger. She had wanted to test him, to see what kind of man he truly was.
He had made it clear from the first moment she had awoken in his presence that he was stealing her away from her home, from her family. And though he tried to put on a show to make it seem as though he was this impossibly cruel and unfeeling man, she suspected that was all just a facade. So she had faked her cold to see what he would do.
The James she had known, the man she had grown up with, wouldn’t have hesitated to cover her with a blanket or cloak of some sort. He would have fed the fire and laid close so she could be warm. And though it had taken James a moment to do those things last night, he had done them.
Despite everything he was pretending to be, despite everything he wanted her to believe he was, she knew that James was still a man with principles and honor. He was still a good man. After all, what kind of bounty hunter cares if his captive is cold? None that she knew of, and she had met plenty in the past three years. He was concerned for her, even if he didn’t want to be.
“Tell me why.”
Her demand came out simple but stern. She wasn’t going to budge this time, nor was she going to try to sneakily get it out of him. A straightforward approach was all she had time for now.
“What?” James scoffed.
“I want to ken why ye have done this, James,” she all but shouted, positioning herself to stand right in front of him again.
She wanted him to look her in the eyes when he told her why he stole her away, why he was planning on handing her over to a man who would surely kill her. She wasn’t going to give him the easy way out this time.
“I want to ken why ye tracked me down and knocked me out. I wish to ken why ye insist on bringing me tothatman. Ye have heard the rumors. Ye ken how horrible he is. And yet, ye are adamant that I go to him anyways. I deserve to ken why.”
As soon as Taryn finished her rant, James let out a dry, humorless laugh. It was nothing like the warm, inviting sound he had so often made when they were younger. Chills threatened to break out over her skin, but Taryn clenched her teeth and held her ground. She wanted to know the truth. She had asked for it. And was determined to get it, regardless of whatever he might say next.
“Ye deserve nothing less than what is happening to ye,” he told her, full of venom. “But ye want to ken why?Fine.”
