The Perfect Temptation (25 page)

The other one-Willie-stepped
from behind Rupert.

Openly surveying the shop, he
said, "There's some business

to be finished 'tween
us."

"Yes, there is, isn't
there?" Alex managed to say pleasantly.

"You disappeared before I
returned the other day and

could pay you for your
services. The amount was four

shillings, as I recall."

Rupert shook his head.
"We've decided eight would be

more fittin'. Took a big
chance for ya, we did."

Yes, lolling about in front of
a millinery shop was incredibly

dangerous work. Alex bit her
tongue and forced herself

to smile. "Eight
shillings
it
is
,
then
~
"
she said
,
willing
to
pay

what
e
ver
i
t
took to get them out of h
e
r store
. "
Kindly
wait

where you are and
I
'
ll
return
with your payment
in
just a

mo
m
ent.
"

Hoping that they wouldn't
pocket everything small enough

to fit
while she was gone, Alex gathered her skirts and
retreated

to the silver room. She'd
barely stepped inside and

scooped up her cash tin when
she heard footsteps behind her.

Her heart thudding, she spun
toward the doorway. And found

it blocked.

"I
distinctly recall," she said with all the calm
she could

muster, "having asked you
gentlemen to wait in the front

shop."

Rupert looked around, his eyes
narrowing. "Lots of

pretty
s
tuff
in here
,
isn
'
t there
,
Willie? Look at all thi
s
plate.

Too awkward and heavy to be
cartin
'
out of h
e
re all at once
,

though. But still ...
It
has
to
be
worth a kin
g
'
s
r
a
n
s
om, don't

ya think?”

"Aye," his companion
agreed. He smiled thinly at her and

wagged an eyebrow.
"Or
a
chit's."

She couldn't breathe, couldn't
make her feet move,

couldn't hear anything over
the thunderous roar of her heartbeat

As
though from a great distance she saw herself hold

out the tin, heard herself
say, "Take the cash box and whatever

plate you want and go."

Willie's lips moved but she
didn't hear the words. Hope

Dickered when he reached for
the tin with both hands.
It
was

extinguished when he took the
tin
in
one and clamped the

other hard around her wrist instinctively
,
she
pulled back,

trying
to
break
his hold, trying to twi
s
t away.

Her flesh burned and the cry
caught painfully in her

throat
as
she
was flung forward. Spinning and
s
tu
m
bling
,
her

heels caught in her hems,
s
he fell
hard against the body of

the second man
.
An iron
band in
s
tantly slammed
ar
ound her
,

h
ig
h above
her waist, driving the air from her lungs and

another strangled cry past her
lips. And then there was only the

sensation of cold metal and
deadly sharp pressed hard

against her neck. Alex froze,
holding what little breath she

had remaining.

"Scream and it'll be the
last sound you ever make," Willie

snarled in her ear as he
hauled her toward the door.

Alex dragged her feet, her
every instinct telling her that

if
she let them get her out of the house, she'd never
see it

again. Never see Mohan.
Preeya. Her knife was on the desk

in the front shop
.
Beyond
her reach, beyond usefulness.

"Pick up your feet!"
he commanded, tightening the band

around her midsection and
giving her no chance to comply

on her own before lifting her
clear of the floor and carrying

her into the hall. Willie came
on their heels, exhorting his

partner to hurry.

"Let go of her.
Now."

Aiden. At the entrance to the
hall.
A
gun
in
his hand, held

level and steady at arm's
length. The sight of him, the sound

of his voice, clear and strong
...

"Let her go," he
said with steely calm, "or I'll kill you."

So tall, so lethal, so
absolutely determined. It would be

all right. Aiden was there.
For her. Her knees weakening

with relief, Alex sagged
downward and then choked back a

cry as the arm around her
crushed the air from her lungs

again and the blade pressed
closer to her throat.

"Close your eyes,
Alex."

She obeyed, trusting him,
knowing that she should and

could.

There was the sudden jangle of
metal-the change in the

box she dully realized-and
then there was only a soul pounding

blast and a sudden, wrenching
weight slamming

against her legs, pulling at
her skirts and hauling her down.

The band tightened yet again
and she stumbled, trying to

keep herself upright as she
was hauled backward. Her lungs

were burning; she couldn't
breathe. Scalding tears poured

through her lashes. And her
heart
.
.. Her heart was going to

explode
.

'Throw the gun away, guv'ner,
or I'll open her up. I swear

I will."

Alex winced at the voice, the
threat, issued against her

ear
.
Aiden
kept his gaze steady along the length of the barrel,

knowing that her best chance
of survival lay in dropping

the bastard where he stood.
"If
you
so much as twitch," he

warned, "I'll put a
bullet in your brain."

Squeezing a cry out of Alex,
the man smiled. "You can't

shoot me without hitting
her."

"Last
chance."
He
slowly drew the hammer back until it

clicked into place. "Let
her go
.
"

The smile disappeared,
replaced by a dark scowl, as, for a

fleeting second, the man's
gaze passed over Aiden's shoulder

and into the front of the
shop. Aiden strained to hear, but

refused to
be
drawn,
into looking, into surrendering what

slim advantage he had. .

"Reach behind you,"
Alex's captor growled into her ear,

"and open the
damn
door."

Aiden saw her force herself to
swallow, watched as she

carefully turned her head away
from the pressure of the knife

blade and stretched her right
hand back to blindly search for

the doorknob.
Just a bit more, darling,
he silently coached her.

Just a fraction
more. Give me a clean shot. One's all I need.

He seized the opportunity in
the same second that she

gave him that precious space.
The blast was deafening, the

smoke acrid and thick. Through
it he heard Alex scream,

saw the man's head snap back,
saw him stagger and the

blade fall away from Alex's
throat
.
His stomach churned, but

he ignored it, knowing that he
had to reach Alex before she

either collapsed onto the body
at her feet or fell back onto

the one sliding down the wall
behind her.

The revolver still tight in
his fist, he covered the space

between them, catching her
about the waist just as her knees

gave out. "Gotcha,"
he rasped, hauling her hard against
him.

Her face buried against his
shoulder, she sobbed his name

and he pressed a quick kiss to
her temple before he bent,

swept her up into his arms,
and carried her out of the hall.

"Miss Alex!"

The top of the stairs. A
frightened Mohan. "She's all right,"

Aiden assured the boy.
"Stay up there! Do you hear me?"

''Yes, sir."

One problem averted. Alex so
close was the next one he

needed to solve. His senses
had been sharpened by the danger

and were still too raw, too
aware, to have Alex in
"
his

arms. She felt too good, too
inviting, and he didn't trust
him
self

not to take advantage of her
confusion. He glanced toward

the chair in the front shop,
thinking to take her there.

He froze at the sight of a
face peering in the front
win
dow.

A pair of obsidian eyes in a
burnished male face met his

gaze for an instant. They both
started at the unexpected

contact and the hairs on the
back of Aiden's neck prickled as

a cold shudder rippled down
his spine. Then the stranger

turned and was gone.

And, in that moment, so was
his strength. He dropped

down on a lower step, Alex
cradled
in
his arms and across

his lap, and dragged a deep,
ragged breath into his lungs as

he struggled to banish the
bloody images from his mind.