“I told you not to let her out of the house,” Evan said, fists clenched as he fought for control.
“She would not listen, my lord, said she’d come on her own if I didn’t bring her.” He was wasting time, and he also knew how stubborn his wife could be. Clint was no match for his lioness.
“We will talk about this later,” Evan said, turning to open the door. He pointed in the direction of Queen Street. “Go back to the house and fetch me my pistol. Just run there. It’ll be quicker than the carriage.”
In the chaos of the morning, he’d left unarmed.
Clint ran off at a lope as Evan took the steps up to Luz’s office three steps at a time. The door was open, but he could see she wasn’t in there. His heart pounded in his chest, sick dread turning his stomach.
She’s all right, he told himself as he tried to think.
Evan opened his mouth to call for her, but something held him back. He quietly walked over to the secretary’s empty desk and stepped on something. He removed his foot and bent to pick it up, and that’s when fear truly took hold of him. It was a larimar hatpin which had once belonged to Luz’s mother. Something about seeing an object she so clearly cherished discarded on the floor made ice run through Evan’s veins.
His mind reeled. So much so, it took him a moment to hear the voices coming from the upper floor. One strange, aggressive and deep. The other was a hushed and raspy sound he’d recognize anywhere. Relief flooded him, even as his pulse raced. She was alive, she was here, but something was very wrong.
He hurried up the steps as quietly as he could—and walked into his worst nightmare. Percy Childers, in a blind rage, was shouting threats at his wife while brandishing a gun.
“This is not enough. I know how much money you have. I want what I’m due. I will be compensated,” Childers shouted at Luz, who was not moving a muscle.
She saw him the moment he walked in, but the man had his back to Evan and was too caught up in his rant to notice Evan’s arrival. He placed a finger over his lips, to which she responded with an almost imperceptible nod. The sight of his wife still whole and, from what he could see, mostly unscathed made Evan want to weep. But that would need to happen later. Soon Clint would come barreling up the stairs, and the last thing he wanted was Childers shooting Luz in a panic.
He noticed she was lowering her gaze as if to indicate something on her dress, while Childers raved about being unjustly removed from his duties. His wife kept her eyes on her skirts and very discreetly slid her right leg forward, tilting her head to the side. Shecouldn’tbe suggesting...
“No, absolutely not,” he mouthed, shaking his head frantically. She had the nerve to glare at him.
If she thought he was going to let her try to go for that damn pistol while that maniac had his gun trained on her...
“Duck,” he mouthed silently, pointing to the ground before gesturing toward Childers’s gun. Luz Alana pursed her lips, as if he was thwarting her master plan.
Whydid he have to fall in love with the most stubborn, infuriating woman in all of the world? And he was in love. Desperately, irrevocably in love.
Evan steeled himself as he took a step forward, one eye on Luz Alana and the other on Childers, and without hesitation he launched himself forward shouting the man’s name. Just as the scoundrel whirled around, Evan tackled him to the ground, struggling to rip the gun from his grip.
“Drop the pistol, before I tear off your bloody fingers.” Evan viciously twisted Childers’s wrist to make him drop his weapon, making the weasel cry out in pain. He quickly flung the gun aside, sending it skittering across the floor while Luz scrambled for her own pistol.
“I’ve got him, Evan!” she shouted, as she pointed that blasted little Remington at Childers’s head.
“You were supposed to go straight to the house, Luz Alana,” Evan groused even as he felt the ice that had been running through his veins for the last twenty minutes begin to thaw, now that his woman was safe from harm.
“I needed my grandmother’s book,” she said in explanation, eyes still trained on her quarry.
“Will you ever listen to a word I tell you? Luz Alana, for God’s sake,” he rebuked distractedly, pressing a knee onto Childers’s back to keep the man still. He was crying now and wriggling like the devil, which forced Evan to turn his attention away from his wife. “If you don’t stop thrashing your fucking legs I will break them both, you bloody shitbag.” Childers whimpered pathetically, and Evan squashed his head against the floor.
“Did he touch you?” Evan asked, glancing up at Luz. His eyes roamed over her trying to find any sign that she’d been hurt. Cold violence thrummed through him. He took his gaze off her for a second and turned to Childers. “If she has so much as a scratch, I will put you in the ground.” The man whimpered in fear at the threat, but Luz shook her head.
“He didn’t hurt me. I knew you’d come find me.” She glanced at him for a moment, those brown eyes blazing with fearsome love, and Evan thought it would be a bloody ordeal, living with his heart trampling around Scotland and God knew where else outside of his body.
He could not imagine a more glorious future than that.
“You are going to be the end of me,” he said, like the hopeless, ruined, desperate sod he was. A secret and very satisfied smile turned up his wife’s lips just as what sounded like a pack of wildebeests trampled up the steps.
Apollo must have alerted the entire police force, and they made quick work of Childers, who was promptly handcuffed and carried out of the room still wielding threats and protestations. But Evan didn’t have anything to say to anyone, not until he had his wife in his arms. He pushed her into a small alcove in an empty room, just so he could take a closer look at her.
“You cannot do this to me again, Luz Alana,” he pled as he ran rough palms over every place he could reach.
“I am all right,” she protested, but he saw when the realization of what had almost happened was finally dawning on her and tears filled her eyes.
“I was so scared, Evan,” she blustered against his shirt as he held her tightly.
