“Watch our backs,” Akash hissed to Tulliver, as they passed under the heavy wooden beams that supported the entrance. Tulliver nodded while Charis and Akash edged inside.
Momentarily, the dimness blinded her. The dank tunnel was deathly cold. The air was rank with bats, stale air, and decay. Carefully, she moved forward, conscious of Akash as a silent, reassuring presence beside her.
“Damn you, Charis,” Gideon cursed from farther along the tunnel. “Get out of here.”
“No, she should stay,” Felix said in a silky voice. “A foolish, but noble gesture, my dear stepsister. You’ve presented me with yet another hostage. I must thank you.”
As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, lit by one lantern, she saw that Felix aimed his pistol squarely at her chest. It was one of the big clumsy horse pistols from yesterday. She glanced at him, long enough to read the desperation in his face. Then her attention flitted past him and settled on Gideon. He stood, hands bound behind his back, a few paces beyond Felix in the center of the brothers’ makeshift camp.
He glared at her like he wanted to kill her. His black eyes blazed in his pale face, and his mouth was a long line of displeasure. He should have appeared powerless. Instead, he looked indomitable, magnificent, undaunted.
There was blood on his jaw and bruises under his torn shirt. The visible evidence of Gideon’s ordeal made her heart slam to a shocked halt.
“Gideon…” She took a shaky step toward him, only to come to a trembling halt as his eyes narrowed with temper.
To think she’d fretted about this man’s ability to cope with captivity. He’d walk through a raging hurricane without turning a hair. His bruises and abrasions only emphasized his invincible spirit.
Gratitude punched the breath from her lungs, made her hands shake. She blinked back more tears. They weren’t safe yet. She couldn’t relax her guard.
“You spineless toad,” she spat, turning on Felix. “How dare you beat a bound man?”
“Charis, I’m fine,” Gideon snarled. “But you won’t be when I get my hands on you. Akash, blast you, what were you thinking, bringing her here?”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, making plans for what you’ll do once you’re free,” Felix said snidely. He backed against the wall, his gun still trained on Charis. “I have to ask myself if I really need three hostages. Perhaps I’m better off disposing of one of you.”
“You must know this rash gamble has come to its end.” Gideon’s voice rang with authority. “Surrender while you have a chance at convincing a judge you deserve leniency.”
Felix’s expression hardened. Charis shivered as she thought of a rat caught in a trap. She didn’t fool herself that this particular rat was harmless. He knew he’d lost, and he’d take them all down with him if he could.
“What I’ve done is a hanging matter,” Felix snapped. “I’m not a fool. I won’t offer myself up like a lamb to the slaughter. There’s fight in me yet.”
“That’s lunatic.” Akash stepped closer with unconcealed threat. “What can you hope to achieve?”
“Damn it, stay back!” Wildly, Felix swung the gun toward Akash.
Charis used Felix’s momentary distraction to dash across the rubble-strewn floor to Gideon. With a broken sob, she threw her arms around him and buried her head in his chest. She drew in his familiar scent, felt the steady thud of his heart against her breast. Relief thundered through her.
He was alive. He was alive. They would come out of this yet.
His skin was chilled, and his tattered shirt was clammy from last night’s downpour. He stood rigidly in her hold, his muscles taut. For one horrified moment, she wondered if his affliction had returned.
Then she realized he wasn’t sick, he was angry. He vibrated with incandescent fury.
“How dare you put yourself in danger?” he growled, resisting her clinging hands.
“I’ve got a knife,” she whispered, looking up at him.
At last he glanced at her. His jaw worked as he fought to master his temper. She read his anxiety for her, his rage. But more, she saw the mirror of her own longing in his black eyes.
“Oh, hell, Charis,” he muttered, his mouth turning down with annoyance. He bent his head and kissed her, briefly but hard. She knew it was meant as punishment, but she felt the blazing love underlying the rebuke. “Now get out,” he said softly but firmly.
“Not yet.” She fumbled in her pocket for the small blade she’d taken from a display of arms at Penrhyn. It probably hadn’t been used since Black Jack’s day, but she’d tested its edge, and it was sharp.
She cast a quick glance across at Felix and took advantage of his focus on Akash to slide behind Gideon. Watching her stepbrother out of the corner of her eye, she sawed at the binding around Gideon’s wrists. It was dark where she stood, but still light enough for her to see the broken skin under the coarse rope. Her anger at her stepbrothers hitched higher.
“She’s not going anywhere.” Felix sidled in Gideon’s direction, keeping his pistol aimed at Akash. “She’s my surety I’ll get out of here.”
“There’s a dozen guns outside, more if the militia have arrived,” Akash said dismissively. Charis wondered if he guessed what she was up to and kept Felix occupied deliberately. Biting her lips, she worked more furiously at the rope. “Even if you do kill us, you won’t get far.”