Alec and the two lawmen lined up against the carriage. Her cousin looked ready to kill someone with his bare hands.
“What do you want?” Victoria asked as calmly as she could.
The thug grabbed her chin and gave her a gruesome leer that showcased his rotten teeth. The sour stench of moonshine hit her like a slap, and she had to swallow hard to keep her stomach in place.
“What do ye think, lass?” She winced in pain when his grip tightened on her face. “Aye, yer a pretty piece. We’ll be takin’ our time with ye, I reckon’.”
“The hell you will,” said Alec. He launched himself at the closest brigand, catching him off guard. The man’s pistol discharged as he and Alec fell heavily to the ground. Sergeant Blair staggered backward against the side of the coach, clapping a hand to his shoulder.
Constable Gow started to charge forward but came up short when Victoria’s captor pointed the pistol at him.
“I wouldn’t.” The thug wrapped his other hand around her neck, all but choking her. She scrabbled ineffectually at his thick fingers as her vision started to blur. Desperately, she wheezed in air.
She heard scuffling and then a loud groan. When the man holding her tightened his fingers around her throat, she felt her consciousness slipping away.
“Fer Christ’s sake, Mack, let her go,” snapped a loud, irritated voice. “Yer all but stranglin’ her.”
She was suddenly released. Victoria staggered and went heavily to her knees. She braced her hands on the snow-covered ground, sucking in air as she tried to clear her head and settle her racing heart.
When she was able to look up, she wished she hadn’t. Alec was sprawled facedown on the ground, still as death. The man he’d attacked, his face covered in blood, was struggling to his feet with the help of one of the other men.
Victoria started to crawl toward Alec, terror for him propelling her forward.
A massive hand clamped down on her shoulder. Her captor locked her against his side.
“It’s all right, miss,” Gow said. The constable was on his knees, trying to assist the sergeant. “He’s just unconscious. He got hit with the butt of that fellow’s pistol.” He glared up at Alec’s assailant.
“Aye, yer friend will wake with naught but a headache.” The man then gave Victoria the most blood-chilling smile she’d ever seen. “Ye, however, willna be so lucky.”
“If you harm her, we’ll hunt you down and kill you,” Constable Gow said in a cold voice.
He was a courageous young man, but there was very little he could do to help. Aside from the pistols pointed at him, he had his hands full with the sergeant, who was bleeding and seemed barely conscious.
“Ye’ll have to find us first,” the man replied. “But ye won’t.” Then he glanced at Victoria and her captor. “No more dickin’ about now. He’ll be gettin’ impatient for her.”
“Seems a shame we canna have a little fun with her first,” said her captor. His massive hand moved down to her hip, holding her tight as he ground himself against her. Victoria had to swallow the bile that rose in her throat.
Underneath her fear, a consuming rage was building and a disbelief that this could be happening to her again. She’d killed a man for trying to take her against her will. That time, it had been an accident, but this time, if she got the chance, it wouldn’t be.
“That’s up to him to decide,” the other man barked. “Ye ken he told us not to harm her, or have ye forgotten?”
The thug loosened his hold. “I remember.” Muttering curses, Victoria’s captor spun her around and began marching her away from the road, deeper into the woods.
“Where are you taking me?” she demanded in the strongest voice she could muster.
“Ye’ll find out. I wouldna be in too much of a hurry to meet him. He vowed to be the end of ye.”
She’d guessed what would happen at the end of this grim little march. Still, receiving confirmation almost took her out at the knees.
“You do know who I am, don’t you?”
“Dinna care,” he said, shoving her forward.
She recovered and glared at him. “I’m the Earl of Arnprior’s fiancée. And if you harm me in any way, the earl and hisentirefamily will make it their lifelong mission to hunt you down and kill you.”
She saw a hitch in his step. “We ain’t from around these parts, you daft bitch. No one will ken who we are.”
When she started to argue, he gave her another shove. “Shut yer trap and keep walkin’, or I’ll pull yer skirts up and shag ye anyway.”
