It felt as though someone was watching them.
She turned her head to scan the dark trees and shrubs, but saw nothing. She heard nothing.
And yet....
At first, the men appeared to notice nothing strange. Until she noted the tenseness of both their spines. The way they both walked with one hand on their sword hilts.
Aye, they felt it, too.
“Braden—”
“Stephen?” He quickly cut her off, and that more than anything else verified her suspicions. They were being watched, and both he and Sin knew it.
“Never mind.” She dropped her voice an octave.
Still, she saw and heard nothing.
It stretched on for so long that she had just begun to think her imagination was running amok. Until they topped a small rise in the forest. Right as they neared a giant yew tree, a figure casually stepped out from behind it.
He was a large, burly man, but not quite as tall as her escorts. His dank, dark hair hung limply about his beefy shoulders and his dirty beard obscured most of his face. He arched a bushy black brow as he narrowed one eye on them and leveled a sword toward Sin.
“Well, well,” the burly man said evilly. “What have we here?”
“Looks like we got some little pigeons just right for a plucking,” a man said from behind them.
Terrified, Maggie looked around as a total of ten men surrounded them. They were thieves by the looks of them, and bent on God only knew what once they learned that the three of them carried little money.
Sin and Braden exchanged looks with each other that were a terrifying mixture of wry amusement and anticipation. And that made her tremble from the inside out.
This was not good. Not good at all.
Eight
“Well, well,” Sin said to Braden, mocking the leader’s words and tone. “What have we here?”
“Looks like a pack of fools wanting to die,” Braden said, a cold, deadly smile on his lips.
Maggie quickly crossed herself as she realized the situation was about to escalate into something she really didn’t want to witness.
She just hoped they all survived it.
Tension sizzled so thick around them that she could nearly smell the raw, pungent odor of it. All the men were stiff and wary, their eyes darting over each other as they evaluated the mettle of their opponent.
Her stomach drew tight in fear.
The outlaw leader returned Braden’s cold smile with one of his own. “Now, friend, there’s no need for us to spill your blood or your guts. Give us your money and we’ll leave you to peacefully go about your way.”
“There’s just one wee problem with that.” Braden’s voice was ominously calm and patient, his greenish brown eyes menacing. “You’re not my friend and I’m quite a bit fonder of my gold than I am of you. Now given that, why would I want to turn my gold over to your clumsy hands?”
Maggie’s panic rose.
The leader’s face turned dour. “In that case...”
The others attacked so quickly, Maggie barely had time to duck the one beefy thief who came after her and hurl herself into the shrubs for protection.
Braden and Sin unsheathed their swords in unison and used them to drive back their attackers.
The big thief she had dodged moved to grab her, but didn’t make it before Braden caught him by the scruff of his shirt and shoved him in the opposite direction, into a rather large oak tree where he rebounded with a resounding thud before he went sprawling atop the peat-covered ground.
