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Without a word, he shuffled her sideways, then charged, his forearm ramming into Rafe’s throat as he jammed Rafe up against the door.
“What in the bloody hell did you do to my daughter?”
Rafe’s eyes wide, his hands came up at his sides, trying to calm the instant raging explosion Desmond met them with.
“I didn’t do anything—”
“Who in the fucking hell are you, you bastard?” Desmond jerked back slightly, then slammed back into him, Rafe’s back making a dull thunking sound onto the heavy oak door. “You come into my home with my daughter looking like this and you stand there without an explanation?”
Blast.Her right eye. Her instant confusion at the unprovoked attack clicked into sense. She’d forgotten about the black shadow ringing her eye from that brute that had hit her when she’d been attacked.
Rafe had started off calm, but with the second slam of his body against the door, something in his face snapped and the eerie cold she hated slid onto his face.
Imminent danger from both sides.
She forced herself in between the two men, shoving at her father’s body with her right hand, and grabbing his arm pinning Rafe to the door with her left. “Desmond, get off him this instant. We don’t have time for this. Back up.Back up.”
He didn’t move a muscle, his seething glare still directed at Rafe. Murder in his eyes. She was nothing more than a gnat bouncing off a lion. Why did every man in her life have to be twice her size and hard as stone? And she could feel Rafe behind her, his body prickling, energy pouring off him, ready for a fight.
She yanked herself up on Desmond’s arm, putting her face directly in front of his, her voice a scream. “Father, stop. Unhand him this instant. You don’t know what you’re doing and we have much bigger problems to worry about.”
That did it. Desmond’s eyes shifted off Rafe toward her, a snarl curling his lip when his glare locked onto her black eye. “The explanation better have everything to do with whatever the hell happened to your eye.”
She dropped back onto her feet, letting his arm go so he could pull it away from Rafe. She wedged herself fully in front of Desmond. “My eye is the least of our worries at the moment. This is just like you, flying off like a crazed hyena the second any man so much as looks at me. You don’t change. I ask you again and again and ag—”
“Vic, you might want to tell him about the carriage.” Rafe’s soft words behind her cut her off.
He interrupted her tirade so smoothly her words stopped instantly and she had to shake her head to reorientate herself to what was important at the moment.
“Fine. Yes.” She sucked in a quick breath, her words speeding as Rafe slipped out from behind her and stood next to her. A little bit in front of her, even. He wasn’t going to hide behind her. If anything, he was looking at Desmond with as much animosity as her father was pinning on him. “Our carriage—Eva and I were in it, a day and a half out of Wolfbridge and it was attacked. All of our men, gone—killed—I don’t know, they were so far back that I didn’t see what happened to them by the time the carriage righted itself—”
“Your carriage almost tipped over?” Desmond’s hands were still in fists, his storming hazel eyes ablaze with worry.
“It did. It righted itself, but by the time all wheels were on the ground and we could see out of the window, there were only these cutthroats on the carriage. Percival, Claude, Lawrence and Mr. Drewson were all gone.”
“All of them?”
She nodded. “Only these brutes on it and it was flying fast.”
Desmond’s finger flung out at Rafe. “He’s one of them?”
“No.” She screamed in frustration as she slapped at his wrist, shoving his accusing finger out of the air. Why was he so determined to make Rafe the evil one? “No. The men—those brutes—one of them yanked me out of the carriage while it was still moving and dropped me on the road. They didn’t even stop.”
“Wasn’t Wolfbridge behind you?”
“No. They were leaving a day after us.” She held up her hand to stop his interruptions. “The important part is that they took off with Eva.”
“They what?” Shock and alarm overtook all the ire on his face.
“They took her. They didn’t want me. But they definitely wanted her. They took off, the carriage speeding away. Is Uncle Lachlan here yet? He needs to know.”
“No, he’s still a day out. A couple of his men arrived earlier today.”
“You need to send them back out onto the road to get him—you need to get him here, so I can tell him everything. Or I will go to him.”
Desmond’s fingers went to his face, rubbing across his eyes as he shook his head. “Bloody hell—did they hurt you? Is that why your eye looks—”
“I am fine, Father. Fine. We need to go after Eva.”
