He stomped on the guy’s back again and got in two more good kicks before Busted Nose made a run for him. Or at least I thought so—he lunged straight past Jed, heading toward me. A look of pure evil filled his eyes as he reached for me, but Jed grabbed him by the shoulder and swung him around, smashing his already injured nose several times with his fist. The guy crumpled to the floor with a whimper next to his cohort, who had now pulled out a gun.

Bearded Guy trained his weapon on Jed. “Go ahead, Carlisle. Make me shoot you.”

Jed’s shoulders relaxed, and he held his hands in the air in surrender.

Bearded Guy climbed to his feet, none too gracefully, and moved slowly toward Jed. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

Jed started to turn, but when the guy was within a three-foot radius of him, Jed spun and gave him a sideways kick in the stomach. The second he doubled over, Jed grabbed his gun and shoved him backward. He stumbled over Busted Nose on the floor and hit his head on the wall, then slumped to the floor, unconscious.

“Drop it, Carlisle,” Baseball Cap growled from the floor. “Or I’ll shoot her.”

I turned my attention to him, horror washing from my head to my toes when I saw his gun was pointed straight at me.

A gunshot rang out, and I was surprised I didn’t feel any pain until the guy slumped to the floor, blood trickling out of the hole in his forehead, his eyes wide and vacant.

I stared at Jed, wide-eyed with shock and horror.

He quickly turned his gun toward the two guys piled on top of each other. Busted Nose was reaching for his gun, but Jed’s deadly calm voice stopped him.

“I’d love to blow your hand off, so keep reaching.”

The man wisely stopped, putting his hand palm down on the floor.

Jed moved closer and pulled the gun out of the back of his pants, then rose and backed up toward me, keeping an eye on the men. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” I croaked.

He set one of the guns on the floor, then pulled a small knife out of his boot and set to work, slicing through the rope around my right arm. Once it was free, he handed me the knife, picked up the second gun, and aimed both weapons at the men.

Bearded Guy began to come around, his eyes blinking open, and he started to scramble to his feet.

“Keep your ass on the floor, or you’ll get a gut full of lead. I hear it’s a painful way to die.”

With a shaky hand, I cut the rope off my left hand. The sparkle of my engagement ring caught me by surprise. How much time had passed? An hour? Two?

But I didn’t have time to dwell on how ecstatically happy I had been. As soon as my left hand was free, I leaned over and sawed through the ropes restraining my legs. The need to hurry wasn’t lost on me, but fear made me sloppy. Calm down, Rose. Just cut through the rope, then get out of here and find Mason.

Surprisingly, my simple plan helped me focus. Once I was free, I stood up from the chair, wondering what to do next.

Jed handed me the spare gun. “If one of them even looks like he’s about to get up, shoot him.”

I aimed my weapon at them as Jed reached under the dead guy across the room and pulled out his gun.

“Back out of the room, Rose.”

He used my real name.

New fear washed through me. If they had kidnapped me as Rose, they would have to wonder why Jed was so concerned about saving me as well as himself. And if they’d wanted the Lady in Black, the fact that I had been snatched without my veil, mere minutes after my boyfriend proposed to me in a public place was a very, very bad sign.

Either way, this was disastrous.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on that. I did as Jed instructed, backing out of the room while holding the gun aimed at my would-be captors, moving into a sparsely furnished living room and dining room, the walls covered in more cedar paneling.

“You’ll never get away with this Carlisle,” Busted Nose grunted, still lying on the floor.

Jed didn’t respond. He simply backed out of the room. Then he tossed the gun into his left hand behind him to pull the door shut and started to turn the key in the lock.

A gunshot rang out as a hole appeared in the wooden door, close to the doorknob. “Shoot!” Jed shouted as he backed up and shot his own gun too.

I shrieked, but I took a step back and pulled the trigger. Several bullets went through the door, and whoever had been shooting inside stopped.

“Did I kill him?” I whispered, shaking again.

“I don’t know. But he deserved it if you did. Now we need to get out of here before he shows up.” Putting himself between me and the door, he led me to the ajar front door, the cold wind gusting inside through the cracked opening.

I was about to ask who he was talking about, but the door flung open. Nothing could have prepared me for the angry man filling the doorway.

Skeeter Malcolm.

Chapter 23

Was Skeeter the one we were running from? He sure looked murderous, and I took an unintentional step backward, bumping into Jed.

“Where are they?” he asked through clenched teeth.

Jed’s voice was cold. “The bedroom.”

“Did you find out anything?”

“Nothing other than what I already told you. I just got her free. I thought I took all their weapons, but they got off a shot after I locked the door. Rose and I fired a few times, and it’s been quiet since. I suspect there’s at least one alive, maybe two.”

Skeeter nodded, his attention on the door. He didn’t even look at us. “I have a car out front. Take her to the safe house. I’ll find your car down the road and meet you there.”