Page 54 of A Lick of Flame

Somewhat attractive.

That’s an understatement if I ever heard one. She’s fucking beautiful.

I don’t say that, though. Instead, I scowl at her because I hate what she is about to say. I hate it.

“I need to know, who would be the best person to target?” she says, biting her lip.

“Target how?” My voice is gruff. “Target why?” I know exactly how and why, but I want to hear it from her.

Maya glances over at the guards and then looks back at me. “Keep your voice down, will you?”

I nod once, my jaw tight. “I need to know what you are planning to do. I don’t like it, Maya.”

“I’m going to ask to be unshackled.” She licks her lips, looking nervous. Good! She should be.

I give her a look. “They won’t do it. Forget about it, please,” I all but beg her.

“The person will do it if I offer something in return.”

“Whomever you target,” I say the word like a curse, “will see right through you. They’ll know you’re up to something.”

“Not if I play my cards right.”

“Let’s say you get someone to buy into it. What then?”

“I’ll have them take me somewhere else, somewhere private.”

I groan and shake my head. “And then what?”

No!

This is the worst plan I have ever heard.

“I still have my knife. It’s in a sheath on my inner thigh. They didn’t think to check me for weapons. I almost forgot it was there,” she whispers.

“Okay, so you have a knife. There is no way you can take control of a trained mercenary, Maya. There are plenty of men out there who would take what you were offering, anyway. You know that, right? They’ll disarm you and…” I shake my head. “I don’t know all of these men. Bard runs a tight ship, but there’s always a bad apple or two. Hamlin has always been a little too keen on—” I shake my head again. “It doesn’t matter. It’s out of the question. You could end up hurt or killed in a scuffle. You could be hurt in ways you can’t comprehend.”

“I can look after myself.” Her voice is soft but insistent. Her eyes are filled with determination and spirit that has feelings flaring up in me best left alone.

“Like you could look after yourself when that big bastard from Ethan’s group decided he was going to carry you off and—?”

“I’ve had a chance to think about how I would do things differently,” she says. “Olivia gave me a few pointers, too.”

“Don’t listen to anything that woman said…she’s bad news.”

“She might be bad news, but she did have a couple of wise words. She’s experienced in this kind of thing,” she mutters the last, her cheeks turning crimson and her eyes no longer meeting mine.

I snort and shake my head. “I doubt that anything she said was wise. It doesn’t matter what she told you, Maya.” My voice holds a pleading edge. “Please don’t do this. Don’t try it. You could wind up dead. They could put more men on us, and we’d lose any chance of getting out of here.” I look over at the three men surrounding us. There are two more doing a perimeter patrol.

“You just said that escape was nearly impossible.”

“It is.” I look down at the iron on my ankles. “It would be great if I could make a key appear out of thin air. I’m afraid that my magic is just too limited for that.” My voice is laced with frustration.

“A key.” She nods her head. “That’s exactly what we need, and I’m going to get my hands on it. Unless you can come up with a better solution.” She lifts her brows, looking at me with such defiance. Her dancing blue eyes daring me to argue with her.

“I will,” I growl under my breath. I can’t watch Maya put herself in danger like that. I refuse. If anything were to happen, I would struggle to protect her. Not for the first time, I wish my power was at full capacity. I wish I had a handle on my ability to control animals. It’s all or nothing. I can’t have my powers fizzle out before we’ve escaped and end up recaptured. It would be a disaster. I have no doubt that our situation would be much worse if that were to happen. I agree with Maya that doing nothing won’t work, either. But I hate the thought of her putting herself in danger like that. I can’t stomach it.

“Good. I look forward to hearing all about your plans of escape, then.” Her brows are still raised. “You will need to hurry because I am not going to wait too long.”

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