Page 42 of An Enchanted Spring

And still, Aidan couldn’t shake the tension from his body.

“Were you able to find anything out?” he finally asked.

Reilly slowed. “Aye.”

Aidan matched his pace. Reilly had a vast network with contacts in places Aidan couldn’t reach. And despite their contentious relationship, Aidan would always fight to the death for Reilly, and he knew the feeling was mutual. They’d been through so much together that they couldn’t not have genuine respect for each other, despite the constant needling.

Reilly avoided a large crack in the concrete. “We were followed here. He hasn’t figured out where we’re staying, Idon’t believe. I’ve not yet determined how desperate he is to get to your Emma.”

“I wonder what he thinks she can give him?” Aidan slowed his pace further.

“Money?”

“I believe he drained her account.”

“So he took her money and destroyed her apartment,” Reilly mused, then stopped to take a drink. He swallowed and continued, “And, of course, the bastard threatened her. Do you think he laid a hand on her?”

“She didn’t say,” Aidan replied, the hair on the back of his neck rising. “I didn’t want to pry if she wasn’t ready to talk. If he did, he’ll pay for it.”

Reilly slanted a glance at Aidan, and they both realized at the same time that the feeling on their necks hadn’t anything to do with the thought of Emma being manhandled.

The weak morning sunlight glinted off a sharp switchblade, aimed point-blank at Aidan’s throat.

“Where’s my fiancée?” the knife wielder demanded, his voice low.

Aidan gave Reilly a look, as though to sayIs this lad serious?, and that was enough to set the man off. He rushed Aidan at the same time another man came at Reilly from behind.

Aidan caught Ben MacDermott by the wrist and wrestled him to the ground. He sucked in a breath when the man’s foot connected with his shin. He felt the knife tip graze his chest, and his anger flared. Aidan slammed MacDermott’s wrist against the hard concrete and felt the satisfying crunch of bone. MacDermott’s knee came up, and Aidan easily deflected it, clucking his tongue.

“Playing dirty, Benjamin?”

“She belongs to me,” he grunted as cradled his wrist. “Wherever you take her, wherever you hide her, I will find her.” He spat in Aidan’s face.

Aidan wiped the spit from his eyes and realized too late he’d given Ben an opening—he received a swift and painful head-butt to the nose. Blood spurted immediately, and Aidan’s patience snapped.

“Not likely, Romeo. She’s under my protection now.”

He gave a swift jab to the man’s Adam’s apple, making him choke for breath, then flipped him onto his stomach and pried the knife from his hand. Quickly, he slammed the hilt of the knife against Ben’s cranium, knocking him out.

Reilly sat on the bench, brushing the dirt from his hands as his assailant lay blissfully unconscious and sported a nasty bruise and broken nose. Reilly gave a jerk of his head at Ben. “Kill him?”

“I wanted to,” Aidan growled, slowly standing and shaking out his wrists.

“Why didn’t you?”

Sirens sounded nearby, and Aidan clenched his jaw. “He’s not worth the punishment here. In my time, a sword to the stomach would end this, and that would be that.”

“You know how I loathe agreeing with you, but in this case, you’re correct. Let’s go, before the cops get here. I have no desire to spend my morning filling out endless paperwork.”

Aidan took one last look at the sorry excuse for a man Emma had almost married. His skin was sallow, his frame thin. “I want to haul this lout over my shoulder, toss him in a dungeon, then force the answers out of him. Does he work alone? Are there others who will go after her if he dies?”

“Careful,” Reilly murmured, steering Aidan away from the unconscious man. “Your medieval is showing.”

Lyingon the couch in the front living room, Emma was so absorbed in the romance novel she’d found in Colin’s office (which he swore up and down belonged to his late cousin), she almost didn’t hear Aidan and Reilly come in the front door. The soft click brought her awareness to the present and she marked her page before sitting up.

She let out a strangled scream.

Aidan was covered in blood, and his shirt was ripped across his chest. Reilly looked…well, he looked as though he’d just gone for a run. Not even a hair out of place.

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