Page 9 of The Runaway Heiress
Gray pushed the drape of his coat back. The men as a group looked down towards his hip where he undoubtedly kept his gun holstered. Guns weren’t allowed in the establishment, another reason she had chosen it. How had he gotten it inside? She glanced toward the room’s entrance to see if the doorman had noticed, but everyone outside of their bubble seemed oblivious to what was happening.
One of the men muttered something to the others. It was too low for her to hear but created a rumble in the folks gathered round. Surely they must have noticed he was something of a professional.
“You her husband?” Jeb asked. It was a peace offering and when she heard it Sophie grasped Gray’s forearm where it still rested against her.
Gray’s head lowered slightly in a move that could have been considered affirmation if the receiver was so inclined.
“Well, I accept her forfeit,” the man said. “But on the condition that you tan her arse when you get her home. A lady,” he snickered when he said the word as if that did not describe her in the least, “should know to mind her menfolk.”
Sophie cringed with anger. Was it her fault he was a sore loser? Was it her fault he had assumed she didn’t know how to play? Well, maybe shehadplayed up that part a bit.
Without responding to the man, Gray grabbed her elbow and began to steer them away from the table. Sophie’s gaze fell on the cash and she realized it was more than she could walk away from. “Wait! I want my money back.” She could accept forfeiting her winnings, but she should at least walk away with the amount she had brought to the table.
“Sophie!” Gray breathed angrily near her ear, while staying focused on the men and the potential danger.
Jeb was already busy thumbing through the bills, but he heard her. “Get that bitch out of here.”
She didn’t see Gray move but the next sound she heard was the resonant gasp of the crowd as they stared at him, his gun poised to be released from its holster.
“Just the lady’s portion.” Gray offered reasonably. “Else…” He let the word hang in the air, allowing the men to decide if the amount was worth the bullet at least one of them would sport otherwise.
Jeb seriously seemed to consider the alternative. After all, he wasn’t holding a gun. Chances were good he would avoid a bullet in the first round. But then he pulled out some bills and slid them across the table.
Gray smoothly leaned over and collected them, pushing them into his pocket and backing away at the same time.
“Gray?” An authoritative voice, rich and masculine, cut through the thick silence of the room. A large, well-dressed man walked into the room as if he’d just been summoned, his attention focused on what was happening.
“Able.” Gray greeted him without looking away from Jeb and his friends. “We’re on our way out.”
Able’s discerning glare shifted to Jeb and his friends. “I’ll make sure they don’t follow you.”
“I appreciate your help,” Gray said and slid his gun back into its holster.
Sophie turned and led the way through the crowd that politely parted for them, not daring to stop until they had reached the street. Even then, Gray held onto her arm until they were well away from the establishment.
“Let me go. You don’t have to pull me along like a child.” She snapped and jerked her arm away. She hadn’t decided if she should be more grateful to him or angry for his interference. Both were valid.
“Put down your veil.”
She complied but it hardly seemed necessary given the fact that the people she had hoped to avoid, Gray and his cohorts, had found her.
“Beaudin.” He supplied in answer to her unvoiced question. “He has men watching.”
Sophie gasped and looked around. The street was fairly crowded with evening pedestrians but no one seemed to be following them. The very idea that Anton felt he had the right to monitor her movements made her furious.
“Do you think anyone recognized me?” It seemed far-fetched considering not many people knew her since her uncle kept her isolated. The few people she knew from his business dealings and Society events hadn’t been at the gaming hall. “How did you know that man? Able?”
“I don’t think anyone recognized you. I worked there for a time, that’s how he knew me and why they didn’t check me for a gun when I walked in.”
Well, that answered her next question.
He kept looking around as if expecting a threat to pop out of the shadows. In fact, he was walking so fast she had to almost run to keep up.
No one seemed to notice them, though, or if they thought it odd that a man dressed in buckskin trousers and duster would be escorting a finely dressed woman like her in this part of town, they kept it to themselves. She had borrowed a stiff and somber black gown from Martine, but the modiste didn’t do subtle well. The skirt was striped with thin panels of dark gray satin and accompanied by a smart, hip-length jacket that accentuated the narrow waist of its wearer.
It was a moment more before she calmed down enough to realize Gray wasn’t leading her back to the dress shop or even home. They were going farther into the rougher part of town,marked by the uneven boardwalk beneath her feet and then the complete lack of one at all. The buildings here were all of wood and badly weathered.
“Where are we going?” There was only a faint tremor to her voice, but she halted abruptly.
