in handy. Her strong legs found steady purchase on the top of the coffee table, sending tea cups, saucers and hot tea flying in every direction.
The glass shattered with an almost pleasing, tinkling sound as it impacted with the wood floor or other pieces of the tea set. The sharp shards and hot tea would have harmed Annabelle’s feet and legs if she hadn’t been wearing her riding boots, so she was grateful for that.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, boys,” the Colonel gave a wave of his hand and several other men moved forward to assist in Annabelle’s capture. She shrieked as someone grabbed her wrist from behind while she was watching two of them come toward her from the front. She yanked just hard enough to catch her captor off-guard and freed her arm. Then she leapt mightily and landed on the back of the opposite couch.
It began to tip backwards beneath her weight, so she used the momentum to kick one of the men in front of her, catching him square in the chin before the couch slid out from under her, throwing her, off-balance, to the floor.
The man she kicked tumbled backwards to land against one wall, only half-conscious, but the man she
She didn’t even try to yank away this time, knowing the movement would do nothing but cause her injury and pain.
“My sources tell me that you are one of these, how shall we say,
“Since you care so little about your own well being that you take to riding motorized cycles, which everyone well knows are nigh a perilous mode of transportation, I can only assume that you choose to reduce, reuse, and recycle,” he said, uttering the terms by way of saber-rattling banter, “and, even, to refrain from eating animals, because you possess a great deal of
Annabelle said nothing, but Jack had gone very, very still. She could sense a new wave of fury coming from him, even across the room. She watched him as the Colonel spoke.
“I must admit, my dear, that I normally find such a thing to be a charitable trait in a woman. There is a reason you are referred to as the fairer sex.” He stopped and turned to face her. “So, it is with some regret that I have found myself in a situation where a woman’s empathy must be used against her.”
He nodded then, and one of the men who had been holding her let her go, leaving the other two to hold her fast. In the next instant, the one who had released her was standing in front of her. He pulled his right arm back and balled his hand into a fist. Annabelle’s eyes widened, but she had no time to react. No time to draw a breath before he drove that fist deep into her gut.
He didn’t pull his punch. He hit her as hard as he could.
The impact was like nothing Annabelle could have imagined. It hurt more than anything she had ever before experienced. Though she possessed a strong mid-section, which Jack often referred to as a “six pack”, she hadn’t thought fast enough to flex these protective muscles, and, as a result, her internal organs had absorbed the vast majority of the impact.
She was fairly certain she was dying. A horrendous coldness climbed up her spinal cord and settled at the base of her skull. When the men released her and she fell immediately to the hard floor, she barely felt it. There was no sensation in her world other than the agony that was inside of her, the cold fear engulfing her, and a growing need to breathe. No air would come, no air would go. She wanted to vomit, to pass out, to die. Any of those three would have been some kind of relief, but none would come.
Though white spots swam around in her vision and her legs writhed of their own accord, the darkness refused to engulf her, leaving her viciously trapped in her world of pain. She laid there, like a speared fish, squirming on the end of a stick, her arms wrapped tightly around her midsection, her eyes shut tight against reality.
It was several horrible millennia before she was at last able to draw in a breath and she did so desperately. The sudden intake of air only made her nausea much worse. She retched, but as she hadn’t eaten much in the past few days, nothing came up. She gulped in air and retched again and the white swimming spots slowly began to recede.
As her retching unconsciously flexed her abdominal muscles, a hard ache settled into her mid-section. She wondered if she’d suffered real internal damage. Could he have ruptured something? Was she bleeding internally?
“You’ll have to take my word for it, my dear, though it feels as if it truly is the end of the world as you know it, it is only pain, nothing more. I assure you, I have not allowed any real damage to occur to you.” The Colonel’s Southern drawl sounded like the voice of the devil, just then. It was, quite literally, the very last thing she wanted to hear at that moment.
But she was forced to hear it some more.
“I’m afraid this was a necessary evil,” he continued. “You see, I need you to fully comprehend what it is that my men are about to do to Mr. Thane.”
That got her attention. She managed to pull herself up just enough that she could make out the Colonel’s portly figure across the room. Then she turned a little more so that she could look up at Jack.
More blood trickled in various rivulets down his arms from his wrists and it was obvious that he’d been pulling at the manacles viciously, mindless of the pain. His eyes locked on hers and willed them to not look away. His teeth were gritted against his anger, against his grief. He held Annabelle’s gaze as if it were a lifeline. As if it were all he had left in the world.
And perhaps it was.
Annabelle coughed and managed to push herself up a little more, settling into a seated position, some of her weight on her left arm. Nausea continued to roil in her gut, but she no longer felt it bad enough to retch. There was just a throbbing pain now, and a wretched, frantic fear.
“I will, of course, ask you one last time, Miss Drake. What did Mr. Anderson leave for you?”
As he asked the question, his men positioned themselves around Jack. Annabelle tried to push herself up further, forcing shaky legs beneath her. She watched as one of the men pulled his arm back and balled up his fist, just as the other goon had done with her.
Jack’s gaze moved from Annabelle to the man in front of him, and then back at Annabelle again. He shook his head, once.
And the man hit him.
“No!” Annabelle screamed, or, at least, tried to. It came out half-croak, half-scream, as her body still didn’t have quite enough air. Jack bent in his bonds, unable to curl inward due to the manacles keeping him upright. His eyes shut tight against what Annabelle knew, first-hand, to be excruciating torture.
She stood up the rest of the way and was instantly accosted by the Colonel’s lackeys once more. They held her back as she tried to move toward Jack.
“Stop!” she yelled, this time managing to get some force behind her voice.
The man hitting Jack pulled his fist back to ready for another strike, but the Colonel held up his hand and the man stayed his action.
The Colonel looked at Annabelle. She looked at Jack.
Jack opened his eyes and peered back at her. There was a world of hurt behind those blue eyes. But Annabelle recognized other things there as well. And either it was her imagination, or he truly did not appear to be in as much pain as she had been.
“Don’t worry, luv,” he told her, from his bent position. His Sheffield accent was thick in his softly-spoken words. They brought comfort to her, even in this dire situation. “It’s not as bad as it seems.” She knew he was telling her this solely for her benefit. He didn’t want her to be afraid for him. He really didn’t want her to give in. “I was expecting it,” he said, glancing at the guy in front of him. “And this plonker hits like a little girl.”
At that, the Colonel lowered his hand and the man in front of Jack slugged him again, this time harder than the last. As Jack bent forward once more, the guy back-handed him, sending his knuckles cracking against the side of Jack’s skull.
Annabelle screamed for them to stop. She struggled in her captors’ grips, but it was all to no avail. She insisted, loudly, that she would tell the Colonel whatever he wanted to know. No one was listening to her now. The
