“Or a fool,” Tristan smiled, seeing who he was looking for. “Mary said yellow hair, aye?”
Jones nodded.
Tristan didn’t want to kill him. No, that privilege belonged to Dumfries. Tristan would wound de Caleone so that he could not fight or run while Tristan and Jones killed the rest.
He took the dagger by the blade and pulled back his arm. He didn’t wait to make sure the blade struck the man between his arm and shoulder. He hurled the second blade end over end into de Caleone’s groin.
The men around the camp came alive.
Tristan tore his sword from its sheath and charged the camp with Jones at his side.
Some of the men cried out or screamed begging for their lives. Tristan gave them no mercy. Jones hesitated once, after he released his captain from the tree to which he was tied. Passing them, Tristan pushed his blade into the last man’s belly then turned to the captain.
“Where is Rose?”
Captain Harper was covered in blood. Tristan didn’t know if it was the captain’s or someone else’s. His face was purple and swollen everywhere. “Jones told me you saved Mary—”
“Aye, she lives. Where is Rose?” Tristan wanted to shake him. “Did he kill her?” He pointed to the blond man he’d injured.
The captain glanced at the man still squirming on the ground. “Who is he?”
“de Caleone,” Tristan supplied halfheartedly, realizing he’d wasted two daggers on the wrong man.
“He is not de Caleone,” the captain validated. “De Caleone is in the other camp with—”
“Tristan!” Her voice broke through the trees.
“I’m coming with you,” the captain said and took off when Tristan began to run.
Chapter Nineteen
Rose didn’t close her eyes or relax. She was tied to a tree, helpless against seven men. What would they do when Neill fell asleep? She could kick and bite. They would have to kill her.
She heard a sound in the distance. A man screaming? Had Tristan come? Where? Where was he? She looked around. Neill was on his feet, so were most of the men. They had all heard it. The other camp! It had to be Tristan! He was in the other camp! If she could hear then—
“Tristan!” she screamed. Her voice carried, echoing through the trees.
A knife landed in the tree trunk above her head with a loud thunk.
“Shut your mouth, Woman!” one of the men hissed at her. “De Caleone, I swear if she calls him and brings him here, I will cut her open from her mouth to her cu—”
“Be quiet.” It was a curt command spoken by Neill with authority and warning.
She looked for him. She couldn’t see him. Moonlight fell in slivers through the thick treetops casting shadows everywhere.
She wanted to scream for Tristan again and get him here quick, but she was afraid the next knife would not miss.
Had Tristan heard her? What if the man screamed because he had been bitten by a snake or something? What if Tristan wasn’t here?
No. She heard someone else cry out from beyond the darkness. Her heart beat like thunder booming through her ears, making her tremble where she sat.
Tristan. Oh, please be Tristan.
Silence fell. She waited. They all did.
“Neill?” she called out softly. She wanted to hear the fear in his voice. Why wasn’t he giving quiet orders to his men?
He did not reply. The men took notice and began calling out to him.
Someone suddenly arrived behind her tree. He cut the rope around her wrists, setting her free.
“Oh, Tristan, I knew you would come.”
“’Tis not Tristan.”
Her heart froze. Neill! No!
“Tristan!” she screamed again.
She knew he heard her. Her captor knew it, too. He yanked her by the arm, pulling her around the tree. She opened her mouth to scream again but he pulled back his arm and struck her, almost knocking her out. She went sprawling, saved from flying through the air by his hand around her wrist.
He dragged her to his horse, swearing that next time he would break every bone in her face. “Let us see how your Tristan will like you then.”
Rose didn’t want to give in. She wanted Tristan to hurry. She wanted to lead him to her. But she also didn’t want her bones broken even more. She remained quiet, letting him practically toss her over his horse. He leaped up next and kicked his mount into a full run.
Rose hoped it was Tristan attacking the other camp and not a random bunch of thieves. Could Tristan take on all of these men? He would have to take both camps to get to her. She remembered what he’d done before, and she smiled. Also, he would no doubt have the captain with him by now. They would find her, and then they would have to go back and find her father before Neill’s men found him.
“You are afraid of him,” Rose said in front of him. “’Tis immensely satisfying.”
He yanked her closer and breathed against her ear. “That is the same thing I will tell you when I set him on fire.”
Her mouth went dry. Could he do it? He was a monster. A giant, merciless monster. Could he stop Tristan? She had to do something before Tristan arrived. She wouldn’t let Neill kill everyone she loved.
“You should be grateful to me for getting you away from your home. You do not know the evil that lurks there, Rose. Or what I have done for you. Instead, you revile me, making me sorry I saved you. I did not have to. He never said to me, Neill, you may not kill Rose. No.”
Her uncle. She wanted to scream and not stop. Her uncle was responsible for all this. She could not comprehend it. “I do not understand. If my uncle hates my father so much, why continue to visit?”
“You will have to ask him.”
“I have no intentions on ever speaking to him again,” she retorted.
He relented and rode on in silence.
She heard a sound, like the growl of a bear coming
