The Steel Rogue by K.J. Jackson

Author:K.J. Jackson [Jackson, K.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-19T18:30:00+00:00

{ Chapter 13 }

She heard the splintering wood below her, but it didn’t even occur to her what the sound meant. Not until she was flailing in the air. The open air that offered her nothing—no chance—only falling.

Before the scream in her throat could escape, a mass surrounded her, shrouding her from the open air.

A grunt expelled from her chest as she crashed.

She hit the ground hard, but something broke her fall. Something softer than the hard dirt.

Stunned, her brain rattling around in her head, it took her a moment to crack her eyes open and push herself upright.

An arm under her left palm. A chest under her right fingers.

Roe.

Hell. He was the one that broke her fall.

He’d managed to wrap her into his body on the way down and take the brunt of the blow from the ground.

Her neck could have broken. Her head smashed in. And he’d saved her from all of that.

She rolled off him, staring at the outline of his face in the dark shadows.

His instinct had been to grab her. Shield her. Save her.

He could have easily held his place on the ladder and let her drop. But he didn’t.

He abandoned all sanity to wrap her and break her fall.

All rationality.

It struck her—lightning out of a dark sky—that she somehow meant far more to him than she’d let herself believe.

His hand scrambled about her body in the dark until he found her arm and a spot to grab her. “Air—I just have to catch—air—it knocked it—”

Her hand went through the blackness around them to find his mouth and her fingers pressed against his lips, her whisper furious. “I understand. Can you stand? I hear them in the street—both Des and Weston. You said we need to move, so let’s move.”

He rolled onto his side and she grabbed his arm, steadying his balance as he got to his feet.

She had to help him forward against his staggering steps, yet he still threw an arm across her back, shielding her from the front of the Lion’s Tap as they ran down the alley, then to the next street and through another alleyway.

She didn’t know where they were going, and she guessed Roe didn’t either, other than they were making their way as fast and as far as they could away from the docks.

Minutes passed, street after street. Her breath gone. Her legs screaming with every step. Roe finally slowed as they crossed over a busy street, moving toward the white stone facade of a brightly lit building.

Of course he knew where he was headed. Always a back-up plan.

“What is it?” she asked.

Roe didn’t look down at her, his eyes shifting all around them, still wary of someone following them. “It’s a gentlemen’s club.”

“A—a gentlemen’s club?” Her voice squeaked out, betraying the bravado she had tried to paste onto her face.

“Yes. The most discreet place in town. We’ll enter in the rear and be safe here at least for the night.” His arm around her tightened, his balance and strength back in place.

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