Seeing Danger (Sinclair and Raven #2)(54)

“Don't drop me!”

“Untrusting wench!” Dev grunted.

“My h-hands are slipping.”

“No,” Dev wheezed, “they are not.”

“Pull, Dev!”

He answered with a grunt. When his hand clamped on her wrist, she sobbed. Standing, he hauled her through the opening and then she was free.

“I–I have you,” Dev rasped, breathless as he lowered them to the roof. He sat with her on his lap, wrapping his arms around her. He held her tight and dropped his head to her shoulder.

“Thank you,” she whispered, burrowing into him. “I didn't think anyone would come so soon. I-it was dark, and then a man came and I was horrid to him, and he left a-again, taking his lamp.”

He let her babble out her fear as he held her, stroking her hair and assuring her she was with him now, and safe.

“Let me untie you,” he said when his breathing had begun to regulate and she had run out of words.

“Thank you.” She gripped his neck hard. “Thank you for coming to find me.”

Dev kissed her cheek, and then easing her back, he untied her feet and hands, rubbing each when he had finished.

“I have you now, sweetheart; no one will hurt you again,” he said, cupping her face between his hands. “I have been slowly going out of my mind imagining what horrors you were being exposed to.”

“You really mean that, don't you?” she whispered.

“I never say anything I don't mean.”

“I-I did not think anyone would come for me,” she added, and Dev wanted to go and find Nicholas Braithwaite and punch him, only this time harder.

“My family and James are here, plus Toby, and I would love to tell you how many ways you are special to me, Lilly, but right now we need to leave as quietly and quickly as I came, before any of us is detected.”

Lilly nodded. Dev lifted her to her feet. He took her gloved hand and led her to the edge of the roof. Cam was waiting to take her, and Dev lowered Lilly into his arms. He quickly followed. Opening the door, they saw no one in the hallway, and he pulled her through behind him. On tiptoes they walked its length, and then started down the stairs.

“We need to slip past a room where I believe several men are, and as there could be trouble waiting for us out there you must run if I tell you to,” Dev whispered. “My family will be outside, go to them.”

“I will not leave you.”

“You will do as you are told, Lilly. If I say run, you run to where the others await.”

“I—”

“Promise me,” Dev demanded softly.

“I promise.”

Cam snorted at the unenthusiastic tone of her voice. However, she had promised, so at least Dev had her word.

Dev could see clearly; Lilly and Cam, however, could not, so he led them silently through the warehouse. It was as they approached the hole they had entered through that he heard the sound of feet running toward them.

“Run straight ahead, Lilly, there is a hole in the wall. Once you are through, call James!”

She left his side as the first man reached him. Turning, Dev swung out with his leg as James had taught him to. It connected and the man went down. But seconds later, the next was upon him.

Cam had two on him, and the brothers fought with everything they had.

Dev heard Cam's war cry as he took a fist to the chin that made him see stars. He looked and found James entering the fray, Dev’s sisters behind him. He took a right to the jaw and quickly returned the favor with more force.

“Don't touch him, you cad!”

Lilly appeared on his right, wielding a piece of wood like a saber. Dev didn't have time to roar at her, as the man before him was bigger and meaner than the others. He just hoped she stayed healthy so he could kill her for disobeying him when this was over.

“Leave now!” he managed before taking a fist to the stomach that nearly doubled him over.

“Take that!”

Dev watched the man’s eyes open wider and then he simply fell backward, landing hard enough to ensure that if Lilly hadn't cracked his head, the floor would have. James did some sort of swinging kick caught his man unaware and sent him face-first into a wall. Cam, with a well-placed punch, finished off his opponent. Nobody moved for several seconds, all dragging in large lungfuls of salty air.

“You, madam,” Dev wheezed, pointing at Lilly when he could speak, “promised me you would run when I told you to! Yet I turn around to see you wielding that bloody piece of wood like Zenobia!”

“Wasn't she Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Roman Syria?” Cam said, grinning.

“Yes, she led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire,” Eden added, stepping to Dev's side with a handkerchief, which she pressed to his sorely abused lip.

Ignoring James's snort of laughter, Dev glared at his siblings as best as he could over the white square of linen. He was well aware of what they were doing, but this time it wasn't going to work. Nothing was distracting him from telling Lilly what he thought. He was sure she'd taken years of his life tonight by getting involved in the fighting.

“Shut up, all of you!”

“Now, Dev, you've always lectured us on learning about famous women as well as men in history. Surely Zenobia falls into that category.”