Then Came You (The Gamblers #1)(89)

She started as she felt something close around her ankle. Looking down, she saw Rooters’s enraged, bristled face. Clasping her leg in his meaty hands, he dragged her bodily from the wagon. She fell on the hard ground with a shocked cry, her rump smarting from the impact.

“Steal my bear, will ye?” He stood over her, his face crimson with rage, flecks of spittle falling from his mouth. “Come here from yer high-kick mansion, riding on your fine horse, looking for trouble…Aye, you’ll get it, milady!” Dropping over her, he began to paw roughly at her bodice and pull at her skirts.

Lily screamed and tried to wriggle free of him, but he had pinned her down with his bulky weight, crushing the breath from her. She felt her ribs compress from the pressure of his body, and she thought they might break. A curious ringing began in her ears. “No,” she wheezed, struggling to breathe.

“Fancy thieving West End bitch,” he said viciously. “Ye gave me a frigging hard knock on my head!”

A new, eerily calm voice interrupted the scene. “A bad habit of hers. I’m trying to break her of it.”

“Who’s this—her pimp?” Rooters stared at the newcomer threateningly. “Ye’ll have her when I’m done with her.”

Lily turned her head. With disbelief she saw the blurred shape of her husband. But it couldn’t be. It was an illusion. “Alex,” she whimpered. She heard his low, deadly voice through the dull roaring in her ears.

“Get the hell off my wife.”

Chapter 11

Rooters stared at Alex as if trying to assess how much of a threat he presented. The bear moved restlessly inside his cage with grumbling whines, stirred by the palpable fury in the air. But the animal’s disquieting noise was nothing compared to the odd, frightening snarl that came from her husband as he lunged at the man on top of her. Suddenly the punishing weight was gone, and Lily gasped in relief. Pulling in lungfuls of air, she clasped her hand to her sore ribs. She tried to comprehend what was happening.

The two men grappled and fought a few yards away, moving so quickly that all Lily could detect of Alex was the flash of blond hair. With murderous grunts, he smashed his fists into Rooters’s face and sank his fingers into the bull-like neck, closing off his windpipe. Rooters’s jowls puffed with scarlet rage. He reached up to grab Alex’s collar and kicked up with his legs, flipping Alex over his head. At the sound of her husband hitting the ground with a heavy thud, Lily shrieked and tried to scramble over to him. He was up before she could reach him. Ducking underneath a swinging fist, Alex seized Rooters and threw him against the stack of crates. The wood cracked and splintered beneath him.

Lily’s mouth fell open. Her eyes were dark and round as she watched Alex. “My God,” she breathed. She hardly recognized him. She would have expected a little civilized boxing, some articulate insults, the brandishing of a pistol. Instead he had turned into a bloodthirsty stranger, intent on tearing his opponent apart with his bare fists. She had never dreamed he was capable of such violence.

Staggering to his feet, Rooters lunged at Alex again, who sidestepped, twisted, and buried his fist beneath the man’s ribs. He finished him off with a solid blow to the back. Rooters collapsed to the ground with a bellow of pain. He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, tried to rise again, and crumpled with a moan of surrender. Slowly Alex unclenched his fists. He turned his head and looked at Lily.

She fell back a step, half-frightened by the savage gleam in his eyes. Then the harsh lines of his face seemed to soften, and she ran to him without thinking. She flung her arms around his neck, trembling and laughing wildly. “Alex, Alex—”

He folded her in his arms and tried to soothe her. “Take a deep breath. Another.”

“You came just in time,” she gasped.

“I told you I’d take care of you,” he muttered. “No matter how difficult you make it.” Pressing her close against his large, sheltering body, he murmured against her hair, alternating between curses and endearments. His hand pushed beneath the muddied cloak to the tense line of her back, and he kneaded her rigid spine. Lily was more overwrought than he had ever seen her. More wild laughter bubbled up from inside her.

“Easy,” he said, afraid she would fly apart in his arms. “Easy.”

“How did you know? How did you find me?”

“Lady Lyon wasn’t at home. I went to Craven’s and discovered that although the carriage and driver were still there, you were gone. Worthy admitted that you had left unaccompanied for Covent Garden.” He nodded to the open end of the alley, where the driver, Greaves, waited with a pair of horses. “Greaves and I have been combing the streets to find you.” He eased her head back, his gray eyes penetrating as they stared into hers. “You broke your promise to me, Lily.”

“I didn’t. I took outriders a-and a groom to Craven’s. That was all you asked of me.”

“We’re not going to play at semantics,” he said grimly. “You know what I meant.”

“But Alex—”

“Hush.” Alex stared over her head at a pair of burly men who had just come from the arena. They glanced from him to Rooters’s unmoving form on the ground.

“What the bloomin ’ell…” one of them exclaimed, while the other scratched his head in befuddlement. “Get the bear—the dogs’re near done with the badger.”