by an ungovernable fear for her safety. “It’s too dangerous.”
“For you, as well.”
“This could become unpleasant, Catherine. I don’t want you exposed to this.” Nor did he want her to witness his darker side, the one most detested for its ruthlessness.
“I will not watch the bad parts, Sebastian,” she said. “Understand that I’m not leaving you.” She cleared her throat. “I mean, I’m not leaving you here to sort out Jeffrey’s mess.”
I’m not leaving you. A wild instinct, ominous and possessive, assailed his senses, overwhelming in its strength.
“Chief, perhaps we should finish this,” Helsford said.
“The carriage is gone,” she said. “And I’m not walking back alone.”
“Dammit, Catherine. You have no business here.”
“I have as much right to be here as the rest of you.” Her gaze landed on Cochran. “He threatened my baby girl.”
She had placed him in an untenable situation. How could he protect her and conduct a thorough interrogation of his prisoner?
Cochran laughed. “What’s the matter, Somerton? Afraid your mistress won’t like what she sees?”
Sebastian ignored him. Pointing toward the shadowed tree line, he said, “Stand over there. Do not go near either prisoner, no matter what. Understood?”
“Yes, Chief.”
He waited for her to comply before heading back to the circle of men. “Pick him up.”
Helsford pulled Cochran to his feet. With his wrists and ankles bound by the same rope, the prisoner hobbled about until he gained his balance.
“Tell me who you’re working for,” Sebastian said.
Cochran smiled. “Why would I need to take orders from anyone?”
“Because you’re not intelligent enough to mastermind this elaborate a plan.”
Cochran’s gaze sliced to Silas, who stood passively in Danforth’s grip. “Intelligent enough to locate and silence your nosey agent.”
Catherine’s sharp intake of breath speared through their circle.
“Was it Latymer?” Danforth demanded.
Cochran’s gaze landed on Silas again. He said nothing.
Sebastian nodded to Helsford, who knocked Cochran’s feet out from underneath him. The prisoner landed on his face with his bound hands behind him. Helsford grabbed the rope connecting Cochran’s hands to his feet and set a boot to the middle of the man’s back. Then he pulled on the rope like a bowstring, wrenching the prisoner’s arms and legs into an unnatural angle. Cochran cried out.
“I believe Danforth asked you a question,” Sebastian said.
“Go to hell,” Cochran said through gritted teeth.
The rope tautened.
“Care to try again?”
“Yes,” Cochran ground out. “I reported to Latymer.”
Sebastian released a satisfied breath. “What was your agreement with the former under-superintendent?”
“To retrieve a list of your agents.”
“In exchange for?”
More silence.
The rope tautened.
“Latymer discrediting you,” Cochran gasped. “I’ve answered your questions. Now call off your dog.”
“How would you benefit from my disgrace?”
Cochran glared up at him. “I would have taken your place.”
Danforth barked out a laugh. “You? Chief? Please tell me you aren’t serious.”
“If not for someone named Specter muddling in my affairs, I would have been the new chief of the Nexus by tomorrow’s end. Some of the greatest minds in England would have been at my disposal.”
“Get him up,” Sebastian said to Helsford. “What made you think Reeves would appoint you as chief, rather than one of my agents?”
“Latymer still has powerful friends in the Foreign Office,” Cochran said.
In a lightning-swift maneuver, one Sebastian had never witnessed before, Silas somersaulted out of his captors’ grip and snatched a pistol from Danforth’s waistband. Using his weapon, he motioned for a fuming Danforth to step back and then leveled the barrel at Sebastian. The look on the man’s face could only be described as gleeful.
“No.”
Sebastian glanced back to see Catherine scrambling out from the cover of a tree, her fiery gaze on Silas. “Catherine, no!” He had wanted to know what it would feel like to have a champion in a wife. This was as close as he would ever come to knowing the feeling—and he liked the sensation. A lot—until the terror took hold. “You promised, remember?” He waited for her to acknowledge him before pouring all the love that had been building in his heart over the last sennight into his gaze.
Tears filled her eyes. “Sebastian.”
“Stay put, love.” Then his smile faded. Taking advantage of the distraction, Sebastian inched his hand toward his weapon.
The little man tsked. “Kindly raise your hands, my lord.”
Sebastian weighed his options. With Silas’s weapon pointed at his chest, he had none. He lifted his arms in the air.
“Silas,” Cochran said. “Come remove these bindings.”
“In a moment, sir.”
“What do you mean ‘in a moment’?” Cochran tried to wrench free of Helsford’s hold.
Silas’s watery eyes settled back on Sebastian. “I am saddened by this turn