Chapter 51

D REW HAD NEVER BEEN THIS FRANTIC BEFORE. He'd fought his way to the main building, but after he got inside and searched the few rooms upstairs where he'd been sure he'd find Gabrielle, all he found was a red-haired woman angrily packing her belongings.

"Where did Lacross take the woman?" Drew demanded of her.

She only gave him a brief glance before she said, "I let her go when the shooting started. If she's smart, she's hiding."

He ran back downstairs and outside. He saw immediately that more men had shown up and were helping to fight the last few pirates still standing. From the look of them, he guessed they were the prisoners, released from the dungeon, and he didn't have to guess who'd let them out. He saw her, standing back out of the way, and started running to her.

Gabrielle saw him racing across the courtyard to her. She helped him close the distance and threw her arms around his neck when he reached her. Her feet left the ground, he hugged her so tightly, and then he was kissing her, and kissing her, and he wouldn't stop kissing her.

"My God, when I thought he'd gotten his hands on you—" he began.

She said at the same time, "I was so frightened when I thought you'd been captured!"

"We were, but James got loose and turned the tables—"

"Oh God, Drew, a few minutes longer…"

"He didn't touch you?"

"No, the pistol shots drew him away. And with no one left in the hall to stop me, I found the dungeon and released my father."

Having said it all, she began trembling in reaction. Drew felt it and tried to soothe her. His own panic had receded now that she was safe and in his arms. He gathered her closer, kissed her gently, ran a hand through her hair.

"You can thank Ohr for the timing," he said in a soothing voice. "Bixley showed James and me a secret entrance, but with only the three of us, we would have had to be more cautious—actually, James had to hold me back. I wasn't exactly thinking straight by then, I was so worried about you. But then Ohr arrived at the front gates with the men from the ships, and we were able to get the gates opened for them before the main force of pirates began pouring out into the courtyard. Where's your father? He's all right?"

She looked out into the courtyard and spotted her father breaking some board he'd found over the back of—was that Pierre? It was, and it looked like Nathan had the situation well in hand. Most of his crew were around him. Some were already tying up those pirates they'd already subdued. Some of them were also beating on Pierre. Lacross was being passed among them. She even noticed Avery had been captured and added to the growing number of pirates already trussed up.

She glanced back at Drew with a smile. "Yes, they were treated rather well, though that wouldn't have been Pierre's doing. They used to all be friends, the two crews, well, not quite friends, but more than passing acquaintances when they shared the same base."

Hesitantly now, he told her, "I was going to ask your father's permission to marry you."

She went very still and leaned back to glance up at him. There was something in her eyes. Amusement? Tenderness? Blast it, he couldn't tell, and he was suddenly feeling quite out of his depth. He'd never in his life lacked confidence with a woman before. But then he'd never felt this way about a woman before, either.

"Drew, do you love me?"

"My God, Gabby, do you really need to ask?"

"But your sister was so certain you would never want to get married."

"My sister doesn't know about the hell you've put me through while I was figuring it out."

"Hell?!" she gasped, and tried to push out of his arms indignantly.

He stopped her from leaving his arms completely and cupped her cheek tenderly. "I know that it's the most important thing in my life right now to not lose you. I know that you're in my thoughts, day and night. I know that I went a little insane at the thought of Pierre hurting you. I know that you drive me crazy with wanting you. I know that I want to protect you, to cherish you…I know very well what all that means, Gabby. I love you so much it hurts."

Her grin came slowly, but grew quite dazzling. "Let's go find my father so you can tell him all the reasons why you want to marry me."

"Er, I'll give him just the one reason, if you don't mind. Fathers tend to take exception when lust gets mentioned in reference to their daughters."

"You can leave that part out."

"Come to think of it, fathers have the power to say no, too. You're really going to make me do this?"

"Me? You were the one who said you were going to ask his permission," she reminded him.

"It was just a thought. I don't think I was serious. I was just letting you know what was on my mind. Your acceptance was all I needed."

"Stop worrying. He won't be too angry when he hears about that scandal in London."

Drew groaned. But then he noticed her grin just before she put her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers. "You deserved that bit of teasing for making me wait so long to hear that confession," she said against his lips.

"Then you'll marry me?"

"I was ready to marry you in London!"

In that moment when he kissed her, they were oblivious to everything around them, including the cheer that went up from their friends who were watching them. Near the barracks, James found Nathan, who was wrapping a rope around Pierre. The pirate was barely conscious from the beating he'd weathered. He'd just finished being passed around among Nathan's crew. Each one of them had laid a fist or foot to Pierre in repayment for his hospitality.

"I would have simply broken his neck," James remarked.

"James Malory!" Nathan exclaimed as he looked up. "Gabby said you were part of this rescue. If I'd known you were going to get involved, I wouldn't have spent all these weeks worrying!"

"I hope that rope means you're going to string Lacross up?"

Nathan glanced back at Pierre and shook his head. "No, he deserves a worse fate than that. I'm going to turn him over to the English authorities in Anguilla, where he'll spend the rest of his life in prison."

"In that case, if you don't mind?" James said, then bent down to lift Pierre's head off the ground long enough to crack his cheek open with his fist. Now he was unconscious.

Nathan chuckled. "Still the same old Malory, eh? Damn, it's good to see you again! You not only saved my life and the lives of my men, but most important, you saved Gabby."

"I believe I did that!" Drew said as he and Gabrielle joined them.

James raised a tawny brow, but then he said magnanimously, "I'll allow that my brother-in-law did do his share of head bashing today. Nathan, this is one of my wife's younger brothers, Drew Anderson."

"It's a pleasure, sir," Drew said, warmly shaking Nathan's hand.

"No, the pleasure is definitely mine," Nathan replied. "But you, James! You've more than repaid your debt to me. I merely asked you to help Gabby find—"

James interrupted with a gesture toward Drew, who was fervently kissing Gabrielle again. "I think we can safely surmise that I have fulfilled all requests."