Chapter Sixteen

R ed wanted to kiss her nose when it crinkled as she called The Executioner "Toad" and smirked up at him. But then her face changed, taking on a serious cast, and he was mesmerized again. The woman couldn't hide anything. Everything she thought and felt showed on her face, in the brightness of her eyes, the curve of her lips, the set of her head. He'd always thought it a flaw to reveal so much, but in her, he found it endearing.

Especially since he noticed she was not as expressive with other people as she was when looking at him. That was a part of her she shared with him, and he liked that.

"I don't recognize either of them," she said, her tone thoughtful. "I didn't get a good look at Toad, but I don't think either of them are him."

He'd been distracted by Galiena, but he had been watching the men covertly. Neither of them was Toad. These men were meatier than the loathsome man, and not as tall. But they were obviously looking for someone and seemed to think they had found the person, or people, that fit the description. Perhaps they had been hired and sent to look for them.

He didn't think he'd ever met these men or seen them before, but it wouldn't take much for someone to find Red based on a description. Or Galiena. He knew how conspicuous he was with his height and red hair. And Galiena was not a woman to forget with her raven-black hair and distinctive gray eyes—though he doubted Toad had gotten close enough to her to know about them.

Red liked to think her eyes were for him only, the way they glistened when she was feeling feisty or darkened when she was angry. But he liked them best when they were silver, like the still waters of a fjord with the moon shining down into the depths—which is how they looked in this moment. He believed her when she said she was not afraid because they were calm and steady.

"Aye, I think The Ex—" He stopped, correcting himself. Toad was an idiotic name, but he had to admit it felt better to call him something associated with being small and warty. "I think Toad sent them, the way they keep stealing glances over here at you and me."

Ox, Dane, Bard, and Wolf still appeared to be casually drinking and talking but he knew they were on alert, waiting for a signal from him before they acted. Red contemplated the options, trying to keep a level head and not let his instincts take over. He wanted to march across the room, take both men by their throats, and smash their heads together. But that wouldn't get them to the man they wanted, the man they had to find before he found them.

"Ox, Dane," Red said as the two strangers pushed away from the wall to set their tankards on the bar before they headed toward the door, "Come with me. Bard and Wolf, stay here with Galiena."

Before Galiena could protest, he dropped a quick kiss on her lips, smiling at her worried expression as he stood. "Nothing to fear, kitten. I'll be back."

He followed Ox and Dane out the door into the street and quickly spotted the men a short distance down the lane. The rain had ceased, but there was still a howling wind. When the men saw Red and his men emerge from the tavern, their paces quickened, and then they started running. Red and his men were on them before they could reach the end of the lane.

"Dane, look for anyone watching out for them," Red commanded as he and Ox dragged the struggling men into a dark alley. They had both of them pinned up against the wall and gasping for breath before they could yell out for help.

"Where is he?" He bit out in a menacing voice to the man he had clutched by the neck. The man stopped struggling, a pained smile curving his lips.

"I'm not telling you anything," the man gasped as the veins in his throat bulged. "You think you can do anything worse to us than he will?"

"I can kill you," Red growled.

The man panted out a laugh. "Go ahead."

Red felt a moment of uncertainty. Ox was getting the same responses from his captive. Were these men truly more scared of what The Executioner would do to them than being killed in this alley?

"Is he here?" Ox's voice was even more menacing than Red's. The man was truly built like an Ox, broad and thick with a permanently intimidating grimace on his face. Red cringed when he saw Ox grab the man's fisted hand in his own meaty paw and squeeze, but he didn't disapprove. The man screamed when the first bone snapped but he still refused to speak.

Red punched his man in the gut, causing him to cough and sputter. "Kill me," he rasped.

"You're going to die anyway," Red said. "Tell me where he is."

The man tried to spit at Red, earning him a clap of his head against the stone wall of the building. He grunted as his eyes rolled back, but then he just laughed pathetically.

"Last chance," Red warned. "Tell me where he is now, and I'll spare you."

The other man was still howling in pain as Ox continued to crush his fingers in his hand, breaking them one by one. When both men still refused to say anything more, they knocked their heads against the wall and let their bodies slump to the ground. Picking up the miscreants, Red and Ox each threw a man over their shoulders and hauled them into the forest behind the village. Dane stayed a discrete distance behind them to ensure no one followed.

They walked for some distance, picking their way through the pitch black under the canopy of branches until they were a good distance from the village, then they dropped the men on the wet earth. Red felt for a pulse on the neck of the man he'd carried and found it to be very weak beneath his fingertips.

"If the elements don't get them, then the wolves and boars will," Red stated as they turned to retrace their steps out of the forest. As dark as it was, they had to rely on Dane's whistles to keep their bearings until they emerged again.

"Anything?" Red asked as they headed back to the tavern.

Dane shook his head. "A few drunks stumbling out, but no one that fit the description you gave us, scant as it was."

Red grunted his acknowledgment as he and Ox stopped at a trough of water to rinse the blood from their hands.

"Do you think he's here?" Ox asked.

Red shrugged. "My gut says he is."

"What do you want to do now?" Dane asked.

"We'll get what sleep we can. He doesn't like an audience for his deeds, so we'll be safe as long as we stay in the crowded inn. But I don't want him ahead of us on the road, waiting to ambush us. Be ready to leave before the sun rises." Red sighed in frustration, scrubbing his hand through his hair. " Long before the sun rises. If he's here and en route to the king, there is no other way to Llanbadarn than this road. I want to be well ahead of him."

"Now it's a matter of who gets there first," Dane said.

"And possibly who gets there alive," Red added, opening the door to the inn.

As he entered the tavern, his eyes were immediately drawn to the corner where Galiena still sat with Wolf and Bard. He felt the smile that came unbidden to his lips when he saw her sitting attentively, her face turned to the door as though she had been waiting and watching for him. When she looked at him, her shoulders visibly relaxed as she let out a long breath, and he swore he could feel the warmth of it wrapping around him. If the gods were on his side, he'd find The Executioner and kill him before he came anywhere near this woman.

"You have blood on your arm, Viking," she said to him as he sat facing her again. She looked neither angry nor appalled as she said the words, searching his upper body for any other sign of a fight. "As you do not appear injured, I gather it is not yours."

He couldn't resist stroking her cheek with the back of his fingers, enjoying the rosy hue of her skin and the almost imperceptible way she leaned toward his touch. "No, kitten, it is not mine."

"Good," she said with a small smile. It was not the response he'd expected, but it pleased him. "We will be leaving while the night is still dark." He dropped his hand from her face, only to find the end of her plaited hair where it hung over her shoulder. Winding the silky braid around his fingers, he marveled, not for the first time, at how small she was yet that she had more strength than she was aware. She knew those men had been sent to find them and kill them, or bring them to The Executioner, yet she was unruffled. And while she'd been petrified when they encountered the wooden bridges spanning the river, she'd pushed herself to cross them—even if it took her arguing with him the entire span of the water and then some.

"What are you smiling at?" she asked him.

"You."

She quirked a questioning eyebrow at him, the slim arch of it dark against her ivory skin. Tendrils of her hair had pulled loose from the braid and framed the roundness of her cheeks. "Are you always so jovial after a thrashing?"

He laughed then. "I hadn't thought about it, but aye, I enjoy a good thrashing as long as I'm not the one receiving it."

Her face turned more serious. "I assume it was not Toad or you would have said."

He shook his head. "No, it was not."

"Is he here?"

"I believe so," Red said without hesitation. She was clever enough to know the reality of the danger she faced, and he would not lie to her.

"Can we go to the room now?" she asked. He couldn't stop himself from gaping at her, and she laughed at his response to her request. "And bring a candle."

Red pushed to his feet, nearly toppling the table. "We are to bed, lads."