Chapter Fourteen
Ronin kept his face impassive as his arms were jerked roughly behind him.
He’d run out of options and ideas. Hell, he’d even take a bad option at this stage. He looked at Peri, and saw her glaring at the Silk Road people. Then, she cast a worried glance at her sister.
Amber Butler was a slightly taller, sharper version of her sister. She wore her copper-colored hair longer than Peri, and had paler eyes. Right now, she looked tired and dejected.
“There are two more THS men here, as well,” Colston said. “One of them is Declan Ward.”
Lady Victoria shook her head. “Bloody hell. We need to find and secure the weapon.” She skewered her team with a hard look. “I brought the best linguistics expert in the world down here. Why the hell can’t we find the damn vajra?”
A small, slight man cleared his throat. He was wearing a pair of round glasses which he pushed up his nose, and was dwarfed by his bulky coat. “I translated the standing-stone glyphs.” He had an Indian accent. “It isn’t my fault you can’t interpret the location correctly.”
“What is this weapon?” Ronin demanded. They might be dead soon, and he sure as hell wanted to know what he was dying for.
The Silk Road leader turned, eyeing him with a narrow gaze. Her eyes were a bright hazel color. “The vajra is an indestructible weapon of a god, with the power of a thunderbolt.” She smiled. “Actually, our scientists believe it is a powerful, portable, reusable nuclear weapon.”
Fuck. Ronin stared at the woman. What the hell did Silk Road hope to achieve? Use the weapon? See it sold to the highest bidder? His gut churned with the hellish possibilities.
“You won’t get away with it,” Peri said.
“Says the woman with a gun to her head.” Lady Victoria raised a plucked brow. “Silk Road will continue finding artifacts and solidify our power base and wealth. Now, I want that weapon found!” She looked at the linguist. “Tell me what the stone said again.”
The man lifted a tablet and repeated his translation. “Here lies a terrible power, the city its tomb, this message its guardian,” the man said. “A terrible power that shook the world in a single flash of light. Do not enter here, for you will find nothing but death.”
Ronin realized they were a more detailed version of the words on the stone in the central square of the city.
“There must be more clues to the vajra’s resting place,” Lady Victoria said.
The linguist straightened. “I stand by my translation.”
Ronin saw Peri’s lips moving, then her eyes widened, and she tried to stifle a gasp.
Lady Victoria and Colston swiveled. “You thought of something?” the woman said.
“I…we couldn’t read the full translation,” Peri said.
Lady Victoria strode up to Peri and grabbed her arm. “And you’ve noticed something we haven’t?”
“No—” Peri shook her head.
The woman spun, her gaze settling on Ronin. “Bring him over here.”
Two men shoved and dragged Ronin over to one of the holes in the ground. They pushed him up onto the small stone wall and held him at the very edge. He looked down at the narrow well, into the yawning darkness below.
“No!” Peri struggled against her guards.
“Tell me,” Lady Victoria ordered. “Or Mr. Cooper has a very long drop.”
“Okay.” Peri wrenched free and straightened. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Don’t say anything, Peri,” he said.
She shot him a hot look. “Here lies a terrible power, and the message is its guardian.”
Lady Victoria frowned. “So?”
“And ‘do not enter for you will find nothing but death.’ It sounds like the vajra is in or below the message stone. The stone is guarding it and if you go beyond it, you’ll find nothing.”
The Silk Road woman’s brows shot up. “So bloody simple.”
Colston grinned. “This is it!”
“Please leave Ronin alone,” Peri said.
Lady Victoria’s nose wrinkled. “No, I don’t think so.”
Damn. Ronin knew he should have seen this coming.
“He’s dangerous,” Lady Victoria added.
“So what will we do with them?” a guard asked.
The woman waved a hand. “Kill them.”
No. “Wait!” Ronin struggled against his captors. “Peri just helped you.” He’d do anything to keep her alive. Bright, beautiful Peri, who’d shone a light into the darkness inside him. He wouldn’t see that brightness extinguished. “And she’s an experienced guide, like her sister. She can help you get out of here.”
Peri’s brows drew together. “Ronin—”
“The man has a point,” Lady Victoria said. “The woman comes, but kill him.”
“No!” Peri lunged toward Ronin, but two guards grabbed her, dragging her back. She kicked one and the man grunted.
Ronin kept his gaze on her. “Peri.” There was so much that he wanted to say to her…and now he’d never get the chance. Damn, he should have manned up and admitted he was falling for her.
She shoved against the men holding her. “Ronin! Don’t—”
One of Ronin’s guards shoved him in the chest, knocking him into the well.
As Ronin fell, slick ice walls rushing past him, he heard Peri’s wild scream.
***
Peri fought against her guards. Ronin. No. No. No.
Distraught, she managed to knock one of her guards to the ground. They’d taken her man away. A good, solid man. The man she was falling for.
Gone. He was gone. Her stomach tightened to a hard point, a horrible sensation growing inside her.
Slim arms wrapped around Peri, and she smelled her sister.
“Shh, Peri. I’m here.”
“They killed him.” A hollow feeling spread through Peri. They’d killed the man who was coming to mean everything to her. A man who’d stood by her side since this terrible situation had started. A man who’d filled a part of her that she hadn’t even realized was empty.
With a sob, Peri turned to her sister, and wrapped her arms around Amber. Behind them, she heard the Silk Road people planning the path back to the central square and standing stone. But Peri just focused on breathing through her pain. She felt hot and cold, her chest impossibly tight. Even though her chest heaved, tears didn’t come. It was like they were locked up inside her.
“Hey.” Amber smoothed Peri’s hair back. “Hey, sis, just focus on me. Lock it away. Like we did when we were kids, and we’d have to leave our friends and move to a new place.”
Peri looked at her sister. Amber’s face was bruised and there was a nasty cut on her left cheekbone. Peri pulled in a shaky breath. For now, she needed to focus on Amber and how to get them out of there alive. She glanced at the well, and pain rocketed through her. She wanted to scream, and throw herself at Victoria Armstrong-Jones and scratch the woman’s eyes out.
But Peri locked it down, just like she had in the past. She locked her feelings for Ronin deep inside. She turned her attention completely back to her sister.
She cupped Amber’s cheek. “Are you okay?”
Amber nodded, biting her lip. “It’s just scratches and bruises. You were right, sis. I should never have come down here.”
Peri grabbed Amber’s hand and squeezed. “We need to focus on getting out of here.” Alive.
“Let’s move out,” Lady Victoria shouted, interrupting their quiet moment.
Peri and Amber were nudged forward. As they walked down the icy street, Peri cast one last glance at the well. Pain and grief poured into her, almost too much to bear.
Then she faced forward and tried to think of nothing.
“I’m sorry about your friend,” her sister said quietly.
“I…was falling in love with him.”
“Oh, God, Peri.” Her sister hugged her again.
“Keep moving,” a guard barked from the rear.
“All right. Everyone move fast, and keep up,” Colston shouted. “And if you see anyone else in here that doesn’t belong with us, shoot them.”
They walked through streets, passed through buildings, skirted squares. Peri just focused on putting one foot in front of the other, not paying attention to where they were going.
Finally, the buildings opened up, and they stepped once more into the large central square. Immediately, Lady Victoria made a beeline to the massive standing stone in the center.
The rest of them followed her, finally stopping in front of the ancient sentinel, the group fanning out.
The Silk Road woman lifted her chin. “Rogers, bring the explosives. Blow it open.”
Peri gasped. They were going to blow up a piece of ancient history. She and Amber were hustled out of the way, a guard standing over them.
The Silk Road team worked fast and a second later, they scrambled back.
“It’s ready to blow,” someone shouted.
Peri hugged Amber, pressing her face against her sister’s hair. There was a huge muffled thwomp and the floor shook.
When Peri lifted her head, the standing stone was now pieces of rubble on the icy floor.
Lady Victoria and Colston hurried over, picking through the chunks of rock.
“Oh, my God,” the woman breathed.
Colston gave an excited whoop and several guards laughed.
Peri swallowed and watched Lady Victoria pick up something metallic. It was about the length of the woman’s forearm.
She held it up, smiling widely. “The vajra!”
It looked exactly as Dec had described it—a metallic rod, with what looked like claws at the end. It was copper-colored.
As Peri stared at it, a spike of emotion shot through her. Ronin would not have let this artifact fall into Silk Road’s hands.
Lady Victoria carefully wrapped the ancient weapon in a cloth and slipped it into her backpack. She settled the bag on her back. “All right, you two—” she pointed at Peri and Amber “—get us out of here. Fast.”
Something unfurled in Peri. She stepped forward and nodded. The urge to jump on the woman and choke her was strong, but she held it back. “I can get us out of here. I even know a shortcut.” She pointed. “That way.”
Lady Victoria inclined her head. “Good. Let’s move.”
Peri took the lead, keeping Amber close beside her. “Stay close to me.” She kept her voice to a whisper.
“I know that look, Peri—” Her sister’s voice was shaky.
“Trust me.”
“Always.”
Peri led Silk Road on a fast clip through the city. She stared hard at the landmarks, and old tracks from earlier. She was certain they were heading in the right direction.
Ahead, she spotted the area where the ice had come in and formed the ice cavern. The blue-green colors were so beautiful.
“This is the shortcut,” she called back. “The ground’s rough, so move fast and stay together.”
As she stepped inside the cavern, she prayed no one looked up. “When I say run, you run,” she whispered to her sister. “And stay close to the side wall.”
Amber’s eyes widened, but she nodded.
Peri led them into the large cavern. She glanced back once to assess the group, and fought back a smirk of satisfaction. Everyone was so focused on navigating the rough, icy ground, that they didn’t look up.
Slowly, Peri angled herself and Amber closer to the side wall. It was a gorgeous sweep of ice. Keep moving, keep moving.
Peri looked back again. The Silk Road team members were all slipping and cursing as they crossed the cavern. They were also bunched perfectly in a group in the center of the space.
Perfect. “Come on.” She raised her voice. “Everyone keep up!”
One icicle fell. It slammed down, shattering on the ground beside one of the Silk Road guards.
As the man screamed, more icicles shook loose, and started falling like a deadly rain of spikes.
“Run,” Peri said to Amber.
The more panicked noise the group made, the more the dangerous spikes fell.
Peri focused on running as fast as she could, staying close to the wall. Amber was right behind her, and Silk Road’s screams echoed behind them.
An icicle crashed into the ice just a few feet from Peri. She jerked to a halt, gesturing to Amber. They both pressed their bodies flat against the wall.
“We’re almost out of here.” Peri could see the exit not far away. “Keep going.”
Together, they shimmied along the wall, blocking out the thumps and screams. They stumbled out into the street.
Amber was breathing fast. She looked back into the cavern. “Some of them made it through!”
Peri grabbed her sister’s hand. “Let’s go. Fast.”
They sprinted down the street. Ahead, the street split, with one side climbing to an upper level of the city. Peri turned that way and they ran up the incline.
Without warning, there was the roar of gunfire. Bullets peppered the ground just behind them. Shit. Peri lunged to the side, pumping her arms. “Faster, Amber.”
Amber cried out.
No! Peri skidded and turned. She saw her sister down on the ground, a hand pressed to her calf.
“Oh, my God, Peri, I got shot.” Amber was breathing hard and fast.
Peri dropped down beside her sister. She could see the ragged tear in the fabric and the blood soaking her trousers.
Amber sat up and tried to stand. She dropped back with a grimace of pain. “I can’t put any weight on it.”
Peri’s gut was as hard as rock. “I’ll help you!”
“I’ll never make it. Go, Peri. Get out!”
“I will never leave you.” She’d already lost Ronin. She wasn’t losing her sister, as well.
The remnants of the Silk Road team crested the ramp, Lady Victoria and Colston in the lead. The Silk Road leader’s face didn’t look attractive now. Anger was etched on the woman’s features. She lifted her pistol and strode closer. She pressed the barrel right to the center of Peri’s forehead.
Peri flinched. Lady Victoria looked disheveled now. Her arm was bleeding, and her coat ripped.
Colston stood behind the woman. He wasn’t injured, but he looked pissed. It was clear they’d lost a lot of people in the ice cavern.
“Bitch.” He shoved forward, grabbed a handful of Peri’s jacket, and yanked her up. He dragged her over to the edge of the upper level. From here, she had a perfect view of the empty ice city below. He pushed her to the very edge, her foot slipping into midair.
“If I had a fucking well to drop you down like your dead boyfriend, I would. I’d listen to your screams echo around me.”
“Fuck you,” she spat.
“You made a bad choice, Ms. Butler.”
“I’d do it again if I could.”
“Peri!” Amber screamed. “Let her go.”
Colston leaned closer. “Is your heart beating hard? Is fear burning in your gut?”
He shoved her again and Peri felt the empty space yawning behind her. She looked down. It was a long drop and she knew she wouldn’t survive it.
“That’s what Cooper was feeling as he fell in that hole.” Colston’s eyes glittered.
Ronin. Pain speared her chest, but she glared at Colston defiantly. She wouldn’t give the bastard the pleasure of seeing her fear or pain. “Are you going to talk me to death, or what, Colston?”
He made an angry sound and pushed her over the edge.
Peri fell backward, seeing Colston and two other Silk Road thugs watching her as she fell. She heard Amber’s screams.
Air rushed past Peri and she closed her eyes. She thought of Ronin’s intense, not-quite-handsome face. The feel of his hard arms around her. The taste of his lips on hers.
Suddenly, she was caught in strong arms, the force of the fall knocking her and her rescuer to the ground and sending them sliding across the ice. Every bit of air was forced out of her lungs and she heard a masculine grunt beneath her.
When they came to a stop, she blinked. God, she was alive.
She turned her head to look at her savior and her chest locked up solid.