Page 19 of A Rogue at Stonecliffe

“You! Who else would it have been?”

“For God’s sake.” Sloane shook him. “Tell me who took her, and if you say ‘you’ again, I’ll beat your bloody useless brains in!”

Nathan stared at him, the color draining from his face. “But...if it wasn’t you—at least I thought you wouldn’t harm her. But who—if it wasn’t you who took her, who did?”

“I have a pretty good idea,” Sloane said grimly. He released his grip on Nathan and moved over to the coatrack to pull on his jacket. He jerked his head at his men. “You lot get back to work.”

“Who is it?” Nathan asked. “Why would anyone abduct Annabeth?”

“To get at me.” Sloane went around Nathan and out the door.

Nathan followed him down the stairs. “I’m coming with you.”

“You’re not,” Sloane replied.

“Don’t be an ass. You’ll need help.”

Sloane cast a sneering look over his shoulder. “You? What could you do to help? Dance with him? Explain the order of precedence? Tell him the proper way to address a duchess? You’d only get in my way.”

“I’m not entirely useless, despite what you think. I have brains, for one thing, which is certainly something you could benefit from.”

Sloane stopped at the bottom of the staircase and turned to face the other man. He sent an all-encompassing look up and down Nathan’s trim, well-dressed figure. “Oh, yes, you’re clearly someone who will strike terror into a mobsman’s heart.” He swung around, hurried through the warehouse and out the door.

Nathan followed, saying indignantly, “I can fight. I go to Cribb’s parlor to box every week and—”

Sloane snorted. “So do half the young men in the ton, and drinking blue ruin while you watch two men fight doesn’t make one dangerous.”

“I knocked you down, didn’t I?” Nathan shot back.

“A lucky punch. You caught me by surprise.”

“Yes. And I will take anyone of your sort by surprise.”

Sloane’s steps hesitated for a moment, but then he walked on.

That didn’t stop Nathan. “I was the best shot in my class at Eton.”

“Do you have your gun with you?”

“No. I’m not in the habit of carrying my dueling pistols with me to make afternoon calls.” Nathan paused. “Though it might be a good idea when calling on Lady Lockwood.”

His words startled a bark of laughter from Sloane.

Nathan went on, “You aren’t armed, either, I might point out.”

“My reputation is a weapon,” Sloane said, but he stopped and bent down to pull a knife from an inner sheath of his boot. He reached beneath his jacket and pulled a dagger from a scabbard at the back of his waist. An inner pocket of his jacket produced a small pistol.

Nathan stared at the array of weapons. “Well. I can see there must be many more people than I who’d like to kill you.”

Sloane set his lips against another laugh and shoved the weapons back where they belonged. “I can’t keep you from following me, but don’t get in my way.”

Sloane broke into a run.

CHAPTER SEVEN

AS THEY RAN, Sloane whistled to one of his men standing watch and gestured to him to follow. The man also let out a sharp whistle and started after them.

“Where are we going?” Nathan asked, keeping pace with Sloane.