Page 43 of Knotted By the Triad

Shards? What shards? He'd come from the direction of the warehouse. He had to be one of the smugglers. In the book, none had escaped. Why was this man here? I glanced at Allie. She was watching him too.

The man straightened and looked over his shoulder. That's when I saw it. A large brown envelope protruded from inside his jacket. The man noticed it too and immediately shoved it deeper beneath his clothing.

My gaze snapped toward Allie. She was already looking at me. Her eyes narrowed. She shook her head. I nodded, then looked back at the envelope. He had to be the driver who’d received the payment for the Dragonblight.

He was badly wounded, and I didn’t see any weapons. I believed we could take him. Allie's fingers closed around my sleeve. I looked at her, and she shook her head again. I gently removed her hand.

This was my last chance. I was doing this. Her eyes widened, and she stared behind me. I looked back and saw the man watching us.

Well, damn. So much for a surprise attack.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ZURI

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Allie had already slid her mask back in place. The man's gaze drifted from me to Allie before returning to me. For a few seconds, none of us moved.

“Who are you?” he demanded. “Did they send you?”

I had no idea who they were, and I didn't care.

“We're just two women taking a walk through the forest,” I lied.

His eyes narrowed. “Dressed like that?”

“We like black.”

Beside me, Allie made a small choking sound that I knew damn well was her trying not to laugh. And at a time like this! The man wasn't amused. He straightened and winced, one hand going to his side.

Whoever he'd encountered before us had done a number on him. Blood covered one side of his face, and from the way he kept one arm tucked against his ribs, those were probably injured too. If Allie and I targeted his existing injuries, we stood a decent chance of taking him down.

“Move away from the tree,” he ordered.

“No, thank you. We like standing right here,” I told him.

His expression hardened as one hand disappeared beneath his jacket. Allie's fingers brushed mine.

“Princess,” she whispered.

“I see it.”

The man's hand emerged holding a dagger. So I'd been wrong about him not having a weapon. As a fan of this book, I was getting a lot of things wrong.

“We don't want any trouble,” Allie told him.

“Then take off the masks.”

“No,” I said.

“Bitches,” he muttered, stepping forward.

Why we gotta be bitches? Allie looked at me and nodded. We’d done this dance many times before. As if on instinct, I nodded back and took a step in the other direction. He couldn’t come after both of us at the same time.

When he came after one of us, the other could attack from the side. Which of us would he choose? I guess I looked like the weakest link, because he lunged my way, dagger raised, poised to strike.

I jumped back as the dagger sliced through the air. Damn, he’d almost sliced my belly open with that move. Before he could swing again, I grabbed his wrist, just as Allie attacked from the side.