Loving Byrne Read Online Free PDF Page A

hedgerow. “Come closer and I’ll tell you.”
    Alarm bells clanged in his head. It’d be the perfect spot for an ambush. And he wasn’t about to offer himself up on a platter.
    He dropped a hand to his sword hilt. Any hidden ambusher would have to weigh the odds of attacking an armed opponent. Unless that ambusher had a firearm. Then the odds were against him .
    “If it’s coin you want for your information,” he said, adopting a tone that usually had his soldiers quaking in their boots. “You’ll have to come to me first.”
    She darted a furtive glance to her left. At an accomplice? Nothing moved in the shadows. But that didn’t mean anything. Evil made its home in the darkness.
    He cocked a foot as if preparing to leave. “You’re wasting my time.”
    “Wait.” The creature grabbed a handful of skirt. “I’m coming.”
    Her hips swayed as she sashayed toward him. It might’ve been a provocative sight if her hair didn’t look like a pack of rats had nested in it and then used her dress as a privy. She reeled to a stop in front of him and smiled, revealing yellowed uneven teeth. The sickening sweet scent of cheap perfume and cheaper whiskey washed over him.
    Though his stomach reeled, he held his ground. Breathing through his mouth helped. “Well? What do you have for me?”
    She ran a filth-caked finger along his sleeve. “What’s your hurry? Surely a fine, hard-working soldier-man like yerself needs some fun once’t in a while.”
    Not her brand of fun. He jerked away. “Tell me what you know or I’m gone.”
    Her smile retreated. “Yer no fun.”
    “Fine.” He took a step back.
    She sucked in a breath, her bloodshot eyes going wide. “He went to the church.”
    “Which church?”
    “The stone one.”
    He fisted his hands to keep from wrapping them around the creature’s scrawny neck. “There are dozens of stone churches in Washington,” he growled. “Which one?”
    “It’s just ’round the bend up ahead. On the corner.”
    He leaned closer, using height and forcefulness to press home his authority. “How do you know this? Did you follow him there?”
    She slunk back, shoulders hunching. “Maybe.”
    “Did he make it into the church?”
    “He went inside, if that’s what yer askin’. Don’t know what he did once’t he was in there. I didn’t follow him.”
    Stephen gave a grunt of contempt. “What? You and your accomplice averse to ambushing a man inside God’s house?”
    She licked her lips and flicked another glance to the left. The slight lifting of her dirt-smudged chin told him all he needed to know. He spun around, sword drawn, to intercept her cohort. Twenty yards away, a wiry, lizard-like man slowed his slither. Moonlight glinted on a thick-bladed knife he held in a practiced grip.
    Stephen steeled himself for an attack.
    A gunshot rang out instead. Dust plumed near the toes of lizard-man’s boots, and the vermin jumped back with a startled yelp.
    “Move, and the next one will find your heart.”
    Stephen yanked his head around at the harsh, yet feminine command. Victoria leaned through the open doorway of the hack, the gun clutched firmly in her hands and pointed at lizard-man. He drew in a breath, and then another, working to slow his racing heart back to normal. When this mess with Hammond was finally straightened out, they would have a long discussion about following orders.
    He sheathed his sword and hurried across the yard, keeping a watchful eye on the two would-be muggers. Both scowled at him but remained silent and still. Neither appeared eager to test Victoria’s marksmanship.
    Her gaze swept over him as he drew up to the carriage. “Are you all right, Stephen?”
    “I’m just fine,” he managed through clenched teeth.
    “Don’t give me that look, Lieutenant Byrne.” She wiggled in the doorway. “I stayed inside the carriage, just as I promised.”
    Saucy wench. Was it any wonder he loved her? He reached up and gently pried the pistol free. “I