When the man turned around and began to pace backward and forward in front of them, Marcus risked a quick glance at her. Jess studied him in amazement. She was physically shaking so much that she was feeling nauseous. She was positive that if she tried to stand up, she would end up face down on the floor because her knees shook so much. Marcus, meanwhile, looked menacing but was cool, calm, and collected.
“How do you plan to get out of here, Sayers?” Marcus drawled.
He thought he had just caught sight of Kieran hurrying past the side window, but daren’t look again. The longer he could keep Sayers’ attention focused on him, the more time his colleagues had to get into position around the house to make sure Sayers couldn’t leave.
However, Sayers hadn’t been a thug in one of London’s most deprived areas for nothing. He knew he was being set up and studied the room around them with a dark scowl.
Marcus went cold when Sayers began to block the doorway with various items of furniture. The chairs were stacked up first then were held firmly against the door by the heavy weight of the solid oak table Sayers shoved with his backside while keeping his gun trained on Jess. Once that had been completely destroyed, the man began to break up one of the dressers by yanking out the drawers and stomping on them.
“What are you doing?” Jess cried, horrified to watch such a valuable piece of furniture being anhilated in such a way.
Sayers didn’t answer. Instead, he continued to break the drawers down and threw the pieces into the pile. Once a spill had been lit, he scrunched up several more and put them with some dried kindling on the pile of furniture now blocking the doorway.
“Oh, good Lord, save us,” she whispered. “Marcus.”
“Stay calm,” Marcus soothed.
The room began to fill with cloying smoke.
Sayers hadn’t done yet. He carried several pieces of lit kindling to the curtains and set fire to each one before he slammed the shutters closed, effectively blocking out any possibility Barnaby had of getting inside. The only possible exit from the room was now through a side window.
Pointing his gun at Marcus to warn him to stay away, Sayers circuited the room toward Jess. From the frantic way he glanced around, being cornered was making him desperate. It was imperative now that Marcus got him out of the room, and away from Jess.
Marcus braced himself when Sayers stalked up behind her. However, Sayers didn’t point his gun at her. Instead, he began to untie the binds around her wrists.
“Stand up,” Gillespie ordered.
“I can’t.”
When she hesitated for a fraction of a second longer than he wanted, Sayers hauled her upright and then ordered her to hold her hands out behind her. It quickly became obvious that he couldn’t tie her up with only one hand, so he pointed his gun directly at her head.
“You will do exactly as I say when I say it. If anyone does anything to stop me, I will kill her,” Sayers said to Marcus. “I warn you now that I have a second gun on me, and I won’t hesitate to use it.”
Marcus looked steadily at Jess. “Trust me, Jess. I love you, Jess; more than anything in the world. Just trust me. I will get you out of this.”
Jess nodded; her heart swelled with joy upon hearing his words. She knew time was short. Something catastrophic was going to happen, she just didn’t know what to do to stop it. Determined to say what she needed to say to Marcus while she could, she began to resist when Sayers started to drag her toward the door.
“I love you too,” she whispered. “I do, I really do.”
“You know you are going to have to leave here, don’t you?” Marcus murmured.
Jess nodded. She wasn’t completely sure whether he meant she had to go with Sayers or leave the house like Ben had always begged her to do. After today, she doubted she would ever feel safe in the place ever again, and was glad to go.
“I don’t care where I am, as long as you are with me,” Jess declared.
“Believe me, when I tell you that I am going nowhere, Jess. Nowhere. Do you hear me? I am going nowhere.”
Marcus studied the gun now lying openly in the middle of the floor. He judged the distance. Even if he was careful to choose his moment, he doubted he would be able to get a clear shot off. If he winged Sayers, the man would undoubtedly take a gun to his head rather than wind up behind bars. If he is captured, not only would he be humiliated in the eyes of the people he called upon and commanded, but his life behind bars would be merciless, and he knew it.
Death was his only option, and that made him incredibly dangerous.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Marcus knew that if he allowed Sayers out of the house, with or without Jess, he would lose the very person the whole of the Star Elite had been after for nearly eighteen months.
Sayers was the mastermind; the ringleader of the gang. He would be a veritable treasure trove of information that would be invaluable to the Star Elite. But they had to move fast. As soon as news leaked that Sayers has behind bars, his co-conspirators would disappear like rats off a sinking ship. It would be virtually impossible to trace them again, and then the Star Elite would never truly understand the full extent of Sayers’ crimes.
“Tell me something, Sayers,” Marcus said.