Mistaken Identity (Saved By Desire 4)

Over the past half an hour she had watched the flames inside the house cross the hallway. They were now busy filling the sitting room full of smoke. There wasn’t much in the sitting room worth saving, mainly because it had been the room set aside for the lodgers. All personal effects in there had been removed from the house a long time ago. With nowhere else to put them they had all been boxed up and relocated to the storage shed at the back of the property. So, the house could burn down, and the most precious treasures were safely tucked away out of harm’s reach.

She was so lost in her musings that she screamed when a loud bang suddenly shattered the silence. Her heart pounded as she glanced about warily, and realised just how vulnerable she was. She jumped to her feet and studied the house, but knew there would be no sanctuary there. Unfortunately, sitting in plain view in the middle of the garden made her a visible target.

Before she could decide what to do, Lloyd emerged out of the bushes directly in front of her. For the second time that day, Jess found herself staring down the wrong end of a gun.

“Lloyd, what do you think you are doing?” Jess shook her head in disgust and glared at the man before her. The gun he had trained on her trembled slightly, but she doubted it was from exertion. The man was cold and soaking wet but, from the look in his eye, also balancing on the edge of sanity.

“Get over here,” Lloyd growled.

Jess snorted disparagingly. “Go to Hell, Lloyd. You will have to shoot me before I do anything you want.”

“Don’t think I won’t,” Lloyd challenged.

Outwardly, Jess was cool, calm, and collected. She was trying desperately to act in the same way she had witnessed Marcus behave earlier. Inside, though, she was a seething mass of fury that was struggling to keep hold of her rage.

“So what are you, the guard dog, the idiot, or the man’s runabout?” Jess demanded coldly.

“Shut up, you insolent wench,” Lloyd growled. “I will shoot you if you don’t get over here.”

Jess pointed to her house. “Look at that,” she seethed. “It is my home burning down. I have nothing left. Don’t think for a second that I give a damn whether you pull that trigger or not. Believe me, when I tell you that I have bigger problems than you. I don’t care if you are Sayers’ right hand man, his lackey, his turncoat, or just a buffoon with a gun. Sayers has gone.”

Lloyd flinched. “Gone?” He glanced around the gardens as though he expected Sayers to pop up at any moment.

“Yes, he ran through those woods. It seems that your boss has abandoned

you.”

“I don’t work for him,” Lloyd countered.

Jess knew from the look in his eye that he was lying.

“No? So how did you know his name is Sayers then?” Jess challenged. “Around here, the man is known as Mr Gillespie.”

Lloyd stared at her.

She suspected he was trying to think of a way out of the mess he found himself in, but she wasn’t prepared to allow him that luxury.

“Oh, come now. Everybody knows that you are more criminal than Sayers. He is a thug from London, but you are a mere thorn in everybody’s side.”

“Shut up,” Lloyd growled. “You know nothing.”

“I know you assault women in their homes,” she challenged. “I know that Marcus works for the War Office, and has seen you committing crimes.”

She pursed her lips to stop any more words spilling forth. She didn’t want to tell the man that Marcus had already notified his boss that the magistrate in the area was corrupt. Lloyd would then understand just how hopeless his situation was. When he realised he had nothing left to fight for, he was likely to become reckless and stupid.

Lloyd’s eyes narrowed spitefully, and he slowly cocked his gun.

Jess refused to allow him to see just how worried she was. Not after what he had tried to do to her the last time she saw him. This time, she was stronger, more capable, Lloyd just didn’t see it.

“Everybody knows what you have been doing. If you think that Marcus and his men won’t bring your little empire down you are sadly mistaken. They are on to you, and will put you, and Carruthers, behind bars where you belong. Everyone around here sees you as nothing more than a joke. You have twisted the law to suit your own purposes for the last time, though, Lloyd, and you and I both know it.”

“I said shut up!” Lloyd shouted.

Jess shook her head. “You are done telling me what to do.”

“I have done nothing.”

“Oh, come now,” she interrupted. “Are you trying to tell me that you have been running around in the woods with men firing at each other, and have not seen or heard a thing? Where is Carruthers, by the way?”