Hiding Rose (Saved By Desire 5)

“Get off me you oaf,” Rose cried loudly as she pulled at his arms and kicked out at her captor. Thankfully, she managed to break free and quickly raced for the wall.

“Get down!” Barnaby yelled at her, trying to take aim at Chadwick again.

At the sound of Barnaby’s voice, every survival instinct Rose never knew she possessed suddenly clicked somewhere deep within her. Without thinking, she lifted one of the small stones off the top of the wall next to her and threw it at Chadwick’s chest. It was heavy enough to make the man grunt as it hit him and stop him coming after her. Rose then picked up another stone and threw that at Chadwick as well.

“Do that again,” Chadwick snarled, rubbing his sore chest.

“Alright,” Rose replied, and did just that.

Barnaby swore when Rose didn’t appear to have heard him and instead began to talk to the man. He couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.

“You witch,” Chadwick snarled. “Get over here.”

“Go to Hell,” Rose snapped.

To show him how determined she was not to comply with his demands Rose picked up another stone and threw it at him. Unfortunately, this one was larger and hit the ground at the man’s feet without doing any damage. When her fingers searched for another rock and came up empty, Rose knew she had made a foolish mistake by lingering. She began to back away warily.

Enraged, Chadwick vaulted over the wall as though it wasn’t there. Rose’s eyes widened as she found him suddenly charging toward her, his face a mask of arrogant contempt.

“Rose, run!” Barnaby shouted.

Lifting her skirts, Rose did just that. Rather than leave the area though, she spun toward the horse which had jogged nervously toward the far corner of the field away from the gunfire.

Chadwick tried to grab her but Rose stumbled out of his reach. Barnaby lifted his gun. He tried to take aim but with Rose in his line of fire he couldn’t take the risk that she would get caught in the cross fire. Swearing roundly, he raced toward the thug, but not before Chadwick managed to catch up with Rose. To Barnaby’s horror, the killer grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her to an abrupt halt.

“Ow! Get off me,” Rose protested loudly.

“Let her go, Chadwick. I know who you are. I promise you now that I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth if you harm her,” Barnaby snarled.

Chadwick threw him a dismissive glance, his lip curled contemptuously as he hauled Rose before him to use as a human shield.

Pain lanced across

Rose’s scalp but at least she could see Barnaby now that Chadwick had turned her to face him. She had no choice but to follow her captor’s every command now. Not to do so bought her pain that was so excruciating her vision blurred.

“Stay back,” Chadwick ordered. He lifted a knife to Rose’s throat. “Get yer gun down or I’ll cut her.”

“Go to Hell,” Barnaby snarled.

“I mean it,” Chadwick warned.

“So do I.”

To Rose’s astonishment, Barnaby threw himself over the wall and disappeared.

“He has gone,” she whispered, a sense of betrayal unlike no other surged through her. Stunned, all she could do was cling to Chadwick’s arm as he dragged her slowly but surely toward the trees. Now that she was on her own Rose redoubled her efforts to break free. Chadwick wasn’t much bigger than she was, surely she would be able to break his hold. She kicked out at the wall in an attempt to unbalance her captor but met with little success. He stumbled a little beneath their combined weight, but didn’t fall over as she had hoped. When the trees loomed too close for comfort, she screamed. Writhing furiously she tugged at his hands and began to claw at the soft flesh of his arm.

“Get off me,” she bit out desperately. “Let go of me.”

“Stay still wench,” Chadwick growled. “I will damned well shoot you.”

“What with,” she spat. “You don’t have a gun.”

“I will cut you,” Chadwick snapped.

“If you were going to cut me, why are you bothering to take me with you now?” Rose demanded perilously. “You are a liar and a murderer. I will see you rot in Hell for this.”

“Shut up.”