Free Along Came a Rogue by Anna Harrington

weren’t grinding razor-sharp inside her.
    “I meant—” She swallowed hard. “That you should leave tomorrow. I insist.”
    He folded his arms across his chest, and the determined gesture frustrated her to infuriation. “I am not leaving unless you—”
    “Stubborn man!” she snapped and stalked away.
    His brow arched as he countered evenly, “Stubborn woman.”
    In exasperation, she pressed the heels of her hands against her forehead, not knowing how to feel about him—if she should be furious, disappointed, aroused—or if she should grab her pistol and start shooting at him. Again.
    “Why won’t you just leave?” she half demanded, half begged.
    “I will,” he answered earnestly. “As soon as you tell me the truth.”
    She threw up her hands in aggravation. “I have told you—”
    A metal click sounded softly at the door, and the words strangled in her throat. She froze, sudden terror ripping the air from her lungs.
    But Grey only frowned, staring at her in bewilderment. He hadn’t heard it. But she knew the sound of fear—she’d lived with it for the past five months, and it slithered through her like a sickening poison.
    “Grey,” she whispered, so low that his name was nothing more than a terrified breath, “I think someone’s trying—”
    An explosion boomed through the house, the sound of shattering glass lost beneath her scream.

Chapter Four
        
    G rey rushed to the door and pulled on the handle— locked . Behind him, he heard Emily gasp as she fought back a second scream.
    “Where’s the key?” he asked evenly, forcing his voice to stay calm for her sake.
    “I don’t have one—not in here—I never lock it—”
    “Someone just did. Hedley!” He pounded his fist against the wooden panel. “Hedley, wake up!”
    The commotion in the house grew louder around them. More crashes, more shattering glass, followed by the panicked sounds of running feet and muffled shouts.
    “Stay back!” Grey ordered. Retreating a stride, he lunged forward and slammed his shoulder against the door. Then again. And again. But it didn’t budge.
    “Grey, stop!” Emily rushed forward, her hand on his arm to pull him back. “ Stop —you’ll hurt yourself!”
    “I have to get us out of here.” He pounded at the door with his fist. “Hedley!”
    Then he saw it—the first tendrils of gray smoke curling beneath the door. From the tightening of her fingers on his arm, he knew Emily saw it, too.
    “The house is on fire,” she whispered, her face white with fear. “They’re burning it down around us.”
    “The hell they will!” he growled.
    He broke free of her grasp and ran to the window, tossed it open, and leaned over the sill, hoping for any kind of escape route. But there was no ledge connecting their room to the one beside them, and a two-story drop to the ground waited below. They were trapped. Jump from the window and die, or burn alive inside the room.
    “Major!” From the opposite side of the door, Hedley pulled frantically at the handle, but the lock wouldn’t give. “It won’t open!”
    “There’s a key downstairs in the kitchen,” Emily cried out.
    “Forget the key,” Grey ordered. “Go fetch an ax from the stable and chop the damned door down!”
    “Aye, Major!”
    As Hedley’s footsteps pounded away, Emily grabbed his hand. Her fingers laced tightly through his as if she were afraid she’d lose him if she let go. “But the key is downstairs.”
    “Brat.” He cupped her face in his free hand to hold her still while he explained as calmly as he could given the chaos unfolding around them, “Whoever is doing this locked us into the room so we couldn’t get out before they set the place on fire. They would have thought to take the key from the kitchen so no one could unlock us.”
    She choked out a terrified sob.
    “But Hedley will get us out, count on it,” he reassured her, although he didn’t feel all that certain himself. “And I will protect you. Do you