Free A Lady Dares by Bronwyn Scott Page A

him thoroughly before turning his attention to the other manwith the rest of the twine, trussing him up like a stuck pig. ‘If you won’t tell me, perhaps you’ll tell the watch.’ Dorian shoved his knife back in his boot with a grin. ‘I’ve used about twelve different knots on those ropes, so I expect you to be here when I get back.’
    That
made them nervous. He thought it might. ‘Um, maybe we should tell him, Bert,’ said the one tied to the post.
    ‘Don’t use my name!’ the other one hissed.
    Dorian stopped at the gate and pulled his knife back out. ‘I think your name is the least of your worries right now.’ He fingered the blade. ‘I can be reasonable. If you tell me who sent you, I won’t call the watch.’ Dorian shifted his eyes from man to man. ‘But we’ll do it my way. I don’t want any lies. So I’ll come to each of you and ask you to whisper a name in my ear and a description. That name had better be the same from both of you or I’ll get the watch, no second chances. I can’t imagine the man who sent you would be all that thrilled to come and bail you out. He might just ignore you and leave you to rot in order to save his own hide,’ Dorian reminded them.
    He strode over to the man at the post. ‘Youfirst.’ The name the man whispered caught Dorian entirely off guard. He knew this name. It was not a good name to know. It made men like Halsey look like saints. ‘He definitely would have left you to rot.’ Dorian masked his surprise and moved on to the other. ‘All right, Bert, it’s up to you. Give me a name that matches your friend’s over there and you are free to go.’ Dorian almost hoped Bert would give another name. It would be worth the hassle to call the watch and stay up all night sorting this out if the culprit was anyone other.
    But Bert whispered two disappointing words, ‘Damien Tyne’, and Dorian’s heart sank. the encounter mopped up quickly after that. He untied them and marched them at knifepoint to the gates, Bert being heavily assisted by his comrade, and he locked the gates behind them. Not that locked gates would stop Damien Tyne.
    Dorian went into his shed and stripped out of his clothing, carefully packing it away in his trunk. He was going to need those clothes more often than he thought. Tomorrow he’d have to pay another call on Elise Sutton. She had to know what had transpired here tonight. Dorian lay down on the cot, hands foldedabove his head. He didn’t expect to sleep, not right away. Tonight would be a long one and tomorrow even longer.
    Damien Tyne had made a fortune in the Mediterranean with several unethical business ventures. He was ruthless and thorough, not exactly the enemy anyone wanted to have. The question was: whose enemy was he? Had he sent those men tonight because he’d learned Dorian was back? There was definitely enough bad blood between them from their Gibraltar days to warrant such an action, or had Damien sent those men because of Elise?
    Dorian suspected it was the latter. The man had said they’d been sent to see if
she
was building a boat. That didn’t make him feel better. He’d far rather have Damien Tyne after him than Elise. If Tyne was after him, he’d have answers. He’d understand perfectly what the situation was. If Tyne was after Elise, he was starting at ground zero.
    What business did a reprobate like Tyne have with Elise, or, more probably, with Sir Richard Sutton? Why would Tyne care if Elise was attempting to build a yacht? Dorian could come up with some plausible suppositions,but even so they seemed extreme for Elise’s world, which brought Dorian back to the same conclusion that had been lurking in his mind since Bert had confirmed the name: Elise was in danger.
    Dorian shifted on the cot, stretching his back. This conclusion suggested several things: his presence at the shipyard doubled her peril. Tyne would be overjoyed if he thought he could get the two of them in a single effort. Second, that he