Locked

Chapter Eighteen

The silence was killing her, but V didn't say a word the entire carriage ride. She couldn't think of the right thing to say to her travel companion. She was sure the proper wording could be used to sway Nick to her side. She noticed his hands shaking and his foot tapping. He wouldn't even

look at her. Whatever his father had said to him had gotten to him. If she could just appeal to his moral code, she was convinced he could be persuaded to talk to his father on her behalf.

Just as she was ready to begin, the carriage stopped. Nick stood up so fast he almost hit his head on the roof.

"We're here." He said. Still a gentleman, he jumped out first and helped her down from the carriage. V couldn't tell if he was suddenly relieved, or if his nervous nature had just jumped a few hundred notches.

She looked around; beneath her feet were uneven stone bricks, all a faded grey. Nick grabbed her and pulled her forwards. She narrowly missed several large puddles, dips in the street filled by

the previous evening's downpour. She looked back to see the carriage they had arrived in. Beside it was its twin. The red haired thug, she could see, had been their driver, but was now standing guard by the second carriage along with the bald thug.

V stumbled a little as her feet transitioned from the uneven stones to a much flatter surface. They had reached a wooden pier. She could now hear the gentle waves of the river pushing up against the support pillars. Warehouses extended to her left and to her right. Across the river, windows blacked out as shopkeepers retired from a hard day's work. Nick came to a halt; they were roughly three quarters of the way down the pier. He backed up a few steps, then, as if asking for her forgiveness, he pulled a pistol from beneath his multitude of coats.

"Stay here." He demanded. V didn't move.

Nick stopped at the edge of the pier. He nodded once. The bodyguards took that as their signal. They opened the second carriage's door. Out stepped Richard Gellentry. He side-stepped a puddle, and then brushed off his coat. Seeming in no sort of rush, V was pissed at him just for being so nonchalant. V was so busy hating the Duke that she almost missed the two bodyguards who re-emerged from the carriage. Their bulky frames blocked her view for a moment, but Will's unmistakable frame appeared before long. Will was no longer unconscious, but he wasn't completely coherent. The two bodyguards half-dragged, half-pushed him along. Will's hands were bound behind his back by a thick, coarse rope. An additional rope was tied around his neck like a noose, with a length draping behind him for the bald bodyguard to hold onto. The uneven

stones kept tripping Will, and every time he did so, the rope around his neck tightened. The thugs forced him to his knees and he remained upright simply by the force of the bodyguard holding

the noose around his neck tighter.

V could see the pain etched in Will's face, and could only imagine the searing agony from his broken wrist being bound in such a way. He didn't seem to recognize her, or even see her. She wanted to call out to him, tell him she was alright, but that would be an invitation to get shot.

Nick walked up to Will, who hardly acknowledged his old friend above him.

"You really shouldn't have gotten involved, Will." Nick seemed almost sad at the predicament. "Time to get a move on boy," Gellentry interrupted his son, "we've got a ball to attend."

Nick carefully handed his father the pistol and stood at his side.

"Now what?!" V called from her position on the pier. She was far enough away to have to shout at the assembled party. "You're going to kill us both?"