Rue Allyn Read Free

his veiled lady was honest and chaste — wouldn’t be caught dead in a bordello, if she even knew what one was. She was exactly the kind of woman he needed to cement his respectable reputation and put the past permanently in the past. He gave himself a mental shake.
Stay focused. She occupies your mind too much
.
Stop thinking of her as yours; stop thinking of her at all. She’s married to someone else — the lucky dog
.
    “Our arrangement cannot be changed.” The carefully clipped words signaled the seated man’s anger. “The merchandise waits in the forward hold to be unloaded. Our other clients expect delivery in full tonight.”
    Dutch grinned. Confirmation that the cargo was still on board was a bonus and would make rescuing the captives easier.
    His brother, Trey, and their partner, Smiley, would get the women off the ship. Dutch’s job was to make sure the smugglers didn’t interfere.
    “I’m your primary client, and I haven’t taken delivery yet, so negotiations are still open,” murmured Duval.
    She stood at a sharp angle to Dutch’s line of sight. Her unmistakable honey on steel tones populated his worst nightmares. The ones of his boyhood spent doing her depraved bidding. Gorge climbed in his throat, but he swallowed it back along with the memory of sexual acts and worse that no child — and he had been a child at the start — should have to perform. Too much of his youth had been endured as her personal toy until murder and Father Lucas Conroy allowed Dutch to escape.
    His desertion blotted her reputation as a dangerous woman, and she’d made it her mission to cause him trouble. He’d succeeded in achieving a respectable life despite her machinations. Now here he was, braving her wrath again.
    “My master must approve any change,” protested the slim Chinese.
    “We don’t have time for that. Either you agree to give me three more girls of my choice or I’ll kill you where you sit and take them all. Then the Chinaman will lose all of his merchandise and his most trusted aide.”
    Dutch sucked in a silent breath. Guaranteed, anything that involved Duval would be shady at best, but Cerise hooking up with San Francisco’s the powerful Tong boss was just plain bad news.
    “You may not take any of the children.”
    Dutch’s knot of nausea shredded in the face of rock solid determination.
She won’t do to any other child what she did to me
.
    “I’ll take what I want. Some of my customers prefer young girls, even if they are Chinese.”
    “My master will not be pleased.”
    “I don’t give a damn if the Chinaman is pleased or not, get the keys to that hold. I want to take my new whores out of here before Father Conroy and his vigilante pals get wind of tonight’s activities.”
    “Do not worry about the vigilantes; my master has arranged a distraction.”
    So that’s why Father Conroy sent me the message that he wouldn’t be able to assist with tonight’s rescue
. The vigilante leader was nearly as savvy as the Chinaman, but the priest couldn’t be in two places at once. Father Lucas was the one person willing to take in a gutter born youth and his brother, showing Dutch the way out of Duval’s grasp and the Barbary Coast. More than history, they shared an interest in destroying the flesh trade. But now was no time to wonder what distraction kept the priest and his committee busy. Dutch needed to make sure that Trey and Smiley had rescued the women.
    “Count on the Chinaman to think of almost everything. Now get that key.” Duval issued a throaty chuckle and gestured with the derringer.
    Dutch shifted his head, looking toward the opening of the forward hold.
    Three dark figures climbed out then huddled aside. Concern clenched his jaw.
That’s not enough
.
Retrieving the women is taking too long. We’re going to get caught.
He had to stop Duval and her cohort.
    From inside the wheelhouse he heard a drawer open and close. The scrape of a chair against the deck followed.
    He backed