Hooded Man (71 page)

Is that what you really believe? Yes, I think it is.

“Well, the new boss around here’s letting all of the prisoners free who want to work for him. Good old Tanek vouched for me.”

Shit, he’s here as well? One big, happy family reunion.

“Hey, it’ll be just like the old days, ’cept for the fact you’ve got a sprog now, eh?”

Gwen stood, holding Clive Jr close to her. “If you go near him, I’ll –”

Jace pulled out a pistol and levelled it at her. “You’ll what, Duchess?”

Her eyes were fixed on the gun. He’d pull the trigger in a heartbeat. He had a grudge not only against her, but this whole place.

“Now, take it easy and everything will be fine.” Jace’s eyes were crawling downwards, over the front of her jumper, just as they had the day she’d enticed him into the room. He’d been distracted then, the horny little shit, and she’d been able to get the better of him. How was she supposed to do that now, holding Clive Jr and with a handgun pointed at her?

“I seem to recall that you got me to strip off the last time we met. So, how’s about we start by you returning the favour?”

“Please... My son.”

“What about him?”

“You can’t, not in front of him.”

“Listen, I’ve been banged up in that fucking hotel jail the best part of a year, bitch. I haven’t had any in all that time, so I’m going to make up for it. Just a happy coincidence that it’s you, so I can kill two birds with one stone. Now, put him down and get on with it.”

Gwen closed her eyes out of resignation. It was all happening again, wasn’t it? It would happen in this room, just as it had before. But instead of the Sheriff it would be some wet-behind-the-ears young thug. Only she’d changed so much, been forced to change. She’d do what he wanted, just until she could get that piece off him. Then she’d fucking well blow his brains out.

“I said put him down!” shouted Jace.

Gwen placed Clive Jr in the corner, telling him everything was going to be okay. Then she turned to Jace.

“Make it nice and slow. I don’t want to miss nothing,” he said.

Swallowing dryly, Gwen took hold of the bottom of her jumper and began to raise it. She took her time, like he said, but was apparently taking too long, because Jace jabbed the gun in her direction and told her to get the jumper off. “Now! I want to see.”

Gwen pushed her elbow into the hem of the jumper and peeled it off. It wasn’t particularly cold, but she shivered anyway, and thanked God she’d worn a bra today. It was the last thing standing between Jace’s beady little pig-eyes and her nakedness.

“That too,” Jace ordered, indicating the bra. He licked his lips, eyes glued to her chest. With his free hand he began to undo his belt, his trousers swelling where he was growing excited.

Gwen began to walk towards him. “Wouldn’t you like to get a closer look, Jace? Maybe touch them?”

He straightened his gun arm and pushed her back. “I’m not falling for that twice. I’m not a moron.”

Are you sure about that?
thought Gwen. Quick as a flash, she flung the jumper at him, knocking the gun sideways and allowing her a clear shot with her foot, to kick him between the legs. Jace managed to twist around, though, and the kick caught him on the thigh.

Angrily, he pushed her back, shrugging the jumper off his gun and pointing it at her again. “Gonna regret that.”

Gwen tensed herself, but the shot didn’t come. He didn’t want to kill his plaything. Instead, he turned the weapon in the direction of Clive Jr.

“No, please. Not my son. I’ll do anything.”

“You will anyway,” Jace reminded her. “Remember what you said to me last time, how was I going to do anything with my ‘maggot’? Heh. When I’ve shut the kid up, I’m going to show you exactly what I can do.”

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. As she flung herself across the room – throwing her body between the bullet and Clive Jr – Gwen noticed every tiny detail. The slight pressure on the trigger of the pistol; Jace’s forehead crinkling as he aimed at her boy; the scar along his chin stretched tighter than ever. And the exact moment Jace’s expression changed, his face creasing up in pain rather than concentration. At the exact same time a trickle of blood sprang from the corner of his mouth and began its downward journey.

Then there was the flash of metal and Jace was pitching forward, the gun falling from his grasp. He caught her eye as he followed it, dropping first to his knees, before coughing up blood. Even now he seemed to be thinking: Why is this happening to me? I’m not a bad guy.

Gwen felt nothing as he collapsed onto the carpet, but she could now see the vicious blow that had caused his death. A long cut across his back, so deep it had probably severed his spinal column. And behind Jace, his attacker. A man she hadn’t even seen or heard come in.

He stood there, blade dripping with Jace’s blood, the hood he wore obscuring his features. But Gwen knew what he looked like. Knew it was him.

Knew that under that hood there was a painted face, a skull . Lifting the machete, he wiped the blood off on the edge of his dark robes.

Frozen in the process of running to Clive Jr, Gwen gaped at him, not comprehending. Skullface had just saved her, and her child.

Clive Jr! Gwen found she could move again and went to her son, gathering him up into her arms. She didn’t once take her eyes off the cultist, though.

He had something in his other hand, his free hand. He tossed it over, and when she held it up she saw it was one of their robes. “Put it on,” he said. His voice was flat, robotic, but was she imaging things or was there a hint of humanity in there? At first Gwen thought he might be telling her this to cover up her dignity – as she was still standing in only her bra and jeans. Then she realised he had other plans.

“They will be coming for you soon,” he stated. “You must leave the castle.”

“Who will? The soldiers? Are they going to kill us?” Gwen placed Clive Jr down by her feet a moment while she slipped into the robes.

Skullface, who still hadn’t removed his hood, answered: “They are taking you and the other women to the forest.”

“What?” Gwen was more confused than ever. Why would they take them to the forest to kill them? And why just the women?

“You are to be bait.”

Bait? She still didn’t understand... unless Robert had returned to Sherwood? But then surely they’d take just Mary? Gwen cast her mind back to the hostages that had been on the gallows when De Falaise had been at the castle – Robert had been willing to come into the castle grounds alone to save them. Perhaps they were banking on him coming out because they had some of his closest friends? Closest female friends? The sexist shits.

It still didn’t explain why this guy was helping her escape, why he’d stopped Jace from attacking them. From attacking Clive Jr...

“Why?” she asked as she scooped up Clive Jr again, joining the cultist at the door. “Why are you doing this for us? For him?”

“He must be kept safe,” said the man in that monotone voice, tinged with the slightest hint of compassion. “Hide him under your robes.”

Gwen did as she was told, covering Clive Jr as much as she could, before pulling up the hood to conceal her features. Their saviour led them out of the office and into the castle, where other robed figures were waiting.

She didn’t have much option but to go with them, especially as they were able to move freely. Where they were taking her, she had no idea, but Gwen began to hope again.

For her there was always New Hope.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I
T WAS ALREADY
dark by the time they arrived, and they hit the mist about a mile outside Sherwood. The moon was on the horizon, tinged with red. A hunter’s moon, they called it. Tanek smirked, grimly.

Fog lamps kicked in and allowed the drivers of the armoured vehicles to see roughly a car’s distance ahead of them. They’d brought three AFVs – a couple of armoured personnel carriers, and their cannon-wielding BTR-90 – and a couple of jeeps. All they’d need to tackle a few fugitives.

Tanek rode with the Tsar and the twins. The Tsar had insisted on coming along personally, he’d said because he didn’t want Hood and his men escaping this time. Tanek suspected it was more to do with keeping an eye on him. They were coming to a parting of the ways, anyone could see that, but it was fine. The Tsar and his men had played their part. Tanek was based back in Nottingham again. And, by a twist of fate, even that dolt Bohuslav was out of the picture. Which meant, if Tanek was to take control of this operation, he would only have to deal with the twins.

Only.

He remembered how adept they were. How skilled with those swords. One at a time, maybe. But when they worked as a pair, they were lethal.

Actually, everyone being in the same place, at the same time, might work to his advantage. If they were killed, he could blame the renegades – after killing them as well, and any witnesses among the Tsar’s men. Wouldn’t be easy, but he’d pulled trickier things off.

Then he and Adele would have a little chat about how to move forwards. He could see her mind ticking over about what would happen once the Tsar was no longer in command. Ultimately Tanek thought she’d make a fine leader. Eventually. He’d already seen shades of his old master in her, especially the cruelty she’d displayed when torturing that scum, Jack. But she needed guidance. De Falaise had asked him to look after her, and he would. She’d take the reins only when he deemed she was ready.

She caught his eye as he was thinking this and smiled. Adele had come along as well because, “None of them know the truth about me. I can be another hostage.” Along with a virtually unconscious Mary and the nurse, who’d managed to stabilise Hood’s woman and splint her leg. The Tsar had at least told him he was right to keep her alive, because in spite of Hood being dead – and Tanek still wasn’t entirely convinced about that – the others would still surrender if their leader’s woman was threatened.

Tanek had also been told that Gwen had been captured, and he’d ordered someone to go fetch her because she had a link to the holy man. Worryingly, they’d only found the body of ex-prisoner Jace in the room where she was being held. The grounds had quickly been searched, but there was no sign of her. Tanek wasn’t surprised, not after the way she’d behaved on the day of the hangings. It really wasn’t that much of an issue – just another loose end to tie up at a later point, like finishing off Jack – but it irked Tanek all the same. She had been De Falaise’s woman, so it was a matter of principle.

“How long until we are there?” Tanek heard the Tsar shout to the driver.

“We are almost at Sherwood, sire,” came the reply.

The Tsar nodded, satisfied. “You see? Russian efficiency. We have made excellent time.”

“We should have waited until the morning,” Tanek replied. Night had fallen and now there was this mist. If the trees didn’t provide cover enough, either of those would. Except the plan was not to go into the forest – which would be suicide even at the best of times – but to force them to come out.

“And allow them to move on? We suspect they are here, right now. Why give them the opportunity to slip through our fingers again?” The last was another dig at Tanek, even though he’d been busy dealing with Jack at the time of their escape.

“They won’t leave Sherwood. It is where Hood will come when –”

“Hood? Hood again. Tanek, the man is dead. Will you not get that through your thick skull?”

One more crack like that and I will reach over and crush your windpipe,
thought Tanek.

“Then we should have waited for Hood’s men. They will almost certainly try to regain the castle.”

The Tsar waved a hand. “And do what? Shoot their little bows and arrows at my men?”

“It’s what they did to Bohuslav’s troops,” Tanek retorted. It didn’t do to underestimate Hood or his men, as they’d found out to their cost in the past. Tanek had a grudging admiration for the man, which he knew De Falaise would understand. It wouldn’t stop him obliterating all of his followers, or indeed the Hooded Man himself if he still existed. Tanek had made a promise to avenge the man he had followed, not because of his lures of power, but because he had a vision. A vision that might yet become a reality.

Before the Tsar had a chance to say anything more, the driver informed them that they were pulling into the visitor centre’s car park. It was empty, which Tanek knew didn’t prove a thing. Any transportation the fugitives might have used would have been moved by now; that’s if they’d even entered the forest from here in the first place. Sherwood was a big area, but Adele seemed to think this would be the best spot, having followed Hood before.

“Turn the spotlights on,” ordered the Tsar. The vehicles formed a rough semi-circle and trained their beams on the area ahead of them, breaking through the mist. “This will get their attention, yes?”

Armed men were already filling up the lit area, standing guard by the vehicles, and a rap on their AFV told them they were ready for Adele. Tanek opened up the hatch and climbed out, dragging Adele with him; the crossbow he was carrying pointing at her temple. They had to make this look realistic.