Bound in Darkness by Jacquelyn Frank Read Free Book Online

feel you were a victim. I’m thinking you don’t like thinking that way about yourself.”
    “Does anyone like thinking themselves a victim?” she snapped.
    “Some do. Don’t be so defensive. It’s one of the things I like about you. One of the reasons I’m letting you stay on with us.”
    Her temper cooled a little bit and she looked at him from the corner of her eye. “You’re going to let me stay on?”
    “For a little while. Provided you make yourself useful and not a hindrance to our goals. But the minute you become too much trouble I’ll drop you like a hot rock.”
    She still regarded him with suspicion. “No other conditions?”
    “You cook, you clean up, you mend. Just like we agreed. But other than that, no other conditions.”
    “And I want ten percent.”
    “Five,” he said mildly. But before she could get her back up he said, “Prove yourself once and I’ll seriously consider bumping you up to ten.”
    She snorted. “ ‘Seriously consider’? That’s man-speak for ‘it’ll never happen.’ ”
    “Not true. My, what a jaded view of men you have.”
    “Is there any reason why I shouldn’t?” she groused.
    “True. Men aren’t the least bit trustworthy.”
    “Some more than others,” she said meaningfully.
    He laughed. “Put your boots on and go into my saddlebags. You’ll find dried pork and hard bread for breaking our fast.”
    “And what are you going to do?”
    “Watch you,” he said, lying back and tucking his hands behind his head with a grin.
    “You…you…” But she forced herself to bite her tongue. She should be grateful that she was going to be able to stay with them. That there were no longer any untenable conditions to her staying. As she marched over to his bags, which were only two feet away, she began to understand that her luck might be changing. The understanding made it hard for her to stay angry with him.
    She fetched the bread and the pork and returned to his side. Sitting cross-legged, she pulled the bread apart and gave him half and handed him several pieces of the pork jerky. The meat was very salty, so she got up and fetched some water from an animal skin that also hung from his saddle. They traded the skin back and forth in silence for several long minutes.
    “So where are we going?” she asked. He laughed out loud.
    “I knew it was too good to last.”
    “What?”
    “The silence from you. Why is it so important for you to know where we are going? We’re going to Docking Bay, like I said.”
    “But then where?” she asked. She winced at his dirty look. “Why can’t you just tell me?”
    “Because it doesn’t really matter where we’re going now, does it? You’re going to follow us no matter what. You don’t really have any other choice now, do you?”
    “I could leave. I could go somewhere…steal something…make my way. I’ve done it before.”
    “Except you owe me and you have to repay your debt first.”
    “Debt! What debt?” she demanded.
    “I got your horse out of the inn for you.”
    “Oh please. What was that, a silver? One silver and a few coppers? It’s not like you can’t afford it. I saw the way you all were throwing your money around at the inn.”
    “It’s the principle of the thing,” he said.
    “Oh, like you have so many principles.” She belched a scoffing laugh.
    “I do. You don’t know me well enough to say otherwise.”
    “I know enough. I know you tricked me into thinking I was going to have to service every man in this group.”
    “I didn’t trick you into anything. You agreed to it, remember? You’re the one reneging on an agreement, not me.”
    Damn it, he had a point. But she was going to be the last to admit that. “Well, it was very wrong of you to make me think…it was very wrong.”
    “Mayhap it was. But I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective now, isn’t it?”
    He sat up and stretched again before snatching up one of his boots and putting it on. “Come on, let’s find that