If You Dare by Kresley Cole Page A

tongue to keep from screeching at their boots on the table, at the smell of tobacco cloying inside the room, at the food they’d already rooted through.
    Mare de Déu! There were empty bottles of wine everywhere. She glanced around, eyes wide. Had more Highlanders come in the night? No, just the six of them had run through the abundant supply in the sideboard and raided their collection in the cellar.
    They saw her then, and she forced a smile to her face. “Good morning, gentlemen,” she said, pleasantly enough. When they stood and seemed as if they might approach her, no doubt to touch her hands again, she backed to the doorway and pressed her palms against the molding behind her. “I trust you slept well.”
    â€œAye. Thank you for your hospitality.” She thought that one was Niall. They’d introduced themselves last night, but all their names had sounded the same, alike in their oddness and unfamiliarity. More ridiculous, every surname began with Mac.
    â€œShould we no’ cut through the chatter and get to what you wanted to ask me?” MacCarrick muttered. He appearedexhausted, his eyes bloodshot again, and when she’d walked in he’d been rubbing his forehead.
    A brittle smile. “Of course, Mr. MacCarrick. Your directness is always . . . refreshing.”
    He raised his eyebrows. “Refreshing, is it now? How did you put it before? Aye, I remember. You said my people lacked delicacy.”
    She could feel herself blushing. These mercenaries looked embarrassed for her. She hated this man. Hated him. But she would do whatever it took to help Aleix. Remember that, Annalía. “I would like to hire you to help me and my family.”
    He smirked, clearly relishing her discomfiture. “And just what would you have us do?”
    She was a private and mistrustful person by nature, and above all else she was proud, but she would have to overcome these traits for they didn’t serve her now. “M-My brother, Aleixandre Llorente, has been captured by Pascal.”
    She scanned the room to see their reactions. The youngest one was about to say something, but then there was a sound under the table, as if he’d been kicked. He shut his mouth. What had he been about to tell her? Did he know something?
    MacCarrick insolently waved her on, and with effort she continued, “He is the only family I have left, and he is in Pascal’s jail. I would pay to have him freed. I would pay more than Pascal.”
    MacCarrick asked, “Why would you think he’s still alive?”
    She felt the blood leaving her face at the thought of Aleix dead, and to her shame her eyes watered. She found herself twining her fingers in front of her, then forced her hands to her sides.
    The older man hissed something to MacCarrick in a foreign language.
    MacCarrick shot him a look and snapped, “It’s a valid question.”
    She didn’t know how to handle these people. She’d been taught a perfect stitch and elegant table manners, but no one had instructed her on how to negotiate with ruthless men. Her idea of trying to manipulate MacCarrick with a kiss last night had been laughably far off the mark, but if she was as everyone thought, then why hadn’t it worked? “He will be alive because he has value to Pascal. The people here love him and would do anything for him. The general will use that as leverage over them.”
    â€œWhy does he need leverage over them, when he’s already terrorized them into submission?” MacCarrick asked as he leaned back in his seat. He sounded gloating about the fact.
    â€œHe terrorized them? Or his lackeys terrorized them?” She regretted her words the second she said them.
    He glanced around to the men with his eyebrows raised as if she’d just proven some theory, then his lips curled into a mean, mocking smirk. “Run along, Annalía. We’ll be here for only a few days more.”
    This