The men trailed her into the corridor. One guard remained outside the partially open door to monitor the hallway.
“Blades?” Ian whispered to Diana.
“Gone. It will take weeks to have another set made,” she complained. “Their knots are excellent. Truly, I would have them train my crew if they weren’t the filth of humanity.”
When footsteps echoed down the hall, Diana turned to Ian. “Good God, she was serious about the patrons? I thought she was trying to intimidate us.”
The tightness in her voice made him redouble his efforts to escape the ropes. “It will take a few minutes, but I can work free of the knots.”
“What if they find us first? We need a ruse to distract them. Can you sing?”
“Have you lost all sense?”
“Yes.” She hiccupped a laugh. “My mind keeps spinning.”
Her voice was drowned out by amorous cries and screams as a couple in the room above them met their climaxes.
Diana’s cheeks turned pink. Her forehead glistened with perspiration, and despite their harrowing circumstances, Ian’s entire body went hard.
He shook it off with a rattle of his head. “As long as you’re wearing the necklace, they’ll keep their distance.”
“Not everyone thinks it belongs to Costa.” Diana frantically tugged on her binds. Dots of crimson blood spotted her porcelain skin.
“Careful,” he cautioned. “The harder you pull, the tighter they tie. You need to loosen the center with gradual movement.”
“Of course. I knew that.”
When her eyes caught his, he read pure terror in her gaze.
Somehow, she’d forgotten that she herself was a force of nature. A champion who rescued women and felled criminals with a toss of her wrist.
A goddess of the hunt.
“Breathe, Diana,” he murmured. “I swear to you, we’ll get out of here.”
A rowdy, drunken chorus heralded sailors in the street below.
“If the guard lets that lot in this room, even the emeralds may not distract them from what they came here for,” Diana hissed. “We have to find some way to stall them.”
As loud footsteps and jeers approached, Ian knew she was right; they needed a distraction to buy them the time to get free of the ropes.
“We will have to perform,” he said in a rush, because to linger on the words would put enough thought into them to make him change his mind, lose his courage. “There’s only one thought on their minds if they come here.”
Her throat bobbed on a swallow. “Ian—”
“Oi, my friend, what have we here?” a slurred voice called out. A man craned his head around the guard. “Looks like a pretty package all tied up for us.”
“Must be a precious gift,” another said to the guard. “How about you let us in?”
“There are no good options left, Di.” Ian moved closer to her. “We will have to pretend. We both know how to put on an act.”
“Not this kind.”
Her voice sounded so unsure; it nearly undid him. “It signifies nothing.”
“It won’t work.”
Ian leaned into her. “Yes, it will. You and I will be convincing. We will make them understand you’re mine for the night.”