Read Mistaken Identity (Saved By Desire 3) for Free Online

the time he caught up with him, bent over at the waist, panting heavily on the far edge of the village. He knew from the look on his face that Joe had lost the man in the dense woods on the other side of the stream.
    Without searching the undergrowth, there was nothing they could do unless they waited and hoped the man would reappear. He could, of course, go through the woods and come out on the other side. Neither man wanted to admit it, but they had effectively lost their target.
    “I have no idea where we are,” Joe whispered. “I don’t know this area at all.”
    “Neither do I. However, our man does. He knew these woods were here. He knew what would be at the end of this road, and it would give him the best place to hide.”
    Joe had to agree with Marcus’ reasoning. If he had been in the man’s position, he would have done the same thing. Marcus would too, he knew it.
    “Was there anyone out and about at the tavern?” Joe asked.
    Marcus shook his head. “No. The entire village is as quiet as the graveyard.”
    As if to prove his point, absolute silence settled about them.
    “Someone is watching us,” Marcus whispered.
    “You feel it too, do you?” Joe replied, his lips barely moving.
    Was their quarry waiting for them to leave the area so that he could continue on his journey without them?
    “Well, we have his mount. He abandoned it in the tavern yard,” Marcus whispered. “Unless he is up for a bit of horse theft, which is something we can arrest him for, he has to either try to get his horse back or take a long walk. Either way, he is doomed to failure.”
    “If he is waiting -”
    “Oh, but he is waiting,” Marcus drawled.
    Now that the game had changed, all of his previous exhaustion had vanished in an instant. In its place was a ruthless determined not to give in. 
    “What do you want to do?” As Joe spoke, he scoured the trees for signs of movement.
    “It is, I think, an hour before dawn. We are going to find somewhere to hide, and will lie in wait. If our man doesn’t make an appearance, then it is safe to say that we have lost him,” Marcus replied. “However, we have to assume that he lives around these parts somewhere. For now, all we need to do is find out where.”
    “He has the box on him,” Joe warned.
    “I know,” Marcus replied. “So he has to meet someone to hand it over, doesn’t he? At some point, he has to come out of the undergrowth. When he does, we will be waiting.”
    “How do we know that the woods are wide, but not very deep?” Joe asked with a frown.
    “Because you are going to lie in wait for him here and I am going to go down the road. Then I will double back, take a good look at those woods, and see what is on the other side. If I see him, I will try to flush the bastard out.” He didn’t wait for his colleague to reply and stalked back toward the village. Within seconds he had vanished into the shadows.
    Marcus set to work. Keeping to the shadows, he manoeuvred his way around a long row of houses which bordered the edge of the woods. He vaulted over a low stone wall and quietly made his way into the trees to begin his search.
    It didn’t take long to find his quarry. Luckily, the man was walking steadily through the trees toward him. Marcus buried himself in the undergrowth and waited. Rather than approach, he eased closer and tried to get a good look at the man’s face. To his disgust, the tree cover thwarted him. It was too dark. With still no idea of whom the man was Marcus decided to follow to see where he went. He needed to know which house he occupied in the village because from the confident way the man strode through the undergrowth; there could be little doubt he was a resident.
    “Now, where did you get those from?” he whispered, eyeing the dead rabbits slung over one shoulder. “How did you get those so quickly?”
    Something wasn’t right. The cloak the man wore was the same. The build exactly right, but there was something wrong with