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difference to me, as long as we get paid, which we will. Something tells me that Blake won’t be backing out of the deal. Did you see his face when he described the girl? He wants her, Simon, though I couldn’t figure out why to save my life.”
    Simon shrugged and took his turn with the whiskey bottle. “Just a means to an end, eh Julian?” he said as he stood, swayed, and left the whiskey bottle on the rock beside him.
    “Of course. Did you think that this one would be different?”
    Simon shrugged again, his eyes bleary and unfocused from drink. “Perhaps because we know this girl didn’t do anything to deserve Blake.”
    Julian snorted. “Actually, we don’t know that.”
    Simon sighed. “I don’t know, Julian.”
    “Why are you suddenly so squeamish? We’ve done jobs like this before.”
    “Yes, but those were runaway spouses or dishonorable men trying to outrun their debts.”
    Julian’s jaw tightened. “Nothing has changed, Simon. We do the job, deliver the girl, take the money.”
    “If you say so,” Simon retorted as he turned toward the heavy line of trees to their right. “Going to the privy.”
    Julian watched Simon disappear into the woods and sipped at the whiskey bottle absently. A means to an end. That was how he had to think of these jobs. Just one more step on the path to the life he’d always wanted. After all, being born the bastard son of a noble hadn’t offered him many other choices.
    He glanced at his sleeping captive once more. The amount he’d charged Blake for the kidnapping was twice his normal rate, but Julian was ready to end this phase of his life and move on to the next. A house, a piece of land, cattle and a comfortable existence; all of these things were what he was working for.
    One scrawny, soot-covered girl was certainly worth it.
     
     
     
     
    The moment Julian’s eyes closed, Ava’s popped open. She narrowed her gaze on him from across the nearly extinguished campfire, her jaw clenched to the breaking point. A means to an end , that’s what he’d called her. She wasn’t a person, someone’s friend, or someone’s daughter. He was nothing more than a middleman for Dorian Blake and she was a trophy for the abductor of women.
    The thought filled Ava with fury, but she was calmed by at least knowing why she’d been kidnapped. In fact, this development might serve her in the arrest of Blake. King Serge had charged her with finding the man and this Julian was taking her straight to him.
    With at least that knowledge to pacify her, Ava fell into sleep; real slumber this time, not the act she’d been putting on for Julian and Simon.
    When morning dawned, she felt much better, though slightly cramped from sleeping so awkwardly. She was annoyed at having to wait for one of her kidnappers to notice that she had awakened, as she was still bound and unable to even sit up on her own. Ava’s stomach growled noisily and rolled violently as she thought of the meal she’d missed out on the night before. She was starving, she was uncomfortable and she needed to relieve herself, but she’d be damned if she was going to make even one little sound. Ava contented herself with staring at her capturers until Julian finally noticed that her eyes were open.
    “Well, well,” he drawled slowly as he approached, sinking down to one knee in front of her pallet. “Our little hellcat has risen.”
    Ava stared at him silently, her teeth clenching brutally around the gag between her lips. His hands clamped around her shoulders and pulled, manipulating her like a rag doll until she was seated with her legs folded beneath her. The sudden rush of blood to her limbs caused them to tingle.
    “Now that you are well rested, we will continue on our journey,” he said. “I will remove the gag so that you can eat and the bonds long enough for you to relieve yourself. I’ll not tolerate any insubordination from you either, so don’t even think of trying to escape. You won’t get far, I can