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Fury raged deep within hiainst Noah’s ribs didn’t even wind the htened his beefy hold, but Barnaby refused to give up Even when the edges of Barnaby’s vision began to blur he didn’t surrender He tried to lift his leg to reach the flick knife tucked inside his boot but Noah’s weight prevented hi for air, Barnaby felt the room start to fade and knew this was it; the final moments of his life

Suddenly, he thought of Rose

Rose

Barnaby was glad now that his decision to send her away had been the right one He just regretted not having the strength to say goodbye to her It had been clear fro had spoken to her that she was angry with her new lover Barnaby now regretted that they had to part on less than aht

When he was certain that he was going to lose consciousness, the ie of her suddenly swaave hi inside hith His eyes narrowed and turned feral as he glared hatefully up at thehold of Noah’s neck in an identical hold, Barnaby squeezed tightly So tightly that Noah’s eyes bugged and his face quickly turned puce Watching Noah’s struggle equal his own, Barnaby continued to clench his fingers until Noah began to gurgle He watched a thin trail of slobber drip out of the corner of the ht for life as well The desperation in Noah’s eyes when he too began to lose consciousness forced the man to loosen his own hold on Barnaby

When Noah lifted his hand to punch hiers hard into the man’s armpit Noah imh to give Barnaby the opportunity he needed With the hand clutching Noah’s wrist, Barnaby crossed his index finger over his ht into Noah’s eye Noah immediately released Barnaby’s neck so he could clutch his face; his loud screech of protest echoing hauntingly around the room

Once released, Barnaby vaulted to his feet Noah was too busy cradling his eye and didn’t see the boot Barnaby slae to do it again was strong, but Barnaby held back Noah had a lot of valuable inforive to the Star Elite It was important that he was kept alive With that in ht ball of misery, but followed him in case the man tried to run for the door

“You are a fool Stephenson,” Noah gasped, squinting at him “You are a fool if you think that I won’t kill you” With that, Noah bent over at the waist and charged across the rooed bull

Barnaby took several staggering steps backward until he was in line with the small table beside the bed and fumbled behind him for the heavy, ornate candle-stick Before Noah tackled hih and slammed it down onto the side of Noah’s head

Noah sluround

Stepping carefully around him, Barnaby tore strips off the bed sheets and secured the sailor before he patted him down in search of weapons Once he was sure that Noah was no longer a threat, Barnaby stood over hied so much and all for money He had once considered nobody ues Now, thanks to Noah, he are that Sayers had more than one traitor in the Star Elite They just didn’t knoho he was yet, but they were going to find out

“Who else can’t I trust?” Barnaby whispered

He almost wished he hadn’t hit Noah so hard so he could ask him, but needed a few minutes by himself to recover and think

Being double crossed in such a way made Barnaby now start to doubt the choices he had e a minute of his time with the Star Elite up until now, he are that it would be foolish to reject a chance of happiness with the woman who noned his heart There could be no question that he would regret it for the rest of his life While he could never completely walk away from his work, he could find the saues had found, couldn’t he? He would need Rose’s help to es of course, but wasthe rest of his life with a proper ho for him when he returned

“Da down at the unconscious ust “I have wasted enough time on you”