"Well," Dominic muttered as he examined a coin. "it would appear that these men were indeed sent by Alannah father, but where are the rest of them? Two of them are dead, but killed by whom? Alannah's brother Eraldo? It just doesn't make any sense! Her father has to know about the illegal dealings of his son, so …."
"We found them!' another soldier shouted, as he burst into the cabin. "They saw us coming and decided to try and get out of Port by taking the owner of another vessel hostage! One of them is wounded, but noone else has been hurt."
Dominic's turned and looked at the soldier who made the announcement. The look he gave made the others back away for fear of what he would do if they got in his way. Dominic motioned for the young soldier to lead the way, and the others followed.
The two captives were now sitting on the dock, both had their hands tied behind their backs. The young man that was wounded had his arm wrapped in a blood stained bandage. His accomplice, looked like he could be a force to be reckoned with. He had a shifty appearance, his eyes were wide and crazy looking. He was unshaven and had oily looking skin and hair. He glared at Dominic, while maintaining an air that appeared ice cold. When they both saw Erik they shrunk back in fear, neither one of the realizing that it wasn't Eraldo. The bigger guy bowed his head looking defeated, Dominic looked at Erik and Erik shrugged his shoulders. Dominic couldn't help but feel a sense of Déjà vu looking at this man.
"Where is my wife?" Dominic asked the two men in a quiet yet cold and calculated tone.
The pig-eyed man, however, didn't seem to be afraid of Dominic as the others were. "As you can see, she isn't here."
Dominic looked at him with a surprised look, momentarily caught off guard by the simple, truth uttered by the man. "All right, then, so you don't have her, seeing the gold and hearing about the reward you have offered you were obviously sent here by her father. So if you don't have her, that means that her father doesn't have her either. That just leaves one person - her brother . . ."
"Nope weren't him neither," the crazy eyed man said, glaring at Dominic.
"Oh?" Dominic asked him, getting more frustrated with each passing moment. "Then who has her? And, how do you know this?"
"That is simple, the brother tried to pay us off, said he would pay us handsomly if we just handed her over to him." The crazy eyed man told him. "He came by again this morning, told him the same thing, we ain't got her. If we had we would've taken his money . . ."