He gazed at her, offended. “I’ll not grab food out of a woman’s hands.”
“The woman in question isn’t very hungry, and her food would go to waste otherwise.”
Though he had to still be ravenous, he didn’t move to take the offered pastry.
“Don’t be a prideful ass.” She held her food out to him. “Considering how we’ve got you over a barrel, this can be some compensation.”
“A pie doesn’t make up for you lot blackmailing me.”
“It’s a start.”
He continued to stare at her until, finally, he took the food. Their fingers brushed as he did so. They had touched before, yet each new contact seemed to create new pathways of sensation, expanding farther and farther through her body.
She pulled back, her hands folding in her lap, and she fixedly stared out the window. This time, she did not watch him eat, but tried to pick out details from the night-swathed landscape rolling past the window.
“The canteen is still in Marco’s pack.” Were they close to Grantham yet? She hoped they were. Everything would become secure and orderly once they returned to headquarters.
She couldn’t stop herself from watching him drink. A few droplets of water ran down his chin and along his throat to disappear beneath the knotted neck cloth.
He replaced the canteen, but found the flask. His eyes met hers in the glass. The flash of his grin made heat move through her all over again—brutal thugs didn’t grin like scoundrels, full of wicked intent. This one did.
He took a pull from the flask and gave an expressive shudder. “Even on Rockley’s penny, I never had liquor like this.”
“Marco enjoys fine spirits.”
“Here’s to Marco, then.” He raised the flask before taking another drink. Then he capped the flask and returned it to the pack. She had expected him to down the whole thing.
“Without offering a drink to the lady?” She gazed at him severely.
His eyebrows rose. “Didn’t think ladies liked spirits.”
“
This
lady does.” She held out a hand.
He passed her the flask, and watched with naked fascination as she uncapped it and took a good, long swallow. She couldn’t remember appreciating a drink more. The grappa burned like redemption.
“I’ll be sure to remember Marco in my evening prayers.” He purchased grappa regularly from an importer, claiming that his Italian blood couldn’t tolerate coarse English whiskey. Ridiculous, particularly since she had witnessed him drain more than a few glasses of whiskey at the end of an especially difficult assignment.
After taking one more sip, she gave the flask back to Dalton.
At that moment, Marco and Simon returned to the compartment, closing the door behind them. Spotting his flask in Dalton’s hand, Marco scowled and snatched it away. It seemed to be a measure of Dalton’s improved humor that he didn’t plant his fist in Marco’s face.
“How does this Nemesis operation work?” he asked. “You run adverts in the paper:
‘Downtrodden? Want justice? Nemesis, Unlimited has all your vengeance needs. Find us at the corner of Dean Street and Fetter Lane.
’”
Marco rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. We started finding clients just by keeping our ears to the ground, using our sundry connections to find out when someone was being wronged. After our first few cases, word spread. Former clients bring us new cases, and we still use our connections to find those in need of help. No advertising necessary.”
“Ever turn anyone down?”
“All the time,” Eva said. “Some people think Nemesis is their own personal bully squad. They want us to collect debts or throw acid in a rival’s face. But we work to obtain justice for those who have been truly wronged, we don’t deal out thuggery. Yet there’s always legitimate work for us, and we usually take on several cases at once.”
“Can’t imagine that these clients of yours pay handsomely.”
“We take small remuneration for our services,” she said, “but Nemesis is funded out of our own pockets.”
Dalton snorted. “Bad business model.”
“It’s not about the money.” Simon’s lip curled. “It never has been.”
Dalton looked patently skeptical. “Tell me what happens when we get to London.”
“We review options, devise strategies.” Simon neatly flicked back the tails of his coat as he took his seat. “Plan our course of attack.”
“Based on information that
I
give you. And then?”
“And then … Nemesis will do its job.”
“After that?” Dalton demanded.
“We can’t think beyond our immediate goals,” she said. “Otherwise, we lose focus.”
Dalton’s mouth curled. “No need for you lot to worry about the future. You don’t have the warders biting at your heels.”
“Earlier this evening,” she noted, “you seemed willing to die to get vengeance on Rockley. A few weeks of uncertainty is nothing by comparison.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. “This is why I don’t like mixing with clever people. They twist you around so much you don’t know your nose from your arsehole.”
“What an enchanting image.”
Silence pressed down in the compartment. They all seemed to run out of words, as though a tap had been opened and everything worth saying drained away.
She burned with impatience to reach headquarters so they might begin the next stage of their plan. The others must have felt the same way, all of them restive, legs crossing and uncrossing, knuckles cracking, fingers drumming on kneecaps or any available surface—the dozens of small yet irritating ways men channeled their pent-up energy.
Dalton seemed torn between restlessness and exhaustion. With his arms still folded over his chest, he kept glancing around as if anticipating an ambush. But then his eyes drooped shut. An instant later, he snapped them open, fighting sleep. Yet escaping from prison and a long chase across the moors had taken their toll. No matter how he struggled, sleep dragged on him.
At last, he could fight no more. His head tipped back, leaning against the seat. Dreams began at once, his dark eyelashes quivering. What did he dream of? Murdering Rockley, most likely. Or maybe he dreamt of his sister. The file contained only the most basic information: Dalton and his sister had different fathers, and their mother had died some time shortly after Edith’s birth. They had grown up in East London. At an unknown point, Edith had become a prostitute, Dalton a thief and then a bare-knuckle boxer in underground fights before finally being hired as a bodyguard by Rockley. Whether the siblings were close wasn’t covered in the report. Edith meant enough to her brother to warrant attempted murder.
Or maybe Dalton dreamt of someone else. A sweetheart, perhaps. He hadn’t said anything about a woman waiting for him, but that possibility couldn’t be ruled out. A man like Dalton wouldn’t want for female company. He’d be irresistible to any woman with a taste for danger. Almost every woman craved a dangerous man.
Not me. I’ve enough of it in my work. Don’t need it in my lovers.
Yet she watched him sleep, watched the softening of his face, and how, when he wasn’t scowling or cursing, his mouth verged on sybaritic.
A sharp jab in her side pulled her attention away from Dalton. Simon frowned at her.
“Be on your guard,” he whispered, throwing a significant glance toward Dalton.
“I’m always careful,” she whispered back.
“There’s a first time for everything.”
She made a hand gesture learned on the London docks. Yet the warning was a good one. If this mission failed, everyone in Nemesis would wind up either in prison or dead. The stakes were far too high to rely on something as fallible and easily fooled as the human heart.
CHAPTER FOUR
He didn’t trust anyone, least of all her. Jack watched Eva’s face as the train slowed, looking for any hint of what she might be thinking. She kept her expression so damn cool, though. She could be planning his murder or an afternoon tea. Either was a possibility. Her gaze stayed on the windows as the platform at King’s Cross Station slid into view. She and the two blokes kept themselves alert, wary. Jack did the same.
The bits of sleep he’d had on the ride had revived him. He no longer felt like his eyes were full of sand. So he stopped looking at Eva and stared out the window, too. Despite the lateness of the hour, people milled on the platform, waiting for the train. No gang of coppers there to arrest him. He stayed cagey. The police could be lying in wait. If they thought he’d go down without a fight, they’d soon learn their mistake.
“Keep yourself easy.” Eva reached across the compartment and laid her hand atop his, startling him. Her fingers tried to pry his fist open. They couldn’t. “Act like an escaped convict, and that’s precisely what everyone will see.”
“Think I don’t know that?” he growled back. But he relaxed his hands. He felt a stab of disappointment when she took her hand away and smoothed it down the front of her skirts, as if to wipe away the feel of his skin.
The train stopped with a hiss. Marco, Simon, and Eva stood. Drawing a breath, Jack stood, as well. Simon moved out into the passageway and opened the door. He glanced up and down the platform, illuminated by hundreds of gaslights.
“We’re clear.” Simon placed his hand on his pocket and stared at Jack. “Make a break for it, and I’ll unload my gun into your back.”
“Keep threatening me,” Jack answered, “and I’ll feed you your goddamn gun through your arse.”
Scowling, Eva stepped between them. “The both of you, enough chest-beating. Our cab’s waiting.” She shouldered past Simon and stepped out onto the platform. Jack followed, giving Simon a glare and an extra shove with his arm as he moved past the blond toff. Jack had to give the bloke some credit, though. He didn’t move an inch when Jack shoved him, and Jack hadn’t been gentle. Strong, that one. Couldn’t trust a man like that.
The clock in the station declared it to be half past two in the morning. Only a few dozen people moved around the platform instead of the usual mobs waiting for trains to take them north. He’d been to King’s Cross a dozen times, maybe more. Even so, he hadn’t been in a huge train station in years. Unease gnawed on the back of his neck. The very size of the place made him edgy, with its massive vaulted ceiling. His too tight suit already made him feel squeezed. This made it worse, his heart pounding as if trying to force its way out of his chest.
“Let’s go.” Eva led the way down the platform, with Simon and Marco staying close at Jack’s heels.
He could do it. Now. Break away from these Nemesis madmen and track Rockley down on his own. There were dozens of places in the station he could lose himself if he ran fast. Behind the colonnades. Across the tracks and into the goods or coal depot.
“I wouldn’t.” Eva spoke over her shoulder. “Simon’s a crack shot. He’s got a shelf of trophies from Eton.”
“Harrow,” said Simon.
She waved a slim hand. “Those distinctions only matter to you. Either way, Dalton, you better not risk it.”
“Don’t like being threatened,” he growled.
She turned and faced him so abruptly, he nearly collided with her. “Don’t give us a reason to threaten you.” A man in a wrinkled tweed suit gave them a curious look, so she pasted a bright smile on her face. “Come, Cousin Henry, Mama has made up a room for you and I’d wager she’s keeping herself awake for your arrival.”
The man in the tweed suit moved on.
“She better have a drink waiting for me,” Jack said. He surely needed one.
“One of her famous cordials, no doubt.” She tipped her head toward the arches that led to the booking office and the exit. “Do hurry along, cousin. We don’t want to be discourteous to Mama.”
He thought of a dozen rude things to say, but didn’t want to attract any more attention. It seemed the smarter course of action to just follow along with these Nemesis lunatics and consider a plan of escape as he went.
The four of them walked quickly through the station, passing the ticket office, and then out onto the street. Several cabs lined up on St. Pancras Road, the heads of both drivers and horses drooping as they dozed. Only one driver looked awake, and he waved at them as they emerged from the station. Another one of their “friends,” Jack assumed. The others hastened toward the waiting cab.
“Come on, Dalton,” Eva said when Jack remained on the curb.
“Give me a bloody minute.” He drew in a deep lungful of air. It was heavy with the scents of coal smoke, horse dung, mud. Not a trace of rock dust or bitter Yorkshire wind. Thank God.
He was back. Back in London. He never thought to be here again.
“Now, Dalton,” Eva said, yet her voice was far gentler than her words.
He didn’t want to stand out here, waiting for some copper to stroll by on patrol, so he got into the cab with the others. As soon as the door closed, they were off, clattering away from King’s Cross Station.
London. London. The name beat through him like another pulse as he stared out the cab window and the passing streets. He’d been born here, and his earliest memories involved him running barefoot and filthy through the city’s knotted streets. A wretched, glittering trollop of a city. Christ, how he loved it. Missed it. As the cab drove into the night, he kept his starved gaze on the city, past churches and squares and grimy streets. Though most of London’s citizens were tucked in their beds, the lanes quiet and still, there were still others out on their particular nighttime business, scuttling like roaches beneath the street lamps.
Eva and the two men spoke to one another in low voices, but Jack barely heard them. Somewhere out there was Rockley. Somewhere in London that son of a bitch drank and fucked, little knowing that his miserable life was soon to end.
The cab turned into a narrow lane lined with darkened shops. The lane itself looked empty, and the lodgings above the shops had their shutters and curtains drawn. Once the hired carriage stopped, Marco hopped out, with Simon following. Eva remained in the carriage as Jack peered curiously through the cab’s open door.
Of all the places he thought Nemesis would take him, he wasn’t figuring on Clerkenwell, a place more suited to shabby paper shufflers and Italian immigrants than secret organizations bent on vengeance.