Zoë Archer - Sweet Revenge

Looking out the window, he noted the neighborhood. “St. John’s Wood,” he said aloud.

“Wonder what’s here,” she murmured.

He had a pretty strong suspicion what that might be, but he’d wait until they’d reached their destination before saying anything. He didn’t want to look like a fool. Not in front of her.

The growler came to a sudden stop.

Both Jack and Eva peered out the window. Fine-looking brick houses lined the quiet street. A little ways down the block, Gilling had jumped out of the hansom. He hurried up the walk of one of the houses. Lights shone beneath the drawn curtains, but the house itself looked as decent and well behaved as any of its neighbors. Looks couldn’t be trusted, though.

“Do you know that place?” Eva asked.

“It’s Mrs. Arram’s.”

“Ah,” she said with understanding. Mrs. Arram’s brothel catering to wealthy gentlemen had been on the list of Rockley’s favorite haunts.

“Perhaps Gilling needs to blow off steam,” Eva suggested, “so to speak.”

The man knocked on the door to the brothel. The door opened, revealing two huge men. Gilling spoke to them, looking frantic, but it was too far away for Jack to hear what was being said.

“They’ve got more security than normal,” Jack noted. “Usually it’s just one chap at the front door and another at the back.”

“One of them might be Rockley’s man,” Eva mused.

“It’s Wednesday, and not even ten o’clock,” he said, shaking his head. “Rockley never went to Mrs. Arram’s on Wednesday. And he never went to any brothel before midnight. Gilling would know that.”

“Then why come here? Unless,” she said, thoughtful, “he’s here to check on the evidence.”

Jack took his gaze away from Gilling, still speaking with the guards, and frowned at Eva. “You think the proof of them skimming on the contract would be at a whorehouse?”

“It’s a sensible location to store something highly valuable,” she explained. “Secure, as you noted. Most genteel brothels are better guarded than any bank. The men who go there have only one real purpose in mind, and it isn’t searching for incriminating documents. Yet if Rockley ever needed access to those documents, he could have it without attracting any attention. Likely he pays Mrs. Arram a substantial fee to keep the documents at her establishment, but with a strong warning that she isn’t to know or ask about what those papers contain.”

Damn him, but it made sense. Jack said, “We’d been looking for places where Rockley might’ve added security, but we searched in the wrong places. We didn’t even know if the evidence existed, but it does, and it’s here.” He snorted. A brothel. A sodding brothel.

“Gilling has to know it,” Eva said. “When you told him you had the evidence, he came straight to Mrs. Arram’s to check on it.” She peered out the window. “It looks as though the guards aren’t going to let him in, however.”

Gilling, looking more and more upset, was shouting at the men standing watch, trying to shove past them. One of the guards pushed him back. Gilling stumbled backward. Before he could try forcing his way in again, the door slammed in his face. For a few minutes, he pounded on the door, but it stayed shut.

Finally, Gilling gave up. He sulked down the walkway and flagged another hansom. He got in and drove away.

“Same story here, my lad,” Jack called up to the hackney driver. “A nice bit of coin for you if we stay on him.”

“Right you are, sir.”

This time, as the cab sped through the streets of London, Jack and Eva weren’t silent. As soon as they set off in their pursuit, she said, “Rockley knows you’ve escaped prison. You’re out there. He also knows that you’ll never be able to touch him, not physically, anyway. But his one vulnerability would be the evidence of his embezzlement. So he bulks up security at Mrs. Arram’s to make certain you have no way of getting to that evidence.”

Jack snorted. “Hell of a rotten bastard.”

“One of the worst I’ve ever encountered,” she said. “And I’ve encountered quite a lot of rotten bastards.”

It didn’t surprise Jack when Gilling’s cab came to a stop outside Rockley’s home. However, after Gilling pounded on the front door, he was allowed to go inside.

“They let him in,” Jack murmured. “But Rockley won’t be there. He’s never home at this time. Doesn’t usually get back until three or four.” That was hours away.

“Perhaps the butler is allowing Gilling to wait for Rockley’s return,” Eva suggested.

“Rockley didn’t like having folks in his home when he wasn’t there. But if the butler’s letting him stay, there’s got to be a reason.”

“More proof that Gilling and Rockley were partners in the scheme to swindle the government,” she said darkly. Her lips tightened. “I don’t particularly fancy the idea of sitting in this hackney for five hours, doing nothing.”

“Where next?”

“Home.” After she gave the cabman the direction for Nemesis headquarters and the carriage moved on, she sat back against the squabs, her expression shuttered as it usually was when she was deep in thought. Jack liked watching her think, the tumblers of her mind turning.

“We did pretty well back there,” he said. “Working Gilling like that.”

Her smile flashed in the dimness of the cab. “It did go rather nicely.”

“Sound surprised,” he noted. “Thought you Nemesis lot all partnered together doing these jobs of yours.”

“We do. I have. Usually I partner with Simon, but I’ve gone into the field with almost everyone else.”

His mouth curled. “So it’s me you didn’t expect to work out.”

“All quantities are unknown until tested,” she answered.

“Guess that means I passed the test,” he said dryly.

She hesitated before saying, “It’s ongoing.”

He couldn’t blame her for being chary. Earning someone’s trust—especially someone as cautious as Eva—could take lifetimes. A handful of days wouldn’t change much. He wasn’t sure he could trust her, either. Having spent his life in the company of thieves and good-for-nothings, he’d learned that the only person he could fully have faith in was himself. Always somebody ready to sell him out for their own profit.

Nemesis had already proved they’d do anything to make sure they saw justice served. They’d throw him under the wagon wheels if they thought it’d help their purpose.

But he wanted Eva’s trust. He wanted her secrets. He wanted … everything.

In the darkness and light of the carriage, he saw her sitting opposite him in that golden gown of hers, her shoulders slim but not fragile, the soft shadows between her breasts. Something big and hungry curled in his stomach.

“How’d you get involved with Nemesis?” he asked. “Missionaries’ daughters don’t seem the sort to throw in with ruthless bastards who dish out vengeance.”

“When I was helping my parents in the East End, I’d heard rumors someone was grabbing Chinese boys off the streets. I told my father and mother, but they didn’t want to get involved.”

“But you did.”

“I made some investigations and crossed paths with Simon. Thought he was one of the kidnappers at first. But when I found out what he was doing, that he was trying to help the boys, too, we worked together. He didn’t think I could handle myself.” She smiled darkly. “I proved otherwise. Simon and I put an end to the trafficking. Then he offered me a place with Nemesis. I didn’t hesitate.”

Of course she didn’t.

“How often did you visit brothels with Rockley?” she asked suddenly.

It took him a moment to realize she’d asked him a question. “Like I said, he had four he usually went to. Kept it interesting, is what he told me. Depending on what fancy struck him, we’d go every other day. Didn’t watch him, though, if that’s what you’re asking. Only kept guard outside.” Jack had gotten far too used to hearing Rockley fucking, to the point where he’d barely noticed it, standing out there in the hallway and thinking of what to eat for supper or whether he’d have time to grab a pint on his way home.