Zoë Archer - Sweet Revenge

“Which he didn’t do,” Jack said.

“He laughed at me,” the girl confessed. “‘Dalton’s an escaped convict, a menace,’ he said. ‘I’ve done the law a favor by killing him. They’ll give me a commendation for ridding the world of such scum.’”

Fire raced through Jack’s veins to hear Rockley’s words—though they weren’t a surprise. If ever two men had been placed on this blighted earth to hate each other, those men were Jack and Rockley.

“Then he threw me out,” Miss Jones continued. “He said I was to tell no one, or he’d make my life even more miserable than it already was. I was so … ashamed … and frightened, I couldn’t leave my home or speak to anyone. Not even my parents. But then, this morning, Lord Rockley showed up at my door. He said that I had to summon the people I had working for me, and that he would take care of the rest.”

“And if you disobeyed him?” Eva asked.

“He’d hurt my parents.” The girl’s eyes and voice were pleading. “I had to do it. You must understand that.” She broke down into another round of sobs.

“The bastard put it together.” Jack swore under his breath. “The girl goes to him on account of him ‘killing’ me, then I show up at the brothel to take the evidence.”

“So he connects you and the blackmailing to Miss Jones,” Eva said.

“And Miss Jones to us,” Simon finished.

“He might not know Nemesis’s name,” said Eva, “but he realizes that there’s a larger force behind her attempt at retribution. What could be easier than luring us to her home and killing us all in one fell swoop?”

Jack wished there were more of Rockley’s thugs around so he had something—some one —to hit.

“We can’t wait another bloody minute,” he snarled. “It’s got to end. Now.”

“It will end.” Eva’s gaze moved to the small windows set high in the wall, where the last shreds of daylight died. “Tonight.”

* * *

Eva knew the threat had never been higher. None of them could discount the possibility that Rockley had Miss Jones’s house watched. They’d instructed the girl to take her family and go somewhere safe for a few days. Things with Rockley had escalated, so the Joneses needed to be out of harm’s way.

Eva, Jack, and Simon took a twisting, circuitous route back to headquarters—doubling, sometimes tripling back, changing carriages, riding omnibuses, and going on foot. By the time Eva, Jack, and Simon reached the chemist’s shop, it had been hours since sunset.

When she reported to Marco, Lazarus, and Harriet about the ambush at Miss Jones’s home, the first response was shocked silence. Followed by every voice raised at once. All of Nemesis had an opinion, and they spoke it—loudly.

Eva raised her hands, demanding quiet. “We’re finishing this. Immediately.”

“I’ve got a note here,” Simon added, “that will be delivered to Rockley within the hour. We’re arranging an exchange: ten thousand pounds in return for the evidence.”

“That won’t do any sodding good,” Jack rumbled. “Saying he doesn’t double-cross us—which he will—all we’re getting out of him is money. He’ll continue grinding people into the dirt. Nothing’s going to keep him from hurting more women.”

She pulled out a metal strongbox, smaller than the one taken from the brothel, and removed a packet of documents. Handing the papers to Jack, she said, “Have a look at these.”

He studied them. “It’s what we took from the whorehouse.”

“Duplicates,” Marco said. “Forgeries, actually.”

“I ain’t an expert,” Jack murmured, examining the papers, “but they look exactly the same.”

Marco smirked. “One of my specialties when I was still in her majesty’s employ. A good forgery can be worth more than the original.”

“That’s what Rockley will be given,” Eva explained.

“Someone gets the real things,” Jack deduced.

Simon revealed, “I’ve high-up contacts within the government. Men who haven’t been touched by Rockley’s influence. By midnight tonight, they will be in possession of the real evidence.”

Taking the forgeries back from Jack, Eva said, “His treachery will be revealed. Tomorrow morning, everyone shall know about his perfidy. He’ll be utterly ruined.”

“But he won’t know that when we do the swap,” Jack said. “We bilk him out of ten thousand quid, and still get to destroy the son of a bitch.” He looked around the room with a vicious smile. “I think I like you Nemesis lot.” His gaze lit on her, the cold light of retribution warming to something much more personal.

She could get far too comfortable seeing that heat and intimacy. She could start to crave things she shouldn’t have, and leave herself open to immeasurable pain.

Yet her bones, her heart—they ached with wanting him. In the midst of all this madness, the flame of her need burned even brighter.

She busied herself putting away the forged documents, striving for the control that had served her so well for most of her life. The only time she truly lost control was with him. A hazardous thing.

“Now isn’t the opportune moment for celebrating,” she said briskly. “It’s almost certain that if Rockley agrees to the exchange, he’ll try something. We’ve got him cornered, and that makes him dangerous. Today at Miss Jones’s was proof. This juncture is critical, so we cannot let our guard down.”

Jack said, “I don’t get … what’s the word…”

“Complacent,” Eva filled in.

“Yeah. Nobody complacent survives Bethnal Green.”

“Or escapes from prison,” added Harriet.

“Or ascertains the patterns in seemingly random vagaries in a man’s schedule,” Marco threw in.

“Or fights his way in and out of a heavily guarded brothel,” Simon said.

Jack tipped his head in acknowledgment. It warmed her to think how, when first she’d met him, he hadn’t given much value to his intelligence, and neither had the others in Nemesis. A radical evolution had transpired.

Simon headed for the door. “I’ll use our usual means of obfuscation to have this note delivered to Rockley. I won’t wait for a reply, but there will be no way for him to trace the note back to our location.”

“How will we know if he agrees to the drop?” asked Harriet.

“He’ll go for it,” Jack said with certainty. “He won’t play by the rules, but if he thinks he’s got a way to take us out, he’ll grab any chance. Make sure he knows that I’ll be the one doing the drop. That’ll definitely bring him out, not just his thugs. He’ll want to see with his own eyes that it’s been taken care of.”

Nodding, Simon slipped out the door. Harriet, Lazarus, and Marco tried to fill the time by discussing a mining town under the thumb of despotic owners and managers, but all of them were tense, distracted. Her mind spinning with dozens, hundreds of possible outcomes for tonight, Eva couldn’t join in with her colleagues’ talk. Through it all, Jack stood off to the side, massaging his hands in preparation for a fight, his expression distant and brooding.

Needing some way to occupy herself, Eva said to him, “Show me how you escaped from here without anyone knowing.”

He considered it for a moment, seeming to debate whether or not it was a good idea to reveal his secret to her and to Nemesis. Then, “Awright.”

Yet instead of going up to his room, he went downstairs, with Eva following. They walked through the chemist’s shop. He stepped outside, and she trailed after him as he went through the narrow space that ran alongside the building. They emerged in the little yard behind the structure. Their breath steamed in the cold night air, as though she and Jack had become half dragon.