“Here we go,” Emmaline said, abandoning their conversation as she gripped Ada’s leg. “They’re starting. Oh, thank goodness, Cook’s here.”
“Do we think Rhys will finally win a coin toss?” Lily asked with a smile, all of them bursting into laughter when he lost.
“I think at this point, winning it would be bad luck,” Ada commented before the Athletics, Manchester’s other team, brought the ball down the pitch. The Central players swarmed, but their captain, Oliver Harrington, got through on Mack’s side.
“Jonny wouldn’t have let that happen,” Emmaline muttered, before Minnie leaned forward and said softly, “Jonny isn’t here. I think we need to let that go and enjoy the game with the players who are out there.”
“Do you think they’ll let him play again?” Lily asked.
“He’d better have a damn good explanation for where he is,” Emmaline said. “Then maybe.”
Ada didn’t want to think about where he might be. The truth was, as much as she voiced the blame against him, she knew what it meant to be dragged down by family. With his brother having reappeared and Blackwood gone, she had a feeling there was disarray in Manchester’s underworld, and she feared that Jonny was right in the thick of it.
Even if she hadn’t been memorable enough for him to recognize her, she knew exactly who and what he was.
And what he was the most? Trouble.
It was eleven o’clock.
Damn it.
The first match of Manchester Central’s season was starting, and Jonny was so far from the pitch that he’d never make it in time.
Rhys was going to have his hide.
But he could handle Rhys.
What he couldn’t handle was leaving all that he had built for himself in the hands of the man he was currently staring down.
“So, Jonny Tate, what will it be?”
Gideon Sharpe’s harsh, cruel mouth turned up at the corners. It was a face that Jonny had hoped to never see again. When Sharpe had left for London some years ago, Jonny had been more relieved than anyone that Blackwood’s favorite enforcer would no longer be lurking around any corners.
But severing one head had merely given rise to another. With Blackwood out of the way, Sharpe had, apparently, returned to take over, and Jonny had a feeling that he would be even worse than Blackwood had ever been.
And there was Will, his brother, standing at Sharpe’s side, arms crossed over his chest as he waited for Jonny to go along with Sharpe’s orders.
“I don’t answer to you,” Jonny said, hoping he appeared disinterested. “Take your merry men and be on your way.”
“I don’t think you understand,” Sharpe said. “You don’t have much of a choice here. You alter those shipping routes, or my friends here will show you what happens when you don’t listen.”
Jonny leaned forward, refusing to be intimidated. “I don’t thinkyouunderstand. I left this life years ago. Said goodbye to it.” And received a beating from the man in front of him for it. Was left for dead. With his brother watching on. Before he’d vowed to never let it happen again. “The last time you saw me, I was a scared kid. I’m not that kid anymore. We’re standing inthe middle of a respectable business, and people are no longer afraid of Blackwood. He was taken down, and you can be too.”
He stared Sharpe right in the eye to prove his point.
“You have something I need,” Sharpe said, lowering his voice and leaning in.
“And what’s that?” Jonny lifted a brow, wondering if Sharpe knew he was the one who had caused the scar that sliced through it.
“You stole a ledger. I need it back.”
“A ledger,” Jonny scoffed as he returned to the work in front of him as though he had no concern over what Sharpe was saying. “What would a ledger matter to me?”
“There is no use denying it,” Sharpe said. “All who were in Blackwood’s pay know it was you who stole it. You entered through the secret entrance that only a few knew about and took the ledger that your little friends used to try to blackmail Blackwood. I need it back.”
“You left Blackwood years ago,” Jonny said. “What would you need a ledger for?”
“Why, to start my new business,” Sharpe said with a self-satisfied smile. “Haven’t you heard? I’m in charge now.”
