“You will not,” Jonny answered in a matching voice. “Just like always, Will, you have no idea how much danger you have put yourself in. Leave now, before you make things worse.”
“It is best if I take that,” Will said, his eyes, so like Jonny’sown, glinting in the dim light. “Not to worry. I’ll put it back where it belongs.”
“I’m giving it to Sharpe,” Jonny said. “If you don’t let me do it, he’ll keep coming after me.”
Will snorted. “That’s what’s always been wrong with you, Jonny,” he said. “You’ve never understood that there’s no true way out. Just stay where you belong, and all will be well. You’re being reckless now, stealing right from under the police. Which side are you on, anyway?”
His words cut deep, but Jonny refused to allow him to see how much they bothered him.
“I’m on my own side. My side, and the side of those who care about me. Who are loyal to me.”
“That’s supposed to be a dig against me, isn’t it, Jon? But joke’s on you, for you’re the one whose disloyalty is known throughout Manchester.”
At that, Will made a grab for the ledger, but Jonny nimbly danced out of his way.
Will lunged again, but this time, instead of going for the ledger, he wrapped his arms around Jonny’s waist, shoving him backward. Jonny let out an “oof,” but knew that this was the best opponent he could ever have, for while Will might have surprised him with that first move, Jonny knew all the rest he might try. The two of them had been wrestling each other since they could walk, as Will was only a year younger than Jonny. Jonny reached around, trying to flip Will over, but Will had two hands free, whereas Jonny was still trying to keep hold of the book in one fist.
They began to trade blows, but their grappling was more wrestling than it was an all-out battle.
Will got in a blow into the middle of Jonny’s gut, just strong enough for him to lose his grip on the ledger. It began to fall, and Jonny made a lunge to catch it, but in the process, he knocked into the table, causing a lamp to rattle, nearlyfalling — and Will and Jonny both stilled, exchanging a glance before their attention went to Finch’s door and then to the constable in the front of the building.
The constable stirred as Inspector Finch’s chair creaked, and Jonny knew they were running out of time. Footsteps sounded, and Jonny braced, preparing himself to be caught, for there was no direction to run, nowhere to hide, and the ledger was sitting between him and Will.
“Enough of this.”
Both Will’s and Jonny’s heads snapped up as a third party joined them, the voice one that Jonny knew deep within.
Ada. Holding a pistol outstretched in her hand, aimed at — well, come to think of it, it appeared to be aimed at both of them.
“What are you doing here?” Jonny exclaimed, not sure if he was angry, annoyed, or relieved. Here was someone on his side. Who would back him up, even though he had denied her offer, had told her that he hadn’t needed her.
“Jonny, hand me the ledger.”
“What?” What was she playing at? “Ada, I?—”
“Give. Me. The ledger.”
He narrowed his eyes, wondering if she was playing him. It wouldn’t be the first time in his life that someone had stabbed him in the back.
Reluctantly, he knelt, picked it up, and handed it over, as Will watched them warily.
“You both need to move. Now,” Ada said, just as the door began to creak open down the hall and the night constable’s feet slid off the desk.
Without another word, the three of them took off at a run, as a shout of “hey!” came from behind them. Ada turned around, firing a shot at a row of shelving, breaking it from the wall before Jonny gave it a push, sending it crashing down behind them, giving them enough time to break through theback door and into the alleyway before either of the officers was able to see their faces.
They paused for a moment, but Ada still held her pistol in one hand, the other curled around the ledger.
“Keep going,” she instructed. “Down the alley. Into the waiting carriage.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Will growled out, and her eyes narrowed as they heard a shout from behind them.
“Do you really want to test me?” she asked, and he finally muttered a curse and did as she told them. “Run.”
She turned for a moment, her pistol on the alleyway behind them, and she shot with perfect aim, shattering the gas light, giving them cover to make it down the alley and into the carriage. As she jumped in the carriage, pulling the door shut behind her with effortless ease while commanding the driver to go, Jonny couldn’t help the feeling that overwhelmed him, coming from deep within.
He had never been so attracted to a woman before as he was in this moment.
And from the gleam in her eye as she stared them down, hand wrapped around the pistol trained on them, she knew it.
