“Even if he kills?” Thomasina asked as Juliana was pushed past her embracing sisters.
There was a slight hesitation, but then Lydia continued moving her forward. “I’m not responsible for that.”
“Yes, you are,” Ellis said. His eyes were locked on Juliana’s, and she held there. That blue gaze gave her peace, it calmed her fear. Just as it had all those weeks ago. Just as she knew it could for all her days if any of them survived this nightmare.
“Hand over the gem to my brother,” Lydia said softly.
Ellis’s expression was so filled with frustration that he almost looked as though he would howl. He didn’t, though, and swept up the gem from where it had fallen in their struggle. He held it out, his hands shaking. Winston Leonard stepped forward and snatched it.
“Well done, sister,” Leonard drawled as he backed away. It was a taunt. Ellis still had the gun, but it was clear he wouldn’t fire it.
Because it would endanger Juliana.
“You have what you want,” Ellis growled. “Now let her go.”
“No, I think not,” Leonard said as he sidled up to his sister and Juliana. Together they pulled her back toward the gate at the back of the garden. An escape route. “The moment we don’t have her, your men will move. She comes with us. If you’re lucky, you’ll get her back in one piece.”
Lydia’s face jerked toward his. “You told me we’d let her go at the gate.”
“Shut up,” he snapped, and glared at her.
Ellis was moving forward, one long step at a time. Getting closer and closer, and Juliana longed to reach out. To have him pull her away to safety. But that wasn’t going to happen. For the second time in a few weeks, the most dangerous man in London was taking her away from everything she loved.
And judging from the cruelty in his tone and his look, she didn’t fully believe she would be released, even if that’s what he’d told his sister.
Lydia.Yes, that was the key. It was obvious the young woman was hesitant about the violence her brother reveled in.
“I don’t know what he said to make you do this, but he’slyingto you,” Juliana whispered. “Think of all the times he’s done that in the past. All the damage he’s done without even caring about you. He will do what’s best for him in the end. He’ll leave you worse off while he is free.”
“Shut up,” Leonard said. “Lydia, keep moving.”
Juliana looked at the man whose brutality knew no bounds. And she saw the deeper truth of him. “I can see he has no intention of letting me go. But he won’t dirty his hands. He’ll forceyouto shoot me just to prove your loyalty. He’ll put my blood on your hands so you’llneverbe free of him.”
Lydia stopped moving and glanced at Leonard from the corner of her eye. “That isn’t the bargain we made,” she whispered. “You said no one else had to get hurt.”
“It will be you with a bullet in your head if you don’t move her out the fucking gate,” Leonard snapped.
Lydia’s hand shook against Juliana’s back. She was distracted. This was the time.
Juliana threw her elbow as hard as she could, smacking it across Lydia’s chin. She cried out and her grip loosened. Juliana dove for the ground as Leonard pulled out his own pistol. He aimed it at her and she crouched, ready to die, but when it fired, she wasn’t hit.
Ellis hurtled himself forward, jumping between her and the bullet meant to destroy her. He screamed her name into the night, and then his voice was cut off. He fell beside her, his hand gripping at the wound on his thigh. Blood was gushing from it.
Rook was moving now, Harcourt too. Juliana rolled to cover Ellis and protect him just as he had once protected her. As she did so, Leonard grabbed for his sister, trying to throw Lydia in the way of any bullets that might be fired.
Lydia jerked away from him and pivoted, her gun pointed at his chest.
He smirked. “You won’t dare, Lydia.”
Her jaw tightened and her gun fired. Leonard stared at the circle of blood on his chest as he dropped to his knees. And then he hit the ground face first. Dead in an instant.
There was a great deal of movement after. People running and shouting, Lydia being taken away by someone as Rook dropped to his knees at Ellis’s side.
Rook’s face was pale enough that she knew the injury was bad. He tore off his cravat, applying it as a tourniquet to the bleeding wound. Ellis winced as it was tightened, but his face was so pure white.
“Stay with me,” she whispered, stroking his hair back. “You’re not leaving me now.”
“That’s my line,” he said, his voice rough and far away. “I said it to you that day on the hill.”
