“You can’t fix him, Zaria.” Jules’s voice was firm. “No matter how much good remains, it’s not your job to bring it out.”
“I know that.” How many times had she had this same argument with herself??
Jules clambered closer. They were face-to-face now, his expression serious. “In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you can fix him or not. We’re going to leave London. You have to let him go.”
The ache at Zaria’s core expanded, rising until it formed a lump in her throat. “I don’t know why it hurts,” she admitted quietly.
Jules sighed, stretching out an arm and using it to pull her into his side. “Because you don’t always get to choose who you care about,” he said. “And the heart isn’t particularly wise.”
His familiar warmth made the anguish slightly more bearable, and Zaria softened into him, biting the inside of her cheek. “At least it was right about you.”
“Yeah.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “At least there’s that.”
KANE
Kane stood in his office, palms braced on his desk, head throbbing hard enough to rival the pain in his ribs.
Zaria’s mention of the nonlethal revolver had him thinking about the alchemological dart gun again. The one Cleland had somehow ended up with. The one he’d used to shoot Kane. A terrible suspicion had swelled within him, and he’d raced back to his office, a confused Fletcher on his heels.
“Kane, what’s going on?”
Kane had shouldered the door open with enough force to cause a breeze. “Where do you think Cleland got that dart gun? No way would he have been able to afford it himself. And he couldn’t have been working for Vaughan long enough to be entrusted with an alchemological weapon.”
Fletcher didn’t have an answer. He’d only watched silently asKane rounded his desk, heart pounding, and wrenched open the top drawer. Just as he’d anticipated, the dart gun wasn’t there.
Jaw tight, he slammed the drawer closed with a bang. “He stole it from me.”
“How is that possible?” Fletcher had asked.
“I’m not sure.” Kane ground his teeth together. “Do you know where Adam and Elijah are?”
“I saw them downstairs earlier.”
“Bring them to me. Please.”
And that was how he had ended up here, facing the three of them as he told Adam and Elijah the events of the previous night. They listened, rapt with shock, as Kane relayed what had happened to the men who’d turned against him.
“Well, I’m glad Cleland’s out of the picture,” Adam said once he was up to speed, and Elijah nodded in agreement. “He was an idiot. More balls than brains.”
“Why didn’t we know about this Vaughan fellow until now?” Elijah asked, his expression stern as always. “You’re telling me he emerged from nowhere, dead set on becoming a kingpin? It doesn’t make any sense.”
He wasn’t wrong. Kane hadn’t so much as heard Vaughan’s name until the man commissioned Zaria, and his aspirations had only become clear in the wake of the Exhibition heist. Certainly Ward had never mentioned him. How had he managed to keep such a low profile while putting together a crew of his own?
“We’re missing something,” Fletcher declared, echoing Kane’s thoughts. He stood beside the desk with his hands in his pockets, the impending twilight shadowing his face in a way that made him look more intimidating than usual. “Elijah’s right. Itdoesn’tmake sense.”
Kane massaged his temples. “You think Vaughan’s bluffing?”
Adam was quick to chime in, voice low. “He has to be, at least when it comes to the dark market. Everyone knows the Devil’s Acre kingpin oversees the market. It’s been that way for years.”
Yes, Kane thought. That was true. However, it was becoming clear Vaughan had more audacity than he’d realized. White-hot fury licked through his veins. Were it not for all the nonsense with Vaughan and the Curator, things would be running smoothly. Much of Kane’s spare time over the past week had been spent receiving reports from men he’d instructed to collect dues or debts from shopkeepers and dark market buyers, which meant they’d brought in a fair bit of money. Kane had divvied out their shares, then put the rest in his coffers to count later. He was establishing a new routine in Ward’s stead, and he didn’t need anyone tampering with it.
But while Vaughan was certainly a problem, the most pressing issue was the loyalty of his own men.
“Keep an ear to the ground,” Kane told Adam and Elijah, trying to force the snarl out of his voice. He rolled his shoulders back. “Let me know if any of the other guys show signs of being disgruntled.” God, he should have paid more attention. He’d let his plans with Zaria take over his life and thoughts once more, and it had almost gotten them all killed.
“We should have seen that coming,” Adam said, regret saturating the words. “Cleland, I mean. Everyone could tell he was in a mood, but he and his supporters kept to themselves. I never heard a thing about their plans to come after you directly.”
Elijah crossed his arms, looking at Adam rather than Kane when he spoke. “We couldn’t possibly have known. Cleland never trusted us enough to let down his guard.”
