To Elizabeth’s immense relief, the door opened. Saffron took in the scene behind them with parted lips. “What on earth—”
“Oi!”
Their heads whipped around to see a guard a dozen feet away with beady eyes locked on them.
That was the last thing they needed now! Elizabeth grabbed Saffron’s arm and hauled her toward the nearest exit, eyeing the guard attempting to muscle his way toward them past the tide of patrons.
But it was then that the first bobby materialized and the shrill of his whistle threw the room into greater chaos. Cursing and pushing became shouting and shoving as black-clad bobbies flooded the room like so many ants pouring from their hill.
Fear blazed like a hot anvil in the center of Elizabeth’s chest, but it soon transformed into angry determination. Damn it all, she wasnotgoing to be arrested!
Still gripping Saffron’s arm, she pushed as forcefully as she dared through the remaining people gathered at the nearest makeshift exit.
A gap opened up as two patrons argued who’d go first, and she dove for it—only to be stopped abruptly by a hard jerk on her arm and the blast of a whistle directly in her ear.
Elizabeth wheeled around, screeching inelegantly at the pain ringing in her ear and fully prepared to sock the fellow touching her right on the nose, even if he was a policeman.
A familiar pair of hazel eyes glared down at her from beneath the custodian’s helmet.
Elizabeth gasped in recognition and outrage, only to snap her mouth shut. How the devil was Nick here and in uniform? But she was too aware of the precariousness of their position to argue with a friendly face in the midst of such chaos.
She stopped struggling against Nick’s grip on her arm and allowed him to escort her from the gaming room, Saffron in tow.
They were led through the pandemonium filling every corner of the gaming room and the cabaret. Patrons bodily fighting off bobbies, and bobbies raising nightsticks between blasting on their wretched whistles, made Elizabeth feel she’d stepped into a particularly violent film. Her hand nearly slipped from Saffron’s a dozen times as Nick threaded them past the worst of it.
Outside, police vehicles were swarmed with bobbies loading disgruntled patrons inside. Nick did not lead them to one of the motorcars, however, but moved confidently to the edge of the action. Elizabeth managed a look behind her and saw with great relief that Saffron and Lee were following.
When at last Nick let go of her arm at the mouth of an alley, leaving it prickling uncomfortably along with the ache of future bruises, he doffed his custodian helmet and slipped from his bobby jacket with two quick movements, shoving them into a rubbish bin. Nick swept his eyes briefly over Elizabeth and the others. “Come on.” He struck out with his ground-eating strides into the alley.
The street on the other side was quiet, but the noise from the raid echoed there. Nick made for a nondescript motorcar sitting at the curb.
“Dr. Lee,” Nick said curtly, “I trust you’ll be able to make your way home from here.”
“Will do,” Lee said. “Thanks very much for the help.”
Now Elizabeth got a look at him, he seemed a tad shaken. No doubt he feared, as he had before, that his reputation as a medical professional had come dangerously close to being demolished tonight. His attempt at a charming smile didn’t quite succeed. “Ladies, good night.”
He took off down the street, hands in pockets and pace slow enough not to gain attention.
Elizabeth returned her attention to Nick, only to see him glaring at her. She wrinkled her nose. “If you expect me to fall on bended knee in thanks—”
“Get into the car. We’ll discuss this back at your flat.”
“Oh, goody,” she muttered, “a lecture.”
The drive back to Chelsea was suffocating.
Elizabeth was fuming, Nick was silent, and Saffron’s head was aching from the stress of the evening, coming off a very long day at the lab. How had it only been a few hours since Elizabeth had made her jump out of her skin outside the Harpenden train station?
The silence pressed her all the way until the three of them were safely ensconced in the parlor of their flat. Elizabeth, clearly not in the mood for the lecture brewing, took her time removing her gloves before settling on the couch across from where Saffron stood near the radiator. She felt frozen to the bone and wrung out but was too keyed up to sit.
Nick rounded on them. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I was going to have a night out with my mates,” Elizabeth drawled. Her posture was tight, however, as was her expression. “What were you doing there? How did you know we were there, for that matter?”
“Alfie Tennison is dangerous,” Nick said.
That gave even Elizabeth pause long enough for Saffron to get in a question. “Do you know that Wells owed Alfie—he owns the gaming room, I’m guessing—a good deal of money?”
