“You might as well stop fighting me, you little thief,” Hawk muttered as the three runners circled them. “You’re surrounded and not going anywhere.”
Farley stilled, and Hawk let go of him. When the boy turned and faced him, Hawk blinked. Both his eyes were bruised and swollen. One almost shut. His bottom lip was thick and cut in two places. His chin had a big bruise, too. He held his left side and winced with each deep intake of breath.
Clearly the lad was in pain.
“Damnation, what happened to you?” Hawk asked, as he motioned for the runners to step away.
“Nothing, you big oaf!” Farley yelled. “Leave me be.”
“Something did,” Hawk said just as angrily, but his anger wasn’t directed at the boy, but whoever had beat him. “You didn’t get that face from falling down or running into a streetlamp. Who did this to you?”
“What d’ye care? Ye never liked me anyway.”
“I never liked the way you behaved,” he challenged. “And I sure as hell don’t like you stealing Loretta’s jewelry and breaking her heart. How I feel about you isn’t what we’re talking about right now. I want to know who laid their fist to you and why.”
“None of ye concern,” Farley answered in a lower voice and without an ounce of fear in his defiant expression.
“All right,” Hawk answered, knowing he couldn’t make the lad tell him anything. “You probably got what you deserved anyway. I guess you’re lucky you don’t look worse. You stole from someone who hadn’t done anything but be good to you. Loretta wiped your brow when you were sick. Kept you alive when you were dying. She waskind to you, and this is how you repay her? By stealing from her,” he said with disgust clearly in his tone. “I want her jewelry now. Where is it?”
Farley stared at Hawk with stark white fury. He jerked his arms out to his side and yelled, “Ye see me ’olding anything? I don’t ’ave it.”
“But you know where it is, you little imp. I’ve checked your—bed,” he said, nodding toward the steps. “It’s not there. That jewelry belonged to Loretta’s mother. I will get it back for her, or I’ll see to it that you are thrown into the darkest dungeon London has. You won’t see sunshine on your face for years to come. Now, where did you stash it?”
“I told ye I don’t ’ave it,” he said, holding his side and grimacing loudly again as he sucked in another deep breath.
“And I don’t believe you. You stole it!”
“I did!” he said, spittle flinging from one side of his swollen mouth. “I took it, but do ye think I beat my ownself? ’E stole it from me and then tried to punch my eyes out.”
“Who stole it from you?” Hawk demanded.
“I don’t know who ’e was. ’E was a man on the street. Never seen ’im before. ’E seen me carrying the velvet purse. Asked what’s a little feller like me doing carrying such a fancy bag.” Farley stopped and sucked in another gasp of pain. “I tried to outrun him. Thought I ’ad but ’e fooled me and caught me ’round a corner. I tried to keep it from ’im, but ’e was a big man like you, so now I don’t ’ave it anymore.”
“Where were you going with it?”
Farley sucked in another breath of pain past his misshapen lips. “Where ye think? To sell it, but I don’t ’ave it now. I don’t know who does.”
Hawk huffed out a grunt of anger at Farley, at whoever had attacked him, and at himself for not finding the boybefore someone else did. And Hawk didn’t know why, but he believed Farley was telling the truth about the jewelry being stolen from him.
“Why did you do it?” Hawk asked as it was beginning to sink in that he wasn’t going to get the jewelry back today. Maybe not at all. “She tried to help you.”
“I didn’t ask ’er for ’elp,” he said with big brown eyes that refused to show any sign of regret for what he’d done. “Didn’t ask ye to take me out of the storm, but ye did, so I figured ye owed me.”
“Owed you?” Hawk’s anger grew hot again. The lad didn’t know when it was best to just stay quiet. “You ungrateful little—” He reached for Farley, but the boy jerked back in fear, yelped, and grabbed his side again.
Hawk swore under his breath and then said out loud, “Damnation.” He couldn’t believe he was feeling sorry for the boy who’d hurt Loretta so deeply. “I should turn you over to the authorities right now.”
“She didn’t need it. Never saw her wear it often, anyway.”
“Whether or not she wore it was of no concern to you,” Hawk insisted. “It was hers, and you took it from her.”
Farley’s fat lips twitched, and for the first time his battered eyes watered. But whether that was from the pain he was experiencing or a tinge of shame for what’d done, Hawk didn’t know.
“What did the man look like?”
“’Ow do I know? ’E was big like you, but ’e didn’t look as much like a dandy as you do.”
A dandy?The lad just wouldn’t quit. Hawk wouldn’t be caught dead dressed like a dandy, and he had a feeling Farley knew that.
