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Adam shook his head. “I just need you and the Mad Duke to create a distraction, loud enough to get the attention of the guards.”

Lucien fixed his cravat with a grin, his eyes glinting. Lucien loved trouble. Almost as much as the duke did. “You want us to get beat up?”

“I will personally hold a cold steak to your bumps and bruises once this is over,” Adam joked.

Lucien thought for a moment before asking. “Be honest with me. Is this about the watch?”—he threw a suggestive gaze toward the door—“Or the girl?”

Adam licked his dry lips. “Both.” Lucien raised a brow, and Adam chuckled. “Mostly, the girl.”

With a knowing smirk, Lucien patted Adam on the shoulder. “Give us a moment, then.”

He stepped away and in a couple of moments, Adam witnessed a bidding war heating up between two friends. Lucien and the duke were bidding on an item neither of them needed, shouting offensive words at each other as they did so.

The duke tossed back one drink after another as he did so, getting more and more irate by the moment until finally, he lunged at Lucien.

Something fell with a loud crash, and people started screaming as the chaos ensued.

Adam silently slipped out of the room when he noted the guard leave his post to help diffuse the situation. Then he rushed toward the room where he’d left Beatrice only to find it empty.

“Bea!” he called in a loud whisper. “Where are you?”

“I am here!” she answered from the next door. “I found it!”

Adam dashed toward her voice and found her cradling the wooden box in her hands.

“I thought I told you to wait for me!” he hissed.

“I couldn’t waste time like we are doing now. The guard can be back any minute.”

Adam studied the large wooden object with the glass lid and a lock on the side. “We can’t take it like that. It will be extremely obvious. We need to get the watch out.”

“Oh!” Beatrice raised a finger as an idea came to her mind. She removed a pin from her hair and nudged it toward him. “Pick the lock.”

Adam took her pin and studied it skeptically. “You have read way too many books about criminals, have you not? Well, contrary to what your books may have you believe, not everyone can pick a lock. I can’t.”

He could not pick a lock, that was true. But what he could do was…

Smash!

He hit the glass lid into the edge of the table, successfully shattering it. Beatrice gasped, her hands instantly flying to cover her mouth.

“Do you think anyone heard that?” Adam asked, before handing her pin back to her and collecting his watch.

“Wait!” She grabbed his arm, her gaze panicked. “You can’t just carry it in your hand.”

She placed the pin back in her hair, then hiked up her skirt high above her knee. “Hand it to me,” she demanded, her hand palm up.

Adam dropped his watch into her hand, and she tied it just above her knee, securing it just like her garter.

She dropped her skirts and shook them out.

The sounds of chaos were still audible in the hall, but it seemed like some sort of order was prevailing. Which meant the guard would soon return.

Adam took her by the hand, looked into her eyes, and said, “Now, run.”

Chapter 20

They dashed out of the little room with all the auction items like the hounds of hell were on their tails. Beatrice held her train in hand, her other hand safely enclosed within the circle of Adam’s fingers.