Ruby’s mind was a marvel, but it was a dangerous marvel. If the girl insisted on investigating this, it was more than possible that she’d eventually discover the connection to Dolph, and to Viola herself. But if Ruby depended upon Viola for the information, Viola could direct it the way that she wanted. And if she was very smart, she could destroy Nibsy Lorcan in the process.
She’d been wavering about what she would do, but the idea of seeing Nibsy brought low made up her mind. Yes, her brother might be her own blood, but he’d chosen his path. Viola took a packet from the basket she was carrying and held it out to Ruby.
“What is this?” Ruby’s eyes widened as she held out her hands.
Viola hesitated. “Receipts for the last few months,” she told her. “I don’t know what’s in it, or if it will even help, but Paul, he has big plans. In the last week alone, he’s already sent four of his Five Pointers out of the city.”
“For what?” Ruby asked.
Viola shrugged. “I’m not sure, but he wants a bigger piece of the world than the streets of this city can offer, and I know my brother. The wide world doesn’t need him meddling in it.”
Ruby’s brows drew together as she flipped through the receipts, studying them. “Is there anything more?”
“There’s more, but Paul keeps them close. I haven’t been able to get to them.” Viola frowned at the thought of how closely her brother and his boys watched her. “But I will.”
“When?” Ruby pressed, holding the package close to her.
“When I can,” Viola said, irritated at the note of insistence in Ruby’s tone.
“That isn’t good enough,” Ruby told Viola, her voice rising in volume as she hugged the parcel of documents even closer. “I need to know a date.”
“Ruby,” Theo said gently. He’d been rowing them steadily back to the edge of the lake.
“I’m not your servant,” Viola huffed. “You don’t get to tell me what to do or when.”
“I never said you were,” Ruby said, her pale cheeks flaming red. “I just meant—”
“You meant nothing, principessa,” Viola snapped. The stress of being trapped so close to Ruby, of being cornered in so many ways, broke over the dams she’d built and poured out of her in a fiery tirade. “That is your problem. The risks you take, the dangers you put yourself in, all while dragging this one along with you like a puppy to heel—”
“Hey,” Theo interjected, but Viola ignored him and continued.
“In your pretty little world, you’re too safe to know what danger is. You give your commands, and you don’t even bother to watch people jump. But you can’t make me jump.”
“I never—” Ruby started. “That is . . . You’re just—” And then she sputtered a bit more before she made an exasperated sound and turned away.
Viola pretended that she hadn’t seen the way Ruby’s eyes had gone glassy or the way her voice shook. Instead, she too turned away, ignoring both of them.
For the next few minutes, Theo continued to row them back. The moment they docked, Ruby was on her feet, being helped out of the boat by the attendant. She stomped off without another word, spoiled rich girl that she was.
Theo hopped out first and then helped Viola, who hated the feeling of the boat lurching beneath her, onto the dock. For a moment they stood in an uneasy silence, as though neither of them wanted to be the first to leave.
“I’m not going to apologize, if that’s what you’re waiting for,” she said to Theo, who was watching her with too-steady eyes.
His mouth curved up, but his expression was sad. “I wasn’t waiting for anything of the sort.”
She glared at him. “Then why are you still here?”
“I’m thinking. . . .” He tapped his chin, his eyes squinting against the sun. “She means well, you know.”
Viola just glared at him.
“I know what she looks like to you, but I’ve known Ruby since we were both knee-high. She’s had a rough time of it, first with her father and then with everything that’s happened to her family since. She really does want to help. In her own way, she’s trying to do something worthy.” But when Viola continued to glare at him, he let out a sigh. “This isn’t going to end well, is it?”
The sincerity in his eyes had the fight draining right out of her. “Paul Kelly, he’s not one to mess with—”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said, shaking his head. “But you’re probably right about that, too. It was good seeing you again, Viola.”
She reached out and caught him by his sleeve. “Is there any way to talk her out of this crazy plan?” she asked, somehow unable to keep an unintended urgency from her voice.
He laughed. “I’ve yet to be able to talk Ruby out of anything. She has more lives than the proverbial cat.” Then his face softened. “Be careful with her, won’t you?”
Viola frowned. “I don’t know what you mean. . . .”
“I imagine you do,” he said, giving her the funny, wobbly grin that would have looked half-drunken on anyone else. On Theo, it simply looked innocent and . . . well, too damn nice. “I think you know, and despite your bluster—which I quite enjoy, by the way—you will take care with her. If not, you’ll answer to me.”
He tipped his hat at her, and then he turned to gather Ruby’s parcels before he ran to catch up with Ruby, leaving Viola alone at the edge of the lake with her mouth hanging open in confusion and feeling like somehow she’d just lost an argument she hadn’t known she was having.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
1904—St. Louis
Harte didn’t have any idea where the Antistasi had put him, but it had the subterranean feel of a coal cellar or a basement. They hadn’t taken any chances, because not long after they’d dumped him on the floor, he’d heard the same pop-hiss he’d heard earlier, in the back of the wagon. A moment later he smelled the same thick odor that made his head feel like it was floating and his affinity go dull. Whatever it was had evaporated some time ago, but his affinity still felt like it was miles away.
The ropes on his wrist were too tight for him to wriggle out of, so he just sat there in the darkness they’d forced upon him and waited. The only positive development was that whatever the drug was, it shut the voice up inside of him. He figured it had to be something more than opium for it to have that kind of effect.
By the time he heard a door open, his arms had gone completely numb from being tied behind him. He scrambled to his feet, ready. If Esta had failed, they wouldn’t be coming to celebrate.
“Come on, then,” a familiar voice said. It was the cowboy—North.
The hands that took him by the arm weren’t exactly gentle, but they didn’t do anything more than lead him along.
Finally, they stopped, and when the sack was removed from his head again, he blinked past the sudden brightness to see that he was in a small office. And he wasn’t alone. The woman was there—Mother Ruth, North, another girl with silver spectacles perched on her nose, who’d been there earlier, and Esta. She had a tired, worried look on her face, and even once she saw him, it didn’t change. But they didn’t have her tied up, and he wasn’t dead yet, so he figured that meant something.