“Then you’re an idiot. This isn’t a game. My brother, Torrio, they kill people,” Viola said, and there was something in the way her voice broke that made Ruby’s heart clench. “They make people disappear.”
“And Tammany Hall protects them,” Ruby said, knowing even more surely that the path she was on was the right one. “The very people elected to serve everyone are protecting the . . . the . . . criminals that they’re supposed to be stopping.”
Theo patted Ruby on the knee, making her realize just how animated she’d become.
“She gets a bit overwrought sometimes,” he told Viola.
“I am not overwrought,” Ruby said tartly, pushing his hand away. She felt her cheeks flame and cursed her mother for giving her skin so fair it showed every emotion in the same color—pink.
“Of course you’re not,” he told her, but she knew that tone of voice. As much as she adored Theo, she couldn’t stand it when he got all paternal.
Ruby cut him a sharp look, and he was smart enough to raise his hands in mock surrender. She turned back to Viola. “I’m not overwrought,” she repeated. “I’m simply passionate about the causes I believe in. You see, I’m a journalist.”
“This one, he’s your fiancé?” Viola asked.
“Guilty, I’m afraid,” Theo said with his usual lopsided smile.
“And you allow her to do this?” Viola asked, her expression incredulous. “You’re an idiot too.”
He laughed as the carriage bumped along.
“He doesn’t let me do anything,” Ruby cut in, her cheeks feeling even warmer than before.
“True,” Theo agreed. “I merely follow along, cleaning up the chaos that ensues in her wake,” he said cheerfully. “The things we do for love.”
Enough. She tried to give him what she hoped was a scathing glare, but he just continued to grin at her. Probably because he knew exactly how much it would annoy her.
“I’d prefer not to be caught up in anybody’s wake,” Viola said. “I have troubles enough of my own. I don’t need any of yours. If you could just let me out—”
“But we haven’t even had a chance to talk,” Ruby said with a sudden burst of panic. She reached over and clasped Viola’s bare hand.
It didn’t matter that she was wearing gloves—Ruby felt the warmth of Viola’s skin even through the delicate leather. She wondered if Viola felt that same jolt of energy, because the moment after their hands met, Viola pulled away like she’d been burned.
“So talk,” Viola said, her voice rougher than it had been a moment before. Her violet eyes seemed darker somehow.
“Talk . . .” It took Ruby a second to remember what she’d wanted to talk about. “Right.” She pulled her small notebook and pencil from inside of her handbag to allow herself a moment to gather her wits again.
She flipped through the pages, each filled with her own familiar looping scrawl. Glancing over them, she focused, centering herself on the job at hand. Viola Vaccarelli was not some silly missish debutante, like most of the girls Ruby had grown up around. Her spine was too straight, her gaze too direct. It was as though she could see through all Ruby’s posturing to every one of the doubts that lurked beneath.
Taking a steadying breath, Ruby set her own shoulders and began. “I’m working on a story about the corruption at the very heart of the city. I know the Five Pointers are in league with Tammany—”
“Everybody knows that,” Viola said, crossing her arms over the fullness of her bosom.
She isn’t wearing stays. It was an absurd thought, but the moment it occurred to Ruby, she couldn’t dismiss it. There was nothing lascivious about Viola’s dress, though. Nothing at all provocative. She simply looked . . . comfortable. Free.
Focus, Reynolds.
“As I was saying, people know about their connection to Tammany, but after our encounter at Delmonico’s, I realized that your brother must also be working with the Order of Ortus Aurea.”
“Why would anyone care about that?” Viola challenged, but her expression closed up so tightly that Ruby knew she was onto something.
“People might care that the organization that claims to be protecting the city is working with violent gang leaders like Paul Kelly, but I think they would care even more if they knew the Order was working with the very people they were trying to protect us from. I want to expose them, Miss Vaccarelli. I want everyone in the city to know that the Order isn’t the benevolent force they believe but are instead harboring dangerous criminals.”
“You can’t,” Viola said, shaking her head.
“Of course I can,” Ruby said. “It’s what I do.”
“Not if you want to make it to your wedding day,” Viola told her, and there was an odd tremor to her voice. “My brother and the Five Pointers, they won’t want you messing in their business. That’s what I was trying to tell you at the restaurant. You need to stop before they stop you.”
“They can try, but it won’t matter if I can expose them first,” Ruby said, trying to imbue her words with the conviction that she felt so firmly. “But I need your help.”
“What could you possibly think I can do for you?”
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know Paul Kelly has Mageus in his ranks.”
Viola’s face had gone pale, and she looked as though she wanted to leap from the rolling carriage. Maybe she doesn’t know.
“John Torrio is Mageus,” Ruby said in a hushed voice. Although why she bothered to lower her voice, she couldn’t have said. It was only the three of them in the carriage.
“Torrio?” Viola’s expression bunched in confusion.
“You must have known,” Ruby insisted. “I knew it the second I woke up from whatever that was he did to us back at Delmonico’s. For both of us to faint with no provocation whatever? And . . .” She lowered her voice. “It felt like magic, didn’t it, Theo?”
Theo gave Ruby a long-suffering expression. “It felt like my head hit the table, darling.”
Ruby shot him another annoyed look before she went back to ignoring him. “It felt positively electric.”
“You think John Torrio has the old magic?” Viola said, her voice hollow with what could only be disbelief.
She didn’t know, the poor dear.
“Yes. Oh, I realize this is all coming as a shock to you, but you see now why the story I’m working on is so important. If I can prove that Kelly’s gang uses Mageus and that the Order is protecting the Five Pointers, then I can prove the Order is protecting the very thing they say they want to destroy. Can’t you see?” She leaned forward and, without meaning to, took Viola’s hand again. This time she ignored the bolt of heat she felt. It was adrenaline. Excitement. Surely Viola felt that as well. “With your help, I could end the Order.”
UNEXPECTED BENEFITS
1902—New York
Viola was speechless. She took in the girl, this Ruby Reynolds, with her expression expectant and her eyes shining, and all Viola could do was gape. The girl thought Torrio was the Mageus?
“You understand how important this is, don’t you?” Ruby asked. “You’ll help me?”