“Cai Junli,” he said. “I thought your cousin’s note was a prank.”
“This is no prank. Are you willing to take us away?”
Slowly, he stood to his height, his eyes darting left and right. “Where are you hoping to go?”
“Whichever coast you reach first,” Juliette answered easily. “I . . . I cannot stay any longer. Not with the Scarlets turning like this.”
For the longest moment, Da Nao said nothing. He bent down again and continued gathering the rope at his feet. Then:
“Yes. I can take you away. I can sail south.”
Juliette breathed out in relief. “Thank you,” she said quickly. “I’ll pay you however much you need—”
“Who else are you bringing?”
His question came abruptly, choked out like he couldn’t speak the words fast enough. A pinprick of suspicion registered in Juliette’s mind, but she brushed it aside, hoping it was only the stress of the situation currently unfolding in the city.
“Roma Montagov,” Juliette answered, praying that her voice would not shake. Da Nao was a Communist sympathizer, Kathleen had said. Even with his double life as a Scarlet fisherman, he cared little for the blood feud. “Along with his sister and two of his men.”
Da Nao had finished gathering the excess rope. There remained only one thin line keeping his boat docked. “You’re traveling with Montagovs now? The seas are still being watched, Miss Cai. We may have trouble leaving the territory.”
“I’ll pay you however much to hide us. Just get us out.”
Though Da Nao had finished tidying everything in his vicinity, he continued scanning the floor of his boat. “Are they forcing you to help them, Miss Cai? You can tell me if they are.”
Juliette blinked. The rain was stinging her eyes badly. She had not even considered that the fisherman might think she was acting against her will. Why was that his first thought, and not the easier conclusion that Juliette had simply betrayed the Scarlets?
“No one is forcing me to do anything,” she said. Her fists curled. “Roma Montagov is my husband. Now, can I come aboard and get out of this rain?”
The toothpick in Da Nao’s mouth bobbed up and down. If he was surprised to hear her admission, he did not show it.
“Certainly.” Only then did he finally look at her, taking the toothpick out of his mouth. “You will have to shed your weapons before you come on board. I mean no offense, Miss Cai, but I know you gangster types. All in the water first.”
Juliette stiffened, her gaze darting back along the boardwalk. Even at a distance, she could sense that Roma was watching her and had noted her unease. She raised a hand, signaling that she was fine, and with a sigh, pulled out the blades tucked against her thighs. Short of the cash in the bag hanging from her shoulders, she had thought the weapons on her skin could be traded as valuables.
“Okay,” Juliette said, her blades hitting the water with a slap. They floated for a second, then sank into the dark waves.
Da Nao threw his toothpick to the floor. “All weapons, Miss Cai.”
With a sigh, Juliette snapped off the garrote wire around her wrist and hurled it into the water. “Happy?”
“No, not really.”
There was a sudden motion from behind Da Nao. A man stepped out, a pistol held to Da Nao’s head, his expression tight. Juliette recognized him. He was a Scarlet—he had once run a message for her.
“Please understand,” Da Nao said, his voice barely audible as the river rolled beneath him, “that as much as I want to help you, Miss Cai, your Scarlets have always been watching.”
The Scarlet fired, and Da Nao fell with a spray of red, the bullet in his head killing him instantly. With a horrified gasp, Juliette lunged forward, preparing for a fight, but the Scarlet did not turn his pistol to her next. He turned it upward and fired once, twice, three times, each bullet piercing through the awning of the fishing boat and studding into the sky, its bang! bang! bang! loud enough to be heard over the storm.
It was a signal.
No.
Juliette turned fast on her heel. She sighted Roma and Alisa’s blurry forms immediately, but by then there was countermovement in the crowd, and the Scarlets who had been playing guard were on their way to the waterfront, merging into a task force.
“ROMA! ALISA! RUN, RUN NOW!”
Someone tackled Juliette from the side.
“Stop!” she shrieked. “Get off of me!”
Sheer instinct kicked in. She threw her head back as hard as she could, colliding with her attacker. There was a sickening crunch that sounded like a nose breaking, and when her attacker momentarily loosened his grip around her arms, she pulled free and ran.
They had intercepted her cousin’s note. They had been one step ahead of her this whole time, waiting with Da Nao. Juliette should have known there would be eyes everywhere in the city after her little scheme. She should have known that her father and mother would pull out every stop to figure out what game she was playing at after disrupting Scarlet business and disappearing into the night.
Juliette skidded off the wharf, frantically wiping at the rain on her face to clear her vision. There—she spotted Roma and Alisa again, circled in by a group of Scarlets with firearms. Roma still had his weapons; with a pistol in hand, he managed to take down two Scarlets.
But he was outnumbered. Before Juliette could reach them, the Scarlets had him disarmed.
“Don’t touch him!”
The moment Juliette ran close, the nearest Scarlets dove at her. She tried her best to dispatch them, ducking fast and sliding under outstretched arms, but she was one girl without weapons and they were loyal to her no longer. Just as Juliette stood again, one of the Scarlets pressed the barrel of his gun to Roma’s head.
And Juliette came to a complete stop.
Two of the Scarlets grabbed her by the shoulders. All the faces here were familiar, all of them names that she was sure she could recall if she thought a little harder. Under the pour of vicious rainfall, they could only look upon her in hatred.
“Don’t,” Juliette managed. “Don’t you dare hurt him.”
“It is your own fault for delivering him right to us.” The Scarlet who had spoken looked even more familiar than the rest, undoubtedly a leader among them, undoubtedly one of Tyler’s former men. He had a hint of glee in his eyes, that same old bloodlust Juliette was so tired of seeing. “Thankfully for you, you don’t have to watch. Take her to Lord Cai.”
“No!” It didn’t matter how much she kicked. With a Scarlet on either side of her, the men lifted her easily by her arms and started to lead her away. “How dare you—”
Of course they dared. She was no longer Juliette Cai, the heir of the Scarlet Gang, to be feared and revered. She was a girl who had run away with the enemy.
“Don’t touch them!” Juliette screamed, throwing her head over her shoulder.
The Scarlets didn’t listen. They started to lead Roma and Alisa in the other direction, pulling at Alisa so roughly that she cried out. Even as the distance between them grew and grew, Roma had his eyes latched on Juliette, his face so pale under the shadow of the sky it was as if he were dead and executed already. Perhaps Juliette had an ill-divining soul. Perhaps she was seeing his future, perhaps by the day’s end he would be lying at the bottom of a tomb as the last of the Montagov line.