“All I know is that The Jackal is growing impatient,” she said. “All of the whispers I’ve heard indicate he wants to get this part of his plan over with as quickly as possible so that he can move on to actually searching for the lost tomb and its treasure.”
“Lost tomb?” A rush of excitement zipped through Thomas. The mission he was on was far more adventurous than he’d first thought.
Both Violetta and Lord Beverly ignored his enthusiasm.
“Good,” Lord Beverly said. “A man who is in a hurry will make mistakes. Impatience has tripped up more men than I could possibly count.”
Thomas’s excitement turned to sheepishness. Lord Beverly probably wasn’t talking about him, but the shoe fit a little too well.
Before he could apologize for not being quite up to scratch as a spy, Lord Beverly stopped suddenly and murmured, “We’re here.”
Thomas looked around, baffled. The street they found themselves on was no different from two dozen other residential streets in the city. Perhaps it was a bit nicer than the area where Violetta’s flat stood, but that was about it. Some of the windows held boxes planted with flowers. Several tomato plants stood beside ordinary doors. Laundry was strung overhead in a few places. A pair of dogs wrestled over a bone at the far end of the street, but their struggle seemed more like play than fighting. There was even a tabby cat sunning itself in one of the windows above them.
“In here,” Lord Beverly said, nodding to a small, arched doorway that led into a kitchen garden. He gestured for Thomas to come with him, but when Violetta started after them, he raised a hand to stop her. “You stay here.”
“But you might need me,” Violetta argued with a frown.
Lord Beverly matched her frown. “I can only assume that if information about The Jackal knowing I’ve arrived in Rome reached you, they know you’re an agent of Her Majesty.”
Violetta’s shoulders slumped. “I was desperately hoping they hadn’t. I’ve been so careful,” she said. “I suppose I’ve been a fool to assume I’d outfoxed them.”
“Regardless,” Lord Beverly went on. “The more you are seen in my company, the more danger you will be in.”
“I’m no stranger to danger.” Violetta stood taller.
“Of course not,” Lord Beverly said. “That is why we need you to watch for trouble while Landry and I enter the lion’s den.”
It was clear to Thomas that Violetta was unhappy with the arrangement, but also that she knew her duty when she was given a direct order. She glanced to Thomas, equal parts worry and affection in her eyes, then let out a breath. “I’ll keep out of sight,” she conceded. “But if you need me, call for me.”
Lord Beverly nodded. Thomas watched, nerves bristling as though they were all about to charge into battle, as Violetta walked back the way they’d come. His heart felt as though it left with her—which was the strangest possible sensation he could imagine when lives were in danger.
“Come on,” Lord Beverly said. “She’ll be all right. Violetta is more than capable of taking care of herself.” He gestured for Thomas to follow him through the arched doorway into the garden.
“I don’t doubt that. It’s just—”
They might as well have walked into an ambush. Before they could take more than a few steps into the garden, a burly man leapt out from behind the greenery-covered wall and slammed the garden door shut behind them, blocking any hope of escape. At least six other men were positioned around the garden, and all of them wore masks to conceal their features and carried guns that were pointed at Thomas and Lord Beverly.
“Don’t make a move,” a deep, male voice warned them. A moment later, a tall man dressed all in black, wearing a mask fashioned to resemble the Egyptian god Anubis, stepped out of the house and onto the patio at one end of the garden. The dark lady, Akila, came out after him, pushing a bound, blindfolded, and gagged Asher in front of her.
“Ash!” Thomas’s heart dropped to his stomach at the sight of his brother. He was dressed in the same clothes that he’d worn at the masquerade ball in Venice, but they were now filthy and torn. Asher hadn’t shaved or likely bathed since then either. His dirty hair stuck up at odd angles, and the parts of his face that were visible beneath his blindfold and gag were bruised. Thomas was instantly furious. “What have you done to him?”
He was ignored. Even Asher ignored him, though it was clear from the way Ash perked up that he’d heard Thomas’s call.
“I’ve brought your ransom,” Lord Beverly said, cool as ice, reaching into his jacket and taking out a fat envelope.
Thomas’s brow shot up. In spite of everything Lord Beverly had said as they made their way through the city, he never would have imagined the man would actually carry a sum of money like that on his person. Although, also given what the man had said, Thomas was willing to bet the envelope didn’t contain the full sum at all.
The man with the Anubis mask must not have thought so either. He chuckled as though Lord Beverly were a foolish child playing games. “Come now, Beverly. You must know I’m not interested in trifling sums like that.”
Thomas clenched his jaw. Everything seemed to be playing out the way Lord Beverly, and even Violetta, had suggested it would. Everyone knew more about what was going on than he did, and it grated at his nerves. He darted a glance around the garden, searching for a way that he could turn the tables that no one, not even Lord Beverly, would expect.
“What do you want if not money?” Lord Beverly asked, sounding as though he were reading from a script.
“I want what I have always wanted,” Anubis said. “I want the coin and the codex.”
Thomas snapped back to face the man in surprise. “The coin and the codex?” The dark lady had tried to steal the codex—a book of ancient codes that had been amongst Asher’s things—while they were holidaying in Tuscany. She’d also tried to pick Asher’s pocket to steal a coin that served as some sort of cipher while they were in Venice. Asher himself had told Thomas about the codex, and after he’d been kidnapped, before Thomas had departed for Rome, Trent had explained about the coin.
“Yes,” Akila said, stepping forward, her eyes narrowed. “I tried to take them back before now, and I would have, if not for your family’s meddling.”
Thomas did his best to hide the sudden excitement her words gave him. If he guessed right, the dark lady didn’t know that he was already well aware of who she was and what she’d been up to. He might not have been the sort of spy that Lord Beverly and Violetta were, but he knew there was nothing quite so convenient as an enemy who assumed you were an idiot operating in the dark.
Thomas slouched as though Akila’s words had wounded his pride. He used the hunched stance to continue studying the garden. There had to be a way to grab Asher and escape before the armed men had a chance to react. Perhaps if he could get close enough to grab one of their guns….
He inched to one side, pretending to be cowed, but eyeing the guard standing closest to him.
“I don’t have the coin or the codex,” Lord Beverly said with a shrug, facing down the man in the Anubis mask in particular. “But if you were anything other than a ridiculous fool, you’d know that.”