“How dare you speak to The Jackal like that?” Akila snapped.
Thomas froze as he attempted to close the distance between himself and the armed guard. “You’re The Jackal?” he blurted before he could think better of it.
Even though his face was covered, Thomas could have sworn the man in the Anubis mask grinned. “Who else did you think I was, you ignoramus?”
Thomas pretended to be offended, but he was too encouraged by the fact that his ruse to appear to be a dolt was working. He glanced to Lord Beverly with an exaggerated look of questioning even as he moved closer to the armed guard.
“You’re nothing more than a common criminal,” Lord Beverly growled, his eyes never leaving The Jackal’s. “You will hand Lord Addlebury over to us or you will be arrested, or worse.”
The Jackal laughed. “Those are mighty words, coming from an old man and a booby who allows himself to be led around by the nose by a slut of an actress.”
The insult against Violetta hit Thomas as hard as if he’d been punched in the chest. He wasn’t about to wait for a full plan to form. Acting on rage alone, he lunged toward the armed guard, grabbing his revolver.
The guard was too stunned to react. Thomas was able to wrench the gun from his hands and pivot so that it was aimed straight at The Jackal’s black heart.
Less than a heartbeat later, so fast that it frayed every nerve in Thomas’s body, the garden exploded into gunfire and smoke. The noise and confusion was so sudden that Thomas nearly dropped his gun, expecting a dozen bullets to tear through him at any second.
Instead, all six of the guards positioned around the edges of the garden and the one by the door dropped as though they’d been struck down by the hand of God. Only after they fell did Thomas see an astonishing number of men wearing garments that matched the colors of the walls and plants surrounding the garden stand from positions all around the garden wall. Two had even fired from windows in houses adjacent to the garden. Most astounding of all, instead of holding the envelope that presumably held cash, Lord Beverly now held a smoking gun that was aimed directly at The Jackal.
At least, it was aimed at where The Jackal had been standing. The blackguard had caught a bullet in his shoulder and was now splayed across a cracked, wooden bench where he’d fallen.
“No!” Akila shouted, lunging toward him.
Her movement meant that Asher was left unguarded. Thomas forced himself to recover from the shock of what had just happened and to dash toward his brother. “Asher!” he called, leaping over a pot of herbs.
Asher turned toward the sound of his voice, but that was all he was able to do before a second hail of gunfire erupted. Not all of the armed guards had been killed or disabled. A good half of them were already struggling to their feet.
“Get him out of here,” The Jackal shouted, muscling to stand as well, even as he held his injured arm.
“Ash!” All Thomas could do was shout as two of the injured guards grabbed Asher by his arms and dragged him back into the house. Through his gag, Asher tried to shout something, but there was no way Thomas could make out the words.
“We have to go after him,” Thomas shouted, starting forward.
Lord Beverly grabbed his arm, jerking nearly hard enough to knock him off his feet as he pulled Thomas in the opposite direction. “It’s too late,” he growled. “They’ll have more men in the house, and we’ve already lost the element of surprise. We’ll have to find him a different way.”
Anger, panic, and grief slammed into Thomas as Lord Beverly dragged him out of the garden. Some of the men who Thomas assumed were their allies had climbed down from the garden walls and now fought with the remaining guards. That was enough of a distraction for Lord Beverly to pull Thomas out to the street. He wasn’t at all surprised to find Violetta waiting there, a revolver of her own in her right hand.
“I had no idea you’d stationed so many men here,” she said, panting and pink-faced, as though she’d been involved in the heat of the melee herself. For all Thomas had been able to see, she might have been.
“Agents have been stationed here since Akila gave us the address in Venice,” Lord Beverly said, continuing to drag Thomas to the far end of the street. Violetta followed them.
At last, Thomas shook free of the man’s surprisingly strong grip. “You knew about this place and had it surrounded all this time, and yet you did nothing to rescue Asher until now?” His fury rose to towering heights so fast it made him dizzy.
“I told you that they’ve been moving your brother daily,” Violetta reminded him. “In all likelihood, he’s only been at this house for hours, maybe less.”
“None of this is as easy as waltzing in and asking for Lord Addlebury back, as though we are inviting The Jackal and his henchmen to a picnic,” Lord Beverly said in a grim voice.
Thomas wanted to shout that they could have done something before then, but he knew that it was pointless. He had to be satisfied with the part he’d played in attempting to rescue his brother, even if he hadn’t succeeded.
“What do we do now?” he asked, rubbing a hand over his sweaty face. He was surprised to find that he still held the revolver he’d taken from The Jackal’s guard. Now that he had it, he wasn’t sure he wanted to be without it until Asher was safe and sound.
“The Jackal has been wounded,” Lord Beverly said with a grim sort of satisfaction. “He may have to find a doctor.”
“If he doesn’t have one on staff already,” Violetta said with a scowl.
“Even so,” Lord Beverly went on, “he’ll be on the back foot as long as he’s injured. That could make him easier to track.”
“What about Asher?” Thomas asked. “They still have him.”
“At least we know he’s still alive,” Violetta said.
It wasn’t much of a consolation for Thomas, but Lord Beverly seemed to take some sort of grim satisfaction in the fact.
“Lord Addlebury is still alive,” he said, breaking into a grin that sent shivers down Thomas’s back. “What’s more, we now know what The Jackal is truly after.”
“If he still needs the coin and the codex, then he hasn’t located the tomb yet,” Violetta said, as if completing Lord Beverly’s thought.
Lord Beverly’s smile widened. “They may still have what we want—Lord Addlebury,” he said. “But we have something they need desperately. Which means we still have plenty of time to rescue Lord Addlebury and bring The Jackal and his henchmen to justice.”
Chapter 7
In her years working for Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and even before that, in her father’s stifling household, Violetta had found herself in more than a few tense situations. But nothing prepared her for meeting the full force of the McGovern clan.
“Do you really perform plays here?” the vibrant and stylish Lady Evangeline asked as the bulk of the clan investigated the stage, took their seats on benches that should have been saved for the elderly or infirm, and wandered around the plaza in front of the stage.
“Yes,” Violetta answered with a bright smile. “You would be surprised at the size of the audiences our performances draw.”