“And what about you, my lady?” Maxen asked. “You and your friends gave both my brothers the slip, and then he got beaten to this degree.”
Honestly! “Who told you to send them to keep an eye on us?”
“If we hadn’t, would you have brought us the ledger?” The man behind the bar cocked his head. “Seems to me the answer is no.”
Maxen smiled, and not sweetly. “That’s not it. They were forcing us to come to them.”
Smart man.
“And you did,” Oliver said dryly. “Though your methods leave something to be desired. You must want this ledger badly.”
“I do.”
“The book?” Oliver sent simply.
The brother behind the bar reached down and placed it on the counter. “The ledger?”
Louisa watched and Helgate removed it from the inner pocket of his jacket and tossed it to Oliver. She almost thought the duke would flick it onto the floor beside the crumpled Reaper—she almost wished he would—but he surprised her by striding up to the bar and placing it right next to the betting book.
Both men then pulled their desired book toward themselves.
That’s right.
A man such as Oliver wouldn’t lower himself by doing anything else. His actions showed courtesy and respect. Not for the men, Louisa thought, but for their treatment of her brother.
There was something breathtaking about that.
He retreated from the bar, walking backward until he was beside her, never once showing his back to the men.
He didn’t trust them.
Good. He shouldn’t.
Theyshouldn’t.
Louisa glanced at Oliver’s face. Not an ounce of emotion was visible to the eye. His mask—no, his shield—was firmly in place. Her gaze drifted back to the Fury men. They too, had their shields in place.
Urgh.
How tiring.
She didn’t know how they did it or how they kept it up. She certainly wouldn’t be able to. Her emotions tended to explode out for the world to see.
“Our business is done here,” Oliver announced. If there had been no emotion on his face, there was even less in his tone. He could have been speaking to an ant, for all the feeling those words conveyed. It did, however, carry a note of finality.
Maxen inclined his head.
“Hah!” Mr. Helgate suddenly exclaimed. “Yourbusiness with him is done. Mine business with him has just begun.”
Louisa’s shocked face turned to Mr. Helgate.
“And what business is that?” The brother behind the bar asked.
Mr. Helgate’s smiled rather fox-like. No, utterly fox-like.
He rubbed his jaw as he stared the man down. “You have my attention now. That’s not a good thing to have.”
Silence followed his statement. Not a comfortable one, but one filled with unspoken calculation.
