The Devil's Thief (36 page)

“
You
are Blackman?”
Alasdair asked.

The man frowned. “I am.”

Alasdair looked at him in surprise. “Then why do you call
yourself Blackman? I say, it’s rather odd to refer to yourself in the third
person.”

Julianna gave a nervous laugh and Blackman tightened his
hold on her throat, choking the sound off. Alasdair took a menacing step
forward, attempting to bluff his way through the ordeal by reaching for his
empty pocket. Before he could get to it, Blackman shoved Julianna at him.
Alasdair dove to catch her as she stumbled and nearly fell. It was a clever
maneuver because if Alasdair had actually had a gun with him, it would have
prevented him from drawing it. He instantly shoved Julianna behind him.

“Julianna, get away!” he ordered.

“Alasdair, no,” she protested.

“That’s right, miss,” Blackman said, widening his stance and
training the gun on Alasdair. “You don’t want to leave now, do you? We’re not
done talking.”

Alasdair heard Julianna take several steps back and move off
to the side. She didn’t leave the room and when he looked back, he saw that she
was pressed against the wall by the door.

“Talk about what?” she asked warily. Alasdair returned his
gaze to Blackman.

“What I’m going to do with you two,” he said ominously,
gesturing with his head to an open lockbox on the table beside him. “I can’t
let word get out that Blackman allows this sort of thing.”

“I was only taking the pearl, as you surmised,” Julianna
rushed to assure him. “I was leaving your four hundred pounds you gave me and taking
the pearl back. As I told you the other day, I must have it back.”

Blackman was shaking his head. “And I told you, the price is
now eight hundred pounds.”

Alasdair looked shocked at the paltry sums. “Don’t either of
you know how much that pearl is worth?” he asked incredulously.

Behind him he heard Julianna groan. “Really, Alasdair, are
you trying to drive up the price?” He winced in chagrin as their captor
laughed.

Suddenly Blackman’s face blanched. “No!” he shouted. A shot
rang out from behind Alasdair and then a loud
crack
rent the air. Alasdair whirled around to see a large bald man
crumpling to the floor. Julianna stood next to him with the broken leg of a
chair clutched in her hands. She was as white as a ghost and trembling.

“He tried to shoot you,” she said in a small voice.

Alasdair looked back and saw a fresh bullet hole in the
wall. The shot had come closer to Blackman than to him.

“Bloody, stupid little bugger,” Blackman raged. “Did you
kill him? It would serve him right. Can’t see two feet in front of his face, he
can’t. He almost shot me.” He was shaking his head as he kept his gun trained
on Alasdair.

“He’s your brother!” Julianna exclaimed in shocked horror.

Kneeling next to the fallen man, Alasdair pressed a hand to the
man’s chest. “He’s still breathing,” he told Blackman, who didn’t seem very
relieved.

“Up,” he said, waving the gun at Alasdair, who slowly stood
up, maneuvering himself between Julianna and the weapon. “That’s done it, then.
Can’t very well leave you alive to go telling tales. Don’t like witnesses.”

Alasdair could tell from the look in the man’s eyes that he
was going to shoot. If he managed to dodge the bullet, he could rush Blackman
and take him down. The man took a step toward him, his gun in his outstretched
hand. Alasdair knew that the closer Blackman got to him, the better his chance
of inflicting a mortal wound. But Alasdair was frozen in place, unwilling to
move and expose Julianna to harm.

It happened in an instant, but it was as if Alasdair were
watching the scene unfold through a wall of water, slowing everything down.
There was a mighty crash and a body came flying in through the window, slamming
into Blackman right before a gunshot rang through the room. Julianna screamed
and Alasdair stumbled, expecting to feel the painful sting of a bullet. Instead
he heard Blackman cursing. Wait, not Blackman.

“Bloody hell, you stupid sod!” Wiley said breathlessly from
the floor as he rolled off Blackman. “Standing there like a fuckin’ idiot as he
fired at you! Is that what they teach you up at them fancy schools?”

“Wiley!” Julianna cried out. She rushed past Alasdair and
fell to her knees at the boy’s side. She reached for him but he shoved her
hands away.

“I’m bleeding like a pig,” he said weakly. “Don’t get none
of it on you.”

Alasdair came out of his stupor with a shake of his head.
“I’m the idiot? Who told you to jump in front of a loaded gun?” His heart was
beating triple time as he, too, knelt at the boy’s side, across from Julianna.

“Didn’t,” Wiley said, wincing as he clutched his shoulder.
“Jumped him, hoped his aim would be off.”

He yanked Wiley’s hand away from his wounded shoulder,
ignoring the boy’s attempts to keep him away. The blood was seeping out, rather
than pumping, which seemed a good thing to Alasdair, although he’d never
attended a gunshot wound before. He pressed his hand against it to try to slow
the bleeding even more.

“Ow!” Wiley shouted. “I’m shot, man! Take care.”

“Fer Christ’s sake, Wiley, it’s just in the shoulder.”
Blackman’s voice took them all by surprise. He was shoving pound notes into a
small lockbox. He slammed it shut, grabbed it off the table, and started
walking quickly toward the door. He barely paused to nudge the prone form of
his compatriot. When all he got was a groan in response, he kept right on
moving. “Always was a stupid boy,” Blackman muttered. “We could have shared the
profits on the pearl, Wiley,” he called back. “And none would have been the
wiser.”

“Alasdair?” Hil’s voice echoed from the stairs, and in
seconds he was there in the doorway, effectively blocking Blackman’s escape.
“Who’s been shot?”

“Wiley,” Alasdair told him. “Get me something to stop this
bleeding.” Though Wiley was trying to hide it with sarcasm and bravado, his
pale face and the tremors wracking his body revealed his immense pain. “You
saved my life,” Alasdair told him quietly. “Thank you. It is a debt I can never
repay.”

“Too right,” Wiley agreed in a shaking voice. “And don’t you
forget it.”

“Thank you, Wiley,” Julianna said tearfully. She gently took
his hand and pressed the back of it to her cheek. “I can never repay you,
either.”

“Did it for you, didn’t I?” Wiley said with some of his
usual belligerence. “Knew you’d do something stupid like try to steal it back,
even though you told me you wouldn’t.” Julianna bit her lip and looked
incredibly guilty. “He loves you,” Wiley told her,
laying
his head back on the floor and closing his eyes. “Without the pearl.” His lips
thinned as Roger knelt next to Alasdair and pressed a thick square of cloth
against the wound. “Bloody fuckin’ Cupid, that’s me,” Wiley muttered.

Alasdair came to his feet and went over to Julianna. Very
carefully he removed the broken piece of wood she was still holding in her hand
and pulled her up into his arms. She was shaking like a leaf. “Yes, you are,”
he said to Wiley, although he spoke to the top of Julianna’s head. She clung to
him, her nose buried in his cravat.

“The others?” Alasdair asked in sudden alarm. “Downstairs?”

Roger scoffed. “As soon as the gunshots started up here,
they fled like rats from a sinking ship.”

“What happened to this one? Is he dead?” Ernest had come
into the room and indicated the large man who was still lying on the floor.

“No,” Alasdair told him, “but he did try to shoot me.
Apparently his eyesight is quite poor. Julianna cracked him over the head for
his trouble.”

“Can’t believe you’ve turned rat, Wiley,” Blackman said in a
threatening voice. “You’ll pay for this. You ought to stay out of other
people’s business.” Blackman was standing on the other side of the room and Hil
had his pistol trained on him. “And you ought to have steered clear of the
likes of them. All of them crazy, I tell you.” He gestured around the room.
“Look at this mess. All they had to do was pay me my eight hundred, wasn’t it?
And none of this would have been necessary.”

“Eight hundred?” Ernest said in disbelief. Alasdair quieted
him with a glare.

Wiley looked decidedly green at the threat. “Now,
Blackman—”

“None of your sweet talk, you little rat,” the man growled.
“You brought her here. You vouched for her. And now look. Poor Cam is facing
transportation for attempting to murder this here gentleman.”

“Cam?” Julianna said in disbelief. She glared at Blackman
around Alasdair’s shoulder. “This was all your doing, Mr. Blackman, and that’s
exactly what I plan to tell the police when they arrive.”

“We will not tell the police,” Hil told him calmly. “We
simply want Miss Harte and the Stewart Pearl. Then we shall trouble you no
more.”

“What?” Alasdair and Julianna exclaimed in shock at the same
time, while the others looked at Hil incredulously.

A calculating look lit up Blackman’s beady eyes. “So, you
want the pearl, do you? And it’ll keep you quiet?”

“We will not go to the authorities about the events of this
evening,” Hil agreed reluctantly. “But I want your assurance that you will not
seek out Miss Harte in the future, nor will you tell anyone what transpired
between you.”

Alasdair’s shoulders sank with relief. Thank God for Hil. He
hadn’t even thought about what might happen to Julianna’s reputation were the
events leading up to this evening’s confrontation revealed.

 
“Can’t talk
about business, eh?” Blackman rubbed his chin. “Well, that might cost a bit
more.”

Alasdair could feel his temper rising again. “We will go to
the police. You may keep the pearl.” He turned as if to leave, trying one last
bluff.

“Now, now,” Blackman hurried to say, “don’t be hasty. If the
constables come pay old Blackman a visit, he might tell them all about her
father, too. Accidental-like, of course.”

Julianna shrank against him. Alasdair looked down at her,
and said, “We never did get that far in conversation, did we?” In wry amusement,
he added, “I no longer need to wonder where you learned your questionable
skills. Lady Linville?” Julianna’s eyes widened and she shook her head
vehemently. He turned back to Blackman. “You give us the pearl and we go home.
That will be the end of it. We don’t know you, and you have never seen us. Do
we have a deal? Because that is my last offer.”

Blackman looked at him, one eye narrowed as if assessing his
words for their value. “Deal.” He pointed at Wiley. “But this one stays here.”

Hil stepped forward. “I’m afraid that is impossible. Wiley
is my protégé. Should something happen to him, you would find yourself dealing
with me.”

“And me,” Julianna said in a strong voice.

Alasdair grinned. “And me,” he added. He knew he owed Wiley
more than he could ever repay.

Roger sighed. “I suppose this is where I have to say, ‘and
me.’ ”

Wiley gaped at them all in astonishment. Blackman snorted.
“Fancy him, do you? You gents have your peculiar tastes, I know.”

Wiley sputtered and glared at Blackman. “Watch your mouth.
There’s a lady present.”

“I did not say ‘and me,’ ” Ernest pointed out. “I barely
know the boy, and though he saved Sharp’s life, I really can’t vouch for him at
this stage.”

“Who is he?” Julianna whispered to Alasdair.

“Shh. Later,” he whispered back.

Blackman crossed his arms and leaned against the table. “So
who are you, and why should I care?” he asked Hil.

Hil raised a supercilious eyebrow. “I am Sir Hilary St.
John.”

His simple reply had no effect on Blackman. He shrugged.
“Means nothing to me, but I’ll remember it,” he said.

“Let’s just say that I have a great many friends and
acquaintances in London,
and
 
on
Bow Street, who can make business
rather difficult for a man like you,” Hil replied with a cold smile.

Blackman looked like he’d swallowed a bug and he cursed
violently. “Fine, take him. Take him and go. But he better not show his face
around here again, not after I tell everyone he’s turned rat.”

Before Alasdair could add anything, Julianna pulled out of
his arms and pushed him toward Blackman. “The pearl,” she whispered. “Get the
pearl.”

Alasdair walked over to Blackman and held his hand out. With
a sigh, the villain placed the little bundle in his hand.

“Open it,” Julianna demanded from behind him. Alasdair
looked over his shoulder at her. She stood with her arms crossed, glaring at
Blackman. “I don’t trust him. Make sure it’s the pearl.”

Blackman laughed. “Knew you’d do that, didn’t I?” he
chuckled. “A woman after my own heart, she is. If she weren’t yours . .
. ,
” He let the sentence trail off.

Alasdair paused in the act of unwrapping the pearl to say
possessively, “Oh, she’s mine all right.” He glanced at Wiley when he said it, and
the boy had the nerve to look amused. Based on what he’d seen of Wiley’s
loyalty and bravery tonight, Alasdair was quite grateful Julianna had not
fallen in love with him when she had the chance. He’d certainly treated her
better than Alasdair had.