Hold Your Breath 01 - Stone Devil Duke (2 page)

“Oh no
, sir, that will not do at all. I will compromise with you on the sneaking up part, if you think you are up to the challenge—quite gallant of you,” she rewarded Devin with a quick smile. “It is best that we each take an alley. They will pay whether it is by my hand or yours. But not if you are to get hurt. That will not do. Nor will putting my dear horse in the line of fire. No sir, I am afraid your plan will not do at all.”

Two
more shots flew at the coach, ripping wood and interrupting the argument. Both ducked.

Jumping on the opportunity of an unguarded moment,
the woman scooted past Devin to the back of the coach and fired a shot. She dropped that gun to the ground and pulled a pistol from inside her coat.

A shot was
immediately returned at her, digging into the coach inches from where she slid back to hide.

“Damn
, woman.” Devin growled, and followed her to the back of the carriage, cocking his own pistol. He leaned out past her to survey the empty road, then sprinted across the street, his dark overcoat swinging in the night.

Back flat against the building lining the closest alley,
Devin looked across the street at the coach, watching the woman as she juggled her pistols. Her tiny form shrank as she crouched around the corner of the coach, took aim, and shot again at one of the figures that had stepped partially out of the alley closest to Devin.

A wail pierced through
the night. She had hit her mark.

At the scream,
Devin slid along the wall to the edge of the building. The wailing had receded into the dark of the alley, and Devin glanced around the corner to find one man flat on his back and holding his leg, with another kneeling over him.

Taking advantage
, Devin charged into the lane, splashing filth, and pounced on the back of unhurt man.

The mugger
reacted to the threat quicker than Devin anticipated, and turned just in time to send both of them into the wall of the alleyway. Hitting the building, Devin dropped his pistol. The thug landed a step away from Devin and whipped out a knife. He advanced on Devin, stringy hair swaying and hand wildly swinging the short blade.

The two
jousted for a moment, the thug forcing Devin into the open expanse of the street. They were in plain sight of the girl, and worse, an open target for the remaining two robbers in the other alley.

Devin
swore as he dodged a blade swing at his belly. His instincts were rusty, and it was not only costing him valuable time, it was also thrusting him deeper into a situation he was annoyed to be in. He would have been happy to just run them off. But then they shot at him.

It was
time to put this man down and off the streets for good.

Devin
saw the woman run to the front of the hack and scamper up onto the driver’s seat. Blasted. Now she was leaving?

Devin
jumped away from another swing of the blade and snatched the wrist of the thug just as he saw one of the other muggers step out from the alley. He had a pistol leveled at Devin’s head.

Devin
spun, pushing the greasy man with the blade in between him and the barrel of the pistol. He twisted the arm behind the man’s back and cracked his wrist. The grip on the blade opened, and Devin grabbed it from his hand.

Just as he gained angle and slid the sharp of the blade across the mugger’
s neck, another shot cut through the night.

The mugger
with pistol aimed at Devin thudded to the ground.

Devin
looked at the carriage. The girl stood tall on the driver’s perch, arm straight out, hand shaking. She hadn’t left. She stayed. She stood.

A
nd she just killed the thug who was seconds away from shooting Devin.

Devin
kicked off the body that had fallen onto the toes of his Hessians.

The
girl scrambled off the carriage and, new pistol high in her hand, cautiously approached the alley where she had hit the first robber in the leg. Devin mimicked her approach at the second alley. Quickly finding nothing, he turned and followed the girl into her alley.

Hers was empty as well. The last two muggers had disappeared into the darkness, t
he only evidence, barely perceivable dark stains of blood hidden in the deep shadows of the alley. And they took his favorite pistol.

She turned, head down, well-hidden in her cloak, and walked
past Devin out to the middle of the street. Devin followed, still heaving breath from the fight, staring at the girl. She didn’t give him the slightest glance.

T
he girl froze near the man she shot and stared at the body in the puddle-soaked street.

Her voice crept out into the thick air,
cracking in the lowest whisper. “The end, Papa…it is near.”

Devin
’s eyes narrowed as he strained to hear her.

S
he exhaled deeply, and Devin saw a single tear fall from her hooded face onto the street.

Realization hit
Devin. This had not been a ruined robbery attempt. “Vengeance? It was vengeance?”

The girl jumped
, obviously forgetting in her reverie, the man standing next to her.

“You had me—
a bystander, a complete stranger, a fare—involved in a shoot-out—a lowly street fight, where I killed a man.” Devin looked in disgust at the blood-soaked metal still in his hand and threw the knife down to the street. “For what—petty vengeance?”

T
he absurdity of the situation hit him, and a warped chuckle took Devin over as he stepped around the bodies to face her. “And not only are you, a woman, posing as a man—but you brought me into this.”

Devin
’s jaw tightened. “Who were they? Ex-lovers? Customers? Your keeper’s men? Oh, but that’s right—” he threw his arms up— “this is about your father—did he send you here? Does he owe them money? Did he steal from them? Was he a drunkard? For that would certainly give evidence to his daughter’s lack of decency.”

Her gaze
shot out from under her dark hood, eyes turned to fire. “My father was an honorable man. He died saving me. I will not allow you to speak of him in such a manner.”

Her eyes challenged him,
and when he made no reply, as quickly as the fire had manifested, it disappeared. She ducked her head again, hiding her face from Devin. Fire dismissed, anger hidden.

She stayed silent. No motion.

Devin waited.

Nothing.

The echo of a coach passing on the next street over reached them. Devin stared at the top of the black hood. Still, no words, no answer. Not that he particularly wanted to know what was going on.

Disgusted,
he spun away and began toward the carriage. Time to grab his umbrella and be done with this mess. He didn’t plan to be caught with, and have to explain, these dead bodies.

“It was not vengeance.
”

Her
low whisper stopped him. Devin turned back, impatient, both not wanting and wanting to hear her speak. To hear some sort of explanation.

“No
, sir, I assure you, it was not vengeance that drove me to this point.” Her voice shook, still only slightly above a whisper.

Devin
could see her eyes again, and he coldly assessed her. “What then, please tell, was your grand reasoning,” his arm swept in a wide gesture over the bodies, “for the cause of this scene and the death of two men?”

Surprised that his own annoyance had blown past his usual
even keel, he was fast coming to the realization he had allowed himself to be used by a stranger, this girl. He could have very well been killed, and it was just dumb luck that he was in the cab and possessed the combat skills he did.

What was her game? What if she had been alone? What if her fare had been some matronly spinster? The girl was a menace to society.
To any innocent that happened into her cab.

Plus, w
ho the hell was she?

Devin
stifled a sigh in his chest. He didn’t really want to know the answers to those questions. The plans of the night—along with his clothing—were now ruined. Nothing left to salvage. And he doubted that any answers coming from this insane woman would be able to soothe his utter aggravation.

Her face had fallen to the ground once more at his outburst.
She stood, arms limp at her sides, a pistol loosely gripped in each hand. Blond tendrils escaped forward from beneath the black cap she wore under the hood. Deep worry lines on her brow were exacerbated by the dark soot that covered her face. Again, no answers came.

Patience never being top on his list of virtues to hone,
Devin contemplated his limited options of getting home—either have this daft woman drop him off, or walk home—for he certainly wasn’t going to tempt the fates and hire another coach.

He rolled his eyes.
Trekking back to his townhouse would be it. He turned to the coach once more, only a step away when her next words stopped him dead.

“They ha
ve been trying to kill me for more than a year now.”

Resisting at first,
Devin turned back toward her. She shook.

“I a
m sorry, sir, you are right. You do deserve an explanation for the evening’s,” she hedged, stepping in front of him and searching for the right word, “misadventure.”

The shake eased into
composure, and she offered him a hopeful smile.

“Misadventure?”
Devin’s eyebrow cocked in disbelief.

“Please
, sir, this is by no means an easy thing for me to recite to you. I have told no one of this. Nor do I want anyone to know. You deserve the truth, only because of your unfortunate involvement, but I plead that this remains between us. No one has, or must learn of this.”

S
he paused, staring into his eyes as though she were weighing his soul, determining his trustworthiness. Uneasiness flickered in Devin at her assessment. Uneasiness that was immediately replaced with ire. What did he care what this girl thought of him?

She nodded to herself, decision made, and rushed on with her
explanation.

“You see, these men, these four
men, have been after me for a year now, because I was witness to a…terrible incident.” Her voice stuck, wilting to nothing, and hinting that whatever had happened was far more traumatic than she meant him to believe. One deep breath, and she continued on.

“They did no
t get a chance at the initial incident to kill me, thanks to a fortunate interruption from several passers-by. But from that moment on, I was marked to be disposed of.”

Remembering the
pistols in her hands, she deposited one deep into a pocket in her cloak, and bent to re-secure the other around her calf over the dark breeches she wore.

It gave
Devin a second to appraise her. Her eyes, though surrounded by dark soot to give the appearance of illness, were very candid. She was telling the truth—his instincts had never failed him when it came to liars. And her story, although remarkable, was not outside the realm of possibility—especially for a woman who drove a coach and shot a pistol.

“
Obviously, they were not very adept at my disposal,” she said, voice flat. “At our country home, I encountered three attempts on my life—”

“
Country home—so you are of money, then?” Devin interrupted, surprised by the nugget of information.

Her jaw shifted askew as s
he looked up at him, startled, and clearly disgruntled at admitting that piece of information. “Yes. Can I continue sir? This is not very easy.”

“Wh
at is your name?”

“Really
, sir, that is not relevant.” She shoved several locks of hair back under her cap. “All I owe you is the reason why you became involved in my problem on this eve. Nothing more.”

Integrity. She had integrity,
Devin decided, if she was intent on sharing what she felt she owed him, even if it meant a risk. But she offered very little of who she really was. And who she was had his curiosity piqued.

She cleared her thro
at, impatient, as she shifted her weight from one boot-clad foot to the other. “May I continue?”

He nodded her on.

“The first attempt I easily deflected—two of them tried to dispose of me as I was riding in the countryside near our estate. Shots were fired back and forth. They have terrible aim. I did get a bullet into one of them—I believe it went in an arm. The second attempt I barely escaped from. And the last attempt was a bit too close to home and my family, so I decided it was time to draw the monsters out on safer territory…”

“
London—safer? Safe for whom?”

She blinked, surprised, as she shifted her weight aga
in. “Why, my family of course—really, sir, you must quit interrupting me if I am to get this all out. We have been here too long as it is.”

“
I agree. Continue.”

The horse hooked to the carri
age began to fidget just then, and the girl immediately walked past Devin to affectionately stroke the nose of the white speckled horse. Calm once more, it stood still.

She turned
back to Devin. “So I came to London to pursue them, hired a runner to do a bit of research on the men, and discovered, among other things, hijacking and robbing hacks with wealthy fares inside was a favorite pastime of theirs.”

“So you decided to g
et robbed?” Devin rubbed his forehead at the idiocy. “And not by riding around in a hack but by driving one?”

“Yes, well…” S
he turned to stroke the horse’s nose again, “Quite simply, sir, I needed to get to them before they got to me, and this was the most efficient way of doing it.”

“Never mind the safety of your fares.”

She sent him a withering look over her shoulder. “Do not be a goose, sir—I am not in the habit of picking up fares.”

“Interesting, for that is usually what hackney drivers do.”

She turned fully and took a step toward him. “Really sir, I am not given to putting others in danger. You were an anomaly.”

“Yet
, you took me as a fare and promptly dropped me in the middle of danger.”

“You can thank your overzealous coachman for that. He almost jumped on my horse, trying to get me to stop.”

Monroe. Devin winced as he pictured his driver. Always over-exuberant in effort to please. That was what he got for hiring excellent help.

“S
till, you placed me straight into danger.”

“You were a fluke—
and a lucky one, I must admit.” She tilted her head, acknowledging the fact. “I truly only pick up fares when someone is overly insistent on getting me to stop. Which your man was. And, by the by, he should be acknowledged for wanting to please you so.”

“I wi
ll be sure to reward him.”

“Do no
t be sarcastic, sir. The poor man had no notion of what was to happen. Neither did I. I was actually quite fortunate they decided to attack my hack so quickly. I have only been doing this for several weeks now.” She played with the edge of her cloak, hands restless and obviously anxious to get going. “And then tonight happened, which you participated in, so I do not need to recall that part of the story to you.”

She p
ulled the edge of her cap down more fully onto her brow. “So then, can I offer to take you home, sir?” A smile broke through the layer of dirt on her face that somehow managed to be charming.

Devin
almost broke out laughing for the sheer bizarreness of the situation. He rubbed his eyes. What the blazes was he doing standing in the middle of this dark street listening to this woman? He should have bowed out of this long ago.

But this slip
of a girl with blond tendrils escaping everywhere and wide eyes had him—he hated to admit it—intrigued. And he couldn’t quite walk away, even if it was the smart thing to do.

His anger had dissipated
, only nuggets of annoyance still holding root, and he was left with a deep interest about the woman standing before him. He couldn’t explain it, but he actually wanted to know much, much more about this girl.

She looked up at him,
smile still in place, waiting for an answer to her last, subject-changing, question.

“Please
, sir, do not stand there looking daft. Do you need to be dropped off anywhere in particular? Oh, but first,” she said, looking over at the bodies, “we should rid the street of the, uh, vermin. I would be saddened if they frightened any children or ladies come the morning.”

S
he stepped past him to the nearest body. “No. It would not do to have these evil men lying dead in the street for all to see.”

Biting her lip, s
he gave a slight wringing of her hands, then looked up at Devin, hopeful. “Please, sir, although I do not wish to touch their bodies, I would at least like to drag them to the alley. If you would be so kind to help?”

Devin
watched as she fidgeted above the body. She had started to shake again. He could only assume that seeing a dead body up close must be new to her. A pleasant surprise.

She b
ent over one of the men, gripping his arm, and tried to drag him toward the nearest alley. She managed to move his chest only a tick.

“Sir,
please. I really could use a bit of help—I had not actually figured on this part of it and…and…” Her words trailed, and she dropped the arm. Hand clamped over her mouth, she stumbled backward as she stared at the dark blood that had seeped onto her left hand.

Devin
strode to her, grabbed her slight shoulders, and steered her backward, propping her onto the wood siding of a building.