by Kady Cross
No, London was where his life was now. Where his friends were. Where he wanted to be, even though it was sometimes painful to look Griffin in the eye, still ashamed of involving his friends in that mess. They had traveled all the way to Manhattan—at great expense—to bring him home, and learned all about his shady past in the process. Finley had even infiltrated Dalton’s gang and risked her own life to save him.
How could he ever begin to repay that kind of debt?
Tarnation, but he was tired of thinking about this stuff. Finally feeling clean, he turned the taps and dried off with a soft towel, which he then secured around his waist. He just wanted to go to sleep and wake up someone different.
Or at least have something to wake up for. It was maudlin, but a little happiness didn’t seem too much to ask.
Barefoot, he walked into his room, rubbing his hand in his hair to make the waves dry faster. He had just taken three steps in when he froze. Jasmine. Sunshine. He knew that scent. His heart slammed against the inside wall of his chest. His mouth dried up like the Nevada desert.
“Hey, Jas.”
That voice. He closed his eyes. Was this a joke? Had he finally lost his ever-loving mind? Now he was imagining her there—smelling her, even!
But that tingle between his shoulder blades—that was real. That sensation of knowing that if someone had a knife to bury in your back you’d be dying at that very moment. Very slowly, he turned, his hand instinctively going to his hip.
“You gonna shoot me with a towel?” There was mockery in that husky tone. “Or you got something under there I should know about?”
Jasper forced his shoulders to relax. Forced himself to relax. “Cat. What the blue blazes are you doing in London?” How had he managed to sound so calm and collected? She was in his bedroom—and he remembered things they’d done in hers—sitting there with dust on her boots, as if she owned the place. She’d removed her hat, and all her hair, that glorious riot of corkscrew curls, fell over her shoulders.
She had the best hair.
Gracefully, she rose out of the chair and walked toward him. Instinctively, he placed his hands in front of his privates, because she had the look of a woman intent on damaging a man. “Why, Jasper. I came to see you, of course.”
Were that but true. His heart reacted as though it was gospel and not a honeyed lie just to torment him. “The only way you’d come to see me is if I was hanging by a noose.” He knew it was true, because he had hurt her, and Cat was one of those women you could fight with, curse and wish to the very devil, and she’d still come back. But hurt her...
She stuck out her lower lip. She also had the best lips. Red and soft, he’d kiss them if he didn’t think he was in enough trouble already. “You make me sound evil.”
“No room for evil in you with all that pride takin’ up space,” he retorted. “Be honest, Cat. You didn’t come here for me. You’d rather poke out your own eye than confess to missing me, so why are you here?”
Something flickered in her eyes. Something strange. Could it be that she had actually missed him? He was such a dolt. Of course she’d missed him. Her feelings had been as sincere as his own.
“Sparrow,” she said softly. “She’s gone.”
Jasper frowned. “Gone? Oh, Cat. Do you mean she’s...dead?”
She shot him a look that said exactly how low she thought his intelligence. “No, I mean she ran off with a rich white man who promised her chocolates and flowers and pretty dresses.”
He swore. She chuckled dryly, as though he’d understated it. “How old is she?”
“Fifteen just this week.”
“How old is the bastard she ran off with?”
“Six and twenty.”
More swearing. Other girls would have squealed in disgust, but Cat looked as those she agreed wholeheartedly. “Do you know who he is?”
“Yeah. Fella not far from here, but that doesn’t matter now.”
“The hell it doesn’t! We’ll go get her and I’ll teach the bounder a thing or two about the dangers of molesting young girls.” Maybe six things—straight out of his Colt.
“She’s not there anymore.”
He hadn’t expected to hear that. “Where is she?”
“Not the foggiest.” She lifted her chin and met his gaze with a direct one of her own. “You and I are no good together, I know that, but I need your help. I know I’m not the easiest woman to get along with, but I wouldn’t come to you if it weren’t important. You and your friends know this city. I can track, but in a place this size it’s next to impossible unless I have a place to start. Will you help me?”
She made it sound as though maybe their breakup had been her fault. Maybe in a way it was, because of her criminal activity, but he’d been the one to run out. “You don’t even have to ask. The others are busy trying to find Emily, but I’ll help you.”
Cat’s brow puckered. “The one you had with you the day you came to collect your belongings?”
“No, that was Finley. Emily’s a sweet little Irish gal who has a way with machines. She disappeared—looks like abduction.”
“It’s contagious.”
If someone else had made that callous a joke, he would have blackened their eye, but somehow Cat managed to say these sorts of things and make the situation a little palatable. “Appears so.”
“Well, you don’t have to help me. I can do this on my own. You should go find your friend. It’s obvious you have a lot of tenderness t’ward her.”
Surprise took hold of his face. He could only imagine the hideous expression that surely had to be convulsing his features. “Miss Emily’s my friend. She has her fella, and I couldn’t be happier for the two of them.” That was a lie. He was happy for them, but sometimes he wondered why it seemed so easy for some people to engage in relationships, while others would never, ever find that sort of happiness. “They don’t need me anyway.” And that was just him being a spoiled brat.
“I don’t need you, either, just so you know.”
Jasper looked at her. She was staring at his chest. His naked chest. Could she see his heart pounding beneath his skin? “But you want me.” His voice was low. “My help, I mean.” He’d never thought himself particularly skilled at flirting, but with Cat it seemed to come naturally.
She swallowed. Slowly, her gaze rose up his chest, his neck, his jaw, and then finally met his. “Yes. I want your help. I don’t like it, but I do.”
Why did he get the feeling she was talking about more than his “help”?
God, she was so pretty. Fierce. He had no right to be thinking about her like this, to wonder what she’d do if he put his arms around her. He remembered the feeling of her skin against his. But she’d be going back to New York, and he would stay in London. She’d go back to crime and he’d go on with Griffin’s bunch. The two of them couldn’t be more different.
Tarnation, but he wanted to kiss her.
“Can we go now?” she asked, gesturing to the open window she must have climbed through.
“I need to let someone know I’m going out, and put some clothes on, ’less you’d prefer I go out like this.” He spread his arms.
Her gaze traveled along the length of him once more. “I’m not keen on attracting attention. That pretty face will get us noticed more than enough.”
“You think I’m pretty?”
She arched a brow, a wry expression on her face. “Like you don’t already know it. I’ve seen you use your looks to make so many girls do what you want. Charm and a pretty face, that’s what you are.”
Now, that sounded like an insult, and it stung. “You must really be worried about Sparrow to come to me.”
“I am.”
“You hate me that much, Cat?”
Her eyes burned with intensity, her vertical pupils wide in the d
im light. “I wish I could hate you. I’d be so much happier if I hated you.”
Jasper’s breath hitched a little. If she didn’t hate him... No, there was no future for them. “I wish you hated me, too.”
And then he kissed her.
Chapter Three
Oh, lord.
Cat’s hands came up to grab Jasper by the hair and push him away. Instead, her fingers tangled in his damp curls and pulled him closer. His arms went around her, holding her tight as he kissed her. She kissed him back.
He infuriated her. Could hurt her like no other. He also kissed like a dream and felt like heaven. And he smelled so very, very good—like pie. She didn’t even want to think about how good he looked half-naked. Was he more muscular than the last time she’d seen him? He looked more rugged and less pretty. He was the most gorgeous thing she’d ever seen, and one of the best people she’d ever known. There weren’t many she’d talk about favorably, but she would about Jasper, even though he’d broken her heart.
He had to feel something for her, because fellas kissed girls they liked differently—either as if they were made of china, or as if he was dying of thirst and she was a cool mountain spring.
Obviously, Jas didn’t think she was fragile.
What was she doing? Her sister was missing and she was digging the fingers of one hand into Jasper’s scalp while her other hand explored his bare shoulder and back. She wanted to rub her face in the crook of his neck and breathe him in.
And Sparrow was out there all alone.
It took all of Cat’s strength to push him away. How stupid was she? She was not going to risk her heart again, especially not at her sister’s expense, but she had no sense when it came to Jasper Renn.
“Get dressed,” she told him. “I’ll wait for you outside.” She slipped out the window and down the side of the house the way she had come up, her claws digging into the stone as she descended. The cool night air was just what she needed to return to sanity. The nerve of him, standing there looking so gorgeous and knowing it! He ought to be ashamed of himself—but really, when a man looked that good, he had to know it, or he was a simpleton.
Above her she heard the window shut. Was he not going to—
“All right, let’s go.”
Cat jumped. She couldn’t help it. One second she’d seen him at the window and before she could finish her thought he was right in front of her. She’d forgotten how fast he was, but it seemed as though maybe he’d gotten even faster.
Jasper grinned. “Nerves frayed, are they, kitten?”
“No.” She scowled. “Call me by that awful name again and I’ll slice you open from belly to throat.”
“You’d have to catch me first.” He turned and walked away, leaving her no choice but to hurry after him. He was not in charge of this search—she was. He was not allowed to make her feel as though he was the boss. Some of it came from pride, but some from her parents. Regardless of their love for each other, her mother had distrusted white folks in general, which made sense, given her family history, and her father had mistrusted everyone who wasn’t Irish. That left Cat with the assurance that she could trust only herself, and possibly Sparrow.
Although it seemed she’d been misguided in that respect. Her sister had just up and left without even a goodbye. Sparrow had been angry at her, and maybe with good reason, but that was no reason to just...abandon her sister.
She was at Jasper’s side when they entered the stables. There was a low level of lighting in there—just enough that most regular folk could barely see to get around. Cat could see everything quite clearly, so when she spotted the velocycles in their bays, she immediately felt a spark of adventure.
“Are we taking two of those?” she whispered.
Jasper shook his head. He wasn’t wearing his hat, which made him look like less of a cowboy. “We’re taking one.”
“But if we find Sparrow...”
He shot her a glance. “Then you’ll either take a hack back to your hotel and I’ll drive the cycle, or you’ll come back here, in which case I’ll just run.” He shrugged as if it wasn’t any big concern.
When had he become so comfortable with his abilities? When she’d first met him, he had been using his talents for nefarious reasons, and he’d seemed pretty torn up over it. He had not been made for a life of crime. Neither had she, it turned out—though she had been very good at it once.
She’d turned to crime to feed herself and her sister, to help people less fortunate and, yes, for money. She was now at a point where she didn’t need much where money was concerned, and stealing, dealing and wheeling just didn’t hold the same allure they once had.
Jasper, on the other hand, was as fascinating—or more so—as he had been on that first meet. The scoundrel.
He straddled one of the cycles, leaving her room to climb onto the padded seat with him. “You’ll have to put your arms around me. You all right with that?”
Was he teasing her? “I think I can handle it.”
“But can you control yourself? I wouldn’t want to drive you into a state of histrionics.”
She glared at him—because she wanted to laugh. “All this English tea and pudding has gone to your head and turned what brain you had to mush.”
“Used too many big words for you, did I?” he asked with a grin. “I’ve been workin’ on my vocabulary, my elocution, my verbosity, my... Damn me, but I can’t think of another word.”
She would not laugh. She would. Not. Laugh.
She laughed. Jasper’s grin grew.
“Don’t be mad at me, Cat. I lied when I said it would be better if you didn’t like me.”
Was that cracking ache in her chest her heart breaking? “I lied, too.” She wasn’t about to point out how many times. “And I’m not mad at you, Jas. Not really. Not much. But you hurt my feelings, boyo, and I can’t forgive you for it.”
His grin slid from his face. “I know, and I’m sorry for it.”
Of course he was. So was she. She climbed onto the cycle behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter anymore. We’re over. Just help me find Sparrow.”
He started the velocycle, the low rumble of the engine coming to life like a purring lion. “All right,” he said.
Cat didn’t know which of the three he was in agreement with, and she was afraid to ask. It didn’t matter, she told herself, but she was lying again.
It mattered quite a bit.
* * *
Jasper didn’t know Sparrow that well—he’d met the girl only a few times. She’d been in school most of the time he’d been with Cat. He might not know her, but he knew her sister, and he knew enough girls to have an idea of where Sparrow might go.
Straight into the middle of trouble, which made it all the more important that they find the girl. No one at King House would be upset that he’d left to help Cat. She’d helped them in New York, and like he’d said earlier, they really didn’t need his help to find Emmy. He’d left the report of his search on Griffin’s desk earlier, and a note on his door that he was with Cat and would be back soon. They could reach him on his portable telegraph if they needed him.
Covent Garden was one of the entertainment centers of London. It had theaters, dance halls, taverns and shops where a young woman might get employment. It also had many boardinghouses nearby where those same girls could live if they hadn’t any family. It was one of the first places he’d gone when he arrived in London, so he’d wager that Cat’s little sister had gone there, as well.
It was also the sort of place where predators hunted for naive little girls.
Damnation, but Cat had to be out of her head with worry. And he’d taken advantage of that when he kissed her. True, she’d kissed him back and made him happier than he should have been, but it had been wrong of
him.
He’d do it again in an instant. Obviously, he had no willpower where she was concerned.
He drove to an area not far from the Theatre Royal and parked the velocycle in the lengthening shadows. Nighttime was when this place truly came alive.
“Did you bring something of hers for scent?” he asked, slipping his leg over the machine as she climbed off. “A photograph?”
“Both.”
He nodded. “All right, then, let’s go ask some questions. Best let me do most of the talking. Folks won’t be inclined to trust you.”
“Because of my skin, or because I’m a woman?”
The defensive edge in her voice gave him pause. “Because they don’t know you.”
“Oh.”
He would have laughed at her expression if he didn’t think it might get him disemboweled. Those claws of hers could be nasty when she brought them out.
“C’mon,” he said, inclining his head. “Let’s find that little bird.” He offered her his hand, not really expecting her to take it. She stared at it for a fraction of a second, and then slid her fingers around his. Joy exploded in his stomach. He’d told himself this wouldn’t work. Told himself she was the wrong girl for him, yet every instinct and emotion he had was against him. He couldn’t help himself. He’d help her, spend time with her—kiss her as often as she liked—and then he’d have to let her go. He’d already done that twice. Wasn’t it madness to do it again?
Yes, said his mind. No, said his heart. Both of them could just shut the hell up for the time being.