“What about just a little torture?”Adam tossed her a wink.
The gesture sent a shiver of wicked delight coursing down her spine.
She was fairly certain she understood Adam’s strategy, and it was a perfectly good one.Dawson had the fortitude of a mayfly.Just the threat of a bit of physical coercion would surely be all they required to get him to crumble like a dry biscuit.
“I suppose I could allow just a touch of it,” Ellie conceded, playing along.“If it was for a very good reason.”
“I won’t talk!”Dawson squawked.“You wouldn’t dare!”
“I’m thinking we start with his fingers,” Adam mused.
“Only the little ones,” Ellie cautioned, choking back a laugh.
“Those are my favorite anyway,” Adam cheerfully agreed.
Dawson made a gurgle of terror as he tried to press himself through the shelves.
The door to the broom closet swung open.
Ellie whirled to see a lean, dark figure in a plain black suit and bowler hat framed on the threshold.His coldly familiar aquiline features sent a bolt of instinctive fear through her.
Ellie greeted him levelly.“Mr.Jacobs.”
Jacobs answered by pointing a pistol at her.
Adam’s eyes moved from the gun to Jacobs’ face.“I was wondering when you might turn up.”
“I suppose it was too much to hope that I’d get through one bloody job without you two involving yourselves.”Jacobs’ voice dripped with irritation and disdain.
“And where have you been?!”Dawson slid toward Jacobs, pressing against the wall to stay as far from Adam as possible.“You’re supposed to be on security!What use are you if you can’t keep the more important members of this expedition safe?”
“Here now, aren’t I?”Jacobs returned without looking at him, the pistol steady in his hand.
“Make a habit of checking the broom closets?”Adam prodded.
“I heard you from the hall.”Jacobs shot a disdainful look at Dawson.“This one’s loud.”
Ellie had to allow that.She would certainly have been able to hear Dawson’s self-important monologuing through the door if she’d been passing by.
“Bring your friends along with you?”Jacobs casually demanded.
With a jolt, Ellie realized he was talking about Constance and Neil.She opened her mouth to bluff him… and remembered with a sick jolt that she couldn’t.
Because Jacobs would know.
Jacobs smiled thinly.“That’s answer enough.”
Ellie took a step back, her words tight.“You can’t kill us.”
Adam set a warning hand on her arm, but Ellie knew it was true.They had learned back in Egypt that Jacobs was only working for the Order of Albion for some obscure purpose of his own—one involvingjustice.
Whatever that meant to a man like Jacobs.
Somehow, Ellie and Adam were tied up in how he was meant to achieve it.The Smoking Mirror had shown him that—andonlythat.Jacobs had no idea what role they were meant to play.
Nor was he particularly happy about it.Ellie was painfully conscious that there were likely limits to just how far his grace would extend.
“I could still take your knees out,” Jacobs snapped with exasperation.
