“If you’re implying that my temporary absence will impact the business, you shouldn’t fret.”
“That isn’t what worries me,” Ian said darkly. He wanted to know where she was planning to flee to. It amused him mildly that she persisted with any attempt to conceal her destination.
Eventually, he’d find her. After he won the emeralds. When it was safer for him to search for her.
The front office bell chimed, and a breathless messenger rifled through his satchel. “Rives Shipping?”
“I’ll take it.” Diana ignored the way the man’s mouth twitched when he took in her hat and garb as he handed her a parcel wrapped in pink ribbon.
Ian paid the man, locked the door, and checked that the deadbolt lock was sound.
“It’s a legal notice,” Diana said haltingly. “From the chambers of Bates Holloway.”
Ian paused. “They represented my father.”
She flicked the ribbon apart with her knife and rifled through the first page. “This is a notice for Rives Shipping to vacate the warehouse and the docks. There’s a contract for possession and sale of the building.” She passed each page to Ian after she quietly read it. On the last page, she hesitated. “That’s my signature.”
When she looked up, her face was pale. “It’s a forgery, obviously.”
“A bloody good one.” There were only one or two counterfeiters who could produce such high-quality fakes. “Now we know why Jared was at the Swan’s Nest. He must be desperate for funds if he’s embroiled himself with the Skinner’s Lane Lads.”
Diana made an unladylike sound of disgust in the back of her throat. “He knew it would take time after the wedding to get his hands on the bank accounts, so he tried to get a quick sale.”
“One of those toughs could have drugged him.”
She worried her lip. “But if Jared was paying them, why would they need to?”
A forceful fist pounded at the door. “Open up. City police.”
Diana slowly shook her head. They both knew whoever was at the door was not a legitimate member of law enforcement. She motioned for him to follow her into the dimly lit interior office in the back, and Ian alarmingly noted the door had no lock.
The pounding outside grew louder, and the floorboards shook, until the noise suddenly halted.
Then came the unmistakable echo of shattering glass.
They’ve broken in, Ian mouthed.
Diana darted to the back of the room and drew aside a drape to a small broom cupboard.
“We won’t both fit—”
She covered his mouth with her hand, pushed him inside, and pulled the curtain closed.
They fell into each other. As she tried to right her balance, his arms came around her. There was no spare space to turn, nowhere else for him to put his hands without smashing something that would call attention to their presence.
There was a crashing sound of the front door being flung open, and several sets of heavy footsteps clomped across the wooden floorboards.
Diana’s breath came in jagged, hot bursts that warmed his neck. He grasped for some action to calm her. But he could only tighten his hold to still his shakinghands. He held her so close he had no doubt she could detect the wild pace of his heart.
When she leaned into his embrace, exultation warmed his limbs. His mind took a brief jaunt into a fantasy where that heat built between them, and their clothes evaporated and they were touching skin to skin. Lips to lips.
A few feet away, the ruffians dragged furniture across the floor, but Ian couldn’t make out what the harsh, muffled voices were saying.
Diana’s arms tightened around his waist, and his hand instinctively cupped the back of her head. “You have your knives?”
“Of course. Your pistol?”
“At the ready.”
