“So,” Xander said five minutes later, eyeing Jameson with caution. “What are we thinking?”
I’m thinking that Idowant to burn the whole world down.Jameson pushed back against that thought. “The Devil’s Mercy.” Jameson’s jaw hardened. The Mercy was what had brought him to London. That was the next logical step, crucibles be damned. “I need a way in.”
“What are our options?”
Xander’s use of the wordsweandourdid not go unnoticed.She’s your Avery, too.
The muscles in Jameson’s chest loosed very slightly. “The Devil’s Mercy is underground,” he told Xander. “Literally. There are multiple entrances, all of them hidden, but I am only acquainted with one. It’s in a famous opera house, and even if I were to break in, without the right key, there would still be the matter of the elevator to deal with. Followed by other security measures. Followed by the consequences of forcing my way in.”
“Do we care about the consequences?” Xander asked, the question making it clear: Xander would be right there with him, regardless.
And that meant that Jamesondidcare. “The safer and more discreet option,” he admitted, “is to go in invited.”
“Invited.” Xander nodded. “Yes. Good. I like it. How do we make that happen?”
“Two options,” Jameson said immediately, having already thought this through. “One involves making so much noise that the Mercy sends someone to shut us up and then we bargain like our life depends upon it with whoever the Proprietor sends.”
“Theoretically,” Xander said delicately, “wouldour lives depend on it?”
The last time Avery and Jameson had drawn out an emissary of the Devil’s Mercy, that emissary had been Rohan. Jameson wondered if the Proprietor would send the duchess this time.Two birds, one stone—but risky.
“I’m liking option two,” Xander declared. “Based on vibes alone.”
“Option two,” Jameson told Xander, “is finding a member to quietly and discreetly bargain on our behalf.”
Xander stroked his chin. “And do we have a specific member in mind?”
Jameson reached for his phone. “As luck would have it, Toby is not my only uncle.”
Chapter 39
JAMESON
No.” Simon Johnstone-Jameson, Viscount Branford, seemed to feel absolutely no need to elaborate on that.
“What I’m hearing,” Jameson said into the phone, “is that you want me to try my luck climbing down the elevator shaft.”
“What elevator shaft?” Branford was very pointedlynot amused, but as far as Jameson had been able to tell in the year-and-a-half in which he’d been acquainted with the man, his paternal uncle wasneveramused.“What elevator shaft, Jameson?”
“It’s a long way down,” Jameson replied coyly.
“Have I ever given you the impression that I respond well to threats?” Branford said with a chilling kind of calm.
“Do you remember the bell?” Jameson asked. “The one at Vantage.” During a high-stakes Game with a capitalG, Jameson had launched himself off a staircase, over a drop, and onto a massive bell, knowing that if he slipped or lost his grip, he’d die. The reference was his way of reminding his uncle: Jameson wasn’t afraid of heights—or taking risks.
“What is this about, Jameson?”
“I can’t tell you. It’s asecret.”
“Is it?” Branford’s tone shifted in a way that told Jameson his uncle had registered his intended meaning. Once upon a time, they’d each had to put up asecretto buy their way into a game of highest stakes. “I asked you once before to tell me what I needed to know to protect you,” Branford said. “You declined to do so.”
Jameson’s secret in that game had been that Alice was alive. Looking back, that had been almost unforgivably reckless, but he’d been in a reckless place at the time.Yes, he telegraphed silently to Branford.This is related tothatsecret, and no, I can’t tell you—any more than I could tell you then.
“The best way to protect me right now,” Jameson said, “is to get me an invitation to the tables at the Mercy. Tonight.”
“Deals with the Devil’s Mercy are deals with the devil—always, Jameson. And in the end, the house always wins.”
Jameson had heard that before, in the form of a warning from Rohan:Where angels fear to tread, have your fun instead. But be warned: The house always wins.
