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Chapter 27
Jarvisquicklypushedthedrawer shut, took Olivia by her waist, and tucked her behind him as Bradshaw entered, pointing a pistol toward them. Bradshaw looked from Jarvis to Olivia and back again.
“Well, well, well,” he drawled. “If it isn’t the infamous Shadow. Snooping around my study, are you? And my beloved. How lovely to see you here.”
“Bradshaw—” Olivia started.
“Please, stay behind me,” Jarvis growled.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Bradshaw asked, slowly walking toward the window, pistol still trained on them.
“No,” Jarvis lied.
“You wouldn’t. Because I am actually good at what I do.”
“And what is it that you do?” Jarvis asked.
Bradshaw tsked. “And why would I tell you anything?”
“To save your neck from the gallows.”
Bradshaw laughed unpleasantly. “You seem to be under the impression that you are the one holding a pistol. If anyone is going to the gallows, it is you. Look at you! Dressed as a criminal, snooping around my study like a criminal. And you will die like a criminal, too.”
“You speak an awful lot for a person who just vowed not to tell me anything.”
Bradshaw smiled. “Not anything of value.”
“Bradshaw, please!” Olivia stepped forward and grabbed Jarvis by his arm. Jarvis instinctively covered her hand with his, and Bradshaw followed the movement.
“I should have gone for the harlot right away,” he said, looking at Olivia. “I thought I’d be able to catch you by attacking your favorite Lykai house, but my men failed at that. Who knew it would be so much easier to pluck your feathers while courting your woman. She is so gullible, so easily seduced. You should have seen it, St. John! One more night with me, and she’d accept my proposal.”
“I wouldn’t!” Olivia cried.
“You would. And I’d keep you as my souvenir to taunt St. John. But since he’s here of his own volition, no need to keep up the charade. And I am grateful for that.”
“So it was just a charade?” Olivia asked.
“Did you really think I would fancy an uncouth trollop like you? You are as dull as ditchwater, and just about as clever.”
Jarvis took a menacing step toward Bradshaw, but the latter raised a pistol, aiming at Jarvis’s head. “I’d be careful who you threaten.”
Olivia gasped, and Jarvis took another step forward, hoping to shield Olivia’s body with his own. “All right. You caught me. Now what?”
Jarvis needed to keep Bradshaw talking. As long as he was talking, he wasn’t shooting. And Jarvis had a pistol of his own. Only it nestled between his shoulder blades, and he had no way of pulling it out quickly enough to not get shot.
“Now, I shall kill your woman and frame you for it.” Jarvis’s fingers curled into fists, his blood boiling, but he forced himself to stand still. “I shall declare to the world that I caught the culprit who terrorizes London at night, captures children, kills women. There are enough folk tales to corroborate anything I want to make up. And given your attire at this moment, it will not be hard to persuade people in my drawing room that I am right. Unless…”
“Unless?”
Jarvis tucked his right hand behind his back and pointed a finger toward the pistol, hoping Olivia would see it. Hoping she would understand what he wanted, and hoping even more that she’d be able to pull out the pistol without Bradshaw noticing it. It was a risky move, but he didn’t know what else to do.
“Unless you tell me who the rest of the Shadows are.”
“What will it help you accomplish?”
“As much as you were the instrument of my venture’s destruction, you were still just an instrument. I want to know who stands behind the masked vigilantes. I want to make certain my partners and I shan’t be bothered ever again.”
“And what venture is that?”
