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“I don’t know. I’ve never been to the vaults.”
Samantha nodded toward the dead body. “There’s one less now.”
“True, that,” Logan wryly replied. “Well, we’ve faced bad odds before, and it’s never stopped us.”
“And they won’t be expecting us to find them in the vaults,” Samantha pointed out. “They think Haxton is dead.”
“Yes, but they’ll start to wonder when their man doesn’t return,” Braden warned.
Samantha slipped her blade back into its sheath. “Another reason why we’d best move now.”
Braden reached down and hauled Haxton to his feet, ignoring the fool’s protesting yelp.
“Here, I’ll take him,” Kade said, striding forward. “And I’ll get the coppers to the vaults as soon as I can.”
“Send a message to Blackmore, too. We’ll need his help with the children.” Then Braden took Samantha’s hand. “Are you ready, love?”
She looked up at him, her fearless gaze shimmering with determination. “Yes, always.”
CHAPTER28
A rat scampered over the toe of Samantha’s boot, brushing under her skirt before disappearing. She shivered, more from cold than from the vermin rustling in the dark. After only twenty minutes in the nightmare maze of tunnels and chambers beneath South Bridge, the dank atmosphere had already leached into her bones.
Braden made a disgusted noise. “Splendid, more rats. Are you all right, Samantha?”
She mustered a smile. “I’m fine. What’s one more rat, at this point?”
“I had no idea it would be this bad down here,” Logan said. “How do people survive it?”
“Sadly, most don’t,” Braden grimly replied.
They set off again as quickly as they could. Still, their progress was cautious, since the interconnected tunnels and chambers were like the grave, the darkness broken only by the lanterns carried by Logan and his man, Stevens. The stone floors beneath their feet sloped unevenly and were slick with damp and mold. Moisture dripped down the surrounding walls.
The deeper they went, the colder it became. The atmosphere was so fetid and close that Samantha wondered if she would ever get the stench out of her nostrils.
“What do you think, Braden?” Logan quietly asked after they’d traversed yet another vaulted chamber. “Should be getting close now, don’t you think?”
“Yes, if we can depend on what that idiot told us.”
Leaving Kade to deal with Haxton, Samantha, Braden, and Logan had made their way to the Hanging Judge on foot. Given the dense fog, it was quicker than taking a hackney. They met up with Donny and Logan’s men at the rendezvous point, an alley near the tavern. MacGowan still had three men guarding the place, but Donny had already pinpointed their locations. He and Stevens had then disappeared into the fog, returning a few minutes later with the news that the guards were no longer a threat. Samantha hadn’t been sure if it meant they were incapacitated or dead, and thought it best not to ask.
Logan, meanwhile, had gone around to the back of the tavern. According to Donny, there was only one man standing watch at the hidden entrance to the vaults. They needed that man alive and conscious, so he could tell them where to find MacGowan’s lair.
The guard had proved no challenge to Logan, though he’d been reluctant to reveal his leader’s location. That momentary reticence ended when Logan lifted him off his feet and slammed him into the brick wall behind him, before shaking him like a rag doll.
“You’d best tell us where to locate your boss,” Braden had then said in a casual tone. “Or my brother will happily throttle you.”
Obviously convinced, the man gave up the location of the lair and how to get there. Logan had then delivered a punishing blow to the lout’s face, knocking him out.
After a short debate on whether they should wait for backup in the form of Kade and the police, they’d decided not to lose any more time. Felicity and the children were at too great a risk, since Girvin would have alerted her brother that their cover was blown.
Leaving Max behind to guide Kade and the police to MacGowan’s lair, they’d quickly descended several narrow, stony staircases into the tangle of tunnels and chambers under South Bridge.
Now, if their directions were accurate, they should be getting close.
Samantha peered forward and then blinked to adjust her vision. “There’s a light up ahead.”
Logan and Stevens instantly closed the shutters on their lanterns. Sure enough, a faint light glimmered around the next bend in the tunnel. They waited as the crushing silence settled around them.
