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“Any one of us could’ve been killed,” Werner said, frowning.
“Not unless you had disobeyed my orders,” James told him. He watched with some satisfaction as the Five Pointer continued to writhe and scream.
If Torrio had thought to cut James out, he’d thought wrong.
“You kept this information from me as well,” Viola huffed, still visibly shaken by the sight.
He turned to her. “No one was supposed to touch the wagons, only to redirect them. Anyone who tried to change our agreed-upon plan and attempted to board one of the wagons would have deserved whatever happened to them,” he said, making his voice cold as he eyed her. “But then, I’m confident in the loyalty of the Devil’s Own. It’s the other parties involved that I didn’t trust.”
“You still should have told me,” she charged.
He shrugged. “There was no reason to.”
Temper flashed in Viola’s eyes. “You said we were partners.”
“No,” James told her. “I said you should come back to the Devil’s Own, that you should join me. I never said we would be equals.”
Growing bored with Viola’s display of temper—and with the conversation—James directed Werner to pull the cart into the park across from the building, far enough from the skirmish to be out of range and out of sight.
He turned his attention to Logan. “Is it there?”
“The wagon’s already empty,” the boy told him.
“How can he know this?” Viola demanded, as though she had any right to an answer.
“It’s his job to know,” James told her as he considered the building. “The Delphi’s Tear will already be inside, then.” Unfortunate, but not catastrophic. Not when he had yet another ace to play.
“Then it’s impossible,” Viola said, sounding far less devastated than she perhaps should have. But then, did she really believe he wouldn’t see through her duplicity?
James glanced at her over his spectacles, and this time he did not bother to affect any look of innocence. “I will consider sparing the lives of your friends if you tell me everything you know about what waits for us inside that building. Everything Theo Barclay learned about the layout of the Order’s new headquarters and what we might find inside.”
Viola stared at him, disbelief coloring her cheeks. Fear, too, if he wasn’t mistaken.
“Did you truly think I wouldn’t find out that you had someone on the inside, Viola?” he asked, bored with her continued act. “Did you really think I wasn’t aware you were trying to set your brother and me at odds with each other? You were never actually interested in coming back to the Devil’s Own or pledging any real loyalty to me. I knew that for sure when I discovered that Dolph’s journal had gone missing from my rooms a few weeks ago.”
“You mean Dolph’s rooms,” she told him, confusion turning to anger. “You stole them from him, just as you stole his cane. As you stole his life.”
“It was your brother’s Five Pointers who took Dolph’s life,” James lied. “I simply stepped in to lead the Devil’s Own when no one else would, including you.”
“Lies,” Viola seethed, and James felt a pain course through his chest. “I know what you did. It was you who murdered Dolph, not any Five Pointer. I should kill you now.”
James ignored Werner’s and Mooch’s sudden interest. “Where did you get that information, Viola?” He tilted his head to one side, watching the emotions flicker across her face. “Let me guess. You believed tales whispered to you by Jianyu—though why you would trust him, I can’t imagine. Not after what he did to Tilly.”
“You have no business speaking her name,” Viola snarled.
The tightness in his chest increased, and James couldn’t repress his grimace. Logan was already moving to attack, but even with the pain near his heart, James held a hand up to stay him. Let Viola dig herself a deeper grave.
As the boys in the cart paused, waiting for his order, James clenched the head of the cane and tried to gather his strength. He felt the power beneath it. In the past weeks he’d grown so close to touching the promise of that power, and now he focused all that he was into it. He was gratified to hear Viola suck in a sharp breath, and he glanced up to see the confusion—the fear—in her eyes. He knew what had caused it, because he felt it himself, the echo of power in the mark he wore on his own skin. From the way the others shifted uneasily, he could tell they felt it as well. Which was fine. It would serve as a warning to all—that he was more than he seemed. That he should not be crossed.
“Have a care, Viola,” James said, repeating his warning from a little while before through gritted teeth. “Your friends’ lives still hang in the balance, and Torrio knows exactly how underhanded you can be. If I don’t send the order to stop him, your friends will die.”
He felt the pressure in his chest recede.
“Much better,” he said, adjusting his grip on Dolph’s cane. He held his focus on the marks for a few seconds longer, to show her he could, before he released them. “I only ever agreed to take you back because I knew you could provide additional information about what was inside that building. It seems my premonition was correct. You’ll give me that information, and you’ll give it now.”
“It won’t do you any good,” Viola told him. “If the artifact is already inside, it will be impossible to take it back out.”
Nibsy gave her a pitying look. “Come now, Viola. Nothing’s ever impossible, especially not when your friends’ lives are on the line.” He saw her realization when it struck. She had made a play, and now she understood her loss. “I’m sure you’ll figure out some way to retrieve the artifact. After all, sunset won’t wait. And neither will my ring.”
