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“He’s right,” Werner said. “Nibsy won’t be happy if we come back without the ring.”
“Will he be happier if you don’t come back at all?” Viola asked him. “Will he even care?” When Werner didn’t respond at first, she threw up her hands. “Nibsy can’t expect so much of you if death is certain. Dolph never would have asked such a thing of you. He would not have asked it of any of us,” she told them.
The invocation of Dolph’s name sent an uneasiness through the group. It was Mooch who finally broke the momentary silence.
“Viola’s right,” Mooch agreed, stepping away from Logan. “I’ve already been to the Tombs once this month, and I don’t have any plans to go back. I ain’t interested in dying here either. Not for Nibsy Lorcan.”
Viola gave him a nod of thanks.
Werner looked between Logan and Mooch. “I dunno, Mooch. Nibs gave us a job.…”
“It can’t be done,” Mooch argued. “Besides, you know what happened the last time he gave me a job to do.”
Werner considered the issue.
“You can’t walk away from this,” Logan argued, but it was clear he’d lost control of the situation.
Werner ducked his head a little, meeting Logan’s eyes. “I’m going with them,” he said. “I’ll take my chances with Nibsy. He ain’t that tough, anyway.”
“Come with us,” Viola told Logan. “Jianyu can retrieve the artifact. There’s no need to die here. Not for Nibsy.”
“I don’t have any plans to die,” Logan told her, backing toward the staircase. His expression had hardened now, and his voice was stiff. “And I’m not about to let him walk off with the ring. If you’re going, then go. But I’m staying.” He glared at Jianyu.
Viola turned to Jianyu. “Are you sure about this?”
“I will get the ring,” he told her, as though anything that day had been so easy as that. I will keep it from this one. He didn’t say the words, but it was there in the silent sureness of his expression. “Go. Make certain that Cela is safe.”
Viola didn’t want to leave Jianyu, but they were out of time. Theo was already pulling at her hand, dragging her back into the library. She looked back only once, and Jianyu gave her a small nod. A silent promise. Go, his expression seemed to say. Time is running out.
He was not wrong. If Viola could make it back to the building where Cela was stationed before John Torrio made a move, she would be more than lucky. But she would try. Madonna, she would try.
“We should take the back staircase,” Theo told them, leading the way to the other end of the building.
“The elevator worked last time,” Mooch argued.
Viola hated the idea, but one look at Theo told her that Mooch was right. “Do you know how to work it?” she asked.
“I watched Logan,” Werner said. “How hard could it be?”
In the end, it was Theo who depressed the lever to control their descent. They could still hear alarm bells ringing as the elevator vibrated around them. The small clocklike device above the door counted down to what might be an ambush.
When the doors opened, they were ready, but so, too, were the Order. When they stepped from the small cage, three men were waiting. Viola’s knife was already drawn, but Mooch stepped in front of her. He closed his eyes, and flames erupted from the marble floors, first behind the men, who turned to see what had happened. Then the flames began to encircle them, holding them in place. The men drew guns, but the flames contracted suddenly, causing the men to press together, dropping their arms so they wouldn’t be singed.
Mooch opened his eyes and gave Theo a smug, satisfied smile. “That should hold them.”
Theo looked momentarily taken aback. “If it doesn’t bring the whole building down.”
“It won’t,” Mooch said, lifting his hand to show a small flame dancing at his fingertips. He let it weave between his fingers like a snake, but it didn’t so much as singe his skin. “They do what I say.” Then he closed his fist, extinguishing the flame.
Theo appeared briefly uneasy, but he blinked, and a look of utter concentration came over his face. “This way. We’re close.”
The four of them escaped through a service door. As they exited, Nibsy’s boys started to leave, but Viola snagged Mooch by the arm.
“Nibsy can’t know what happened in there,” she told him. “Not yet. You have to buy me some time.”
He pulled away. “I don’t have to do nothing for you.”
“You’d still be rotting in the Tombs if not for me,” Viola reminded Mooch, but he was already walking away from her.
