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When they rounded the next corner, Werner turned on him. It was almost a relief when Werner slammed him up against the wall, placing his hand against Jianyu’s throat.
“What are you doing here?” Werner demanded. “How did you find me?”
Jianyu did not even bother to shake him off. If Werner had wanted him dead, he already would be. “I followed you from the Strega.”
“You can’t be here,” Werner told him, looking more panicked now. “If Nibsy knew I was talking to you— You’re gonna get us both killed.”
“I need to speak with you.”
“You need to speak with me?” Werner repeated, incredulous.
“I understand that Nibsy has the marks,” Jianyu said.
“Then you should’ve known better than to come here,” Werner snapped. “What if the Fox had seen you? What if one of his men tells Nibsy?”
Jianyu tilted his head. “You fear Johnny the Fox? A Sundren you have sworn no oath to?”
Werner’s mouth twisted in disgust. “Yeah, well, we all swore an oath to the Devil’s Own, didn’t we? You included.”
“I have not broken that oath,” Jianyu told him.
“No?” Werner asked. “Then what are you doing here, lurking in doorways instead of joining the rest of us in the Strega?”
“My loyalty is to Dolph, not to the one who murdered him.”
Werner could not quite hide the surprise in his expression. But it quickly shifted to doubt and distrust. “Says the one who ran off and sided with Darrigan after he stabbed us in the back. Everyone knows the Five Pointers took out Dolph.”
“And yet you walked out of their lair unharmed,” Jianyu said. “Strange, is it not, how quickly Nibsy made allies of Dolph’s supposed murderers? And now you run between them, an errand boy doing the devil’s bidding.”
“You don’t understand nothing,” Werner said. But he released him.
“Nibsy Lorcan is the one who killed Dolph,” Jianyu said. “And now he uses all that Dolph built—the people Dolph once protected—for his own interests.”
Werner looked unsettled, but his jaw was tight. Denial was clearly more comfortable than truth. “So what if he did kill Dolph?” Werner asked finally. “It’s done, ain’t it? He has the marks now. He runs the Strega. Anyone who tried to stand against him would be a fool.”
“I have been called far worse,” Jianyu assured him.
“You’d fight him?” Werner laughed. “What? You think you could take over the Strega and lead the Devil’s Own?”
“I think that what Dolph Saunders worked for is worthy,” Jianyu said. “I believe the Devil’s Own should be more than Nibsy Lorcan’s puppets.”
“What do you want from me, Jianyu?” Werner said, sounding almost exhausted now.
“Your help.”
Werner shook his head. “No, thanks.”
“Not even if I can offer you a way out?” Jianyu asked.
Werner’s eyes shifted. “A way out of what?”
“Everything. You would no longer have to fear Nibsy’s control if you could leave the city,” Jianyu told him. “Help me, and you could have your freedom from Nibsy Lorcan. You could have the entire world beyond the borders of this island.”
Werner huffed out a laugh. “You’re as mad as everyone says.”
“Nibsy knows how to get out of the city,” Jianyu told him. “Or has he not shared that information with the rest of the gang?”
That seemed to get Werner’s attention, but suspicion clouded his eyes. “There ain’t no way out of the city for Mageus like us.”
