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“A meeting?”
“Yeah, a meeting. I told you I was busy. Have patience.”
Patience? Was he serious?
My father was missing. God only knew what the kidnappers were doing to him. And Bax wanted me to have patience? The tips of my ears grew hot and I pressed my lips together to keep from screeching at him.
We approached a black closed carriage with matching curtains. If it were a tad longer, the conveyance could have passed for a funeral carriage.
Death. It looks like death.
Appropriate considering how I was dressed. Still, apprehension crawled over the nape of my neck like tiny spiders. Was I really going along with him? And where would he go after the meeting, a robbery? A saloon? Abrothel?
Any sane woman would have refused this bargain. But I was desperate. I needed my only family to safely return home.
For that, I could put up with the devil and his underworld kingdom for a few nights.
A young boy jumped down to open the door. He was likely only nine or ten. He offered no word in greeting, just stood as still as a statue.
“The docks, Pete,” Bax said he handed me up.
Bax sat next to me, his large frame overwhelming in such a cramped space. I hadn’t been this close to a strange man before. I tried to edge away, but there wasn’t anywhere to go.
“You best get used to it,” he said. “We’ll be getting very close, Belle.”
A nickname? No one had given me one before, not even the girls at finishing school. I wanted to protest, but I liked it. It felt special, a thing just between us.
“What is this meeting about?” I asked, desperate for anything that would take my mind off the heavy weight of his thigh against mine.
“Are you genuinely interested? Or filling the silence?”
The truth spilled out of my mouth. “The latter, I suppose.”
He chuckled. “I like when you’re honest.”
“Why?”
“Because you lie to everyone all day long, pretending to be one thing when you’re really not. I’m much more interested in a woman who goes after what she wants, rather than one who plays it safe.”
He couldn’t possibly understand my life. “I haven’t a choice. There are certain expectations that go along with being the daughter of Honest Dan Kelly.”
“Such as?”
“Maintaining my reputation and avoiding scandal. We always had to worry about re-election.”
Bax’s hand shifted to rest on his big thigh, and his pinky finger was dangerously close to my leg. I couldn’t stop staring at the digit, wondering if he would touch me. What would it feel like, rough or soft?
“What other expectations are there?”
Glancing away from his hand, I exhaled shakily. “Let’s see. Since I returned from finishing school, he prefers me to stay home. He chooses my suitors. And he works long hours, so it’s my responsibility to run the house.”
“That’s no way to live, Belle.”
How could I make him understand? This man could do what he liked, go where he liked. There was no more powerful criminal in Manhattan. My life was the complete opposite in every way. “I can’t complain when I’ve been given so much. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“Fair?” He shifted toward me slightly. There was an edge to his voice, one I hadn’t heard yet tonight. “No one gives a fuck about fair in this city. Do you think police care about what’s fair? What about the residents of those mansions on Fifth Avenue? Or your father? He certainly doesn’t care about what’s fair.”
I studied his face. “How do you know what my father does and does not care about?”
