Tangled Webs (32 page)

“I’m not afraid of you anymore,” Nic spat.

Bones took a step forward and laughed. “You’ll pay for your treachery, boy. I know what you did—turned on me to work with the Thief Taker. I’ve been watching you all this
time. Did you think I was stupid, boy? I knew it was just a matter of time before I’d get you alone. Didn’t expect I’d have the chance to take care of that one too, though.
Shoulda put you both down when you were young. More trouble than you both were worth.”

Arista watched the two men draw closer. She had her knife out and ready, as did Nic. The men split off, and came at them from opposite sides. Arista lunged for the same man who had driven his
fists into her stomach over and over on the night of the fire.

He twisted, moving far more gracefully than she’d expected for someone of his size, and knocked her wrist with the thick piece of wood she had missed. It immediately went numb and the
knife fell into the dirt at her feet. He kicked it away and she heard a splash. From behind her she heard grunts and the sound of fists hitting flesh.

“Tell me where those papers are, and I’ll let you go,” Bones wheezed.

“Never,” Nic gasped. Blood dripped from one cut on his lip and another over his eye. Already the blows on his jaw were making his face swell, and she saw the way he winced every time
he took a breath in.

“Very well then.” Bones nodded and the man holding Nic yanked his arms behind his back so hard that Nic groaned. Then the other man started pounding his fists into Nic’s
stomach.

“Stop!”
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. The man continued to pummel Nic. Nic’s eyes were now fluttering open and closed.

“All right!” Arista shouted. “Here.” She thrust the rolled-up papers at Bones and he took them from her. The man stopped his assault and Nic hung limp between them.

“Let him go,” Bones said. His smile turned malicious as his gaze moved to the river.

“No!” Arista started beating her fists against the closest man’s arm, but he backhanded her as if she were nothing but an annoying insect. She caught herself before her face
hit the ground and stayed there for several seconds, fighting back the wave of sickness that washed over her.

It was the splash that brought clarity to her fuzzy mind. They had thrown Nic in the river. In his current state, he would surely drown—she had to save him—

But she couldn’t swim.

Without thinking, Arista pushed off the ground and launched herself at Bones. His lackeys were at the river’s edge, so it gave her time to push Bones to the ground and plant her boot in
his gut over and over. He curled in on himself and grunted each time her boot made contact.

She knew there were only precious seconds before the two men saw her, so she grabbed the papers out of Bones’s hand and threw them as far as she could toward the warehouse. Stumbling
toward the river, she screamed for help, and heard an answering shout in the distance. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the lackeys take off.

Nic had floated too far for her to reach from the end of the small dock. She ran to the riverbank and waded into the water, but it was up to her waist before she could reach him.

“Help me.” She splashed out farther and the cold water rose over her chest; she couldn’t breathe through the panic clouding her head. Tears streamed down her face and her voice
grew hoarse. The water lapped at her chin, and the acrid taste of the river coated her tongue every time she shouted. The current tugged at her feet, making it nearly impossible to stand up. If she
didn’t go back, she would be swept deeper into the river.

But she had to save Nic.

One summer, Nic had been determined to teach Arista how to swim. He’d showed her over and over again how to kick with her legs and paddle with her arms, and it had done no good.
She’d never learned. But now she had no choice.

With her eyes on Nic’s body, Arista shoved off the river bottom and plunged toward him. She kicked and paddled with every ounce of strength she had, trying to keep her face above
water.

When the river closed over her head, she panicked, thrashing her way to the surface just long enough to suck in a breath before she went under. The next time she pulled herself above the water,
she’d lost sight of Nic, but it didn’t matter because she sank yet again.

Her muscles screamed in protest. Cramps were seizing her legs, making it impossible to keep kicking. She had no strength left to try and fight her way to the surface again. Water clogged her
nose and mouth. She fought the urge to draw it into her lungs, and they burned. An eerie silence filled her head.

Slowly, she began to sink.

Then, suddenly, her jacket tightened around her chest and water rushed past her body. An explosion of sound and light erupted around her and she instinctively sucked in choking breaths of air.
An arm wrapped around her middle and she was pulled against a solid body.

“I’ve got you.” The familiar timbre of Grae’s voice unleashed the torrent of fear bottled inside her. She grabbed his arm and sobbed. When she felt ground under her feet,
her legs were useless. Grae picked her up and carried her to the riverbank as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Her entire body shook uncontrollably.

“I told you I would save you if you ever fell in the water,” he said, setting Arista tenderly on the ground before he lowered himself to sit next to her. Then Becky was there, her
face wet with tears, putting Grae’s jacket around Arista’s shoulders.

She threw it off and struggled to stand. Nic. She had to save Nic. “I have to…” Her gaze was drawn to three men swimming to where he’d drifted, almost at the middle of
the river. They began pulling him toward the riverbank and Arista struggled to get to him. Grae wrapped his arms around her from behind and held her tight.

“They’ve got him,” he said.

She frantically searched for any sign of life as the men carefully pulled him from the water and lay him on the riverbank. They were talking in hushed voices, but from their tone, she knew.

“I couldn’t get to him,” Arista sobbed. “I tried, but I just couldn’t.”

Grae pulled her into his arms and held her face against his chest as she cried.

“It’s over,” she whispered, looking up at Grae. Then her glance slid to Becky. “It was Bones. He did that to Nic.” She looked past her friend to the spot where
she’d last seen Bones, but of course he wasn’t there. The packet? Had he taken it with him?

“Bones is alive?” Becky gasped.

Of course there was no sign of her tormentor or his lackeys. But…“The secrets.” Arista tried to free herself, but Grae kept her in his grasp.

“You need to be still. You inhaled half the Thames,” he said.

“Becky—there, by the warehouse. I threw the packet that Nic gave me. Will you see if it’s there?” If it was, then this had not all been for nothing.

Becky hurried away, searching the ground as she went.

“I’m sorry,” Arista said to Grae. “For lying to you again.”

“Nothing else matters, except that you’re alive. When we got back to the ship and you were missing, I wanted to tear the thing apart. My first mate remembered a boy running from the
ship. Becky knew the place that the note mentioned, and we were able to get to you in time.” His entire body shuddered against hers. “I came so close to losing you. If we had been only
a few seconds longer…”

She laid her face against his wet shirt. “But you weren’t. You saved me. Again.”

“Miss!” Becky’s excited shout rose above Grae’s heartbeat in her ear. “I’ve got it.”

This time Grae allowed her to stand as Becky came rushing over. The papers, still rolled tightly, were right there.

“What is it?” Grae asked.

Arista shook her head. “I have no idea. But Nic gave his life to get it to me.” Grae gently touched her arm. He watched the river and, from the expression on his face, Arista knew
what he saw. Becky took the papers from Arista’s numb fingers.

Arista stared at the spot where the men had left Nic’s body on the riverbank. She had to be sure. As she stood and started toward them, Grae fell into step beside her. She stopped and
looked up at him. “I need to do this alone. I hope you can understand that.”

“Of course. I’m here when you need me.” Grae pressed his lips to her forehead.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

It was the hardest thing she’d ever done, taking that short walk. The way the men stood, so solemnly, told her that it was too late. That Nic was gone. They moved aside as she stepped
closer.

“I’m sorry, lad. He were gone before we got to him.” The closest man dragged his cap off his head and hugged it to his chest.

Arista stared down at Nic’s body. He looked peaceful, as if he were only sleeping. He’d not been in the river long enough to look like any of the bloated corpses she’d seen
dragged out of it. Her knees weakened and she sank down next to him. His flesh was cool as she took his hand.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Her head fell forward and she pressed her lips to the back of his hand. His hair was matted to his forehead, and she gently pushed it away from
his face. The gash Bones’s men had left on his temple remained, but only a small trickle of blood ran from it now.

Great sobs erupted from her chest. He couldn’t be gone. Not Nic. She draped herself over his chest, willing him to take a breath, but he remained still.

“Lad, they’ve brought a cart to carry the body. Is there someplace we can take it?” the man asked.

Grae helped Arista to her feet and wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his chest. She clung to the sound of his heartbeat, so strong and sure and alive under her ear.

“I’ll take care of the arrangements,” Grae said. “Please have the body taken to the coroner, and give him my name, Graeden Sinclair. I will be there to take care of
everything in the morning.” Grae gave each of the men a shilling and their eyes went wide.

“Aye, Mr. Sinclair, I’ll take care of it myself,” the man said. “Don’t you worry about a thing.”

“He’s really gone, isn’t he?” Arista whispered.

“I’m afraid so,” Grae said, pressing his lips to her temple.

Arista lifted her head to look at Grae. “He saved me. All my life he looked out for me, made sure no one ever harmed me. And in the end, I couldn’t help him. He died protecting
me.”

“Anyone who knows you would do the same.” Grae stared intently into her eyes. She saw everything there. The relief; the fear; the love.

“I want to learn to swim. When we get to India, will you teach me?”

“Anything you want is yours.” Grae led her past the warehouse, where Becky was standing next to the carriage. Tomas was pacing next to her, and when they got close enough he yanked
off his cap. “Are you okay, miss?”

“I’m okay, Tomas.” Grae gently lifted her and set her in the carriage, then climbed up beside her. Becky sat across from them, her fingers wrapped tightly around the roll of
papers.

Tomas grabbed the reins and looked over his shoulder. “Are we set, then?” he asked. Grae and Becky both looked at Arista.

After one last glance toward the river, where the men were loading Nic’s covered body onto a cart, she nodded. “Yes, Tomas. Let’s go home.”

T
wo days later, Arista and Grae sat at a corner table at Lloyd’s Coffeehouse. Arista had dressed in some of Tomas’s clothes, disguised
as a boy, as she was still a wanted criminal.

When Wild walked in, he didn’t see them at first. It gave Arista the opportunity to study him. He looked wary, and the loss of confidence made him seem almost like a different man. And,
just as she had specified in her note, Wild had come alone.

Grae turned and waved at him. Wild’s glance immediately slid to her, and she met his stare head-on. There would be no cowering before him today. “Sit,” she said, her voice
still hoarse from the water in her lungs.

When he didn’t move, she looked up at him with one raised eyebrow. “You’re here on my terms this time. I’d suggest you make yourself comfortable, because I have a lot to
say to you, and you will listen to it all very carefully.”

Wild growled low in his throat. A tic began at the corner of his eye. Once he realized that she would not be intimidated, he pulled out a chair and sat down.

“This is what will happen,” Arista began. “First, you will ‘find’ a witness to Lord Huntington’s stabbing who will swear that it was a man he saw that
night—and you will drop all allegations against me. Second, you will tell Raffer that he may never contact the Sinclairs again.”

Wild actually snorted. “How do you expect me to do that, exactly? He paid handsomely for that information.”

Arista waved her hand in the air. “You’re creative. You’ll figure something out. All I care about is that Grae’s family will be freed from his blackmail. If he tries to
collect in any way, I
will
take you down. Weigh that consequence for motivation.” Her words came out coldly. In truth, she cared nothing for Wild. All her years watching Bones deal
unemotionally with people had taught her the skills she needed now. “Do we have a deal?”

Wild clenched his fingers into a fist and glared at her. He did not like being the one who was told what to do. “How do I know you even have anything to use against me? You’re
bluffing.”