The CrimeLords' War (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 7)

by Liza O'Connor

  Seth face pruned as if he had eaten a bad egg, then he sighed. “Fine, but if you throw up, you’re out.”

  Vic nodded, wondering why he thought an interrogation would make her throw up.

  Chapter 15

  Xavier had spent a great deal of time with Ariana, visiting the museums, the plays, and taking her shopping, but every time he attempted to raise the subject of her husband, she deftly turned the topic to him.

  “Basilio, do you miss France?” she asked.

  “Not when I am in your company,” he replied. “But otherwise, yes. This country has dismal weather and even worse food.”

  Her laughter sounded like chimes in the wind.

  “Well, I agree about the food, but England is a far cry better than Russia.”

  Finally! “I wasn’t aware you had ever traveled to Russia, given your father had to escape his country.” Xavier knew a retired minister had fought long and hard to ensure the man was awarded a British citizenship and provided him protection, connections and money when he first arrived. They had hoped he would share information about Russia. Instead, he spent his British pounds on establishing a spy network that would soon become the country’s most troublesome problem.

  Knowing Ariana had been to Russia made her culpability more likely. He wished Vic was here. His pup would know by now if Ariana was the leader or a spectator of her husband’s dealings.

  “My husband returned soon after we married. And where he goes, so must I.” The misery in her voice sounded sincere, but her words contracted her prior claims of strength she'd made the night she confronted him about his relationship with ‘Tilly’. He reached out and took her hand into his and kissed it.

  She leaned gently against him. “I am so glad you returned to London, Basilio. I’ve continually dreamed of you returning so we could resolve matters once and for all.”

  He leaned close to her ear and whispered, “And how do you wish to resolve them?”

  Chiming laughter filled the air. “It is too early to reveal that, but if all goes as I wish, I will be the happiest woman alive.”

  Xavier pressed his lips to her hand again, hiding his worry that Ariana planned to kill her husband so Xavier could have the honor. Worse yet, there was a damn good chance that Simon would order him to marry the murderess. Under no circumstances, could he allow that.

  “So how long were you in Russia?” he asked.

  “Your desire to change topics is noted. Perhaps we should retire to your hotel.”

  Xavier almost groaned aloud. This pretense of interest, never mind love, was hard enough in public places. It was downright tortuous in the privacy of his suite. He had thus far managed to avoid having sex with her, but he was losing the battle. The present Ariana was a great deal more determined than the young lady he'd once courted.

  She came to a halt and stared at him. “Basilio, have your feelings changed for me?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Then why do you resist us becoming intimate?” she whispered.

  “This is not a simple matter for me, Ariana. You're a married woman.”

  “So?”

  “I am Catholic,” he reminded her.

  “Did that stop you when the little strumpet Tilly came to your bed? Don’t you dare tell me you haven’t had her.”

  For a moment he saw a fiery rage before all she betrayed was pain.

  “Tilly is an actress. You are a lady…a married lady.”

  She pressed against his chest. “And you were almost my husband.”

  He nodded. “Except your father chose another.”

  She turned away so he could no longer read her eyes.

  “Let us not fight.” He secured her hand in his.

  “Everything always comes back to the night my father decided I would marry another.”

  “That isn’t a minor issue,” Xavier protested.

  “No it wasn’t,” she snapped, in a harsh and angry voice he’d never heard her use before. Why did her anger hint he’d done something wrong, rather than her father?

  He decided now was a good time to question the matter. “What your father did to you, to us, was more than most young girls could forgive. Your anger is understandable. I do not think worse of you for it.”

  Her eyes flared with rage before she turned away. After a long moment, she spoke. “You are mistaken. I am not angry with my father. He only wanted what was best for me.”

  “Then you forgave him?”

  Her hands clenched into angry fists, even as she replied with a calm softness. “My heart was broken, but with time I recovered.”

  “I am not so forgiving. I will hate him forever.”

  She turned around and screamed at him. “You? Forgive my father? How dare you! This game is over!”

  “You are making a spectacle,” Xavier hissed. “Please calm yourself.”

  With the face of an angel, she stared at him in confusion. “I am always calm.”

  She smiled sweetly.

  Dear God, was the woman insane? He recalled David mentioning a small percentage of people carried more than one personality within them. Was Ariana mentally damaged due her father’s brutality?

  A sense of danger overwhelmed him, but why he had no idea. She was merely smiling like the young girl he remembered years before. Nonetheless, he reached for his gun in his shoulder halter beneath his jacket.

  A second later, a sharp pain cracked against the back of his head, then blackness swallowed all.

  Chapter 16

  Xavier woke with the same feelings he had last incurred: a throbbing headache and a grave sense of danger. Only now tight ropes bound him to a chair.

  He blinked several times, but his vision would not clear. Two fuzzy images of Ariana stood before him. “Aha, there are two of you. I thought as much. You must have had this condition since a small child.”

  They both rushed forward and gripped his chin. “Who told you that?” the angry female version of Ariana’s father asked.

  “A female version of your father has shown up on many of occasion since our reunion. I would have been a complete dunce not to notice.”

  “Who have you told?” she gripped his chin and demanded.

  “I would never reveal your secret. I love the true Ariana.”

  A harsh and angry laugh burst from her as she released him and stepped away. “You never loved her. You were just hoping to get near enough to my father to destroy him.”

  “Oh, quite the opposite. I wanted to take her away from the man so we could both have a life of love and happiness in my country chalet.”

  “Liar!” the woman screamed and her resounding slap turned his head sideways. “You don’t have a chalet in France, Xavier Thorn. You were just using her to entrap my father. However, she loved you with all her heart. She adored you and would have gone to the ends of the world with you, Only the man she loved didn’t exist.”

  “Ah…That’s why your father broke off our engagement.”

  The two women merged into one fuzzy edge angry lunatic. “I broke it off. My father wanted to turn you. But I assured him if he married me to you, I’d slit your throat on our wedding night as you slept.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’d rather speak to Ariana…the one I loved.”

  “You never loved her,” sneered the fuzzy woman.

  “I may have lied about who I was, but I truly did love her. I had already gotten permission to get her away from her father the moment we married.”

  “You take me for a fool? You wanted to become my father’s right hand man, to spy and report on his every action. You would have moved into his house, making her a prisoner there forever.”

  “I convinced my handler that too close proximity to your father would increase the likelihood of my disguise becoming known. For example, the servants might report that I used a great deal of bleach during my baths.”

  She laughed. “My father knew early on you dyed your hair. He thought it another sign of your absurd vanity and arrogance. How
ever, your money and estates were enough to make him hide his contempt.”

  “He was hiding his contempt?” Xavier challenged. “I'd never felt more reviled and hated in my life. The moment I entered a room he occupied, the temperature would drop twenty degrees. I would have returned to my handler and declared the attempt a failure if not for Ariana. I could not bear to leave her with such a man. She was everything good in life, so gentle and kind.”

  Suddenly the woman dropped to her knees before him, placing her hands on his lap. “You truly loved me?” the young woman asked.

  “With all my heart,” Xavier stated. “And it devastates me to realize the pain I’ve caused you when you believed it had all been a lie.”

  She bowed her head. “It nearly destroyed me. To love someone, to think they feel the same and discover it all a lie on their part…”

  “But it wasn’t. I only lied about my name. My love was real. It wasn’t meant to be like that, but Ariana, you were everything I wanted in a woman.”

  “Achlys said you don’t even like women, that you are unnatural and prefer young boys.”

  Interesting the second personality would name herself after the goddess of eternal night and chaos. “Achlys is wrong. I have never had relations with a male, neither adult nor boy. I’ve loved only you, Ariana. That is the reason I have never married. And when I found you again, I had hoped…but then I met Achlys, only I initially thought it was you, changed from your years with an abusive husband.”

  She burst into tears all the while smiling.

  “I wish I could hold you,” he said, hoping she would untie him.

  Instead, she sat upon his lap and hugged and kissed him. “I’m sorry I believed Father.”

  “It’s all in the past,” he assured. “It doesn’t matter now.”

  “But it does. My belief you had betrayed me changed everything. I used to be stronger than Achlys, but now she only lets me talk when it suits her. If I attempted to untie you, she would take back control. She is in charge now. She says I am no more than a memory of my past.”

  “That’s not true,” Xavier assured her. “She is the residual anger of the past harm done to you. You are the true Ariana, a fabulous young woman, deserving to be loved and adored for her entire life.”

  She smiled and rested her head upon his shoulder as her fingers pulled at the knot on his hands.

  He wished she’d work a little faster.

  Suddenly she jumped up and slapped him hard across the face. “That is the last time you will ever speak to Ariana again. For now on, you deal with me! I am in charge, not that faded memory. I am Achlys and no one or nothing will stand in my way.”

  Chapter 17

  Xavier cursed his bad luck. He’d been so damn close…but then the evil Achlys returned. He recalled more of David’s dinner discussion of multiple personalities. “You were born to protect her. How is keeping us apart protecting Ariana? She needs me as much as I need her.”

  Achlys sneered at his claim. “You don’t want the simpering twit. You adore your partner, Victor.” She smiled. "Pretty little Victor. He looks quite beautiful in a gown.”

  “How long have you been following me?” he asked, realizing Achlys had yet to play all her cards.

  “Since I decided to take control. Ariana used to be able to push me far to the darkest recesses of her mind, but with every discovery I made about you, she weakened.” Achlys approached and stroked his cheek.

  “I owe my ascension entirely to you.”

  Xavier glanced at his bindings. “You hardly seem grateful. Set me free and I will show you a great deal of gratitude.”

  She laughed. “Perhaps I shall. Would you like to go home, Xavier, and see what tragedies have befallen while you remained here?”

  “Yes, I would.”

  “I intended to let you go. Only it isn’t necessary anymore. The war has begun spectacularly.”

  “What war?” Xavier asked.

  “Between Sojourn Seth and Samson. It seems Seth was rigging the tables at Samson’s casinos. The handsome fellow doesn’t take well to such matters. The Thames is now full of dead bodies. Seth has lost a great deal of men and with you here there’s no one available to rein in his outrage.”

  “And how does that serve your purpose?”

  “I may have sent a fellow to let it slip who alerted him to the theft. This morning he ordered to Robbie Conrad to kill your lover, Victor Hamilton.”

  “He what?”

  She smiled with pure joy. “Victor Hamilton died this morning.”

  Xavier refused to believe her. All it proved was her skill at interrogations. Declaring a loved one had died was an excellent way to break a subject. “How did he die?”

  “Run over by a carriage while crossing the street to your office. Sadly the driver wasn’t caught. Never will be, I suspect.” She sat down on his lap and stroked his face. “Poor little Vic never saw it coming.”

  “How do you know this?” he challenged. “You’ve been with me all morning.”

  “Yes, to prove to Ariana you prefer young boys who dress up as females rather than a pathetic simpering creature like her.”

  “You have misjudged my relationship to Vic. He is like a son to me.”

  “But you have a son, a blonde child from some illicit affair with an actress.”

  Xavier hated how much this madwoman knew about him. “The relationship with that woman meant nothing. I’m not even certain the child is mine. However, she intended to have an abortion unless I agreed to take it. So I have a second son now.”

  “Well, you’ll be glad to know that you only lost one son today…whom you could have saved, had you not been here trying to seduce Ariana into loving you again. So in a way, your persistent lies and schemes directly killed Victor Hamilton. Your self-conceit and insufferable arrogance made you believe that Ariana would still love you. And while you were here wasting your time, Seth killed your adopted son. Such a pity. I understand he was making quite a name for himself. Even got knighted by the queen. Such a shame, really.”

  Xavier was trying not to believe Achlys, but his need to leave and prove Victor still lived pushed his sanity to the edge.

  He would know if she died. Their connection was so intense he would feel the loss of her. He calmed himself. He would have never believed a word from Ariana’s father, no reason to believe Achlys either.

  Chapter 18

  Needing an accumulation point for the collection of all the men, belonging to either side, who continued to fight after being given the decease order, Seth offered up his white slavery warehouses since they were already fitted out as an inescapable prison.

  Tubs liked the idea, because carriages could drive into the main warehouse, allowing no one outside to see who arrived. “It will hopefully keep the spies from knowing we are rounding up their men.”

  Vic nodded and bit her bottom lip. “I would like it even better if you were there with me. Try walking without the walker.”

  Tubs frowned. “I’m not ready to do that.”

  “I will pull it before you so if you need it, it will be close by.”

  He smiled. “I’ll try.”

  As they began their walk up the servants’ hall, Tubs grabbed the walker every few seconds. As they continued to progress, he required assistance less often until he finally walked the remainder length of the hall on his own.

  When they turned to walk back, Sara stood at the opposite end holding Cannon and Ham, with Arroo sitting at her feet. Her eyes shined with pride and happiness.

  Despite his fatigue, Tubs told Vic to pick up her speed as she pulled the heavy iron walker before him. In order to move the walker at a speedy clip, she had to tilt it and drag the heavy front legs across the wood floor.

  When they arrived to the spot Sara stood, Vic extracted the walker so it was not between them. Still holding the two boys, Sara pressed against her giant husband while he wrapped his arms around her and the babies.

  Vic rejoiced in their success and T
ubs’ heartfelt reward, so much that it took her a moment to see Gregory kneeling down, assessing the two white parallel scratches on the hallway floor.

  She grimaced, hating their celebration was going to be doused with a scold. When her butler-parent approached, she mouthed the word sorry. To her shock Gregory nodded once and patted Tubs on the back. “Well done, Tubs. You are an inspiration to us all.”

  Once Sara stepped back, nodding in agreement to Gregory’s declaration, Vic moved the walker back to him. To her shock, he ignored it and turned to face Gregory. “Thank you, sir, but the credit should go to Vic. I didn’t want to try, fearing if I fell, no one could get me up, and to be honest, I was off center at first. However, Vic’s solution worked like a charm.”

  “This afternoon we’ll practice climbing in the carriage and out,” Vic declared. If Tubs could get in and out of a carriage, then he could assist in the interrogations. Xavier had always said he could make any man talk.

  “Vic, no!” Sara scolded. “You are pushing him too hard.”

  “That’s better than lying in bed and dying,” Tubs stated. “I’d rather be well sooner, than not at all.”

  Sara looked at Gregory.

  Vic mentally pleaded for her butler-parent not to side with Sara…who was family as well, given he and the cook were married in all but name and Sara was Cook's niece.

  Gregory focused on Sara and spoke with certainty. “Tubs will know when he’s pushed too hard. Exercise seems to strengthen him.”

  Sara sighed and hurried to their room with the boys and Arrooo. Vic expected she needed time to cry.

  Despite another offer of the walker, Tubs entered his room on his own and made his way to the bed. Since Sara had hidden herself in the other room, Gregory helped Vic lift Tubs’ heavy legs onto the bed and massaged the right one.

  “I will retrieve the cold towels,” he stated.

  Vic was about to insist Tubs needed his left leg massaged first, but just nodded. The moment Gregory left, she called out for Sara. “Bring the pups in here for Tubs to hold, and help me massage his legs.”