“How does that make sense if Thaddeus died in…?” She trailed off, her eyes widening. “You think Lucian died in that explosion.”
“I do. I saw them together. They’re perfect twins. Lucian was a private man. All Joel and Thaddeus had to do is eliminate the people closest to him, his wife and daughter most importantly, and, given his recent losses, even if someone did notice something, they aren’t apt to question him. Who’s going to argue that Thaddeus isn’t Lucian?”
Other than me, of course. Which meant there would almost certainly be others coming after her. I should have stayed with Chaff.
Em grimaced and rubbed at her temples as if her head hurt. “If that’s true, then they may be cleaning house. There’s been no public mention of Lucian taking you in and, after that bloke tried to kill you, I think we can confidently say that someone intends for you to disappear. Garrett and his band were suspects in the previous mess. That sets them up rather nicely to take the fall for all of this. I’m also starting to think it was more than just coincidence that those men took shots at my team the other night. If all this is true, your friend Ash may be in danger too.”
And there was one of the major reasons she hadn’t stayed with Chaff. Maeko rubbed her eyes. Her head hurt now too. “You said they hadn’t picked him up yet?”
“No, but what I left out earlier was that they didn’t pick him up because the Lits haven’t located Garrett’s wife and her two sons yet.”
Maeko chewed her lip for a moment. “Then Ash must have given Captain Garrett my warning. He sent them away in case he couldn’t smooth things over with Mr. Folesworth.”
Em’s smile was smug. “So you did warn them. I thought as much.”
“Of course I did. I wouldn’t be much of a friend otherwise.”
“You and Ash are only friends then? You’d rather give your affection to that Chaff boy?”
Maeko scowled at her.
“That boy’s trouble. He’ll never be on the right side of the law. If you want my advice—”
“I don’t.”
“Suit yourself.” She shrugged and moved on without missing a beat. “If Thaddeus really has stepped into his brother’s shoes, then he must be working with the Literati on something big. We already know Lits were involved in the incident with Joel and they have plenty of reason to want the commissioner dead. He pleaded with the queen to be given back the jurisdictions the Lits pushed the Bobbies out of and apparently tried to get in through the back door with Lucian Folesworth. His meddling threatened their control of the city. The Pirates are probably right to point a finger that way. If only we could get our hands on the other shooter.” Em smiled again. “Perhaps what we need is bait.”
Maeko hated it when she smiled. It usually meant something bad for someone else. “I am not getting shot for your investigation.”
“If we play it right, you won’t have to. We just need to draw the shooter out to where I can get my hands on him.”
“No. This is way above my head. You can keep your tin. I’m leaving the area for a while.”
“Are you? You’re not worried about your friend Ash?” Em began to clean her nails with a small dagger she pulled out of her long coat.
Maeko considered grabbing it. Perhaps she could use it to poke out the haughty look in the woman’s eyes. The worst thing was, she did care. She had to take the bait. “What do you know?”
“Help me find the shooter.”
“This is blackmail and I can find Ash if I need to through my network on the streets.”
Em glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, feigning disinterest. “How fast can you find him? Will it be fast enough to help him?”
Maeko glared at her. Could she find him fast enough? Probably not as fast as if she just got the information from Em. Still, she’d almost been killed by one of these men already, was this a good enough reason to give another one a go at it? “Why can’t you be the bait?”
“Because we’re not sure I’m a target. We both know you are.”
“Bloody hell,” she snarled. “I’ll help you find the shooter. Would it kill you ask nicely at least?”
“Nice gets you nowhere, Rat. I’d expect you to know that by now.” Em knocked on the front wall of the coach.
A panel slid open through which Maeko could see the back of the driver’s head. He turned his ear to the opening.
“Take us to the house,” Em ordered.
The driver nodded and Em slid the panel shut. Rain began to pound down on the roof of the carriage, the kind of rain that clogged gutters and made mires out of unpaved streets. It suited Maeko’s mood. She rode along in morose silence, flipping through the papers. There were mentions of numerous other clashes between Literati and Pirates, most resulting in bystander injuries and a few fatalities. Something on the last page of one caught her eye. It was a small side article.
Clockwork Enterprises has entered negotiations to secure funding for development and testing of several weapon prototypes designed by the company’s founder, Lucian P. Folesworth.
“Did you see this?”
Em took the paper and read it. She tossed it back to Maeko then closed her eyes and leaned her head back on the seat. “Why must things always get worse?”
*
A short time later, they drew up along a familiar street. The coach stopped a few houses down from Maeko’s mother’s house. Maeko had run away as a child, believing her mother didn’t want her anymore. Only recently, she had discovered that Tomoe’s decision to send her to an orphanage wasn’t because she didn’t want her. Tomoe hadn’t believed she could protect Maeko from the men who had cut up her face in the brothel, leaving her with scars and medical bills that forced her into debt with a mysterious benefactor. That benefactor required her to serve as a laundress while providing illegal medical care and safe haven for injured Pirates dodging the law—a practice she continued even now.
Knowing her mother never really wanted her gone wasn’t enough by itself to restore the feeling of family between them, not yet, but someday perhaps, when the sting of old wounds faded.
“I see you recognize the place. Amos tracked your good friend Asher to that house last night. Place belongs to a Japanese woman by the name of Tomoe Ishida. Maybe you know her.” The meaningful look Em gave her then said she at least suspected the connection. “She’s a laundress with a very interesting past and some rather unusual connections considering her trade.”
Maeko said nothing.
“I can drop you here and come back this evening if you want to visit, but don’t even think about skipping out on your side of our agreement. Amos is hiding out nearby keeping an eye on the place for me. If you pull anything, it could mean trouble for Ms. Ishida.”
“I told you I would help you,” Maeko hissed. “Threatening my family isn’t necessary.”
Em smirked. “So she is your mum. I bet there’s a fascinating story behind that.”
Maeko glared at her.
“You’ve skipped out on me before, Rat. I guess I find it a little hard to trust you.”
“I think I had good reason.” Maeko scanned the street then opened the door. When her feet touched the ground, she turned back to Em. The soaking rain falling cold on her head and shoulders didn’t cool her blazing temper. “I don’t know what happened to you to make you this way, but someday you’ll die alone and no one will care.”
She slammed the coach door and trudged through the wet street, making her way to her mother’s door. The cold rain felt good on her sore back and neck. Good enough that she stood outside the door for a minute and let it run down under the collar of the jacket Em had given her before she knocked.
Lottie, the buxom blond who shared the house with Tomoe, answered and ushered her into the cramped structure, lit sparingly by a few candles around the main room.
“Maeko-chan.” Tomoe stood up from a chair and set aside the trousers she’d been stitching. She folded her hands in front of her and bowed. The scars on her face didn’t
detract from the serene Asian elegance that had made her so popular in the brothel. “Ogenki deska?”
“Okaasan.” Maeko offered a small bow in return. A deep rift remained between them, the bridge not burned perhaps, but certainly rickety. “Genki desu.”
Before Maeko could say more, the blanket that had been hung to separate the back section of the house when Tomoe was caring for Captain Garrett’s gunshot wound shifted and Ash came around. He saw her and a tenuous smile touched his lips.
“I was worried about you. Are you all right?”
The sight of him brought that last kiss with Chaff sweeping to the forefront of her thoughts, sending blood rushing to her cheeks. She shifted her feet, struggling to push the memory away and meet his eyes. She hoped the poor lighting would hide her flush. “I just told Mum I was.”
“I don’t speak Japanese,” he answered with a grin.
Her cheeks flushed hotter. “Sorry.”
“You do not look all right.” Tomoe strode over to her, her gaze on Maeko’s neck where the bruising reached around the side.
“It’s nothing you can help with. Just bruises. It’ll heal.” Maeko raised a hand to ward her off. “Why are you still helping Pirates? Mr. Folesworth paid your debt.”
“It is what I do.” Tomoe’s lips pressed into a fine line, her eyes still on the bruising.
Ash frowned. “What happened?”
There would be no more talk of the debt if the hard look in her mother’s eyes were any indication. Maeko turned to Ash. “I had a run in with a very strong, very unfriendly bloke.” She fended off Tomoe’s second attempt to take a closer look with one hand, doing her best to hide the pain all that movement caused, and stepped further into the room, close enough to Ash to see the red rimming his eyes and the shadows under them. “I heard they arrested your dad.”
He clenched his teeth and looked away. “They did. He didn’t want to believe what you told me. Said he needed to find out for himself, but he sent me, Sam, and Mum off with the airship just in case. They took him in for questioning and never let him leave.”
Someone else stepped around the curtain then, a man with unkempt raven black hair and eyes almost as dark. He had sharp features that put her in mind of a wolf and a shifty gaze that put her on her guard. Although he was slight of build and not that much taller than Tomoe, something about his presence, a certain air of threat, made him intimidating. He gave her quick measuring look, which she returned with equal scorn.
His lip curled in a sneer under his black moustache. “Who’s the rat?”
Tomoe’s eyes flashed. “This young lady is my daughter, Maeko, Drake-san, and you would do well to remember whose house you are in.”
Maeko couldn’t help but smile at her mother’s frosty tone. Maybe that bridge was a little stronger than she thought.
“I suppose it is your house now. My apologies.” The sneer went away, but those dark eyes measured her without kindness. He came forward and offered Maeko his hand. He wore black leather gloves. “Drake please, not Mr. Drake or Drake-san.”
He looked rather like a drake to her and his comment about the house suggested he was connected somehow to the man who’d held her mum in servitude for so long. She kept her hands at her sides. “You’re a Pirate?”
His eyes narrowed a touch. He retracted his hand. “Yes. And an inventor.”
He pulled the glove off the hand he had offered her and she took a step back. The hand was metal, fully articulated and far more refined than the one that had almost crushed her neck, but it whispered of the same workmanship and style.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he murmured, his dark gaze searching her face.
“You’ve made something like this before.”
He started to pull the glove back on. “Yes. For a rather unpleasant bloke. He never did pay me for the work, but I needed a willing subject with a missing arm to test the design. I couldn’t be overly choosy. I presume by your reaction that you’ve met him.”
Was that as far as the association went? “I have and I can assure you he won’t be coming around to pay that debt off.”
Drake shrugged. He gave her another measuring look and a crooked smile turned up one corner of his mouth. His initial assessment appeared to be changing. “It wasn’t my best work. As you can see, I’ve made extensive improvements.” He smoothed the glove over the false hand then met her eyes. “You’re the one who told Garrett’s boy—”
“I’m right here,” Ash snapped.
“Yes,” Drake snapped back. He didn’t look away from her. “You say Lucian Folesworth is dead?”
She nodded, clenching her teeth against the painful resistance in her neck. All this activity was catching up with her too soon.
His gaze turned inward. “I don’t see why they would kill the mind behind the company. Where do they expect to get new designs?”
“Why? Are you hoping to apply for the position?”
“I’m starting to like you. You’ve a sharp tongue, but a clever mind.” Drake grinned. “No, I’m trying to understand the motivation of my enemies.”
Ash was watching them with a look of growing irritation. He began to tap one foot. For the moment, he would have to be patient. She wasn’t going to give Drake any easy answers until she understood his position better and there was only one way to figure that out.
“What makes you so sure they’re your enemies?”
“Thaddeus Folesworth and Joel Jacard are Literati supporters to their core. If you’re right, and I’m willing to accept that you might be, then whatever they’re up to can’t be good for the Pirates.”
If he was willing to give her that much credit, then perhaps she could return the favor. “I’ve been through Lucian’s files. There are hundreds of sketches for items not in production. Plenty of ideas to keep Clockwork Enterprises developing new products for years and more than a few are for weapons and false appendages similar to yours.” And Macak’s. She didn’t think it safe to mention the cat to him, not yet.
Drake’s false hand clenched into a fist and she shifted away. He didn’t seem to notice. “Weapon designs,” he muttered. “Why didn’t he say…?” He trailed off and, after a minute, his hand relaxed. “I do hope you’ll be joining us. You’ve got a useful head on your shoulders for a girl.”
“I’m not a Pirate.”
“Better to be a street rat?”
She almost said it was safer, but then that didn’t ring true anymore. Pirate or not, events had pushed her to their side of the conflict. She turned to Ash. “Why are you still here?”
Drake took that as an end to the conversation and vanished behind the curtain muttering to himself about weapons and people keeping secrets. Maeko shuddered. She didn’t like something about him. Something rang false about his renegade Pirate inventor act. At least he seemed to be on their side and, like it or not, it was their side now. How had she gotten involved in this bollocks?
Macak trotted out from a dark corner of her mind and she smirked at the image.
Oh yes, you.
A cat with a remarkable leg hiding behind the same ashbin she happened to hide behind to escape the Lits. Fate worked in the strangest ways. If only she had left him to his lot instead of taking it upon herself to keep him safe, but then, she couldn’t regret it.
“With my Dad locked up, I thought I should stay behind to help organize things.” Ash answered in a hushed voice, scowling at the curtain as he moved closer to her.
“Why? What can you do?”
He turned his scowl on her then. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be hiding out somewhere safe?”
She stared at the curtain, trying to decide how she felt about the man now hidden behind it. “I’m here to help the people I care about.” How was she going to do that exactly? Now that she thought about it, what could she do?
“So am I,” he countered. “So, does that mean…”
She caught the hope in his tone and glanced at him. “Don’t be daft. You know I
care about you.”
He smiled then. Such a charming smile. She could feel Chaff’s lips against hers, his hand on her hip, pulling her against him. She looked away, forcing her thoughts back to the current situation. Now that she thought about it, she’d always been working at odds with the Lits. With her mother and Ash allied with the Pirates, she really couldn’t claim neutrality anymore. Perhaps it was time to stop denying it and dive into the fray.
“I still have a key to Lucian’s flat,” she said to no one in particular.
The curtain swept aside, confirming her suspicion that Drake was listening to them. The inventor’s eyes gleamed like black diamonds. He smiled a wicked smile that made her very happy he didn’t count her an enemy. Ash gave her a horrified look and Tomoe pressed her lips together in disapproval. Drake came forward and held his hand out to Maeko again. This time she took it. The metal hand closed on hers, the grip far gentler than she’d expected.
“Welcome aboard, Maeko.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I can’t go after Lucian’s drawings tonight,” Maeko objected.
Tomoe and Ash were watching them, both still wearing expressions of deepest displeasure. Chaff wore a similar expression in her head. The tongue-lashing she would get from him if he found out what she was doing would probably hurt for years.
Ash stepped closer to her. “Why does she have to go at all?”
Drake gave a long-suffering sigh and turned an impatient gaze on Ash. “Because she has the key, she knows the building, she knows where the drawings are, and she’s versed in the fine art of stealth. Tell me which of those things you can claim?”
Ash set his jaw and glared back in defiant silence, unable to argue with any of those points.
Drake turned his gaze back to her. “We can’t hide out here much longer. With escalating violence on the streets, it’s only a matter of time before some injured Pirate is followed here. We need to move to a safer place soon. Why can’t you do it tonight?”
“I have other…” She trailed off, reconsidering the situation. Now that she thought about it, the Airship Tower might be the best place to draw out Em’s shooter if he really was working for Thaddeus. Of course, she’d want to get the drawings out of the building first. If she could find a way to get those to Drake before calling attention to herself then she could put all her risk into one night and be done with it. Ash was staring at her, concern drawing his brows together. There was no way to make everyone happy, but if she could help the cause her mum had taken up at the same time she helped Em’s investigations, didn’t it make sense to do so?
The Girl and the Clockwork Conspiracy: Clockwork Enterprises Book Two Page 13
