The Dark Discovery of Jack Dandy by Kady Cross Read Free Book Online

and the best way he could honor the sacrifices his mother had made for him.
    Finley had sent him a note. He didn’t read it either. He paced the length of the carpet in front of his desk, hands clasped behind his back. His attention kept going back to the packet from Abernathy.
    Piss on it.
    He grabbed the payment and stormed from the room. He snatched his hat, coat and walking stick and collected his steam carriage. He made the drive to Mayfair in record time. He drove like a madman—reckless, with no regard for himself or others. It was badly done, but he was a lucky bastard—that’s what he’d been told—and he made it unscathed. Of course he did. That was his luck. His charm, right? Finley would call it his talent. It wasn’t natural and he didn’t care.
    He took the steps to Abernathy’s door two at a time and jabbed at the button. The housekeeper’s voice greeted him a moment later. “Name and business.”
    “Jack Dandy to see the viscount,” he said.
    “I’m sorry, but his lordship is not at home today.”
    That was a lie. Jack could hear it plainly in her voice. This was what the rich did when they didn’t want to see someone. “I’m going to see him.”
    “Please leave, sir—”
    “Listen, woman,” he growled, stepping up to the mirror so she could see his expression. “Let me in, or I’ll go ’round back and start breaking windows til I get to the right one.”
    There was a pause. Then the door opened.
    Jack brushed past her without a glance and tore through the house toward the room he had been in the day before. If Abernathy wasn’t there he’d rip the house apart until he found him.
    But his luck was with him, and the viscount was there. The older man looked up with a start. “Dandy. What the devil are you about, man? Get out or I’ll summon the authorities.”
    “What happened to her?” Jack demanded. They both knew Abernathy wasn’t going to call for the coppers.
    “Her?” Abernathy was all innocence.
    Jack gritted his teeth. “The girl in the crate.”
    Apparently, something in Jack’s expression gave the viscount pause. He dropped the pretense. “Mr. Dandy, that wasn’t a girl. That was a complex piece of machinery.”
    In his head, Jack knew that—remembered the exposed metal—but in his heart, in his conscience, he remembered that eye staring up at him, so full of fear. Her lips moving and that awful sound she’d made that haunted his dreams. Help me. That’s what he imagined she’d said.
    Abernathy took advantage of his silence. “Did you go back to St. Pancras with plans of being a white knight, Dandy?”
    Jack’s gaze snapped up. The viscount’s expression was one of mockery, his pale eyes glittering in amusement. He stared into that gaze, his jaw clenching. “Where. Is. She?”
    The older man blinked. And swallowed. “Its whereabouts are not your concern. Rest assured it is in good hands. Take your payment like a good boy and go on back to Whitechapel.”
    Where you belong. That was what he didn’t say, what he didn’t have to say.
    Jack tossed the packet of bills at him. Abernathy tried to catch it, but he was too slow, and it fell to the floor at his feet. “I don’t want it,” Jack snarled.
    Disbelief slackened Abernathy’s features. “We had a bargain, Dandy.”
    “And I kept it. I delivered your crate.” His shoulders straightened. “But I never said I wouldn’t try to find her again. I never said I wouldn’t steal her again.” He couldn’t just leave her alone out there. He couldn’t just abandon her.
    He knew what it was to be abandoned. Knew what happened to people who were abandoned. He didn’t want that for her.
    The older man flushed hotly. “You wouldn’t dare.”
    “I would.”
    “You’ll never find it.”
    “Yes, I will.” Or rather, he knew someone who could. “And I’ll do it for free.” He turned to leave the room.
    “You’re no gentleman. You’re a liar and a thief, with no honor at all. I ought to have known