Devil Take Me by Jordan L. Hawk

Author:Jordan L. Hawk [Authors, Multiple]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: paranormal
ISBN: 978-1-64080-887-4
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2018-10-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six: Fever Ship

“JUST CALM down,” Nimble said.

Archie thought it was the fifth time in the last hour. He paced the confines of the clean little room of the Briar Hotel, still too agitated to take the chair Nimble had offered. Instead he glowered at the blue pinstriped wallpaper and then stole another glance to the bed.

Nimble stretched out on the duvet, stripped to his flimsy undergarments and holding Archie’s dove gray hat in his right hand. Silk bandages, which Archie had ripped from two clean dress shirts, swathed his left shoulder and his chest. His bloodstained coat, waistcoat, and shirt lay in a heap alongside the wet washcloths Archie had used to clean the long, shallow wound, then staunch the flow of all that hot scarlet blood. A powerful citric tang still scented the air.

Archie looked away from the stained masses of cloth. He’d witnessed far worse and endured far worse, but the fact that it was Nimble’s blood drying to sour brown stains somehow shook him beyond reason.

“The shots came from a very steep angle. Possibly the roof….” Nimble studied the hole torn through the brim of Archie’s hat. “Or the third floor, maybe?”

Archie stilled. For the first time, he noticed that several petals still clung to the black curls of Nimble’s hair. They lent him the look of one of those paintings of some half-dressed, carefree demigod lounging in a woodland meadow.

“The third floor is Agatha Wedmoor’s private rooms and salon,” Archie said.

“Your girl’s a good shot if it was her,” Nimble responded.

“We both know it was Silas.” Archie returned to pacing. Something had to be done about his uncle. Something more immediate than watching him slowly lose all his possessions and power. Archie should have damn well just shot him years ago when he’d first sauntered up to Archibald’s casket at the funeral service.

“It might have been done on his orders, but he couldn’t have come so near his mark, shooting in the dark. Unless he’s got Prodigal eyes, he’d never have been able to see you or me.”

“Neither would Agatha Wedmoor,” Archie replied offhand. “Though my uncle definitely has a hold over her and her brother. I’m pretty certain that he’s blackmailing them using that girl Phebe. It would ruin Agatha if it was disclosed that she’d had an illegitimate daughter by a Prodigal lover.”

“Of that I have no doubt. What I’m not convinced of is that we should assume those shots in the dark were your uncle’s doing. Or even at his behest. There were plenty of other people in that club.”

“I don’t think I could’ve made another enemy at the club so quickly,” Archie objected.

“Not you, my bantling. Me,” Nimble responded, and again he ran his thumb over the brim of Archie’s silk hat. “I’d been poking around the perimeter of the Dee Club’s activities for a good nine months before Thom came to me. And I just spent the last ten days slapping a veritable hornet’s nest, asking directly after people who someone in that club wants gone and forgotten.

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