Redeeming the Lady: A Victorian Romance (The Seven Curses of London Book 10) by Lana Williams

Author:Lana Williams [Williams, Lana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“The very heart and core of the poor-law difficulty is to discriminate between poverty deserving of help, and only requiring it just to tide over an ugly crisis...”

~The Seven Curses of London

Jack stared at Dankworth in disbelief. “You’re telling me that not only is Sloane out of prison but he managed to avoid the trap and take the box with the money still in it?”

“Yes, sir.” Dankworth kept his gaze on the floor.

“But you were supposed to take the money out before setting the trap.”

“There was a miscommunication between the men, sir.”

“Hell and damnation. How can this have happened?”

Dankworth looked up, his brow puckered as his mouth opened only to quickly close.

Jack waved a hand. “I don’t require an answer from you. I’m certain you don’t have a satisfactory one.” He shook his head in disgust.

Gabriel Sloane had become a thorn in his side which he couldn’t seem to get rid of. The man countered each move they made.

Jack had been certain placing the liquid paraffin barrel in the club would be enough to incriminate the man, especially when one of the policemen Jack paid ‘found’ him with it. That should’ve kept him behind bars until Jack took control of the tea factory and the lot next to it.

But Sloane had been out of prison and causing problems before Jack had made any headway on taking over the locations. Trying to work through legitimate methods was a pain in his arse. Gibbons, the tea factory owner, had been particularly irksome and insisted he wouldn’t sell. But Jack was certain the man would crumple once more pressure was applied.

How could he focus on that when Sloane was causing problems?

The loss of the box was supposed to be a blow from which Sloane couldn’t recover. Jack intended to spread the rumor he’d taken the money for himself, leaving a smear on his reputation that would result in him losing the trust of the very people he tried to help. Blast the man for destroying that plan as well.

Dankworth cleared his throat. “He was shot during the encounter.”

Jack perked up at the news. “How badly?”

“Not seriously from what I understand.”

“Damn.” He considered his options, wondering how best to proceed. Killing the man outright seemed too brash of a step at this point. He needed to do something that sent a message to not only Sloane and his partner, Murphy, but to any others who considered stepping forward to help Gibbons rebuild his business. A bold act was needed, but what?

He’d managed to overcome complicated situations before. Opportunities tended to present themselves if he kept his wits about him.

Just over two years ago, he’d thought his wealth had reached as high as it would. Jasper Smithby, the biggest criminal in all of London at the time, had used The Book of Secrets to rule the criminal world using fear tactics with great success. Jack couldn’t help a shiver at the memory of hearing that Smithby had used one of those ‘secrets’ to help his right-hand man, Culbert Rutter, rise from the dead.

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