Olivia Twist(36)

“I don’t believe you.” She crossed her arms under her chest and lifted her chin. “You’re not getting your money back. It’s long gone. So you might as well save your pretty stories for one of those dimwitted debutants who think you can do no wrong.”

He stared at her for several long moments, his face an impassive mask, before answering, “It’s easy enough to verify. Ask your uncle when you return home.”

Olivia vehemently wished she could be as cold as he appeared. But standing this close to him—hyperaware of his every move, his every breath—she felt as bristly as an alley cat. With a sudden desperation, she knew she needed to get out of that tiny room. “The game has to be over by now. We’ll be missed.”

“They’ll have chosen a new Seeker and started another round. We have time.” He leaned back against the door and crossed one booted foot over the other. “Are you ready to hear me out?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Oh, you always have a choice,” Jack drawled, as his wintery eyes lingered on her lips, a wicked half smile tilting one side of his mouth. “We could always do what everyone will assume we are doing.”

Heat rushed through Olivia’s veins and pooled in her gut. Her eyes swept over the finely molded lines of his body, highlighted by the precise cut of his suit—broad shoulders filling out his jacket, his waistcoat flat against his abdomen, and strong thighs outlined beneath his trousers.

She glanced at her hand for strength, but Max’s ring wasn’t there. They’d agreed to keep the engagement a secret until the ball. Curses!

The sooner Jack started talking, the sooner she could get away from him. “Fine. What is so blasted urgent that it can’t wait?”

All signs of flirtation gone, a muscle ticked in the line of his jaw and some unreadable combination of emotions darkened his eyes. “Are you missing a locket, by chance?” He lifted his hand, forming an oval with his thumb and forefinger. “About yay big.”

Olivia’s heart stuttered, and she resisted the urge to clutch the empty spot against her breastbone. “How did you . . .” Her voice gave out, and she blinked at him in shock.

“A few nights back, I was gambling at Langdale’s—”

“In Holborn?” she interrupted. Langdale’s was a stone’s throw from the Hill Orphans’ hideout.

“Yes, the warehouse on Holborn.” Then he told her about seeing the locket during his poker game. “Turns out, the bludger who bought your necklace goes by the name Monks.”

Monks? The same Monks who was tormenting Brit and the others?

“I tried to buy the locket myself, but I couldn’t meet Monks’s price. So when he left, I followed him and listened as he boasted to his mate about the locket leading him to his long-lost sibling.” He swallowed, and his right hand clenched into a fist. When he spoke again, his voice was strained. “He seemed extremely put out that his father had a child with the woman in the locket.”

Olivia felt the blood drain from her body by slow degrees. “My mother . . .”

Jack’s unguarded gaze met hers, the corners of his eyes wrinkling with apprehension. “He’s planning to use the locket to track you down. For what purpose, I don’t know, but it isn’t good.”

Olivia felt herself sway. She had a half brother she’d known nothing about.

Jack was across the room in two strides, an expression of alarm clouding his face. He took her by the shoulders and pulled her against him, wrapping his strong arms around her. “There’s more, I’m afraid. I know him. We have a past history.”

Barely registering his words, Olivia pulled back and asked, “What’s his name? What’s my brother’s real name?”

“Edward Leeford.”

“That’s my father’s surname. Monks is his blood son with another woman?”

Jack nodded, then he searched her face; satisfied with what he saw, he said, “Edward was a crime lord who took power a year or so after you went to live with your uncle. He vamped off all the gangs. Fagin was terrified of him. Gave him fifty percent of everything we earned. If Leeford even suspected the old man was holding out on him, he’d beat him or one of us. But he got greedy and began sending us on missions of his own. Risky ventures for big scores.”

Her brain whirling, she stepped back from Jack and faced the window. Moonlight splashed over the perfect hedges of the garden, its brilliance reflecting on a koi pond surrounded by stone benches. Almost too perfect to be real. All these years she’d longed to have a family. She loved her uncle, but whenever she saw a mother and father playing with their children in the park or walking hand in hand, her heart splintered with grief.

Brother. She had a brother.

She spun to face Jack, who stood with both his hands shoved into his pockets. “Are you certain he isn’t trying to find me so we can meet? Have a relationship?”

“I’m sorry, love, but of that, I’m certain. What I don’t know is why he’s looking for you.”

Suddenly cold washed down Olivia’s back. The boys. Monks had been stalking them for weeks, and if he followed the locket . . . “Jack, I need your help.”

His eyes locked on hers with heated intensity. “Anything.”

A cheer sounded from down the hall, signaling they were out of time.