A Kiss With Scandal (Scandals & Secrets 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

affairs.
    But now life evolved. He could change. His future held endless possibilities. Those possibilities included attachments to women in his own class.
    Familiar footsteps echoed toward him and he shut his thoughts of Charlotte and the future away. “Was the note delivered?”
    Henry stepped beside him. “Yes. I placed it in the War Secretary’s hand myself.”
    “Good.”
    The wiry man beside him waited, his limbs loose, relaxed, but Derek knew what lurked beneath the calm. The man could kill with an arc of a blade.
    “I want you to watch the woman in that house,” Derek said. “Do not lose her. Blond, petite, early twenties. I’ll send someone to relieve you in the morning.”
    He didn’t wait for Henry’s confirmation before leaving. Almost out of view, he turned for a last look, wondering if she remained in the window.
    She was gone.
    But even with her absence, she remained in his mind.

Chapter 5
    R ats scurried by Derek’s boot, rustling into the trash pile next to him. His gaze never strayed to the rodents. He hadn’t seen Charlotte in twenty hours, and he’d only wait for his informant ten more minutes before leaving.
    He peered down the dim alleyway he occupied. If not for the perpetually wet cobblestones, the lights from the main road wouldn’t have a chance to reflect down this hellhole. But with moisture came mildew and all its corresponding odors.
    Derek finally heard what he’d been waiting for. “You’re late,” Derek said in the still night.
    “Oy. Now. You couldn’t ’ave ’eard me,” the man said, his cockney accent as thick as his stench.
    Benny Lark was a thief and a snitch, and while he was relatively good at his profession, he wasn’t a match for Derek. “Of course. Now, what’s happening tonight? Which items have the biggest tags?”
    “Oh. This an’ that.” He coughed weakly. “But I’m so thirsty. Might be easier to speak if I ’ad a bit o’ drink in me.”
    It was always the same, this song and dance they played. Derek dealt with it because it was expected, but tonight, he didn’t have the patience for it. The Morrisons’ ball had started ten minutes ago, and he needed all the time he could get to corner Lady Charlotte and convince her to trust him. He had every confidence that once she was comfortable with him, she’d divulge details of the Black Dahlia. She couldn’t do that if he was stuck in a decaying alley with his informant. “You’ll get your due as soon as you tell me what I want to know.”
    Benny licked his split, dirty lips and grinned. “Word is the Black Dahlia is looking for something special this time.”
    Derek’s ears perked, but he forced his voice to stay uninterested. “How so?”
    Benny leaned forward, glancing over his shoulder. “She’s lookin’ for a woman.”
    A ball of lead hardened in Derek’s stomach as he thought of golden tresses. “What woman?”
    Benny spit in the gutter. “A fine lady. Young. Apparently she over’eard something they didn’t want her to ’ear. Left her glove. Poor chit. I can only imagine what they’ll do to—”
    Derek slammed his informant against the wall. Fetid air wheezed from Benny’s lungs as he kicked against the wall for a hold. “Who told you this?” Derek jolted him again when he didn’t immediately answer. “Who?”
    “Everyone,” Benny gasped. “Everyone.” He clawed at Derek’s arms. “There’s a price so big for information leading to ’er that she is the catch. The only catch.”
    Blood drained from Derek’s face. “What do they know? Her name?”
    “No.”
    Derek glared.
    “No! I swear. Only where she was and that she lost a glove. That’s all anyone knows. The call went out two ’ours ago.”
    Damn. Derek pushed the man away.
    Two hours. Someone could have found her by now.
    But how the hell had they known about her missing glove? If they’d seen it, they wouldn’t have left it behind the couch. They would have taken it with them. Only a handful of people