Lace & Lead

Peirce eyed the complicated ties. “Umm...”

“It’s not that hard. Just undo the bottom and loosen it a little bit.”

“Why?”

She sighed. “Because I lined my corset with your seven thousand credits and figured you might want them.”

“Oh.” He tentatively reached out and undid the bottom bow. A few delicate tugs, and he’d begun to loosen it.

“For the love of the gods, Mr. Taggart, I’m not a porcelain doll. I won’t break if you yank on them,” she said.

Peirce obeyed, pulling at the laces, realising that the slow process was actually loosening the contraption. “I’ve defused bombs that were less complicated than this,” he muttered.

“I heard that.”

“Of course you did. You never fail to hear any of my flattering compliments.”

“Perhaps if you stopped saying them, I wouldn’t have to remind you that I can hear them.”

It was petty, but he made sure his last tug was a bit vicious. She ignored it and focused on reaching her hand down the corset to pull out handfuls of credits, depositing them carefully on the seat next to her.

“How should I divide it?”

Peirce tried not to watch that hand sneaking down between her breasts over and over. He looked outside, praying Douglass and Kai would return quickly. “Three thousand each. Pay Douglass and Kai first.”

She stilled. “That’s only nine thousand.” Her eyes narrowed. “Unless...”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you take the larger share for yourself.”

Her derisive tone rankled him. “Three thousand each. We use the other thousand to cover costs. It’s not easy to sneak a wanted woman into Monterrey.”

That shut her up.

Douglass and Kai returned shortly, pleasantly surprised to find their respective paydays waiting. “Just because we take the money now doesn’t mean we’ll ditch out on you,” Kai assured Emmaline.

“What’s the plan now, sir?” Douglass asked with a look at Peirce.

“Get her off the street and wait out Gregson until he figures out we got away. I don’t think those idiots are going to share that information any time soon.”

“Where are you taking her?”

“You have room at your place?”

“Hell no, sir,” Douglass said. Peirce could understand that. He didn’t know any man who liked having his nightmares paraded in front of a complete stranger. During the wars when a guy had night terrors, everyone else just rolled to their other side and pretended not to hear the whimpering.

“Kai?”

“Not unless she wants to join me and my lady friend tonight.” He waggled his eyebrows at Emmaline, but she laughed and shook her head no.

One option left. He didn’t want her to realise how many lines he was crossing, so he attempted to make it sound casual. “Fine. My place.”

Emmaline nearly choked on her own tongue. “Your place?”

“It’s clean,” Taggart said.

“Ish,” Douglass corrected.