Brazen and the Beast (The Bareknuckle Bastards 2)

Hattie thought she showed immense restraint when she wanted to say, You’d know they’d go to rot if you’d ever paid an ounce of attention to the business. “And then what?”

“I knew we’d have to return the payment to the customers. I knew he’d be furious.” Their father would have raged, and he would have been right to do so. A full hold of good Dutch tulips was worth at least ten thousand pounds. Losing it would have cost them goodwill and enough money to matter.

But they hadn’t lost it. Somehow, Augie had hidden it. Dread spiraled low in her stomach. “Augie . . . what did you do?”

He shook his head, looking down at his feet. “It was only supposed to be once.”

Hattie turned to Nora, who had given up any pretense of not paying attention. When her friend shrugged her shoulders, she turned back to her brother and said, “What was only supposed to be once?”

“I had to pay the debt to the customers. Without Father discovering it. And then there was a way.” He looked up, met her gaze. “I came upon their delivery route.”

He took something of mine. Beast’s words earlier.

Nora let out a soft curse.

Hattie sucked in a breath. “You stole from him.”

“It was only—”

She cut him off. “How many times?”

He hesitated. “I paid the debt with the first one.”

“But you didn’t stop.” Augie opened his mouth. Closed it. Of course he hadn’t stopped. It was Hattie’s turn to curse. “How many times?”

He met her eyes, and she saw the fear in them. “Tonight was the fourth.”

“Four times.” She gave a little humorless laugh. “You’ve robbed them four times . . . It’s a miracle you weren’t killed.”

“Hang on,” Nora said from her place across the kitchen. “How did you subdue that man?”

He scowled at her. “What does that mean?”

She cut him a look. “Augie. That man was twice as broad as you on your very broadest day. And you have a knife in your thigh.”

He looked as though he might argue, then admitted, “Russell knocked him out.”

Of course those two had made a mess of this. And now, as usual, it fell to Hattie to clear it up. “It should be illegal for the two of you to speak to each other. You make each other less intelligent.” She looked to the ceiling, mind racing, then said on a sigh, “You’ve made a hash of it.”

“I know,” her brother said, and she wondered if he truly did.

“What you told me about him? The Beast?” Augie met her eyes, trepidation in his own. “He’s coming for you, Augie. It’s a miracle he hasn’t found you yet. But tonight—what you did—it was immensely stupid. What would possess you to tie him up? In the carriage?”

“I wasn’t thinking. I’d been stabbed. And Russell . . .”

“Ah, yes. Russell.” She stopped him. “He’s through, too. This ends now. We don’t sell another drop of their cargo. Where is the cargo you took tonight?”

“Russell took it to our buyer.”

She cocked a brow. “Another brilliant tactician, no doubt. Who is that?”

If possible, her brother grew even paler. “I won’t have you involved with him.”

“As though I am not in deep enough with you?”

Augie shook his head. “You’ve no idea how deep you could find yourself. The man is barely sane.”

“Now you find your sense of familial preservation?” Hattie resisted the urge to scream. “I suppose I should be grateful that our most pressing foe is merely vengeful, not mad.”

“I’m sorry,” Augie said.

“No, you’re not,” Hattie retorted. “If I had to guess, you’re happy I’m willing to fix this. And I can fix this.”

Augie stilled. “You can?”

“I can,” she said, the plan crystallizing. The path forward. And then—her path. “I can.”

“How?” It wasn’t the worst question in the world. She looked to Nora, whose brows were nearly in her hairline in a silent echo of Augie’s question.

Hattie straightened her shoulders, more certain than ever. “We make a deal for the cargo. We share the income from our shipments until he’s paid.”

“It won’t be enough.”

“It will be.” She’d make it enough. She’d promise him no more hijackings. And income. With interest. If he was a businessman, he’d recognize a good deal when he saw it. Killing Augie wouldn’t bring back his lost cargo, and it would bring the Crown down upon his head—something smugglers would not care for.

But money—money was real. She’d convince him of it.

She met her brother’s blue eyes. “You stay out of it.”

“You don’t know him, Hattie.”

“I know I made a deal with him.”

Augie froze. “What kind of deal?”

“Yes, what kind of deal?” Nora echoed, her lips curving in amusement.

“Nothing serious.”

You are in no position to make me an offer.

I get all of it.

What is mine. What is yours. And the name.

A sizzle of pleasure ran through Hattie at the memory of what he’d taken even as he’d promised that retribution. The heat of his kiss. The promise of his touch.

Augie interrupted her thoughts. “Hattie—if he agreed to see you again—whatever he said—you have to know—he’s not after you.”

She swallowed the disappointment that came with the words. Augie wasn’t wrong. Men like the one she’d met that evening—men like Beast—they were not for women like Hattie. They did not notice women like Hattie. They noticed beautiful women with small, slender bodies and delicate dispositions. She knew that.

She knew it, but still . . . the unfettered honesty about her lack of allure stung.

She covered the hurt with a laugh, the way she always did. “I know that, Augie. And now I know just what he’s after. My idiot brother.” She enjoyed the hot flush that washed over Augie’s face more than she should. “But I intend for him to keep our agreement. And in order to do that, he will have to accept our offer.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No.” The last thing she needed was Augie with her, mucking things up. “No.”

“Someone has to go with you. He doesn’t leave Covent Garden.”

“Then I shall go to Covent Garden,” she said.

“It’s no place for ladies,” Augie said.

If there were any five words that would catapult a woman into motion, they were surely those. “Need I remind you that I grew up in the rigging of cargo ships?”

Augie changed tack. “He’ll do whatever it takes to punish me. And you’re my sister.”

“He doesn’t know that. He shan’t know it,” she said. “I have the upper hand here.”

Had they not parted on a challenge? One would find the other? And now . . . she knew how to find him. Pleasure coursed through her. Triumph. Something dangerously close to delight.

“And if the Beast hurts you?”

“He won’t.” That much, she knew. He might tease her, and tempt her, and test her. But he wouldn’t harm her.