She was barely holding on and losing her strength fast when she heard a commotion from the suite. Bart must have discovered the locked bedroom door. She could hear shouting, but couldn’t make out the words. Not that Bart’s anger mattered in the long run. Not that there was a long run. She could feel her grip slipping, and she wasn’t secure on the roof. She was going to fall. She was going to die.
“I’ve got you.” A warm arm clamped around her, yanking her up onto the roof. It took a moment, in her panicked and dizzy state, to realize that the arm around her was Phin’s. “Hold on,” he ordered her, crawling up the gently slanted roof until they reached a flat part. “I’ve got you.”
The commotion in the room continued. Lenore realized there were two voices arguing, not just Bart shouting. She expected to hear a gunshot at any moment, but it never came.
“What’s going on?” she asked in a weak and shaking voice.
“You didn’t think we would just let the bastard carry you away, did you?” Phin asked, his voice laced with the sort of wild humor that came with life or death situations. “We were on your tail before Swan even flagged down a cab.”
“We?”
They reached the flat part of the roof, and Phin paused to hold her tight. The light of a lantern shone through an open doorway, revealing how Phin had made it onto the roof.
“Freddy and Reese,” Phin said. “Reese is fetching the police. Freddy came with me. He’s waiting down in the hall while the concierge checks Swan’s room. I wasn’t so patient. I’d hoped to find a way into the room from the outside, since the idiot concierge was fool enough to lead us right to Swan’s room, but this will do in a pinch.”
Lenore could only make a wordless sound of surprise in reply. It was utterly mad, but at least luck was on her side.
“Come on,” Phin continued as he pulled her to her feet and led her toward the door. “I don’t know what’s going on downstairs, but we need to get you to safety as fast as possible.”
“Where are we going?” she managed to ask as Phin whisked her down the stairs.
“My house first,” he said. “Then wherever we need to go where Swan won’t find us.”
Chapter 19
From the moment he and Freddy had leapt out of the carriage they’d commandeered at Lady O’Shea’s house to follow Lenore and Bart, Phin hadn’t been able to catch his breath or slow his heart. He’d nearly lost his patience entirely and beat the poor, sleepy concierge at the hotel’s desk who refused to let either him or Freddy go up to Bart’s room to confront him. The best they’d been able to do was convince the dolt to take them up to the fourth floor where they were told to wait in the hall while the idiot went into the room to tell Bart he had guests. Phin had spotted the stairs to the roof instantly and taken matters into his own hand.
He would be eternally grateful for acting the moment he saw those stairs. Lenore wouldn’t have been able to hold onto the edge of the roof for more than a few seconds if he hadn’t risked his neck to grab her and yank her up to safety with him. He’d never tell her how close he’d come to spilling over the edge of the roof himself, and if he were honest, it remained to be seen if they were safe.
“You found her,” Freddy gasped and leapt away from Swan’s hotel room door as soon as Phin and Lenore spilled into the hallway.
“She’d already climbed out the window and attempted to make it to the roof,” Phin panted, gesturing for Freddy to speed ahead of them down the main stairs. Phin would have taken three or four stairs at a time if he didn’t think Lenore might stumble trying to keep up with him. “What in heaven’s name is that idiot concierge doing with Swan?”
“I couldn’t tell,” Freddy said as they charged down to the lobby. “I think the young man grew a backbone at the last minute and tried to ask about Lenore. Swan shouted at him.”
“That’s why there was no gunfire,” Lenore gasped.
“I beg your pardon?” Freddy asked as they dashed through the lobby and out into the night.
Lenore had regained some of her color, but fleeing into the cold, lamp-lit night made her look as pale as a ghost again. All she managed to say as Freddy signaled to the driver waiting for them was, “He has a gun. More than one, if I know men like Bart.”
“Then we need to get you to safety as quickly as possible,” Freddy echoed what Phin had said on the roof.
“Swan will go to Reese’s house first,” Phin said, pausing to give the driver his own address before leaping into the carriage. “Lenore will be safer with me for the time being, but we need to leave London as soon as possible.”
“Bart will come after me,” Lenore said, panting to the point that Phin feared she might hyperventilate.
He threw his arms around her and held her close as the carriage lurched into motion. “He might try, but Reese wasn’t just heading to Scotland Yard for help, he went off to fetch Lord Clerkenwell.”
“Jack has wanted to act on our fears from the start,” Freddy added, resting a reassuring hand on Lenore’s leg. “He’s been hampered by formalities, but after tonight, I think he’ll be more than willing to take matters into his
