Chapter 5
FIVE
Bernard was already in the surgery when I woke the next morning to the sound of my mother pacing in the next room. She roused with the sun that crept around the boards tacked over her window, and I to the hollow sound of her footsteps.
“I’ll ask Bernard if we can borrow his cart,” I told Bria while I dressed my mother, making sure her shawl was wrapped tight around her bony shoulders and her thinning hair was brushed into a long braid down her back.
I’d inherited the color of her ebony hair and her loose curls.
Though hers was now gray and thinning, I remembered it had looked similar to mine in her youth.
Her smile and the absinthe green of her eyes were also reflected in my face, but the rest came from Lucien Veyr, a father I could barely remember.
Not even a picture remained of him. The Academy had made sure his existence would be forgotten.
Bernard claimed I had his curiosity, that he noticed the ghostly impression of his former roommate in the way my mind worked and my enjoyment of learning. My father apparently had been on the same path as me, studying as a surgeon, eager to heal the world one broken body at a time.
It had been his colleague who raised me in the surgery, however.
I’d taken a job from him at twelve, cleaning his instruments, and gradually worked my way up to smuggling undocumented bodies together.
I’d only ever worked with Bernard. It made him the only paternal figure in my life, and in turn, I was a convenient surrogate daughter for Bernard, who was married only to his job.
While I enjoyed my work, I was grateful for a day off.
Bria made herself at home, preparing breakfast in the kitchen.
I was surprised she was even awake at this hour, with her usual sleeping schedule.
By the time Mother had eaten and everyone was dressed, the sun had risen high over the city and eliminated the morning chill.
“Ready?” I smiled at my mother. The corners of her lips twitched slightly, an almost-smile, and she started toward the door.
We made it downstairs later than I’d anticipated, at an hour when the fog had dispersed over the cobblestones and left a wet film over everything. A strong breeze slipped beneath my coat, and I made a note to bring an extra blanket from the surgery stockroom.
Bernard swung the back door open, some kind of relief slumping his shoulders when he saw me standing there.
“Oh, thank the false divines. It’s you.”
“Don’t know who you’re praying to, Bernard. I just came by to get the cart.”
“I need you—”
“Nope.”
He sighed, glancing at my mother and Bria standing just a few feet back. “You need the cart?” When I nodded, he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “I have it prepped right now.”
“You better not mean what I think you do,” I whispered.
“Something happened last night while we were asleep. I need you to come inside.” He turned and started down the back hall, like I was supposed to follow him.
“Go ahead, Nina,” Bria said. “I’ll keep an eye on her.
” She rubbed my mother’s shoulders. She was already carrying our lunch, Mother’s remaining sedative if she needed it, and the crowns I’d earned from the delivery last night to pay the chemist. They would be fine without me…
for whatever Bernard had up his sleeves.
“Are you sure?”
Bria nodded. “I’ll take your mother to the waiting room and look after her while you’re busy. I’m sure whatever he needs you for won’t take long. Then we can be on our way.”
“First law of surgery, Bria, is that everything takes much longer than it needs to.” I glanced at my mother, though she didn’t seem disappointed in the slightest that our plans had been ruined.
“Nina…” Mother mumbled, looking around like she’d already lost me.
I beckoned her inside with a gentle hand and motioned to Bria. “Mother, this is Bria. You know Bria, right? She’s going to sit with you while I deal with something. I’ll be right back, okay?”
Mother only blinked at me once before shuffling after Bria, who ushered her down to the opposite end of the hall.
“Bernard, this better be really fucking important!” My strides ate the length of the corridor. A pair of double doors stood ajar at the end, cold surgery light spilling from the crack.
“Bernard?” I pushed the heavy door hard, letting it bang on the stopper. The surgeon nearly leapt out of his skin, spreading his arms wide to cover a sealed casket on the worktable.
“No!” I gasped. He was going to ask me to make another delivery.
Bernard sighed, clutching his chest. “Don’t barge in like that, Nina. I thought you were a copper.” He rubbed the spot over his heart. “It’s a relief you came down when you did. Truly a favor of fate.”
But I was already shaking my head in refusal. “I don’t know what you’re so relieved for; I’m not taking that anywhere!”
“There’s little choice, I’m afraid.” He finished sealing the coffer and dotted the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.
“This one came cold this morning. Dead for a few days, from my assessment. A note came with his body, instructing us to give him to the buyer. And I can’t keep him here overnight. Not him.”
“What do you mean ‘not him’? Who is it?”
“You don’t need to know that. Better you don’t.”
I’d never seen him so nervous. “Maurice won’t return to port until tomorrow afternoon—”
“Then find another way!” Bernard snapped.
The composed man I knew was suddenly replaced with a temper disfiguring the familiarity in his eyes.
“Don’t you get it, Nina? Whoever left him here is an assassin.
A murderer. And they know our business.” He glanced at the casket, breathing hard.
“He must go today, before someone comes looking for him. Before whoever left him here comes back.”
Bernard’s growing desperation only hardened my resolve.
There were police all over the city—and one constable was looking out for me specifically.
I was sure he’d be lurking around Matthieu’s street, waiting for me to show again, and he wasn’t the only one tracking me.
No, I had too many hunters to do a drop today.
I took a step back, toward the door. If I took off, he wouldn’t be able to stop me. “I’m sorry, Bernard. I can’t do this—”
“Thirty thousand crowns.”
I paused my retreat. “What?”
He sucked a long breath. “They offered thirty thousand crowns if we get him to the buyer. That’s life-changing money.” He let the number hang in the air, like dangling a fresh bone in front of a starved dog. He knew I’d bite. “Come on, Nina. We’re both too far into this to stop now.”
Hell… Was that not the truth. But if we got thirty thousand crowns, we’d never have to move another body again.
“Who is it?” I asked Bernard.
The muscles over his temples flexed from the clench of his teeth. “It’s best you don’t know.”
“Fuck.” I cursed while crossing the room, hating myself a little more with every step. Yet no amount of self-loathing could make me turn down that number of coins. I took the head of the coffer while Bernard lifted the foot.
“Is your friend gone?” he grunted as we carried the narrow box out of the surgery. Bernard peered through the crack in the door while struggling with the weight in his hands.
“It’s fine. She’s with my mother. I was supposed to take her to get a new sedative.”
Bernard flinched. We brought the coffer to an empty supply room, where the cart was parked with the bed against the window.
Bernard turned to me before we made the final transfer.
“I’m sorry, Nina. If there was another way…
” His eyes shut briefly, as if replaying the very moment he pitched the idea to me a few months ago.
“I’m sorry I ever got you into this business.
You’re too smart for this kind of work. Too much potential to be dragging around bodies.
I’ve wasted years of your life when you could have been studying at the Academy.
If your father knew what I got you into… ”
“My father is the reason I would never get into the Academy. And I would never leave my mother. Let’s just get this job done, and we can move on with our lives. But Bernard?” I knelt to lift the coffer once more. “This was my choice. Don’t forget that.”
“I gave you the option.” He lifted his side, and we shoved the box into the bed of the cart, beneath a premade arrangement of spice trays.
Bernard squeezed my shoulder once. “Just be careful. If anything happened to you…” He shook his head.
“I wouldn’t forgive myself. I’ll help keep an eye on your mother in the meantime. ”
The pit in my stomach swelled into a bottomless lake, but I feigned a smile for him anyway. No use in both of us being worried. “I’m taking the rest of the week off, by the way.”
His laughter broke the heavy quiet. “Come back safe, Nina, and you can have two weeks off.”
I threw my hood up and left before he made another promise he couldn’t keep. Just one more trip across the city. One more boat ride to the South Docks. One more body to sneak.
One last job, and then a new beginning.
The end of the workweek meant the city was shutting down early. People and horses and carriages and riverboats flocked the streets and canals. I didn’t know if it was wise to avoid them all or let myself get caught up in the blur of traffic.
The police were just as present today, or perhaps I was just hyper-aware of every copper posted on a street corner, a balcony overhead, the crest of a bridge overlooking the waterway.
Everywhere I looked, crimson capes caught the tepid breeze.
I pulled my hood lower, hiding my face and giving them no reason to pull me over.
Everything was fine so far. I was halfway to Mattie’s without a second look from anyone. Though it was fortunate I’d been too busy to eat breakfast this morning, or I might have vomited from the violent twist of my stomach.
Everything. Was. Fine.
Until the dice in my pocket started to burn awake.
“No…” I whispered to myself. “No, no, no. Not right now.” Not that I ever wanted to see him again, but this was an incredibly inconvenient moment.
It would be difficult not to draw any attention with a man like that trying to kill me.
If he had no problem shooting at me in front of the tavern, he wouldn’t think twice about another attempt on my life.
I glanced through the traffic but couldn’t see the outsider on the sidewalks or the alleys between blocks. Wherever he was, he was concealed. Meanwhile, I was a sitting duck, forced to drive at a grueling pace behind half the city as everyone got off work at the same time.
“Oh, piss,” I cursed through my teeth as the carriage in front of me came to an abrupt halt. My mule whined, veering to the side. I glanced behind me, making sure the coffer was still covered—and saw him.
The outsider was perched on top of my stock, sitting cross-legged like he was along for the ride. His cowl was low, brushing his brows, but his smile was as wide and dangerous as ever before.
“Hello, Nina.”