Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Practice was as gruelling as usual, but Jonny welcomed the pain in his body, for it distracted him from what was waiting for him.
His venture at the station house.
Specifically, stealing from the police.
But he had taken the ledger once before, and truthfully, Blackwood’s operations had likely been more locked down than the station had been.
“Tate, you missed the ball!”
Jonny looked up to find Rhys standing before him, hands outstretched in exasperation.
“Where’s your head? Did you leave it wherever you were during the last game?”
“You’ve got to let that go,” Jonny grumbled over his shoulder as he chased after the ball. “I told you, something came up with my family. I couldn’t leave them.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. His brother had been involved.
“Yet you can’t tell us what’s happening. Don’t want to allow us to help.”
Rhys remained right beside him, not leaving him be.
“No.”
“Is it your mother?”
Jonny’s father had died a few years ago, from a hard life more than anything, and his mother now lived with his sister, Maggie, and her family. Jonny tried to look in on her when he could, and always made sure to leave money, even if it left him without enough to pay his own rent.
He knew Will did the same for their mother, but he could only imagine where Will’s money came from.
“Just leave it, Rhys, all right?” he asked, running away slowly before he lost his temper, which was the last thing he should do when the team had given him one more chance to prove himself.
“Don’t forget what I said!” Rhys called after him. "No more chances after this.”
Jonny rolled his eyes, grateful that the only one who saw was Tommy, who ran over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I don’t know the story, Jon, but I know whatever came up must have been important. Just make sure to tell me if you need anything, all right? You were there for me. I’ll aways do the same for you.”
“Thanks, Tommy,” he said, but Ada’s words echoed in his mind – to not make anything difficult for his friends.
He would make good on that promise, for he wanted the same thing — to keep them safe and away from Sharpe.
He glanced over to the side of the field, seeing Lily and her daughter playing beside Emmaline and Minnie, whose stomach was expanding with her own child, to come during the season.
The women took turns playing with the girl and watching the field, capturing his attention for a moment — especially when they were joined by someone he had come to know better than he had hoped, or expected.
He met Ada’s gaze from across the pitch, reading the questions there, as he knew she wondered about what he had done about the ledger, whether he had completed his quest.
Not yet.
He felt the urge to go to her, to share with her, but he chased that thought away.
What was most important was staying as far from her as possible. That kiss had been… it had been everything he hadn’t known was missing in his life, as much as he never wanted to admit that.
He had closed his eyes and replayed it in his mind far more than he should have, but it was hard to forget.
Her lips had been perfect under his, soft yet insistent, and instead of the apprehensive standoffishness he had expected, she had melted into him and had been more responsive than he could ever have imagined.
He longed to feel more of her, to run his hands over all those delicious curves.
But it could never be. That, he knew.
Not only did she know far more about him than would ever make it possible for her to feel anything for him, except, perhaps, a passing attraction, he was well aware that she was engaged to David Carter, son of the owner of Manchester’s Carter Iron & Steel Company.
The complement to Ada’s father’s munitions business.
They were, as everyone said, the perfect match.
The only question was why their wedding had not gone forward yet.
Ada and Jonny had both done the unthinkable in being two of the only people to ever escape Blackwood and his underworld. Only, while she was still treading above water, he was being sucked back under.
Jonny just had to be strong enough to swim out of it.
He liked to believe that giving Sharpe the ledger would clear him of any ties, but he knew better than that, had seen time and again, from his own father to Ada’s, that the moment you got in with a man like Blackwood or Sharpe, they smelled blood and became hungry for more.
He used his frustration with the entire situation to fuel his kick as he roughly took the ball from Felix, ignoring his cry of protest at his aggressiveness, and then sent the ball flying up the field to Colin.
Rhys put his fingers in his mouth to whistle them all to attention before he waved them in.
“What was that?” he asked Jonny, who shrugged and put his hands on his hips.
“I call it football.”
Rhys held his stare for a moment before turning to the rest of them. “I think that’s all for today. Tate, a word.”
Jonny had to fight not to roll his eyes as he crossed his arms and waited for the chastisement.
“Yes, Father?” he said as Rhys approached.
Rhys held his arms out to the side, and Jonny thought he was about to berate him, but as it turned out, he was wrong.
“What’s going on with you?” he asked instead. “You’ve been with us for a couple of years and while you might not be the most… polished, you’ve always been good to the team. We’ve barely seen you ever since the night we saved Minnie and Tommy on the docks. You going to fill us in?”
Jonny held his stare for a measure. Rhys was right. That had changed everything, and despite what Ada thought, he was trying to keep his distance so that he didn’t put anyone else at risk. If he told Rhys all of that, his captain would only try to fix it, and this wasn’t his problem.
“I’ll work on it,” he finally said. “I can’t share what’s happened, but I’ll make it better. I promise.”
Rhys nodded slowly. “Come to us with whatever you need. Understood?”
Jonny nodded. “Understood.”
“Good. We’re a team, Jonny. On the field and off.”
Jonny believed that, he did. But sometimes the best way to be a team player was to protect them from those who wanted to hurt them.
That was the position he found himself in now.
And one he would play well.
Ada watched Jonny speak to Rhys before running off the field to change.
“Interested in someone out there?” Emmaline asked Ada with a twinkle in her eye.
“I’m wondering what Jonny is up to, if I’m being honest with you.”
She wouldn’t share everything she knew about him with her friends. She had promised to keep his secret, but it also wasn’t her story to tell. As long as he kept the danger away from them, she would keep that part of their lives hidden.
“He’s a mysterious one,” Lily mused.
“The same could be said about you, Ada,” Minnie said, looking at her out of the corner of her eye as she absentmindedly rubbed her belly.
“Me?” she said in surprise. “I tell you everything.”
“Do you, though?”
“If this is about Blackwood,” Ada said in a low voice. “You all know about that already.”
“Would you have told us if we didn’t witness it?” Emmaline asked, lifting a brow.
“No,” she admitted. “But only to keep you safe.”
“Exactly, that’s what I mean,” Minnie said with a satisfied nod.
“You’ve never spoken much about that night,” Lily said, her brow crinkling in concern. “Are you fine with all that happened?”
Ada took a moment to respond. No, she wasn’t fine. She often lay in bed, unable to sleep as she wondered whether she was just as bad as Blackwood himself. She’d had the ability to shoot with precision for years, but she had never intended to actually use the gun on a person.
But that wasn’t anything her friends needed to concern themselves with.
“Yes, all is fine,” she lied.
“What about romance in your own life?” Emmaline asked, one brow lifted.
Ada felt the surprise deep within her. How did Emmaline possibly know what had happened?
“Why, what did Rhys tell you?” she asked almost forcefully, causing a full, wicked grin to spread over Emmaline’s mouth.
“Not sure what Rhys would know about David Carter,” she said, “but he just might know about someone much closer to him. Someone part of the club, perhaps?”
Heat began to crawl up Ada’s cheeks as she realized her misstep.
She twisted her fingers in the skirt of her gown as she attempted humor to hide her discomfort. “There is no such thing as romance in my life. Just arrangements.”
Her friends smiled, although Ada could still read their concern. “Have you heard from David?” Minnie asked, much more tactfully.
“I actually lunched with him and his mother yesterday,” she said, deciding that in this, she could share the truth. “I asked him if he actually wanted to marry me.”
Minnie gasped, while Emmaline laughed out loud.
“And?” Lily implored. “What did he say?”
“That, of course, he did, and he would get around to it soon enough. Which, honestly, doesn’t matter to me as I have no interest in marrying him anymore, not now that I have seen that marriage doesn’t have to be what is dictated toward a woman, thanks to all of you.
I had been resigned to follow along and do as I was told instead of living the life I chose to live, but why?
He is a bore and cares nothing for me. My father was the one who tied in with Blackwood, who is trying to earn his legitimacy back.
I don’t need to be a pawn for him anymore. ”
“I can understand that all too well,” Minnie murmured.
“So, any ideas for what I do now to get out of this?”
“You could run away and get married,” Lily said with a smile. “That worked for someone we know.”
Ada sighed. “I don’t exactly have anyone else offering for me. I suppose now I can just hope that I will have nothing to worry about, for it seems that David will never offer for me anyway.”
“It could be time for you to explore some other options,” Emmaline said with a shrug. “See if you can find a man who suits you and who would want to marry you. Perhaps if you fall in love, your parents will understand.”
“Perhaps,” she said, looking off into the distance, her gaze drawn to Jonny as he walked out of the changing house.
She couldn’t help but compare him with David.
While David was tall and lean, Jonny was shorter but broader.
She rather enjoyed the strength she had felt in Jonny’s tightly bunched muscles.
He wasn’t classically handsome like David was, but there was something about him that would attract any woman – and had attracted quite a few of them, from what she had seen.
He wasn’t a man of many words, but when he spoke, he did so with precision, meaning every word of it.
Emmaline followed her gaze.
“Even if you do end up marrying David, you could have some fun first, could you not?”
Her eyes twinkled, and Ada nodded slowly. Emmaline was right. She could find a man — if not Jonny, someone else like him — and have some fun. She could then decide whether she wanted to pursue something further or be content with their time together.
After that kiss with Jonny, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him again, but she also didn’t think she could take any further rejection from him. He clearly wasn’t interested in forever with her, although perhaps he would be open to a brief flirtation.
He was one man she knew she would never truly fall for, knowing his past and that he hadn’t left it behind to the extent he had made it seem.
She supposed there was only one way to find out if he felt that same draw to her — even if she didn’t like the idea of putting herself out there, to risk his denial of affections.
But it was a risk she was going to have to take.
She raised her glass to cheer with her friends. “Wish me luck,” she said wryly.
She was going to need it.