Chapter Sixteen
Kitty smiled at her carriage driver. “Thank you for taking me to the shop. I know Sundays are your day off.”
Richards shrugged. “It is no problem. Though I hope everything is fine.”
“I’m sure it is. Shannon said she just had something I needed to sign.”
“Shall I stay, Lady Everly?”
She shook her head. “Please pick me up in four hours. I’m here, so I might as well work a little.”
“As you wish, my lady.”
Kitty let herself into the warehouse and began searching for Shannon.
In her hastily scrawled missive, her secretary had explained that there was an issue with a book on the schedule which was to be printed tomorrow.
But Shannon wasn’t in the warehouse, or in their office, or even at the front sales desk.
Finally, however, Kitty heard her or Jack moving around in the event room.
That was odd. They weren’t expected to host an underground book event anytime soon.
She wondered what they were up to and headed that way.
Maybe they were using the room as she and Oliver had, pressed into the alcove.
She would never again be able to enter that room without thinking about their impulsive passionate moment.
It would always be their room, hers, and Oliver’s—though she supposed Jack and Shannon could enjoy it as well.
Now that she knew of the joys of marital activity, she couldn’t and wouldn’t begrudge anyone from engaging in erotic pursuits.
Just in case they were enjoying each other, she called out as she approached. “Hello? Shannon, it’s me. I’m he—” She entered the room and stumbled to a stop.
Jack was tied up on the floor. “Jack! What…” she gasped and ran to him.
But then, from another place in the room, Shannon hollered, “Kitty, run!”
Kitty turned. Uncle Dominic stood beside Shannon; he had a pistol jammed into her side.
“What are you doing?” she gasped. This was incomprehensible!
Her uncle laughed crazily. “Did you think your husband could get rid of me so easily? I’m almost insulted by the paltry sum he was willing to provide.” He jabbed the barrel of the pistol into her friend’s ribs.
Kitty couldn’t believe this was happening.
She held out her hands, pleading. If only she hadn’t told the driver to leave…
if only Oliver had accompanied her as he’d suggested.
But no, she’d told him she’d be fine and to head off to the London Docks without her to meet Mr. Hutchison and Uncle Dominic as planned.
“Why are you doing this? Oliver planned to give you the same sum I provided you before. Five thousand pounds…”
Uncle Dominic sneered. “A paltry sum. Not enough to live on. I want the money in the safe.”
Anger welled in her. How dare he come here and try to take everything? The money in the safe wasn’t everything the company had made, but still, he knew they kept a sizeable sum there. She and her parents had worked so hard to make the money they had.
Meanwhile, Uncle Dominic had done nothing. He didn’t deserve it!
Jack groaned on the floor. Kitty turned then to go to him, but her uncle snapped, “Stay right where you are. Don’t go near him!”
She looked at her uncle then. He aimed the pistol at her. “Do as I say!”
At least the gun was no longer pointed directly at Shannon. Kitty frowned at him. “You don’t want to do this.”
“Don’t tell me what I want to do, Kitty. You and your sisters have been given everything, while I was made to suffer.”
“We worked for everything we have. But my father gave you an allowance.”
Uncle Dominic’s mouth twisted bitterly. “Yes, but he didn’t give me a portion of this business. He thought I wasn’t good enough for it.”
“Stop it. That isn’t true. He knew you would lose it playing cards or in pursuit of some other vice. Drinking, perhaps, or whatever it is that you do with your money.”
For a moment, Kitty felt a bit sad. She wished none of this was happening. Uncle Dominic could have taken a million paths, positive ones that would have improved his life, and her father would have helped, but instead he’d refused and continued with his wretched vices and behavior.
“If you take the money from the safe, Larson Bookshop and Printing Press will be ruined. Even if we’d planned to continue to pay you, there would be nothing left. No more money to give.”
Her uncle shrugged. “But that’s your problem. You’re not planning to pay me anymore, so I’ll take the most I can get now.”
Beside him, Shannon squirmed as if about to run; he grabbed her arm and swung the pistol at her, then back at Kitty. She wondered if there was a way to take the pistol from him.
As if he could read her mind, her Uncle Dominic said, “Don’t think about it. If you come near me, I will shoot your employee.”
Jack made a muffled sound and attempted to sit up, but the way Uncle Dominic tied him up prevented him from doing so. Shannon whimpered, watching him.
It broke Kitty’s heart. She couldn’t let this go on. If her uncle wanted the money, so be it.
She pulled the small metal ring from her pocket that held the keys to the safe. “Then take these and go.”
Uncle Dominic snatched them from her hand and tucked them into his pocket before demanding of Shannon, “Give me the key to lock this room. I know you still have it. You used it to let us in here.”
Slowly, reluctantly, Shannon pulled the keys to the building from her pocket and handed them to him.
“Splendid.” He grinned and grabbed them from her.
Uncle Dominic pointed the gun at Kitty and gestured to the door with it.
“Now, you and I are going to your office. Your employees will stay locked up in here.”
“No,” Shannon pleaded.
Kitty reached out to her. “It is fine. It will be fine. Take care of Jack. Make sure he isn’t hurt.”
Shannon sniffled but nodded. Uncle Dominic pointed to the doorway with the pistol once more, and Kitty deliberately stomped out.
He followed her, then—as promised—locked Shannon and Jack in the room.
That done, he tucked the keys away and smiled at her as if they were at a soiree. “After you, Lady Everly.”
She hurried through the bookshop, wondering if Oliver had yet discovered that Uncle Dominic wasn’t with Mr. Hutchison or preparing to board the ship.
He would come straight here once he figured it out.
Kitty just needed to delay her uncle and drag this all out.
Remain calm, she told herself, taking a deep breath.
“Give me the keys,” she told him once they reached her office door.
He handed them to her. She made her hands shake even more than they already were, jabbing the key at the lock but missing it, and then dropping the key ring to the floor.
Her uncle paced restlessly behind her. “Oh!” She bent to pick them up, then deliberately chose the wrong key and jammed it into the lock.
Of course it wouldn’t turn; still, she made a show of trying to get it to work.
“Oh! I can’t…it’s stuck! It’s not working…
I’m so nervous…” Finally, she threw up her hands.
“I can’t get it unlocked,” she explained.
He pushed her aside and kicked at the door, but it didn’t budge; then he grabbed the knob and pulled violently. Finally, he focused on the keys still in the lock and reached for them with a growl of frustration, distracted.
Kitty looked around, trying to see if she could run. Before she could, Uncle Dominic turned to face her, pointing the pistol at her face. “You think you can fool me? Using the wrong key? Stop playing around and open the door.”
She was out of tricks. Kitty nodded and unlocked the door.
She reassured herself that if Uncle Dominic took all the money in the safe, they could still rebuild.
It just would take time. They still had money in the bank.
If they needed to, they could sell the building, and the warehouse to raise capital.
They’d keep the press. They’d find a smaller venue. They would find a way.
Kitty and her uncle entered her office, leaving the door ajar. She moved to the small door behind her desk.
He tossed the small metal ring with two keys onto the center of her desk. “Open it.”
Kitty lifted the keys and watched him shuffle around the room, his gaze mostly on her but also everywhere.
Apparently, he was searching for something.
Her suspicions were confirmed when Uncle Dominic grabbed the cloth bag she used to keep a writing kit, and shook out the contents. “We will put the banknotes in here.”
She frowned. No. This was wrong. It wasn’t his money.
She stared down at the pen, the small box of nibs that had opened to scatter its contents carelessly over her desk, the little bottle of ink rolling back and forth, and the cloth that she used to wipe the implements clean.
It was stained. She should get it washed, or get a new one… once this was over.
When it was over. Would it ever be over? She’d lived in the shadow of this man and his demands for so many years, first to her father, now to her. Oliver had thought he could stop him. Maybe no one could. But right now—she could. She lifted her eyes to his face.
He scowled at her. “Why haven’t you done as I asked? Open the safe. Now.”
She couldn’t do it. Kitty couldn’t let him take everything from them. She straightened. “No.”
His eyes went wide. “What do you mean ‘no’?”
“Do it yourself.”
“So you can escape?” he snarled.
Kitty shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe not. What does it matter?”
Uncle Dominic shook the pistol at her. “Open it!”
“No.”
They stared at one another. Kitty wouldn’t open the safe for him. If he wanted to take it all, he could do it himself.
Dominic raised the pistol at her face, then stepped toward her. “You selfish girl. You had everything while I’ve had nothing—that’s about to change!”
“That’s right! It is!”
Kitty fell back in surprise as Jack Green hurtled into the room, pushing Dominic from behind, trying to grab her uncle’s pistol.
Shannon followed him. “Grab it!”