CLOSE QUARTERS
1902—New York
Ruby Aurelea Reynolds knew she was in trouble the moment the carriage door shut, closing her and Theo in with the small Italian girl who took up all the air in the space. Ruby was rarely the type to feel out of her depth. She was the youngest of five girls and had survived a childhood of teacups and pinafores to become what she wanted to become—a published journalist who had carved out a career for herself despite her mother’s protests and society’s dismay. And if she’d caused a few scandals here or there? Well, scandal was an excellent way of dispensing with the nuisance of unwanted suitors, who were really only after the fortune her father had left behind.
She’d braved the slums of the city and the matrons of society, but sitting across from Viola Vaccarelli, their knees almost touching as the carriage jostled along, Ruby suddenly felt nervous. It wasn’t because Ruby had been naive enough to believe that Viola wasn’t dangerous. Of course she was. After all, the girl was the sister of a nefarious gang leader and had been holding poor Theo at knifepoint the first time they’d met. That, coupled with the deadly little trick Viola had just accomplished with an ordinary kitchen knife . . . No, Ruby had expected danger.
She just hadn’t realized . . . not really.
It had all seemed so simple when she and Theo had set out that morning—they would find Viola, and then Ruby would charm her into giving up whatever information she might have that would bring the Order to its knees.
People in the city thought so highly of the Order of Ortus Aurea because they didn’t know the truth. The Order pretended to be above the fray, blameless protectors of the city against an unenlightened horde. Maybe once they had been, but they certainly weren’t any longer. Her sources revealed them to be in league now with the corrupt politicians at Tammany, and her recent experiences proved that they weren’t above using common criminals like Paul Kelly to do their dirty work. All to shore up their power and protect their reputation. And for what? The city was no safer. And whatever story her family might have spread about her father’s death, Ruby knew it was the Order’s fault that he’d left his wife to raise five girls on her own.
But now that Viola was scowling at her in silence, Ruby was beginning to doubt her plan. Viola did not look as though she would be easily charmed. Still, there was so much at stake, so much good that Ruby could do if she were just brave enough to take the first step.
After a long silence accompanied only by the rumble of the wheels against the uneven streets, Ruby decided that she was hesitating, and she never hesitated.
“Perhaps we should begin with introductions,” she said, mimicking her mother’s brightest hostess voice. Her words came out too high, too false sounding. “I’m R. A. Reynolds, as you know. The R stands for Ruby. And this is my fiancé, Theodore Barclay.”
“Please, call me Theo,” he volunteered, the dear.
Viola didn’t speak. She just continued to glower at them, and Ruby realized that her narrowed eyes were the most startling shade of violet, like the irises Ruby’s mother grew in the greenhouse on their roof.
“Well, we already know who you are,” Ruby said, chewing nervously on her lips. This wasn’t going well at all. “Theo, darling, you need to put that thing away. How can anyone relax with you pointing a gun at them?”
Viola glanced at the weapon, but she didn’t seem bothered by it. Nor did she seem any more relaxed when Theo finally tucked the pistol back under his coat.
“Truly . . .” Ruby’s voice was low as a whisper. “Despite the little . . . um . . . event at Delmonico’s, we don’t mean you any harm. I know you didn’t want to hurt us.”
“You do?” Viola asked, her dark brows winging up in surprise.
The girl nodded. “Of course. It was the other one—John Torrio—who made you do it. I’ve been doing some investigating, and I’ve learned all about him and his more . . . inventive tactics. But I hadn’t realized until the night at Delmonico’s what he is.”
Viola continued to frown, but otherwise she didn’t react. She certainly didn’t volunteer any information.
“You know,” Ruby said expectantly, hoping that Viola would pick up her meaning. “One. Of. Them.”
“Torrio, he’s bad news, and that’s all I know about him,” Viola said, eyeing Ruby as though she were the worst sort of fool. Ruby understood that look—it was the same look everyone gave her when she tried to speak up about anything important. It was the look that meant she should go back to the sitting room and pick up some needlepoint and have babies and forget about any sort of real life.
“He’s a Five Pointer, same as your brother, but that’s not all that John Torrio is, is it?”
Viola gave her a look of disgust. “Look, Miss Reynolds—”
“Ruby—”
“Miss Reynolds,” Viola insisted, keeping a clear boundary between them even as their knees bumped. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but you don’t want to mess with John Torrio or my brother. They’re not nice people. They don’t play by any rules you would understand, and they won’t think twice about getting rid of anyone who causes them a problem.”
“I’m not afraid of them,” Ruby said, lifting her chin. They couldn’t possibly be worse than half of her sisters’ friends, the jealous harpies who wouldn’t hesitate to cut your reputation to shreds with a whisper just for looking at them the wrong way.
“Then you’re an idiot. This isn’t a game. My brother, Torrio, they kill people,” Viola said, and there was something in the way her voice broke that made Ruby’s heart clench. “They make people disappear.”
“And Tammany Hall protects them,” Ruby said, knowing even more surely that the path she was on was the right one. “The very people elected to serve everyone are protecting the . . . the . . . criminals that they’re supposed to be stopping.”
Theo patted Ruby on the knee, making her realize just how animated she’d become.
“She gets a bit overwrought sometimes,” he told Viola.
“I am not overwrought,” Ruby said tartly, pushing his hand away. She felt her cheeks flame and cursed her mother for giving her skin so fair it showed every emotion in the same color—pink.
“Of course you’re not,” he told her, but she knew that tone of voice. As much as she adored Theo, she couldn’t stand it when he got all paternal.
Ruby cut him a sharp look, and he was smart enough to raise his hands in mock surrender. She turned back to Viola. “I’m not overwrought,” she repeated. “I’m simply passionate about the causes I believe in. You see, I’m a journalist.”
“This one, he’s your fiancé?” Viola asked.
“Guilty, I’m afraid,” Theo said with his usual lopsided smile.
“And you allow her to do this?” Viola asked, her expression incredulous. “You’re an idiot too.”
He laughed as the carriage bumped along.
“He doesn’t let me do anything,” Ruby cut in, her cheeks feeling even warmer than before.
“True,” Theo agreed. “I merely follow along, cleaning up the chaos that ensues in her wake,” he said cheerfully. “The things we do for love.”
Enough. She tried to give him what she hoped was a scathing glare, but he just continued to grin at her. Probably because he knew exactly how much it would annoy her.
“I’d prefer not to be caught up in anybody’s wake,” Viola said. “I have troubles enough of my own. I don’t need any of yours. If you could just let me out—”
“But we haven’t even had a chance to talk,” Ruby said with a sudden burst of panic. She reached over and clasped Viola’s bare hand.
It didn’t matter that she was wearing gloves—Ruby felt the warmth of Viola’s skin even through the delicate leather. She wondered if Viola felt that same jolt of energy, because the moment after their hands met, Viola pulled away like she’d been burned.
“So talk,” Viola said, her voice rougher than it had been a moment before. Her violet eyes seemed darker somehow.
“Talk . . .” It took Ruby a second to remember what she’d wanted to talk about. “Right.” She pulled her small notebook and pencil from inside of her handbag to allow herself a moment to gather her wits again.
She flipped through the pages, each filled with her own familiar looping scrawl. Glancing over them, she focused, centering herself on the job at hand. Viola Vaccarelli was not some silly missish debutante, like most of the girls Ruby had grown up around. Her spine was too straight, her gaze too direct. It was as though she could see through all Ruby’s posturing to every one of the doubts that lurked beneath.
Taking a steadying breath, Ruby set her own shoulders and began. “I’m working on a story about the corruption at the very heart of the city. I know the Five Pointers are in league with Tammany—”
“Everybody knows that,” Viola said, crossing her arms over the fullness of her bosom.
She isn’t wearing stays. It was an absurd thought, but the moment it occurred to Ruby, she couldn’t dismiss it. There was nothing lascivious about Viola’s dress, though. Nothing at all provocative. She simply looked . . . comfortable. Free.
Focus, Reynolds.
“As I was saying, people know about their connection to Tammany, but after our encounter at Delmonico’s, I realized that your brother must also be working with the Order of Ortus Aurea.”
“Why would anyone care about that?” Viola challenged, but her expression closed up so tightly that Ruby knew she was onto something.
“People might care that the organization that claims to be protecting the city is working with violent gang leaders like Paul Kelly, but I think they would care even more if they knew the Order was working with the very people they were trying to protect us from. I want to expose them, Miss Vaccarelli. I want everyone in the city to know that the Order isn’t the benevolent force they believe but are instead harboring dangerous criminals.”
“You can’t,” Viola said, shaking her head.
“Of course I can,” Ruby said. “It’s what I do.”
“Not if you want to make it to your wedding day,” Viola told her, and there was an odd tremor to her voice. “My brother and the Five Pointers, they won’t want you messing in their business. That’s what I was trying to tell you at the restaurant. You need to stop before they stop you.”
“They can try, but it won’t matter if I can expose them first,” Ruby said, trying to imbue her words with the conviction that she felt so firmly. “But I need your help.”
“What could you possibly think I can do for you?”
“Don’t pretend that you don’t know Paul Kelly has Mageus in his ranks.”
Viola’s face had gone pale, and she looked as though she wanted to leap from the rolling carriage. Maybe she doesn’t know.
“John Torrio is Mageus,” Ruby said in a hushed voice. Although why she bothered to lower her voice, she couldn’t have said. It was only the three of them in the carriage.
“Torrio?” Viola’s expression bunched in confusion.
“You must have known,” Ruby insisted. “I knew it the second I woke up from whatever that was he did to us back at Delmonico’s. For both of us to faint with no provocation whatever? And . . .” She lowered her voice. “It felt like magic, didn’t it, Theo?”
Theo gave Ruby a long-suffering expression. “It felt like my head hit the table, darling.”
Ruby shot him another annoyed look before she went back to ignoring him. “It felt positively electric.”
“You think John Torrio has the old magic?” Viola said, her voice hollow with what could only be disbelief.
She didn’t know, the poor dear.
“Yes. Oh, I realize this is all coming as a shock to you, but you see now why the story I’m working on is so important. If I can prove that Kelly’s gang uses Mageus and that the Order is protecting the Five Pointers, then I can prove the Order is protecting the very thing they say they want to destroy. Can’t you see?” She leaned forward and, without meaning to, took Viola’s hand again. This time she ignored the bolt of heat she felt. It was adrenaline. Excitement. Surely Viola felt that as well. “With your help, I could end the Order.”