The Song Bird (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (14 page)

“You’re crazy,” she whispered.

He walked up to her, getting a little too close for her comfort. “Where’s your sister?”

“W–Who?”

She tried backing up, but he grabbed her arm. “Don’t play coy. Where is your sister?”

“If you know everything, then you know as much as I do, which is nothing. My sister is gone. I was just told she talked about going back home.”

He shook her. “Do you think I’m stupid? She has something that belongs to me!”

“Let me go!” she yelled and pulled away, stumbling as her weakened ankle throbbed.

A small crowd started to gather, so Eugene Behr stepped away from her.

“Tell your sister I want my property back. I want what’s
mine
.” He all but growled the word to her before turning and walking away.

Heart pounding, Avilon limped slowly back to the club.

When she got back to the club, she hurried through the tunnel into the adjoining house. Eli and Jason weren’t around, and for that she was grateful. She moved as fast as she could up the stairs to the bedroom and sat down on the bed. Unlacing her boots took an unordinary long time since she had to go slowly, her swollen ankle tender and throbbing. Her nerves were shot, so once the shoes thumped to the floor, Avilon lay back and curled into a fetal position, squeezing a pillow tightly to her body.

Shivers racked her as Eugene Behr’s evil words played through her mind. His threats from before combined with today had her running scared. All she wanted to do was get as far away as possible. But she had to find Amelia. Once she had her sister, they could get out of this crazy city full of lies and deceit.

Tears leaked from her eyes, and she wiped at them impatiently. She hated tears. They did nothing to help the situation and only gave her headaches. Tears were for weak people, like children and soft women. She was neither. She had survived her parents’ funeral. She had survived burying her aunt at sea. She was dealing with Amelia’s disappearance.

She would get over her feelings for Eli and Jason.

Ruthlessly, she pushed the memory of Eli and Jason out of her head, even though she could smell them upon the sheets she lay on. A fierce ache struck her heart, one full of regret. They could have been wonderful together. At least, she thought they could have been. What they shared meant more to her than anything, but without trust, love would never have a chance.

Suddenly, loneliness crashed through her, and her heart stuttered on a beat. She knew, instinctively, she would never feel again what she felt toward Eli and Jason. Once she left San Francisco, she would leave her heart behind.

And although she hated tears, Avilon let them flow. They washed the grief out of her system. She didn’t have the time to be weak, especially since Amelia needed her. Once they were safe, then she’d mourn, but for now, she needed to be strong.

After the emotional storm had passed, she sat up and wiped her face. Stoically, she went about packing her valise, shutting off her feelings about leaving Eli and Jason. If all went according to plan, she’d be sailing home in the next day or so.

* * * *

Half an hour before her performance time, she went searching for Ellis and found him in the back room where the billiard tables were being used. The rest had helped her ankle. The swelling had gone down enough for her to walk on it without limping.

She caught Ellis’s gaze and gave a slight nod with her head. A narrowing of his eyes was her only indication that he saw her. She retreated and headed back to her dressing room to finish getting ready for her show.

A few minutes later, Ellis knocked on her door and opened it.

“You needed something, Miss Chambert?”

“Close the door, Ellis. I have something to ask you.”

He stepped in, and the door swung shut behind him. He folded his arms and waited.

“Where’s my sister?”

He gave no sign of recognition.

“Please, Ellis. Tell me where Amelia is.”

“Who?”

“Louisie.”

“I have no idea where she is.”

Avilon sighed. “Please. She sent me a letter, telling me she was in danger. Why would she do that unless she wanted to see me? She needs me, Ellis.”

He looked away from her searching gaze. “I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

Frustration poured through every facet of her being. She wanted to scream but realized that might not be the most prudent thing, considering. As she stared into his dark, cautious eyes, she knew, instantly, he did know Amelia, and that somewhere, he was hiding her. Protecting her?

Avilon held out a letter. “Then please, do me a favor. If you can, make sure she gets this.”

He hesitated for a moment then grabbed it before turning and leaving the room as if the hounds of hell were on his heels.

* * * *

She sang her required four songs with a bit more warmth than last night. It helped knowing her sister was being cared for, even if she couldn’t be the one providing it at that moment. It gave her a small level of comfort in this cold, foreboding city. She saw Eli standing off to the side, watching her, an angry glint in his eye, and she realized that he knew about her moving out.

And as soon as her act was over and she walked to her dressing room, he followed, slamming the door behind him so loudly that it rattled on its hinges.

“What do you call this?” he demanded.

“I can’t be what you want me to be, Eli.”

“We had a deal, Avilon. You for them.”

She folded her arms and glared at him. “You used me, Eli. Did you think I wouldn’t figure you and Jason out?”

He opened his mouth to say something but abruptly clamped it shut again. She could see he was struggling with what he wanted to say.

“What do you—”

“Don’t deny it,” she told him. “Don’t treat me like I can’t see what’s in front of my eyes. Last night you talked about trust, but how I can I possibly trust you when you don’t trust me?”

He swallowed, and she watched his Adam’s apple bobble as though he was trying hard not to scream, or cry, or do something between the two. For a moment, panic and fear showed in his eyes, maybe even a little love. And she realized that whatever was between him and Jason, for whatever reason they put her between them, it was never meant to hurt or humiliate her.

Eli turned and left, the broad expanse of his shoulders bent as if the weight of the world had suddenly crashed down upon them. He looked, for lack of a better word, defeated. Did he think she would tell anyone about him and Jason?

She went after him, hurrying backstage and down the side staircase, smiling as people clapped again for her. Just as she entered the main floor, a movement from upstairs caught her attention. She looked up and saw a man shift a little, and as he did, the silver glint of a gun illuminated under the bright chandelier.

Her brain immediately recognized that Eli was the target. Without another thought, Avilon launched into him with as much force as she could propel. They tumbled in a mass of flying petticoats just as the report of a gun echoed through the club.

Avilon heard screams, panicked running, and the curse of the man beneath her. It all came at her as if from far away, as if she was underwater. She rolled off Eli, and fire lanced through her, centering at the spot where her neck met her shoulder. She reached up and felt liquid, warm and sticky, flowing down the front of her dress.

“Avilon?” Eli said. “Christ, you’ve been hit. Jason!”

She was confused for a moment, unsure of what she should do. But that lasted for only a second before fear took over. She started shaking as her body flushed cold.

“Avilon, sweetheart, you’re okay,” Eli was saying. “I’m going to take care of you.”

He kept talking, but the words might as well been in Swahili for all the understanding she gave them. The room started to dim. Blackness grew around the edges of her vision, slowly encompassing everything.

“Please,” she gasped and reached for Eli. He took her hand, and she grasped it tightly. “I don’t want to die.”

“Shh,” he murmured just as all light blinked away. “You’re going to be all right. I’ll take care of you.”

Then she heard nothing more as the blackness consumed her.

Eli picked her up gently as Jason pushed through the crowd. “Jace,” he called urgently. “Go get Jin Li.”

Jason nodded and disappeared.

“Everybody move back!” Eli snarled to the onlookers crowding in. “Ellis! Get these people out of here. The club is closing early tonight.”

As Ellis herded men out and took over shutting the club down, Eli moved to the passageway that connected the house to the club. He kicked open the door and hurried through, into the house and up the stairs, to place her on the bed. He quickly gathered towels and pressed them against her shoulder, trying to staunch the flow of blood.

He reached into his boot and pulled out the knife he always carried then brought it to her dress and ripped through it to find the wound. Blood ran like water, soaking everything, making her skin slippery to the touch. He cut the material away to see a jagged tear in the flesh on her shoulder, near her neck. The ball had missed her collarbone by a hair, as well as her artery. He breathed a soft sigh of relief. Barring any complication, like infection, she should be fine.

As he waited for Jin Li, he cleaned her up as best as he could, making sure to keep a hard compress on her wound. He poured water into the washbasin and used a fresh cloth to wipe away the dried blood. As he swiped the cloth over her skin, he studied her face, pale against the sheets, her porcelain features perfectly formed, exquisitely delicate. But she wasn’t a soft woman. Under her feminine features beat the heart of a lion, fiercely devoted to those she loved as well as to seemingly hopeless causes. She had championed for the betterment of the upstairs girls, women far beneath her status in life. Her search for her sister took guts. Most people would have written off a relative who had become a whore, but Avilon just soldiered her way through, past anyone’s opinions or concerns. She was loyal, caring, and he’d been a fool to think she would ever do anything to hurt Jason or him. She knew their secret. Lord knows how she found out, but she hadn’t used the knowledge against them. In fact, she had acted hurt that they hadn’t trusted her. He had thought she would be the perfect woman to give Jason the family he craved, but never did he think he’d actually care about her. He had pictured them all together, living as a family, she the happy woman raising the children while he and Jason continued their love affair. She would have been none the wiser.

But Avilon was unlike anyone he’d ever met. Tenacious, enterprising, trustworthy, she was a woman worth more than gold. And if he had a chance to make it up to her, he silently vowed to move heaven and hell to make sure she stayed by his and Jason’s side.

He heard the downstairs door open and the rushing of feet up the stairs. A second later, Jason appeared, followed by Jin Li. He moved off the bed and let the Chinese doctor have room to work.

Jin Li placed his bag on the bed next to Avilon. He leaned over to examine her, carefully removing the towel to probe the wound. He extracted a mortar and pestle from his bag and sat that aside. Then, he searched a little more and pulled out three bottles. He poured a little powder from each bottle into the mortar then applied a liquid to the dry combination, swirling the pestle around until a thick paste was left. He set that off to the side then dug some more in his bag. Next he extracted a long needle. It only took him a minute to thread it with some type of fiber. Eli and Jason watched as Jin Li sewed Avilon’s wound shut. He then applied the medicine paste before wrapping it very carefully.

“Will she be all right?” Jason asked Jin Li once the doctor had risen.

“Yes,” Jin Li replied. “The poultice I put on it should help eliminate infection, and she will have difficulty using the arm until she is healed. It should remain immobile. In the meantime, I’m leaving some laudanum to help control the pain.”

“We’ll make sure she gets plenty of rest,” Jason assured.

“You have my thanks, once again,” Eli told him and held out his hand.

“You always give me the Western version of honor,” he said with a smile. He presented a bow to Eli before taking the offered hand and shaking it. “I’ll be back tomorrow to change the poultice and bandage.”

With one more bow, he picked up his bag and left the bedroom.

Jason ran a hand over his face. “Who did this?”

“I’m sure the same person who set up your shanghaiing.”

“You didn’t see anyone?”

Eli shook his head. “She pushed into me from behind. She saved my life.”

“The shot came from the mezzanine.”

“Then we need to talk to Ellis. See if he saw anything.”

“There’s been a threat on you, a threat on me…This is personal, Eli.”

“Yes. It does have a flavor of Eugene Behr, doesn’t it?”

“You read my mind.”

Avilon opened her eyes as pain lanced through her body. She gave a hoarse little screech and instinctively tried to shy away from the source of the pain, centered somewhere in her upper right torso, but strong hands held her immobile.

“Easy,” Eli’s soft voice said, breaking through the haze of misery.

She blinked and looked around, seeing Eli holding her down while a Chinese man seemed to torture her.

“Jin Li is rewrapping your wound.”

“My…wound?” she managed to croak out. Her mouth and lips were parched. She didn’t even have enough saliva to swallow. “W–Water?”

Jin Li brought a glass over while Eli gently helped her sit up far enough to take a drink. Bitterness ran over her tongue, and she made a face as she turned her head to the side.

“Drink it all,
piàoliang
. It will help you sleep, and you need a lot of sleep to heal.”

She stared at him uncomprehendingly.

“W–What happened?”

“You were shot, Avilon,” Eli answered.