Page 81 of A Treacherous Trade

“You think I have anything but pitying antipathy for that—thatCuchka derganaya?”

“I don’t know what to think.”

He made a dramatic gesture. “Tell me, Fiona, when does the fly ever eat the spider? What has the lion to fear from the gazelle?”

I really didattemptto keep my eyes from rolling. “You are so…” I didn’t dare finish the sentence, having not meant to start it out loud.

“I’m. So. What?”

I stared at him.

He stared back.

“You are so insufferable—no—infuriatingsometimes.” There. If he punished me for the insult, I would still take pleasure in the saying of it.

To my surprise, he laughed, but only with his mouth. The effect was chilling. “Perhaps, but being insufferable doesn’t make me incorrect. I think that woman is a viper, and so should you.”

Curious—I’d only just ascribed that word to him.

“Because she stole a client from you? Doesn’t that sort of thing happen all the time?”

His eyes cut away.

This time, it was I who sat forward, drawn by his retreat. “Wait a moment. There’s more to this, isn’t there?”

“It’s complicated,” he hedged.

“You’ve told me more than once that I’m clever. Perhaps even I could comprehend a complication now and again.”

That glint. The one that made grown men wither into simpering fools.

I was treading on thin ice, as they say, and even though it cracked beneath my boots, I still couldn’t bring myself to flee to safety.

To my utter amazement, he slumped back. “Essentially, she bought some debts of mine and had the gall to pretend it was an investment in my establishment. She desired a partnership, after a fashion. Then, when I would have none of it, she made a move on some of my investors, and I actually lost a few of them to her scheming.”

“I see,” I said. “You hate her because she’s actual competition.”

He tilted his head. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I would sleep with one eye open around her. I bought back what she had, of course, and then plucked Sophia from her stock.”

“Stock?” I made a face. “They’re women, not cattle. Their lives have value.”

“They’re women,” he agreed. “And they’re assets. Value can be both immeasurable and counted in coin.”

“So she is a viper because she almost outwitted you?” I asked. “Does that emasculate you in some way? To have a woman nipping at your heels? One who refuses to pay you homage? You keep one eye open, pricked to the thought that, like this empire, the London underworld might not have a king always, but a queen instead?”

A prominent vein began to pulse at his temple as he rested his elbows on his knees and let his hands hang between them. “That is where you mistake me, Fiona, I see her as an absolute equal and will crush her as such.”

“I won’t let you do that.” I don’t know where the whisper came from. Nor did I realize I’d said it until I watched it land.

But I meant it.

Men always tried to crush women like Beatrice Chamberlain. Women who didn’t behave as they ought. Who dared to claim a piece of power for their own.

I’d had enough of it.

“I am intrigued by this new you,” he said, apropos of nothing.

I pulled a face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m the same person you’ve known for these two years.”