Read Online Only the Thunder Knows_East End Girls by Rena Mason Gord Rollo - Free Book Online Page B

who’d rapped him across the
head earlier. Billy was nowhere in sight.
    “Do
you remember me?” the woman asked.
    “Aye,
but I can’t remember your name just now. Getting walloped in the nut by your
goons might have something to do with that.”
    “It
might at that, yes. Regardless, my name is Magenta Da Vine and I’m very happy
to see you again.”
    “Pardon
me for no’ being quite as enthused. Where’s my mate? Is he dead?”
    This
caused the actress to laugh. “Dead? Good heavens no. What sort of lady do you
take me for? He’s sleeping in the other room, tied up like you but right as
rain. Angus and Big Josh didn’t even need to clout him with the shovel like
they did you. Right Angus?”
    “Aye,
ma’am,” the more muscular of the two big men said. “We just pulled him to his
feet and he stumbled along beside us. He threw up in the cab but otherwise gave
us no worries.”
    Lovely! William
thought. That’s Billy all right. My hero!
    “So
what do you want, huh? There’s easier ways to get a hold of me than bashing my
brains out.”
    “I’m
sure. I didn’t know it was you I was looking for, though. All in all, I’d say
you got off lucky. I was expecting whoever the lads brought back to be in a lot
worse shape than you are to be honest. Do I need to have them knock you around
a wee bit more? It’s up to you, really.”
    She
smiled at William again, showing her perfect white teeth, but there was no
warmth in her face or in the way she loomed above him. Pretty or not, there was
a cold menace to this woman that William found threatening despite her petite
size and outward demeanor. He knew deep down that this wasn’t the type of
person to cross, and at the moment feared for his life more than he ever had in
any of the knife fights and all out brawls Billy and he had been in over the
years.
    “No,
ma’am. I’ll help you with whatever you need, if I can ‘course.”
    “Good
lad. I knew you were a smart one, right from the first second I saw you. Okay,
we’ll keep this nice and simple then. What are you doing running around the city
cemeteries in the middle of the night?”
    Miss
Da Vine’s smile was still in place but it was as if the temperature in the room
had dropped ten degrees. An icy silence descended on the room and William knew
he had better not lie to the woman. Trouble was; he was also smart enough to
not want her to know the truth either. He’d better be careful here.
    “Well…I
should think it was obvious. We were digging up graves. Have been for a while
now. Why? What’s the problem?”
    “What
are you looking for?”
    That
was the big question, wasn’t it? As much as William was afraid of the actress
and her goons, he was just as afraid of Ambrosious Black back at home. There
was no way he was about to tell Da Vine about their dealings with the sculptor.
He had to tell her something though, so chose the lesser of two evils.
    “Dead
bodies, of course. What else would you find in a bloomin’ cemetery?”
    The
actress took a step back, hands on her curvaceous hips, contemplating his
answer. It didn’t seem to be the one she’d been expecting but William kept his
face blank and his mouth shut. Let her make the next move.
    “Why
would you want to dig up dead bodies? Lots of them, from what I’ve been reading
in the papers.”
    This
was an easy one.
    “For
the money. Easiest pound note we’ve ever made.” William wasn’t about to tell
her they actually made a lot more than that. He wanted to keep this as simple
as possible so he wouldn’t trip himself up and be caught in a lie.
    “A
pound? Wait…someone pays you to do the body snatching? Who?”
    The
feral look was back on her face, and again William refused to tell her about
the deal he had cut with Mr. Black.
    “His
name’s Knox. He’s a doctor. Well, actually a surgeon who teaches doctors. We
dig the graves and take the fresh bodies to him. If it’s an old bag of bones in
the hole, we check to see if there’s any