As he glanced behind him, the activity near the wall caught his attention. Had he gone that way, there would’ve been others. They had wanted him to think that he could head toward the wall.
Smiling to himself, he nearly reached the door before diving off to the side. Gavin crashed through a window, glass shattering all around him.
“What was that?”
“Window,” he whispered.
“We were going to go through a door.”
“We were, but given that it was blocked and we didn’t have any other choice, we went through the window,” he muttered.
He was in a small room. Glowing coals at one end suggested it had been used recently, but as far as he could tell, there was no one else inside. It was dark, and as he hurried through it, he tried to fix the layout of the house in his mind.
If I go through the door on the other side…
He pulled the door open. There were enough people that he wasn’t sure he'd be able to cut his way through. His only advantage was that the hallway was narrow, which would limit how well the guards could fight.
Gavin lowered his shoulder, driving forward with his heel, and launched himself at the three people in the hallway. He twisted in the air, spinning the blades out from him. It was a dangerous technique in the best of times, but within the hallway, he thought it was somewhat safer. He could use the walls on either side of him to brace himself so that he could spin even more.
He launched himself up and continued to spiral and pivot. He caught one man in the stomach and another in the side of the neck. He slammed the hilt of his knife into the third man’s temple, and the man crumpled. Not wanting to take a moment more to make sure they stayed down, he raced toward the stairs. This was going to be a bloody affair.
“It’s a good thing the job didn’t say how we had to complete it,” he whispered.
“Why?” Wrenlow asked from the other side.
Gavin envisioned Wrenlow sitting in a chair near the hearth in the Roasted Dragon tavern, smirking to himself as he listened to the chaos through the enchantment. The other man was likely sitting with his notebook out, looking down at the notes he’d taken, and contemplating just how many steps Gavin would need to make it to each level.
“Too much noise. Most of the time, they want us to be quiet,” he said.
“You? I don’t know if you could be quiet if you wanted to.”
“I can do quiet.”
Wrenlow snickered. “Then prove it.”
“Another job.”
Gavin found the stairs and glanced behind him. So far there was no one else coming, and he didn’t hear anything above him either. That seemed ominous since the target was on the second level. He raced up the stairs, trying to keep his footsteps as quiet as he could, and reached the next landing.
“Which door did you say it was?”
“Fourth or fifth,” Wrenlow replied.
“Which one is it?”
“Like I said, the fourth or the fifth one.”
He grunted and threw open the fourth door. There was no one inside. When he reached the fifth door and opened it, he realized the two rooms were connected.
“Fourth and fifth door,” he said.
“What was that?” Wrenlow asked.
“Both doors. They led to the same place.”
Gavin stopped inside the room, sweeping his gaze around. The room was incredibly decorated, with richly stained wood along the walls. A massive desk occupied space near the far end, and several sculptures sat atop its surface. One was seemingly made of gold and in the shape of a small rabbit, which gave him pause. He glanced at it for a moment and considered whether he should take the golden statue, but he decided against it. That wasn’t the job. A fireplace at one end of the room crackled wildly. Two chairs sat facing each other, with a small stone table set between them. A glass of wine and the bottle it was poured from rested on the table.
As he took in everything around him, he shook his head. He’d been in two places of incredible wealth before, but this was still impressive. Were he a thief, he might find himself preoccupied, but as it was, he had another task set before him.
He picked up the glass and took a sip. The wine was sweet and far more expensive than anything he would’ve been able to purchase on his own.
“She’s got expensive tastes,” he muttered.
“What are you going on about?”
Gavin ignored Wrenlow and scanned the room. If she’d heard the noise below, then he could imagine her coming out and hiding. Maybe there was some secret place here. The walls were paneled, and he looked for any cracks that might suggest some hidden room, but given the layout of the house, he didn’t see how something like that would’ve been possible. There was no place for her to hide.
A thumping overhead caught his attention. She had gotten out.
Gavin reached the door and pulled it open. He kicked the man that he found on the other side, causing him to double over. Gavin drove his knee up to the man’s face with a satisfying crunch as something shattered.
He had to keep moving. If she had gone up another level, then he’d have to follow. He raced up the stairs at the end of the room and found a door. He hesitated, squeezing the hilt of his knives, and when he was ready, he darted through the door onto the rooftop.
There was no one here. Whatever he’d heard was already gone. Gavin looked around, and he could see movement on the grounds below him, but the woman—the target—had escaped.
Balls.
Now he was going to have to go to Hamish and admit that he’d failed. He had no idea how the employer might react, but he wouldn’t be surprised if the jobs dried up. Which meant it might be time to move on again.
“Wish me luck,” he whispered.
“With what?”
“With getting out of here.”
Chapter Two
The street was empty, and Gavin stayed in the shadows, hiding near the buildings. Large sloped roofs covered the street where he stood, shielding him from the gentle rain cascading throughout the city. No moonlight was visible, and were it not for the faint lantern light at either end of the street, he might not have been able to see anything. The rain fit his mood.
He’d silenced the enchantment, though it didn’t really matter. Wrenlow wasn’t going to be talking to him much at this point. The job was over, though not done. It wouldn’t be done until he completed the mission, but given what had just taken place and how much he’d made a mess of things, he wasn’t at all sure whether he’d be given the chance to finish it. More likely than not, someone else would be hired. Worse, others would be aware of what he’d done—or failed to do. If it got back to his employer, Gavin knew that he or she—it could be either—would be displeased.
When he reached the end of the street, he hesitated. All he wanted was to sit down, have a mug of ale, and relax. His heart still raced, and sweat made his back moist, almost unpleasantly so. He probably needed a bath and a change of clothes. He was certain he needed to wash blood off, which was part of the reason he stayed in the shadows. There was enough activity from the constables in this section of the city that he worried he’d draw their attention.
His jobs had become increasingly complicated these days. There had been a time when he’d been able to complete a task quickly and efficiently, but that time seemed long ago. Now, most of the jobs involved targets that were difficult to nearly impossible for him to reach. Then again, his employment situation had changed. Ever since he’d been hired by his mysterious employer, he’d found the assignments to be increasingly complex.