No Duke Will Do - Eva Devon Page 0,30
found it. He paused, drawing in a slow breath, causing himself to still. He had to be still if he was going to take on this bastard.
It was mad, he knew.
He usually avoided violence, but he needed something.
Anything at this moment to make him feel whole.
“Back away,” he called out.
The big tough of a man, with a coat worn and patched, stopped. He did not let go of the girl whose hair was damp with rain and whose gown was stained with much wear. His hard eyes turned towards Heath. “Get on with ye. This is none of your affair.”
“I’m making it my affair.” Heath countered.
“She belongs to me. Now off you go,” said the tough.
“She belongs to no one,” Heath growled.
“I’m her pimp, and I’m taking care of business,” the man said.
Heath remained still. His shoulders back. “I said, step away.”
The girl was trembling. She couldn’t have been more than 15 years old. She looked at him with wary eyes.
The pimp let her go and turned to Heath. A knife suddenly appeared in his palm. “I said, back away, mate. Ye don’t need this kind of trouble.”
Heath began to stride forward slowly, the air around him cooling.
“Oh, I do, indeed. This is exactly the kind of trouble I’m looking for,” Heath said.
The man eyed him, and then suddenly, he stopped. “I know who ye are.”
“Do you?” Heath asked.
“Yes, I do.” The tough’s confidence began to flicker. “You’re Richard Heath. Now, you want this girl? You can have her. I won’t bother. She’ll do you free of charge.”
“Oh, no,” Heath said, flexing his gloved hands. “That’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for you.”
The man shook his head. “I don’t want your kind of trouble.” The tough shook his head again. “You’re the boss of this part of town. I’m not about to get in trouble with you.”
Heath leveled him with a hard stare. “If I’m the boss of this part of town, then get the hell out.”
And much to his disappointment, the man gave the girl a shove forward, turned, and ran down the alley.
Heath cursed.
He’d wanted blood, but this was the problem with being known, being known as someone who controlled part of this town.
People did not want to take him on, and for good reason. Too many years of making sure he was the most powerful man had ensured that.
So now, the girl stood before him, trembling in the softly falling rain.
“What am Oi going to do?” she suddenly cried.
Heath paused. “I beg your pardon?”
“What am Oi going to do?” she repeated, frantic. “Oi’ll have no work now. How will Oi feed my child?”
Heath grimaced, hating himself for trying to make this simple. Nothing was simple in the East End. It was one of the hellish things about living in the warrens.
When one thought they were doing a good deed, they might also be causing someone’s suffering and pain.
“You have a child?” he ventured.
“Oi do.” she said, defiantly lifting her chin. “Now how will Oi feed him? That man, he pays my bills. He takes care of me.”
“He was hurting you,” Heath pointed out calmly. But even as he said those words, he knew they were hollow. He knew that women’s lives were precarious.
“Oi have to work,” she insisted. “Oi’ve got no skills. It’s the only job Oi know.”
Heath’s shoulders sank. “I’m sorry for it,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make your night more difficult than it already is.”
She shook her gaunt head, not hearing him. “What am Oi going to do?”
Heath sighed. “Come with me.”
“What will you pay me?” she said.
He paused. She’d clearly misunderstood. “I’ll pay you a good wage, and you can come and work for me,” he said.
“Work for you?” she repeated slowly, suspicious. “I don’t like serving lots of comers.”
“I don’t have that sort of thing in my place, but perhaps you can help serve the wine.”
Her brows drew together, confused. “Serve wine?”
“A barmaid,” he explained.
“Those girls turn tricks just the same as Oi do, you know?”
“Not in my establishment,” Heath said firmly.
She eyed him carefully. “You lying to me. Oi don’t like lies. Oi’ve been told enough of them in my life.”
“I’m not lying, and if you don’t know who I am, I’m Richard Heath, and I own this part of town,” he said gently, as he would to a cornered creature. “So, come with me, and I promise that you and your child will be clothed and fed and taken care of, and you’ll be paid.”
Her face did