Page 7 of You Only Love Twice
"As I suspected." His lips pressed firmly together, faint sign of inner turmoil. "Which brings us to a rather intriguing question: How did the Chameleon murder the Chameleon?"
Chapter 3
The ride back to the Company of Rogues' private safe house was quiet, leaving Gemma lost in her thoughts.
She couldn't help going over the Carlyle case in her mind, wondering if there'd been something she missed.
What she wouldn't give to be able to go back in time and question him most thoroughly.Were you working alone?
Or....
Did someone give you that bullet and insist you kill him?
Was the real Chameleon still out there?
Had he been laughing at her, all this time?
Was he cleaning up his mess?
What had happened today in that cell? Why now? Why had the Chameleon been quiet for the past three years? Or was it a copycat?
Malloryn himself stared out the window, his fingertips drumming a steady tap on the sill. It was as much a sign of agitation as she'd ever seen from him.
"What is it?" she asked.
They'd been working together for nearly fifteen years. She knew this man from the inside out.
"We long suspected the Chameleon worked for the prince consort. You captured him the day of the revolution. There's been not a single murder since then, and it seemed you had your man."
"I saw him kill Lord Randall with my own eyes."
"I'm not disputing your recollection." Their gazes met. "But why has it taken three years for someone to murder the Chameleon? We were no closer to getting a confession off him. Nothing else has changed. Except, of course, for recent events."
A couple of months ago, a disgruntled group of blue blood lords had begun plotting against the queen and the Council of Dukes who ruled the city.
A roguedhampiragent named Zero had been found pulling their strings, and they'd been lucky to stop her before she fed dozens of people to her stable of vicious vampires.
An uneasy suspicion swirled through Gemma's midriff. "You think the Chameleon's murder has something to do with the current issues we're facing."
"Someone's pulling strings. Someone wants to cause chaos in the city, overthrow the queen, and destroyme. You heard what Zero said when we captured her." The enemy agent had been almost gleeful as she told Malloryn something was coming for him. "This is aimed at me. All of this. I have a vendetta with an unknown enemy. And now, suddenly the prince consort's most dangerous assassin is murdered in the same way he used to kill others? I cannot help but think it's connected."
"Blood and ashes, I hope not. We've barely recovered from last month when Lord Ulbricht and the Sons of Gilead tried to poison the Echelon's entire blood drinking supply with Black Vein."
"Anarchy doesn't rest."
"No, but I wouldn't have minded another week to recover," she said with a sigh.
London flashed past her sash window, pedestrians hurrying along through the foggy afternoon.
A dull roar began to churn beneath the hum of the carriage's steam engine; Gemma tilted her head intently, trying to make out the sound. On the footpath, a young governess grabbed her charge's hand and hurried him away. A butcher hastily yanked the door closed to his shop, and flipped the latch. A haberdashery yanked their blinds down as London began to stir.
"Down with the queen,"someone roared.
"Take back what's ours!"another man yelled.
Her eyes met Malloryn's. "Oh, heck."
The duke tensed.
