So he did know. What else did he know about her? “We’ve got to be careful,” she said. “Wallhuggers get suspicious if there’s too much going on.”

“Then why not move to less-guarded homes?”

“If someone can buy guards to watch his trinkets, he’s got more than his fair share. I in’t fixing to steal someone’s bread money. And even with the wallhuggers, we need to be careful what we take. I won’t risk my neck for a jewelry collection when nobody in the city buys stones anymore. Folk are scared, ’cause of the raids.” Kyra paused and shifted her eyes to his face. “Actually, I’m wondering who you’d lined up to take that ruby.”

“Ah, the ruby.” James met Kyra’s gaze, the corners of his mouth lifting as if sharing a private joke. “Pity you couldn’t find it.” He might as well have admitted flat out that the ruby had never existed. “We deal mostly with the wallhuggers,” James continued before Kyra had a chance to think further. “If you worked with us, you wouldn’t have to worry about taking someone’s dinner. You wouldn’t have to worry about coin at all. We take good care of our own.”

“How good is that?”

“How’d you like to own a house in the city?”

“A house?”

Just the thought made her mouth go dry. Only the nobles and merchants owned property. What he was offering was impossible. Though with the way he’d paid her this morning…

“You still haven’t told me who you are,” she said.

“We’re a group who takes opportunities as we see them.” He chose his words carefully, picking his way through his sentence like a jeweler selecting stones. “Sometimes we cooperate with others; sometimes we pursue our own plans.”

“And your plans don’t always agree with the Palace,” Kyra finished.

“The Palace serves money and privilege. They uphold the laws because the laws suit them. The rest of us have to fight to control our fates.”

Several factors suddenly came together. James’s words and appearance—his quickness and the aura of quiet lethality that surrounded him—brought some old stories into Kyra’s mind.

“The Assassins Guild,” she blurted.

His lips curled into a smile. “There are some in the city who call us that.”

Images flitted through Kyra’s mind. A secret band of men who exercised power in Forge’s underworld. Deadly assassins who killed with impunity. “The whispers are real, then? The Guild is back?”

“It depends on which stories you’ve heard. We’re not murderers for hire. We just do what’s needed to reach our goals.”

“And what are those?”