At last, Rilkin turned around to face them. He was a tall, wiry man, with a very pointy mustache that matched his pointy chin. His eyes were as gray as his hair but gleaming with intelligence—and, Nathan suspected, secrets.
“We know Lord Cain is a member here,” Nathan growled.
“You are correct. He is. But he is not here at present as you can see.”
“He could be hiding here.”
Rilkin sighed. “Your men have already searched the entire casino, including all of its hiding places. He was not to be found.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed. “There could be others that we don’t know about.”
Rilkin blinked. His face remained neutral, and then he spread his hands wide. “Well, there is no point in me denying that, since you will not believe me anyway, but it matters little if you cannot find them. The result is the same.”
“So, you admit it?” Nathan barked.
Rilkin sighed again and looked at Grove. “Is this really the fearsome Duke of Carramere? I find him to be more of a bully than a menace.”
Nathan bristled. “I am a duke,” he snapped. “You will not speak about me as if I am not here.”
“I’m used to dukes like you,” Rilkin sneered. “You think you own the world and that everyone must bow down in front of you. But tell me, Your Grace, do you actually have the things that matter most to you? Or are the things you own only material in nature?”
“What are you talking about?” Nathan demanded. He didn’t like this Rilkin character at all. There was something slippery about him, and the gleam in his eyes only made him creepier.
“I’m talking about desire, Your Grace.” Rilkin took a step toward him, and Nathan had to resist the urge to step back. There were not many people who frightened him, but there was something about this man that made his skin crawl. “I know more about desire than most men on earth. That’s why people come to this casino, after all: because they desire wealth and power or the privileges that those things can bring them. The company they can buy. In my years running this casino, I have learned that desire is the driving force behind all of mankind’s actions. But the problem is, most men have no idea what it is they desire. They think it is one thing, but once they get it, they find it does not satiate them. And then they are left more lost than ever, flailing in the dark, unable to decipher the deepest desires of their soul.”
Rilkin’s eyes glittered with a prophetic malice. “And when I look at you, Your Grace, I see a man who has no idea how to get what he desires.”
Nathan felt his throat constrict. He wanted to tell Rilkin to stop talking, but he felt as if he’d lost the ability to speak.
“You are a duke, yes. A wealthy, powerful duke. You have all the money and freedom you could ever want. But you do not have what you actually desire. It’s possible you don’t even know what that is.”
Rosalie’s face suddenly appeared like a vision in front of his eyes, and his hand curled into a fist.I want her to be safe. I want Cain behind bars, so she can be safe, and we can be together without fear.
“I know what I want,” he snarled. “That’s why I’m here; I want Cain behind bars.”
But Rilkin looked unconvinced. “And then what? Once this man is apprehended, will it get you what you truly desire? Or will you still be flailing in the dark, searching for a satiation you don’t fully understand?”
Goosebumps prickled up Nathan’s arms. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, he knew that Rilkin was right; even once Cain was behind bars, that didn’t mean he would have what he desired above all else. Because Cain wasn’t the problem. It was him. Even with Cain out of the picture, he couldn’t subject Rosalie to himself.
Not until he found a way to forgive himself. To release himself from the torment that had plagued his soul for so long. And even once he did that, there was no guarantee she would take him back.
“Continue your search if you must,” Rilkin said, waving a dismissive hand, and he turned away again, back to the window that overlooked the casino floor. “But I promise you, you won’t find what you’re looking for here.”
Nathan and Grove were quiet all the way back to the Scotland Yard Headquarters, speaking only a little and only when strictly necessary. Nathan felt sick. Despite his best efforts to push away Rilkin’s words, they seemed to be haunting him, and he couldn’t get them out of his head.
Grove, meanwhile, seemed lost in thought.
When they arrived at the headquarters, they found Captain Reed and Lord Redfield waiting for them.
“I’m sorry to report, but Lord Cain was not there,” Reed told them as they all sat down to large, hearty whiskeys in Grove’s office. “We searched everywhere, and we interviewed all the workers hired to pick and transport the opium, but no one had seen him for weeks. Many didn’t even know who he was; they’d only worked with the middlemen that Cain had hired.”
“I suspected it would be that way,” Grove sighed. “Still, we had to check.”
“And you’re sure he couldn’t be hiding out there?” Nathan asked. “Somewhere it would be hard to find him?”
“We looked in all the villages, and to be perfectly honest, no,” Redfield said. “I have good men in all those villages, men I trust, and none of them had seen Cain in some time. I believe them.They were the ones who were reporting on the opium production to me in the first place, and all of them are fiercely against its proliferation.”
Nathan nodded. “All right. I didn’t think he was there, anyway. He would stick to London where he can blend in among the scoundrels here. And he’d want to be close to his allies so that he could escape easily. And…” he hesitated before saying this, “I think he would want to stay close to the Duchess as well.”
