“Mightisn’t good enough,” Jameson said, choking on the words.
“Agreed, which is why you and Grayson will find out as much as you can about this group as quietly and discreetly as you can. If it starts to look like Avery won’t come through this—whateverthisis—I want to know exactly who we’re fighting.”
“I’m in.” There was no use in Jameson pretending otherwise, not with Alisa. “And your three minutes are up.”
“You gave me four. Stay in touch, Jamie.”
Jameson hung up the phone, and he let himself imagine what Avery would have said if she were there:You and Alisa actually agree about something? First time for everything, I suppose.Jameson could almosthearher voice. He closed his eyes and summoned up the image of Avery in his mind.
Is Alisa becoming more of a wild card or am I actually developing common sense?he imagined quipping back.
Be careful, the Avery in his mind whispered.
Am I ever anything else?
And just like that, the daydream ended. Just like that, Avery was gone. Jameson stalked back to the mural, to the three lines. He put his hand on the middle one and pushed. It sank halfway into the wall. Together, the three golden lines now made an arrow that pointed to the right—to a wall that began to rise the moment the arrow was formed.
It disappeared into the ceiling, revealing a new wall beyond.Three lines. The wall behind the wall.Jameson had done all of this before. A piece of seemingly blank blueprint paper was tacked up on the hidden wall. On a white column to the front and side of it, there was a marble bust depicting a Grecian-looking woman from the shoulders up.
Elsewhere in the foyer, there was an elaborate end table made of theexact same marbleas the bust, carved to look, in part, like a lion. Jameson made short work of crouching and reaching into the lion’s mouth—and down. He hooked his fingers around what he knew to be a set of pearls. He’d returned them to their hiding place last time, once he’d finished, another game for Avery to play.
He’d promised her once that there would always be more mysteries, more hidden passages, more games. Theirs was supposed to be an epic story, one with no end.
“You’re fine, Heiress.” Jameson willed Avery to come to him again or, barring that, willed her to somehow hear him, wherever she was. “You’re coming back. And if you aren’t—aren’t fine, can’t come back—I’ll find you myself.”
He cut back over to the bust and slipped the pearls around its neck.The moment he did, the foyer went dark. Black lights embedded in the wall lit up, and a map appeared on the blueprint paper—the same map that had once led Jameson to hidden passage after hidden passage throughout Prague, to tunnels beneath this ancient city, a world unto themselves. He’d assume when he’d found the map that it was nothing more than one of the old man’s games.
But now—now, Jameson scoured the map in question. There had to be something he’d missed, another entrance, a detail, no matter how small.
Hide and Seek, he thought.This is just another game of Hide and Seek, Heiress—so here I come.
Chapter 7
ROHAN
Rohan wouldn’t have pegged Savannah Grayson as a person who slept on planes, let alone one who slept with her head on her sister’s shoulder. He wouldn’t have thought her capable of it. There was a vulnerability in sleep, one that had Rohan imagining Savannah sleeping curled intohim, her head on his chest, their limbs not the least bit entangled.
No passion, onlywarmth.
Even just entertaining the possibility had a song rising in the depths of the labyrinth that was Rohan’s mind: a lullaby, gently hummed. A warning.
“You don’t sleep in front of other people, do you?” a perky voice asked.
Gigi Grayson was as different from her sister as Rohan could possibly imagine a person being: smaller, smiley, and wider-eyed, with seemingly no filter—the type of person whom it would be easy to use and hard to discard.
“He doesn’t sleep in public, either,” Gigi continued, nodding at a close-eyed Knox. “He’s a total faker who’s faking it, probably because hedoesn’t want me making conversation, probably because I’d make him tell me when his birthday is, and then I could do his star chart.”
Rohan’s lips twitched slightly. “You don’t believe in astrology, Ms. Grayson.”
“Correct!” Gigi beamed at Rohan like he’d just passed a test. “I believe in science and the fundamental goodness of humankind. And also in the powers of persistence and positive thinking.Ihave no problem whatsoever sleeping in front of people, but as you might have noticed, this jet has an espresso machine, and I amflying.” Gigi glanced out the nearest window. “Literallyandmetaphorically. Metaliterally! Litaphorically?”
“If you’re waiting for her to stop,” Knox told Rohan without opening his eyes, “you could be waiting a while.”
“Patience is a virtue,” Rohan replied. “One of my very few.”
Gigi’s eyes lit up. “Let me guess: anend justifies the meanskind of guy? Just out of curiosity, would that make my sister the end or the means?”
“He’d slit her throat for the right payout.” That was Knox again, eyes still closed.
