“London. Seventeen months ago. The envelope.”
“I understand nothing,” Xander said solemnly, “but please go on.”
Seventeen months earlier, Jameson had met his father for the first time, and at his father’s request, he’d worked to gain entry to a vaulted institution whose very existence was a highly guarded secret. And when he and Avery had succeeded at securing an invitation, it had arrived sealed in a matte black envelope elaborately embossed with platinum.
A triangle inside a circle inside a square.
Jameson picked up the square frame and fit it around the other two shapes, and as he did, he could just almostfeelAvery’s hand on the back of his. He could just almostseeher smile, subtle but electric, as he spoke the answer out loud.
“The Devil’s Mercy.”
Chapter 24
ROHAN
Rohan was quite sure that Nora, if that was indeed her name, knew more than any of them would be able to get out of her. He’d been sure of that since the conclusion of Gigi’sinterrogationhours earlier. In the intervening time, their guest had retreated inward, her silence absolute, her sharp features impassive, like she’d fallen into some kind of trance.
For Rohan, Nora’s ability to go that still, that chillingly blank was its own kind of tell. Gigi had not been able to break through again. Neither Savannah nor Knox had had any more luck. Brady was currently taking his turn with her. The scholar had been sitting cross-legged on the floor opposite Nora, just as silent and still as she was, for nearly an hour, as the rest of them waited out on the platform, listening.
“We should be halfway to England by now.” Savannah addressed those words to Rohan like it was his fault and only his fault that they weren’t.
“Patience, love.”
“Patience is for people who stand to gain something by waiting,” Savannah retorted.
“Don’t you want to know,” Rohan parried back, “why someone sent a young woman with a fondness for knives after your sister?”
Rohan already had a theory on that. Still, pressure points were meant to be pushed, and Gigi was Savannah’s greatest weakness.
“I want to get my sister out of here,” Savannah replied, her tone arctic.
Gigi raised her hand. “I want to stay!”
“Of course you do,” Knox muttered.
Rohan tuned out the lot of them andlistened. There was still only silence on the other side of the door and the ambient sounds of the bayou all around them—no indication whatsoever that their guest had attracted anyone else’s attention.
Rohan was on the verge of displacing Brady to try his own hand at an interrogation when the phone that Alisa Ortega had given him rang. Rohan made a split-second decision and took his leave of the others, vaulting the railing once more. Savannah followed him—over the railing, down, and out into the bayou.
As Rohan put more and more distance between himself and the others, Savannah stalked after him. Clearly, she had no intention of letting him out of her sight.
Clever girl. Clever, prudent, farthest-thing-from-naive winter girl.
Rohan’s phone, which had gone momentarily silent, started ringing again. This time, certain he was out of the range of Knox’s and Gigi’s hearing, Rohan answered. “Yes?”
“Rohan.” Jameson Hawthorne’s voice was imminently recognizable—for Rohan, at least.
He leaned back against the trunk of an ancient, twisted tree. “What can I do for you, Mr. Hawthorne?”
Savannah’s eyes narrowed atHawthorne, the way Rohan had known they would.
“The Devil’s Mercy.” There was an unholy, frenetic energy in Jameson’s voice. “I want back in.”
“A tall order, considering I’m forbidden from stepping foot in London or so much as approaching any member.” Rohan weighed mentioningtheirguestto Jameson and decided to keep that card in reserve. “Unless you’d care to transfer ten million pounds my way right now?”
“You get nothing, Rohan, until I find Avery.”
Frenetic, Rohan decided, was not an adequate description of Jameson Hawthorne’s tone. His voice waselectric. Charged—and dangerously so, like the air the instant before lightning tore the world apart.
