Page 86 of Dishonored

Caesar stayed in his hiding spot.

“Come on,” Nico muttered.

“I will call you after,” Aria replied. “I don’t have time for this. It’s worse when I make him wait.”

The door closed, and then a lock clicked, too. Caesar got his first sight of Aria as she moved across the room quickly, and tossed her purse aside to a chaise. He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t for her to go to the laptop.

Except it chimed with a Skype call.

Aria kept her arms down at her sides as the Skype call picked up.

“Cutting it close,” he heard a familiar voice say.

Raffe.

Her husband.

“I was several floors down, and enjoying dinner with Nico,” Aria said softly. “I told you that when you called.”

“Mmm, and so did he. Point remains the same—I speak, you move.”

“I know, Raffe. Here I am.”

Caesar’s brow dipped.

Why did she sound so … meek?

Weak and quiet.

Dead and flat.

That was not the woman who used words against others like they were weapons to wield power. That was not the woman who had all the passion in the world when she was on her knees and wanted to beg for a man.

That was not Aria.

Except it was.

He was looking at her.

Caesar wasn’t sure what made him step out of the shadows of the bathroom, but he thought his father might enjoy knowing Raffe had—at the very least—seen or heard his wife be killed by the Accardos. Angelo’s whole thing seemed to be to make a point of it, after all.

Across the room, Aria’s gaze drifted from the screen at the moment Caesar stepped out of the bathroom. Her eyes widened a bit, but just as fast, her attention was back on the screen and her mask of nothingness was firmly back in place.

“Something interesting in there?” Raffe asked.

“The lightbulb in the bathroom keeps flickering. It’s distracting.”

To make her point, Aria glanced Caesar’s way again—this time, though, surprise was not what stared back at him. A fear lingered there—thick and heavy. Like she was pleading with him through her green eyes to stay put, and shut up.

It struck him.

Silenced him.

Shocked him.

What in the fuck was happening?

“For the money I pay for that room, they better jump from the damn floor to fix the bulb,” Raffe grumbled. “Now, stop wasting time. Undress.”