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“Three seconds.” The vein in Lucas’s temple throbbed.
Ruby’s heart clogged her throat.
“What is going on with this door?” Jasper mumbled loudly, sounding almost as drunk as Rolf. “It won’t open.”
“Done.” Lucas unplugged Rolf’s phone from the compact converter and tossed it to Talia before setting the phone back down where it had been next to the decanter.
He hustled back over to his chair and sat down a moment before Jasper released the door.
Ingrid stood by herself on the other side, hands on her hips and a weary downturn to her mouth. Ruby tried to hyperventilate as quietly as possible while Lucas took a bite of the creamy Skyr panna cotta with raspberries and licorice shavings as if it was just another boring family dinner.
“Did you forget how a door worked, Jasper?” Ingrid asked, her tone softer than her words, before strolling into the room and heading straight to Rolf’s seat. “Ah, there it is. Your father refused to retire to his room until he had this damn thing. I’m going to deliver it.” She picked up the phone in one hand and rubbed her temple with the other. “After that we really need to finalize the dinner menu, Ruby. Do you mind coming up to my rooms so we can do that? I’m afraid my head is really beginning to ache.”
“Of course.” She stood up, playing the ever dutiful daughter while mentally plotting how to get Lucas alone and make it known she wasn’t sitting on the sidelines again. “Good night everyone.”
She brushed a kiss against Lucas’s cheek to cover what she had to do next. “Tomorrow. Noon. The library.”
How she’d sneak away from all of the fake wedding plans she was sure her mom had, she didn’t know, but she would. No matter how hot he was, her Silver Knight wasn’t going to keep her clueless again.
…
The next afternoon, Lucas had to pass by Rolf’s office on his way to the library. Taking a quick peek in, the first thing he spotted was Joey glowering in a corner; the second was a green-faced Rolf hurtling straight at him. The older man’s shoulder slammed into Lucas’s, sending both men backpedaling to regain their balance. Lucas came back, hands loose at his sides but primed to strike. One close look at Rolf, though, and he changed his mind. Landing a solid hit would probably result in his shoes swimming in puke.
Rolf steadied himself with a hand on the doorframe. “Luc.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, taking a safety step back.
The older man shook his head then groaned, obviously regretting the movement. “Not feeling well.”
Lucas gave him a once over. Bloodshot eyes. Green pallor. Dry, cracked lips. Rolf was hungover hard. Osborne would be eager to hear about the alcohol doubler’s after effects, but Lucas had no interest in being on the receiving end of them.
He pivoted out of Rolf’s way. “I won’t hold you up then.”
The other man narrowed his eyes, distrust written all over his face underneath the obvious signs of the mother of all hangovers. “What are you doing down here?”
“Ruby asked me to meet her in the library.” Lies of omission were always better than straight-up falsehoods, especially when dealing with a dangerous man like Rolf who would only be more suspicious and on edge when injured. “I think she needed a break from wedding planning.”
And to chew his ass up one side and down the other for last night. He hadn’t missed the annoyance in her voice when she’d issued her edict before she’d strutted out of the dining room last night. Someone didn’t like being left out of things. After growing up in a place like Fare Island, he could understand how not being in the know led to bad things—like one of the Sparrow’s blades in your back.
Rolf looked like he was about to say something else, but clamped his mouth shut tight, shuddered, turned another shade of green, and then took off at a fast clip for the stairs.
Now that was a man he didn’t envy.
Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the office. Joey stood inside the doorway, his beefy arms crossed over his chest and a scowl curling up one lip. Obviously, the Macintosh crime syndicate’s number two man thought he was a badass. He was wrong.
Lucas cocked his head and grinned at the muscle-bound idiot. “It’s really too bad your mother never warned you that your face would freeze like that.”
Not waiting for the oaf’s reaction when he finally managed to untangle the insult, Lucas continued down the hallway to the library two doors farther down.
The double doors were open. Ruby stood with her back to him on the opposite side of the room in front of a pair of French doors that looked out onto the gardens. It reminded him of the first day he’d met her at Moad Manor when she’d taken one look at the flowers behind the house and noticed more about them than he had in three months of living there. He’d been ready for the woman he’d thought Ruby was, he hadn’t been prepared for the woman she’d turned out to be.
He closed the door behind him. She turned at the quiet click of the door shutting, her pale-pink skirt fluttering around her knees and giving him the perfect view of her long legs that had felt so damn good wrapped around him. Ruby cleared her throat, dragging his attention to her face, framed by her wild rainbow hair, and didn’t hide her amusement at his distraction.
“This is all very cloak-and-dagger,” he said, walking toward her, as if he could even pretend to stay away.
“It should be right up your alley, then.” She played with the long gold chain around her neck, the length of which disappeared beneath the low V of her white shirt. “You should have let me know about what was going on last night.”
Her technique was basic spy tradecraft. A quick diversion followed by a direct strike with the intention of getting your target to share crucial information before they’d realized what he or she was saying. No doubt the inte
