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“If I win, I stay with you,” I said over Kai’s sputtering.
Theo was too cloaked for me to see his expression, but my imagination interpreted it just fine. A flinch, a flicker of hesitation, before he said, “Deal.”
“What?” Kai screeched. “This is—damn the two of you. Actually, shame onmefor thinking I could broker a deal with either one of you and come out clean. This is ridiculous. I’m leaving.”
“Kai,” I said. “There’s nowhere to go.”
“Nowhere to goyet,” he retorted, hands on his hips.
I walked over to him, hiding my stumble over the shock of no longer wearing stilettos.
“I need you,” I said to Kai. “We’ve been in this from the beginning.”
“And we’ve spent a grand total of twenty-four months chasing down false leads as well as enduring minor brushes with death. Granted, we traveled the country and made a ton of money—of which you lostallof last night—but I am not continuing this, Scar.” Kai took a deep, cleansing breath. “God, I exhaust even myself just thinking of it.”
I said, low, so only Kai and I could hear. “We’re so close. Now we have Sax. He’s right in front of us. He could lead us to Trace.”
“It’s not worth it anymore,” Kai said. “I want to go back to the city, sleep in my bed instead of a hotel for once, be with Marcus. All the things I’ve been denied since hooking up with your ass.”
“You want to give up, after all this?”
“Scarlet, I’m going to level with you. We’re on a sailboat hired by a known FBI fugitive which we’re chilling on only because we had to escape a luxury yacht owned by a notorious African arm’s dealer, a violent man whom youdrugged, only to enter into a one-on-one poker game with the man whose brother tried to kill you. A guy who ripped out your heart and forever changed you as a person.” Kai continued, after a huge inhale, “This has become fucking absurd and I’m out.”
“I didn’t do all of that, work on connections for years, just to run when things got tough.”
“Tough? This is James Bond type shit—”
“We’ve never gotten—”
“And I’m talking about the modern version, not the sixtiesoh, let me just have my martini before I pull out my pocket pistol, pew pew pew—”
“Kai, listen to me—”
“We are dealing withautomatic weapons—”
“You’re a trained FBI agent for chrissakes—”
“I want to find him, too.”
Kai and I both paused, mouths open, pointer fingers outstretched, and turned to Theo’s voice.
“It’s why I left you,” Theo continued. “Why my family turned against me. To confront my brother and force him to pay for what he’s done.”
“See?” Kai said, throwing up his hands. “If Trace’s own flesh and blood can’t locate him after all these years, what chances have we got?”
“I know where he is,” Theo said.
“Fucking dammit.” Kai plopped into the corner chair.
Slowly, carefully, I faced Theo. “You’re lying.”
“Believe what you want.” Theo crossed the room, coming so close that the electric static of him hit the small hairs of my arm. “But you can play for answers instead. Your choice. I’ll be on deck.”
Silence descended after Theo exited.
“That is totally like him,” Kai said, waving at the shut door. “Call me all mysteriously on the phone, come in here, be all dark and brooding, throw a bunch of juicy secrets at you then depart ominously.” Kai rested his chin in his hand. “I did not miss that guy.”
I did.
