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Grisham gave me an indulgent smile. “Everyone is something to own. Even me. And don’t mistake me, you will have me as well. If I wanted a slave, I could have that. Instead, I’ve given you time to get to know me, to realize we’re meant to be. My patience has limits, however. I suggest you do not push me to that point.” His threat sent a shiver through me.
“This isn’t over,” Hayden said.
“Of course it isn’t. However, I will admit, this is the most fun I’ve had in a while. Jobs are too easy anymore, no challenge, no real risk, nothing to make them interesting. At least this has become interesting. So go on, and think carefully, Kenz. The longer you draw this out, the riskier it gets. I don’t care who dies, who suffers as we drag this you, but I have a feelingyoudo.”
I swallowed hard, my throat tight and dry. So many faces flashed through my mind, all the people who might pay the price for this, not the least of which were the men I loved.
Was I really worth risking so many people?
* * * *
Char
I rubbed my eyes, exhausted after all the hours I’d spent on the phone and staring at the bright screen of my laptop.
I was used to research—it was a necessary evil in my line of work—but I wasn’t sure it had ever mattered quite this much, that I’d ever done it with so much focus.
A water landed in my lap, and I groaned when it smacked me in the groin. A glance up showed Vance without an ounce of regret.
Instead of snapping at him—he’d only enjoy annoying me, after all—I gave him my best fake smile. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.” He twisted the lid off his own and tipped it back, gulping it down.
Despite the sun having set a little while before, the heat hadn’t let up. Sweat had soaked into the back of my shirt, and when I moved my hair from my face, I found droplets on my forehead. The cold water was a welcome treat, though I could have done without the crotch-shot.
“Anything new?” Vance asked.
“Just a lot of bad,” I admitted. “Even if there was a doubt before, there isn’t now. Grisham is Lorien.”
“How did he land a job at a college? That’s a hard background to fake.”
“Looks like his mother and father made sure he was never connected to them by anything official. So, officially, from birth, he’s been Grisham. He went to college under that name, got his degree in Fine Arts and the History of Art. If you follow his official name, he’s lived a perfectly normal life.”
“Why would they do that?”
“It’s not that uncommon, especially for second kids. It lets them hide an heir,” I explained. “If no one knows who he is, no one can target him.”
“But with his brother and father gone, he’s set to take over, so why keep hiding him?”
“I get the feeling he likes it, that he wants his other life more than he wants to lead. In fact, I think the only reason he’s taken an interest in his family business at all is so they don’t stop him. I doubt he wants to run it.”
Someone sat beside me, and I fought the urge to jump.
Damn Tor, the sneaky bastard.I wondered at times if he just enjoyed freaking people out by sneaking up on them. It was like a reminder that if he wanted to slit my throat, he could.
He set a hand behind him and leaned back, his gaze going up to the dark sky. After hearing his voice the other day, it still echoed in my head. It was quiet, but it was there.
Given I lived my life by talking, by twisting facts and people into useful forms, by twistingmyselfinto whatever I had to be, his silence always unnerved me a bit. Yet, there was something oddly comforting in that quiet, as though I didn’t have to be on during that time.
“Water?” Hayden huffed softly as he shut the slider behind him. “I figured tonight would be a night for alcohol.” Even as he made the joke, however, he held water as well.
I suspected none of us wanted to let our guard down, not tonight, not now that we realized just how close the danger to Kenz really stood.
Instead of Lorien being some faceless voice over a phone, a name without form, we’d discovered he was closer than we’d ever thought. The idea that Kenz had met with him right under our noses, that we’d never even thought to suspect him, ate at me.
I was supposed to read people well, to know when they lied, and yet I hadn’t even considered he could be the one we searched for.
“How’s Kenz?” Vance asked Hayden.
