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“And you seriously think the assassination attempts have nothing to do with anything else?”Eric demanded, staring at Nikolett.

“No.The timeline doesn’t work,” Nikolett insisted.“The Spaniard got involved when the blackmailer hired him.He may have had information on us before that, but he could be an information broker in addition to a mercenary.We’re an old society, and there are rumors about us.There’s information out there for people who care to look.”

Nikolett glanced around.“The blackmailer and the Spaniard had worked together before—the blackmailer hired him for something unrelated to us.Either the blackmailer asked the Spaniard to look into these poly relationships that kept showing up in Crimea, and the Spaniard was able to uncover more information about us than the blackmailer could alone, or the Spaniard knew enough about us that he was able to provide the information the blackmailer wanted.”

“All bad options,” Eric muttered.

“The point being, whatever the Spaniard did or didn’t know before, it wasn’t until the blackmailer asked for his help that he made a move against us.And that was only months ago, not a year ago.”

“Someone’s been trying to assassinate you…for a year?”Annie asked.

“Trying to hurt me, not necessarily assassinate me.At this point, I have to assume if they wanted me dead, I’d be dead rather than inconvenienced.”

“Inconvenienced.”Eric shoved up from the table, walking several steps away, his back to them.

“Did someone shoot you in the leg?”Colum asked, sounding only academically interested.

“No.This is from a bear trap that was dropped into my garden.”

Xavier and Colum both blanched, and even Annie winced at the idea of having a bear trap snap on her leg.

“I was shot in the shoulder,” Nikolett went on.

Eric whipped around.“Nikolett, tell me you’re joking.”

A man standing behind her—he must have been one of her guards—winced slightly.

“No.I was shot.”Nikolett smiled at the fleet admiral.

Eric’s low, vicious curses weren’t in English, but the meaning was more than clear, and the fear in his eyes as he looked at Nikolett painful to see.

Annie looked at Colum, eyes wide, and tipped her head toward Eric and Nikolett.He grimaced in response.Oh yeah, those two had issues, and she suddenly understood why Colum had called this an in-name-only and loveless marriage.Eric truly loved Nikolett.

And though Nikolett was cold as ice to Eric, Annie had caught the heated flashes in her eyes whenever she looked at him.She was in as deep as Eric.

While the interpersonal dynamics were fascinating, the back of Annie’s mind was picking apart the details she’d just heard.

Annie held up a hand.“Stop.”She didn’t realize she’d reverted to her operative voice until everyone around her froze, several of the guards studying her as if she were a threat.

“You’re saying that a blackmailer either hired the Spaniard to help him blackmail the Masters’ Admiralty, or he bought information about you from the Spaniard.Now someone, probably Dodge, has hired the Spaniard to steal the Oscar Wilde tell-all manuscript from you as well.”

“Yes,” Eric said, resuming his seat.

“Those could be a coincidence.Unlikely but possible,” Annie said slowly.“What’s more likely is the Spaniard, whoever he is, has a reputation for knowing about the Masters’ Admiralty, so anyone looking to come after you is going to him.”

Eric acknowledged that.“But why is he trying to kill Nikolett?—”

“He’s not,” Nikolett said coolly.

“—and why did he send her a page from the manuscript?”

“It was sent to Nikolett, not you, Fleet Admiral?”Annie asked.

“No, I just happened to be there when she got it.”A muscle in Eric’s cheek twitched.“Good thing, because she wouldn’t have told me about it if I hadn’t seen it.”

“And why would I?The Spaniard is an internal matt—” She exhaled slowly.“Until you told me about the attack in Dublin, Ithoughtit was an internal matter.The information the Spaniard had about us seemed to be isolated to Hungary and Ottoman, and Hande and I were both working on it.”

Colum’s face had gone blank, and he was staring into middle distance, clearly processing.