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Colum and Xavier stared for a minute, then both started gagging, and if Annie wasn’t trying to be sensitive to their current mental states, she probably would have laughed her ass off.

“It’s okay,” she tried to reassure them.

“You pulled that out of his…” Colum swallowed heavily, clearly beating back bile as he covered his mouth with his hand, while Xavier rubbed his eye likehe’dbeen the one stabbed.

“Even if you have that,” Xavier said, gesturing toward the knife without looking at it.“The man is still there, and if you’re right, alive.He could identify us.”

“How?”Annie asked.“We were wearing masks.”

“He could describe us or…” Xavier threw his hands in the air.“Maybe he won’t tell the authorities.Maybe he’ll simply hunt us down and stab us all in the eye in revenge.”

“Jaysus.This is bad.”Colum reached for his phone.“I need to call Franco.”

“Again with this Franco,” Annie said, attempting to make a joke, hoping to set the men at ease.Xavier didn’t laugh, only shot her a wild-eyed look.

Colum ignored her as he placed the call.She listened, somewhat impressed, as Colum managed to relate the events of the past hour succinctly, even if he did have to stop and start over a few times in his attempt to get the timeline accurate.However, she wasn’t thrilled about him relating every detail to this man.

After a few minutes, he hung up.

“Who is Franco?”Annie asked.

“My best friend.”

Annie shook her head.“Colum, is he a part of this?Has he been read in on?—”

“He’s married to the Grand Master,” Colum interjected.“He’s aware of this mission.As I said back at the archive, he was involved in the early parts of our search.”

Annie’s eyes widened.“You know who the Grand Master is?”

Colum nodded, looking slightly panicked.“Aye.”

Annie wasn’t sure if he was being deliberately secretive or if this was another instance of Colum being Colum, simply answering the question that was asked.

Because Annie was more curious than a cat, she went for broke.“Who is it?”

“Is that really important right now?”Xavier asked.“What did Franco say?”

“They’re calling someone who can help,” Colum replied.

“What do we do?”Xavier asked.

“Stay here,” Colum replied.“Leave it with them.”

Xavier stalked over to the window, drawing the curtain back and looking outside.Annie didn’t get the sense he was enjoying the view, rather too keyed up to relax.

Colum, however, was calmer after talking to Franco.He sat down on the couch, then looked up at her expectantly.She joined him, sinking down heavily.

Colum ran his hand through his hair.“Since we have some time, perhaps you could tell us who youreallyare.”

“Anastasia Ward,” she replied, half joking as she answered his question with just the information requested.

“That’s a pretty name, but I think Xavier and I would prefer it if you’d be telling us how you learned to throw a knife like that.Spent a bit of time with the circus, did you?”Colum asked, offering his own brand of humor.

Annie laughed.“Not the circus you’re thinking of, though I suppose it’s a good comparison some days.I used to work for the CIA.”

That announcement dropped into the center of the suite like a bomb.

“CIA,” Xavier repeated, turning his back on the window to look at her.