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“The woman at the front desk told me he’d passed away.Pancreatic cancer.Then she asked if I’d wait a moment.She called the new museum director, who met me in the lobby.The director handed me a letter, said Rafe had asked her to deliver it to me upon my return.”

“What did the letter say?”Xavier asked.

“So many things.He confessed that the day we met was the day he’d learned he had cancer.He’d returned to work after his trip to the oncologist, intending to spend a little time sitting in front of that same painting that had called to me.He said our conversation that day provided him a much-needed distraction.The thing is,” Annie admitted, “I thought that was what he’d done for me.”

“Ye both found each other at just the right time,” Colum said.

Annie gave him a sad smile, recalling his story about Eric, about the ways he’d impacted Colum’s life for the better.“When I looked back over our conversations that year, I realized neither of us had ever shared what was going on in our personal lives, yet I felt as if Rafe knew me better than I knew myself.We opened up about ourselves, shared tiny, secret parts of our souls through our feelings about the art.”

Xavier nodded, clearly understanding.

“Rafe told me not to be sad about his passing.He said that he’d lived a life worth living, one with no regrets.”

Colum swallowed heavily, a grief she didn’t understand rife in his eyes.“A life worth living,” he murmured.

“I realized if I died, I would have all the regrets,” Annie admitted.“So the next day, I turned in my letter of resignation.Due to the long hours I pulled at the agency, I’d had very little social life, which meant I had enough money in my bank account to go back to school.And the rest, as they say, is history.”

They sat together in silence for a few minutes, then Colum, God bless him, found a way to lighten the heaviness of the moment.

“You tell a fair story, Anastasia,” Colum said, shifting closer.“And I have to confess to a fair bit more wanting you, now that I know you’re dangerous.”

Annie laughed, and then, because she couldn’t resist, she gave Colum a quick kiss on the cheek before narrowing her eyes.“Only a fair bit turned on?”

Colum chuckled before he turned his attention to Xavier, gesturing to the other man.“Er…you were more than capable of handling Xavier earlier, weren’t you?When he had you, er, bent over.”

Annie laughed.“Oh yeah.If I wanted, he would have been dead twice before he hit the floor.And he wouldn’t have seen it coming.”

“Merde,” Xavier whispered.

“But that doesn’t mean you stepping in to defend me wasn’t hot as hell,” she added, her libido overriding her exhaustion because sitting between these two men, with both of them looking at her with… God, with hunger in their eyes, was the world’s strongest aphrodisiac.

“Maybe…” she started.Before she could finish her suggestion that they move this conversation to the bedroom, her cell phone rang.She frowned, confused when she saw the name on the screen.“I need to take this.”

She walked into the bedroom for some privacy before answering.

“Vincent,” she said, connecting the call.“This is a surprise.”

Vincent Clayton was a member of the Trinity Masters.Annie had met him and his spouses, Christian and Charlotte, at one of the society’s galas several years earlier, the four of them becoming good friends.Since they all worked in New York and were foodies, they started their own little supper club, meeting up for dinner once a month to try out a new-to-them restaurant.

“I received a call from the Grand Master a little while ago,” Vincent said.

“Ah.Of course.”Annie wasn’t surprised the Grand Master had reached out to Vincent.She’d actually considered doing so herself but thought it best not to involve anyone else unless directed to by the Grand Master.Vincent was an extremely well-connected billionaire with strong ties in New York.Which was basically a nice way of saying he had more government officials and cops in his pocket than the godfather of the Mafia.

“The man you stabbed is alive, in the hospital, and refusing to talk.The security cameras seem to have failed and, unfortunately, any forensic evidence taken from the scene was, or will be, contaminated.”

“What a shame,” she replied sarcastically.“Who was he?”

“A local thug.He has prior theft convictions but is most known for his willingness to violently assault people.Most likely he was hired to follow you.He’s under arrest, so a police officer is stationed by his door.The Grand Master is sending a couple of Warrior Scholars from Boston.It may take a few days, but they’ll slip in and conduct their own interrogation.The cops know there was an accomplice, since he didn’t try to lobotomize himself.”

“It was a short blade,” she insisted again.“You need an icepick for a lobotomy.”

“What a disturbing sentence,” Vincent mused.

“They’re going to do an inventory,” she added.“And once they do, the museum director will point the investigation at me, since I was in there asking to buy one of the pieces that was stolen.”

“I thought you’d also like to know that Charlotte and I had a wonderful time with you and your partners in the VIP section of my club, Elite, tonight.”

Vincent was apparently also providing their alibi.