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“Ihope you don’t mind,”he added. “The problem with being a Luna is that everyone knows it. I wanted to get away from that for an evening, and that wouldn’t have been possible at arestaurant.”

“That’s fine,”Isaid.

Christophe removeda bottle of wine and poured out two glasses, and then plated the meals. They smelledamazing.

“This isn’twhat you were off doing all day, was it?” Iasked.

“Partially,”he said. “I did actually have clan business to take careof.”

“Well, thanks for following through.”

We clinked glasses.

“And thanksfor giving me this opportunity, Christophe,” I said. “I, uh… I’m not really good at expressing myself, but I want you to know that it means a lot tome.”

He nodded.“Eat. The food will getcold.”

Idug in,and it was as delicious as it smelled. I couldn’t believe that it was something Christophe hadmade.

“So, what is this place?”I asked. “Besides the most exclusive place in theworld.”

“It’smy little spot of solitude. When I was a kid, it was pretty much the only place I could escape to be by myself. I spent as much time here as I could, which wasn’t really much. It was hard to get away. Now, I come here every so often to think or have a meal bymyself.”

“It’s nice,”I said, which was the understatement of the year. I’d really wanted to say that it was beautiful, but saying things like that was not really myspecialty.

“Stephen notifiedme that the job is finished,” Christophesaid.

“Yeah.Thankfully we were pretty careful moving around inside those vents, so there wasn’t anydamage.”

Christophe raised an eyebrow. “We?”

Ifroze.Oh, shit. “Uh… I mean, me.I.”

“You had someone else helping you,”he said, laughing. “I had afeeling.”

“No, really, I…”

He reachedacross the table and put his hand on my wrist. Electricity tingled up myarm.

“It’s okay, Mason,”he said. “I already told you, everything’s been forgiven. That includes your partner. But I hope that this won’t mean someone is going to convince you to return to this line ofwork.”

Ishook my head.“No. No, we’re done. Actually, it’s my little sister, Jennifer. She’s agenius.”

“Seriously?I never would’ve guessedthat.”

Ididn’t knowwhy I’d told him, but I trusted him entirely. And I guess I’d wanted him to know that I hadn’t been working with someone bad. Or with someone I might’ve been involved with. Romantically. It was something about the way he’d said “partner,” like he thought maybe there was someone secretly waiting for me… Or maybe I was just imagining all of that. I suddenly felt reallystupid.

“Don’t worry,”he said, squeezing my wrist. “Really, I won’t tell anyone. This ends aftertonight.”

Ifelt my stomach tighten.

“Yeah.Thanks, Christophe. I guess this is the last day we’ll be seeing eachother.”

We finished eatingthe rest of the meal in silence. Afterwards, Christophe cleared away the plates and put them into the bag, then refilled our wine glasses. Then he went and turned off the lights. Up above, through the gaps in the tree tops, shone a billion stars. Christophe took his glass and lay down on the edge of the rock, throwing his hands behind his head to make a pillow as he gazed up at the sky. It was the first time I’d seen him look so relaxed, so casual. It was like seeing a totally different person. I took my glass and joinedhim.

“Ican’t seethis kind of view from where I live,” I said. “Too many lights. There’s so many starsup.”

Christophe nodded silently.In the continued quiet that’d fallen between us, my heart started to pulse faster. I could hear it thudding in myears.