Page 121

Releasing Lorcan’s hand, I hurry in the entrance. It’s odd she didn’t tell me she was coming. Carys is a planner. “Where is she?” I call over my shoulder.
“Your old rooms.”
The night Lorcan asked me not to work for his brother, he helped me take my stuff to his wing of the house. Instead of moving it into my rooms, he’d insisted on putting everything in his bedroom. When I told Finn the next day, he laughed and clapped his hands, clearly entertained. That had been almost a week ago now.
Heading down the hall, I leave Lorcan trailing behind me. When I reach my old sitting room, Carys is perched on the edge of the couch, scrolling through her phone. She glances up, and relief floods her face.
“Oh, thank God. I was starting to worry I wouldn’t see you before I have to fly out again.” She brings me into a hug.
“Is everything okay?”
“I’ve been agonizing over something. I tried to investigate it myself, but I ran into too many dead ends.”
Lorcan’s footsteps stop in the doorway behind me, and Carys stiffens before moving away from me.
“Nice to see you, Lorcan.” Her posture makes me wonder if she means it.
“You all right?” His brow furrows.
“Fine. Fine. Needed Kim time. You understand what it’s like.” She winks, but something is off.
“I’ll be in the office.” His hand grazes my arm, and a shiver runs down my spine. “You staying tonight, Carys?”
She shakes her head. “I have to catch a plane out in a couple hours. No rest for me.”
“Well, you’re always welcome.”
She nods, tension leaking from her.
“Have you been to see Finn?” I close the door to the hallway.
“No. No. I can’t do that. Seeing him… I just… It’s a bad idea. I—I’m worried about him. I can’t shut it off.”
“Okay.” I frown and clasp my hands. “Can I help?”
She presses together her lips and pushes her phone into her purse before dropping it on the couch to wander the room. “I can’t decide if I should tell you.” Carys glances at me and then paces. “But I trust you. I trust you.”
From my spot on the armrest of the closest chair, I watch her, not saying anything. I earned her trust through the work I did for her, but I certainly don’t deserve it. She might end up in jail thanks to me and the information I collected.
“What’s going on? You’re worrying me.”
“When Finn called me, the night he almost died, he—it—it wasn’t all personal.” She sends me an anguished glance. “He told me the helicopter was FBI.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “Oh my God.” She’s telling me, so he mustn’t have put it together when he phoned her. At what point did he figure out I was also FBI? That Malik’s slip wasn’t a coincidence or misguided feelings for me? Had he known for sure? Or had it been a guess?
“I know, right? So I tried to dig. Why the hell were the FBI here? I mean, besides a bust. But they didn’t bust any of you.”
“Finn doesn’t remember any of this.”
“I realize that. Someone needs to be told. I don’t—I’m not sure it should be him. You understand what he’s like. Is Lorcan mixed up with the FBI?”
I hesitate as though thinking it through. Instead, my mind is racing, trying to calculate how to ease Carys’s concerns without raising suspicion.
“The organization rounded up some of Zhang’s men.” I close my eyes as though I’m putting the pieces together. “Maybe—maybe they scooped up an undercover agent?”
Carys snaps her fingers. “That makes sense. That makes sense. I knew you’d have an idea.”
A zing of pride zips through me because she thinks so much of me. Her opinion shouldn’t matter to me. “I don’t know if it’s the right idea. We knew about the helicopter but not who. God—that’s—that’s unbelievable.”