CHAPTER EIGHT

“ T he windows are switchable glass, so they’re black.” The Mastermind startled me from the door. “You wouldn’t see anything now, though, anyway. It’s the middle of the night so it’s pitch dark outside.”

“Do I live here? Is this my room?”

“No. The house was built by– Sorry, I’m not supposed to tell you anything. Not yet.”

“Because of the memory thing?”

“Partly…”

“But more because you don’t trust me.”

His eyebrows raise as he puts the tray down on a table. He opens his hands.

I say, “You’re enjoying this.”

He shrugs. “Got to love your work. If you’re going to do it every day anyway, might as well, right?”

“I have no idea.”

“Sorry. Here’s your breakfast.” With a wry smile he says, “Eat. Build your strength. You’ll feel better.” He pulls the chair round and holds it out for me.

“Join me?”

“It’s not breakfast time for me.”

Coffee smells good. I pick up the cup of green tea and it doesn’t smell of anything. I take a sip from the water glass instead.

He brings the stool from the nook in the closets. “So, it’s like I’m jet lagged.”

“Memory lagged.”

The fruit and yogurt look good. I think that’s what would be best for me. And the water. There are some pastries, but I’ll decide about them later. The coffee, too. I notice he brought two coffee cups, but I’ll wait and see whether or not I want to follow the doctor’s advice on that.

“I’ll take some coffee,” he says. “There’s enough for two. And if you want more, I’ll be happy to make it for you.”

Lifting the yogurt pot, after a pleasant sniff, I spoon the contents onto the bowl of cut fruit and berries.

I ask him why all the mirrors are covered.

The Mastermind looks at me with curiosity for several seconds, tilting his head.

“You’re trying to find out if we talk to each other.” He goes on, “Sizing up the enemy?”

Almost everything he says sets a buzz jangling somewhere in my body. Usually with obscene thoughts and tingles fluttering in the mix. Can I risk trying to attract two of the men? Or even all three?

Could I play them against each other? Even get them to fight over me?

That idea fires up dark thrills.

But could I? Get them distracted enough so I can get free? I have to be careful what I think around this one especially. The way his eyes glint and flash tells me, his whiskers and antennae are highly sensitive.

I pause a spoonful of fruit and yogurt halfway to my mouth. “Why would you put it that way?”

He gives me a look that I can feel all the way down my front and all over me. “You could have just asked if we discussed you, rather than trying to trick it out.”

“You caught me.”

“I like it.”

“Okay. Well, you do seem to have me here as a captive.”

“You haven’t tried to go anywhere.”

“If I tried, would you let me?”

“Um… No.”

“Would you stop me?”

“Honestly?” His head tips to one side. He’s like a cat watching a mouse when he’s holding the mouse’s tail with his paw. “It wouldn’t take much to stop you right now. Standing up seems to need a fairly colossal effort of will. Eat up, do some running on the spot and scissor jumps for a few days. Then at least there will be some fun in it.”

“And you’re not going to tell me who you are? Who any of you are, or even who I am?”

He takes another look at me. “You heard what the doctor said, right?”

“You don’t all seem to agree with him.”

“No. But he is the doctor.”

“None of you strike me as natural doing what you’re told types.”

“Oh?” his head tilts again as he leans forward. “So, tell me how we do strike you.”

“You strike me as three men who are accustomed to making their own rules.”

“Interesting. Anything else?”

“You in particular, I would guess that you are the youngest. You’re the maverick. I’d say you were the black sheep, but you don’t look like a family to me.” As I say that, I feel a slow twist in my gut.

I’ve struck something. I don’t know if I stayed relaxed enough to keep it from registering in my eyes or if he will have picked up on it. His face gives nothing away. Naturally.

Shifting tack, I tell him, “I think you’re probably a chess player.” Maybe poker, too , but there’s no point laying all my cards out at once. He seems like a man with the analytical skills as well as the discipline for both. But I’m only talking to try and cover the bump.

Whatever it was that I stumbled into, I’ll have to save it. I don’t want to think about it now. I don’t know how well I can hide my reactions from him. Just thinking about how clever he is makes me tingle. I can’t even tell whether it’s excitement or fear that’s sparking the sensations.

Keeping this body of mine under any kind of control is not going to be easy. Not around any of these men.

After I’ve eaten half a Danish, I drink a cup of coffee.

“Was the coffee okay?”

“It was great. It was all really nice. Thank you.” I almost reach out to touch his hand, but just in time, I guess that he’s not casual about being touchy feely. I tell him, “I would love some more coffee, please.”

He moves to pick up the tray.

“I’ll come with you. Help you make it.”

“I think you’ve had enough excitement for now. You wait here and I’ll get it for you.”

When he’s at the door, I tell him, “Now that I’m awake and I’m not likely to go into cardiac arrest, you probably don’t need to be watching over me twenty-four seven.”

He gives me another of his long looks. “Really. I’d say the reverse. Now you’re back, live and kicking, we need a minimum of two eyeballs on you at all times. We are going to be watching you like hawks.”

As soon as the door shuts behind him, I get up to go back to the windows. I want to see how hard or easy they might be to open and whatever else I can learn.

I’m halfway across the room when the door opens again. My warrior steps in, then leans back on the door to close it.

I almost stumble and fall, dashing across the rom to him. I put my arms around him and bury my head in his chest. He’s big and he’s like hot, living rock. The ridges of his chest are so hard I nuzzle my nose into his heat.

I have heat of my own rising as my body remembers his scents and traces. And that chuckle. I melt hearing that.

He says, “You think I might be the easy touch?”

Bastard! These men are too smart. Clearly, I need to up my game by a long way. The trouble is, I don’t know how much more I’ve got in the tank.

“No,” I purr, “Don’t be like that. We have a connection. Please, don’t act like it’s not true, I know that you feel it, just as much as I do.”

“This is all very sexy and thoroughly nice but there’s something you seem to be forgetting.”

I look up into his eyes and give him a little bit of a pout.

His chuckle makes my stomach flutter as he says, “I know you. I know you really well.”

I frown.

He lets out a trace of a smile as his head turns. “Your coquettish siren routine is a real turn-on. You suit the part and it suits you. It’s really a killer.”

My frown deepens.

He laughs. “But it’s not you.”

“Maybe I’ve changed.” I tell him, “Perhaps all the shock and trauma brought out my real nature.”

He laughs. “And this is it? This is your real, inner self?”

He moves to one of the cupboards and takes out a bottle. The dark amber glow makes me want to feel the whiskey burn in my throat. Another gear clicks inside me and makes me stop.

He pulls out two tumblers and holds them up toward me.

Quickly I shake my head. “Not for me. Thanks.”

He does a double take. “It’s an Elijah Craig. Single barrel. You sure?”

I frown again. And shake my head.

He says, “You must still be sick. Any other time you’d have snatched the bottle straight out of my hand.”

Everything I learn bout the person that I am, or was, seems to make the picture more unsettling.

“What did the other one mean,” I don’t want to say the Emperor , “about not having much time?”

As he pours a generous splash into one of the tumblers, the aroma calls to me. I do want it. He looks up. Raises an eyebrow. “You sure you’re sure?”

I turn my head quickly to one side then the other.

His eyes darken as he shrugs and takes a slug. Even from here it smells like sin in a glass.

“Don’t worry yourself about schedules and deadlines. Getting up and about was a big step. You just bring yourself back and we’re all going to be grand.”

The Mastermind comes in with a fresh pot of coffee.

Seeing the bottle, he puts a shot in the empty tumbler, offering it to me. He looks puzzled when I decline the offer. The two men share a look. They are being careful not to use names around me.

I say, “It seems crazy that you won’t even tell me my name.”

The Mastermind takes on an arch look as he says, “You heard the doctor.”

Climbing back onto the bed with my coffee, I shrug. A wave of drowsiness makes my eyelids bat and flutter. “Is he right about everything?”

Still directing his dark glint my way, the Mastermind says, “If I knew that, then I’d be the doctor.”

Even the double dose of caffeine isn’t going to keep me awake. The two men talk in low voices. Maybe they think I’m already asleep, or perhaps my hearing is extra sharp now.

The Warrior talks about problems in ‘the waterfront clubs.’

“Two consignments are late.” the Mastermind says, “Missing, presumed fucked.”

Slowly I drift away, back into the deep embrace of sleep.