Page 39 of Wicked Games
“Don’t forget Ryder is here,” Percy said. “Why would Banks send you here if he wanted to keep the two of you apart? It goes against my theory, and I know I’m not wrong about his infatuation.”
“A test?” I asked.
“I don’t think Banks knows Ryder is here,” Lucien said, then stated why he’d formed the opinion. Yeah, it hurt like hell when my name was deliberately left off the website, and when the museum didn’t welcome me to the team with an article in the arts and leisure section like they usually did. Had it not been for the silly article about my mother in the society section, Lucien might not have discovered I worked for the museum either.
“Well, one thing is clear,” Dev said. “As smart as the four of us are, we won’t find these answers sitting around this hotel room.”
“We need someone with tech skills,” Percy said. “I know a guy we can trust.”
“Whom?” Deverish asked, sounding suspicious.
“Quinton.”
“Your kissing cousin,” Lucien teased.
“Do you remember the incident where an anonymous hacking group created all kinds of chaos by releasing proof of parliament members’ fraudulent activities?” Percy asked.
“That was Quinton?” Lucien asked.
“And his friends. There’s nothing more he’d like to do than take down Banks.”
“I know this isn’t really any of my business, but why are you still allowing a sadistic asshole like Banks to control you when you have a resource like Quinton to help get you free of him?” I asked Percy. It made no sense until I saw the way Percy looked at Deverish.
“I wanted Dev more than I wanted my freedom. Now I want both.”
“We’ll have it, pet,” Dev whispered huskily to his lover.
I shifted my attention to Lucky. “What about you? Have you tried to free yourself?”
“Of course,” Lucien scoffed. “Do you think someone as powerful as Banks makes it easy?”
“He’s trying to tell you he has limited computer skills,” Dev mock-whispered.
“It’s not a secret,” Lucien admitted with a wry grin. “I don’t have a simple yes or no answer for you, Ry. I was resentful when I first started working for Banks, but then I became addicted to the adrenaline. I got all the excitement of secret missions without the death and destruction I saw as an officer.” Lucien reached over and gently touched my face. “After hurting you in Paris, I went to a really dark place. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe I deserved a better life. Then we reconnected in Cairo, and it fueled my desire to be free. I didn’t believe I’d ever have a chance to make things right with you, but it made me fighting mad. I tried digging up dirt and following the money trail to find a smoking gun, but all I ever found were roadblocks. This line of work doesn’t exactly breed trust,” Lucien said, looking at Dev and Percy. They nodded in agreement. “There was no way to know how high his connections went in the government or who was on his payroll. I recently threw caution to the wind and reached out to an old family connection who I thought might be able to help me. He said he has a contact who might be able to get the information I need. I’m hoping to hear something soon.”
“Fair enough,” I said. A brief knock on the door startled me.
“It’s just dinner,” Lucien said, rising to his feet. “I’ll get it.”
“Do you mind calling Quinton after we eat?” Dev asked Percy.
“Sure, but Q doesn’t always answer his calls, and he’s shitty at returning messages promptly if he’s tied up on a job.”
“It’s worth a shot, pet.”
Lucien returned with heavy sacks of food. We all eyed one another’s choices and joked about ordering the wrong thing until Percy retrieved paper plates from the cabinet and set up the takeout buffet style on the coffee table. We gorged ourselves until we were nearly sick, but I didn’t regret it. I hadn’t felt this alive since the last time Lucien appeared in my life.
As Percy predicted, Quinton didn’t answer his phone, and he hadn’t returned Percy’s message by the time we were ready to leave.
“Don’t worry,” Percy said when he walked us to the door. “I’ll allow him some leeway since there’s a five-hour time difference. I’ll call Q’s mum if he hasn’t returned my call by tomorrow afternoon. He might ignore the rest of the world, but he never ignores his mother. Have a good night,” Percy said, air-kissing us both before closing the door.
When we got back to our hotel, there was a large bouquet of red roses on the table next to a bottle of Laphroaig, Lucien’s favorite whisky.
“What the fuck?” Lucien asked.
“Banks?”
“Not in a million years,” Lucien said confidently, striding to the table. He picked up the card nestled in the bed of roses. “This has Carmen written all over it.”