Agate.
That gnawed at Jameson, and he had no idea why. “Onyx,” he said out loud. “And white agate.”
“It’s not onyx, actually.” Zella laid her free hand on Jameson’s forearm, as if they were the closest of friends. “It’s obsidian.”
Obsidian, Jameson thought.And agate crystal.A black gemstone and a white one—shining black and iridescent white.
And just like that, he knew where he’d seen those gemstones before—thoseexactgemstones.
Go home, dear boy, Alice had written in the margins of the ledger.
Beside Jameson, Zella lifted her right hand to her mouth in a gesture that looked a bit coy—and obscured the movement of her lips from anyone who might bewatching.
“Go home, Jameson,” the duchess murmured. “A north wind blows.”
Chapter 54
ROHAN
One more wager, love.Rohan had bet that Savannah would come back to him—even if she got what she was after from Zella, even once he was of no more practical use to her, Rohan had bet that Savannah Grayson just wouldn’t be able to stay away.
I believe I’ve made it perfectly clear what I think of your games.Her voice rang in Rohan’s mind.
You have, love. Oh, how you have.
One o’clock in the morning came. And two and three and four and eventually dawn. And still—no Savannah. Rohan thought occasionally of the words he’d inked onto her skin and wondered if what he really should have written was a clearer, stronger warning to anyone who might have been tempted to do her harm:M-I-N-E.
Rohan was not a person whoworried. He schemed. He strategized. He took calculated risks and paid the price for power, and he did so without shame or fear or anything resembling regret. But he could still see Savannah lying on Helena Thorp’s garden path, still as a corpse.
“She’s not coming back, Rohan.” Brady was spoiling for a fight and had been for hours. Thus far, the scholar had wisely chosen not toattempt to fight his way through Rohan to get off the plane and depart the hangar in which it was parked. But everyone had their limits—and at this point, Rohan might welcome the distraction.
He offered up a lazy smile at Brady’s assertion that Savannah wasn’t coming back.
“Either way, she will have gotten their attention.”
Even if Savannah hadn’t gotten any farther than the winter garden, the Devil’s Mercy had eyes everywhere. For better or worse, Savannah would have gotten the duchess’s attention with that dress—and very likely the Proprietor’s.
She’s fine.Rohanmadehimself believe that, as Brady stood and stepped into the aisle.
“You’re letting me go,” Brady said darkly. Everyone had their limits.
“Now why would I do a thing like that?” Rohan cocked a brow:Take another step and see what happens, Mr. Daniels.
Brady opted for a different move, scooping up the kitten that had just pounced on his shoelaces. “Desperate times,” Brady said softly, “call for desperate measures.”
The man was bluffing, but his hands were large, and the kitten was very, very small.
“Animal cruelty?” Rohan did not rise. “Quite the threat, Mr. Daniels, but you don’t have it in you to harm something so defenseless, so small.”
“Do you?”
That question hadn’t come from Brady. It had come from the plane’s loudspeaker.
Company at long last.Rohan had ensured the cockpit was unlocked. He’d practically engraved an invitation on the door for whomever the Mercy might send.
But that voice meant that no one had beensent.
The door to the cockpit opened, revealing a man with thick white hair who braced his weight on a cane made from solid platinum. The handle on that cane was ornately carved. It might as well have been a scepter, passed from Proprietor to Proprietor across the generations.