Formal dinners were always an interminable affair, but tonight’s was made worse by the unanticipated attendance of Lord and Lady James. I had expected Stephanie’s parents to vacate the estate for the duration of the party, as was their custom, but they sat at the head of the wide table as imperious as royalty.
Because we were the highest-ranking guests, Ying and I were seated next to them. We shared a pained grimace before settling more firmly into our public personas. Alexander sat on my right and Joseph James sat across from him, next to Ying. Ying’s guard Cira was nowhere to be seen.
Everyone was dressed in formal elegance. The men wore tuxedos and the women wore formal gowns. No one looked especially pleased to have to dress for dinner. The boned bodice of my gown dug into my waist. This was my first time wearing it to a seated event. It would also be my last.
Lady Agatha James smiled a shark’s smile at me. “How did you and Alexander meet?”
“My sister introduced us,” I said. I hid a grin when shock briefly crossed her face. Even if my father wouldn’t approve, my siblings were not without power of their own and having them on my side meant she couldn’t use the relationship against me.
“And how is your brother? I heard about the terrible attack. You have my condolences.” Her tone was perfectly polite and her expression held nothing but earnest well wishes but something rang false. I’d always excelled at reading people, and even Stewart, Lord James, was paying close attention to me now.
I gave her my most guileless smile. Bianca would immediately know that I was up to something, but Lady James didn’t have my sister’s insight. “He is well, thank you for asking. The attack was a tragedy, but I’m so glad we got him back. I believe our security forces know who is responsible, so we should all sleep a little easier.”
“Oh? Who was it?” she asked with just a touch too much interest.
“Father didn’t discuss the details with me,” I said with a dismissive flick of my fingers. Then I leaned in and lowered my voice. “But I heard it was the Syndicate.”
It was the rampant rumor around Serenity, so I wasn’t telling them anything new. Agatha relaxed and smiled at Stewart with a slightly raised eyebrow, as if to say, I told you so.
My hand flexed under the table as I imagined lunging at her and wrapping it around her throat until she told me why they’d wanted my brother dead.
Alex slid his hand over mine and squeezed gently. “I, for one, am glad your brother is safe now,” he said, his voice warm. I glanced at him and he must not have liked whatever he saw in my face, because he raised my hand and brushed a kiss over the back of my knuckles.
Ying sighed at the romantic gesture.
The shock of his mouth on my skin coupled with the warning look in his eye was enough to remind me of why I was here. “Me, too,” I replied lightly. “Otherwise I would’ve had to stay home and miss the legendary meteor shower.”
“You’ve never seen them?” Ying asked.
“No, there was always something else going on. I’m delighted that this year I will be able to fix that. Thank you for your hospitality, Lady James.”
She inclined her head, accepting the praise as her due.
“Stephanie did not mention that you and Lord James would be in residence.” Nor did the youngest James look particularly pleased by the addition. That end of the table was distinctly sullen. “How long do you plan to stay?”
“Stewart has business in Honorius, but with the meteor shower, we decided a stay in the country was preferable to our city residence.”
I had to assume they planned to stay for the duration, which meant my own plans needed to be adjusted. It would be more difficult to sneak around if they were constantly underfoot, but it also meant I would have more opportunity to study them.
“Will you be expecting more guests?” Ying asked.
“None that are planning to stay, but a few may drop in for dinner or meetings. You know how it is.”
We all nodded politely and the conversation drifted on to more mundane topics. Alex was the perfect dinner guest—funny, attentive, and well-mannered. He’d won Ying over before the second course. By the time dessert finally arrived, Lord and Lady James were laughing at his jokes.
He might be even better at this game than I was.
And excellent liars should not be trusted. I should know—I was one.
If Alex noticed my cooling regard, he didn’t show it. After dinner, the younger guests retired to the green salon for a nightcap while Lord and Lady James disappeared into the library. Another hour of socializing and I was done. Even a seasoned socialite could reach the end of her patience when every other comment was a subtle dig at her fake date.
Ying pulled me aside when my smile started looking more like the baring of teeth. “Your dragon look is scaring the peasants,” she said drily. “Let’s commandeer a bottle of wine and move to my room.”
“That sounds lovely, but if you don’t mind, I think I will retire for the evening. This dress is killing me. Tomorrow night?” She nodded easily, her eyes already searching for Joseph. “Happy hunting,” I murmured.
She blushed and winked at me. “You, too.” Then, with a laugh, she moved away.
AOIFE HAD BEEN BUSY WHILE ALEX AND I HAD BEEN stuck making nice with the people who’d betrayed my House. She had scouted the first and second floors as part of her security patrols. My own research had given me the basic layout of the building, but Aoife confirmed the rooms I knew about and added several more that had been guesses.
After reporting, she returned to her room, leaving me with Alex. The black tuxedo added a civilized veneer to the untamed look he usually sported. It was incredibly effective. I knew it was camouflage and still I was drawn to him.
“Did I do something wrong at dinner?” he asked.
I frowned. Perhaps he wasn’t as oblivious as I’d thought, but it was easy to give him the truth. He’d played his part perfectly. Just because I was unsettled by his level of skill at lying didn’t mean he’d done anything wrong. “No. Why?”
His gaze traced over my face, but he shook his head. “What’s your plan now?”
“First, I’m going to get out of this gown. Then I’m going to set up a device to probe their network for vulnerabilities. After that, I’m going to sleep. Agatha and Stewart are an unexpected complication, but it might be a boon. I’ll have to think about it. What about you?”
“I’m going to ensure that any assassins who attempt to nab you during the night have a bad time.” He said it with a perfectly straight face, but he broke into a grin when I laughed.
“I appreciate it. Shout if any bust in while I’m changing and I’ll come help you kick their asses.” I grabbed a change of clothes and retreated to the bathroom.
Safely locked behind a solid door, I let my gown slide to the floor and sighed in relief. I took a deep breath without the boning pressing against my skin. I changed into pajama pants and a tank top with a built-in bra. I wanted to lull Alex into thinking that I really was going to sleep, while still being decent enough to slip out into the house. I hadn’t lied, exactly, I’d just left out a few steps in my plan.
I washed my face and let my hair down. My scalp tingled from where the heavy weight had been pinned up. I usually didn’t bother, but formal wear meant formal hair. Bleh.
Although, it also meant that I’d get to see Alex in a tux again, and that was worth something. I might not trust him, but he certainly wasn’t hard on the eyes.
I gathered up my dress and let myself out of the bathroom. I dumped the dress over the back of a chair. It was slightly better than the floor, which is where I’d really like to drop it.
Alex disappeared into the bathroom while I dug through my trunks, looking for the gear I’d need tonight. I put a silencer and a vanisher as well as a few other items in a small bag and tucked it next to the trunk. I didn’t want to have to risk the hinges squeaking when I snuck out later.
I also pulled out a security tablet. I wasn’t nearly as good as Bianca at cracking into foreign networks, but I’d had training—all von Hasenberg children had. I would have to be careful or House James would know I was poking around. I pulled up a general-purpose script and set it to run one query every two to six minutes. The timer was random to make it look less like a script, and it would refresh the news feed at the same time to provide some connection noise for cover.
By the time I was done, Alex was out of the bathroom, dressed in loose pants and a dark T-shirt that stretched across his chest. “Where should I sleep?”
The bed was smaller than the one we’d shared in my suite but large enough for two people. The floor was hard even with the rugs that softened parts of it. The sitting area had a tiny sofa that would be laughably too small for him. He waited patiently.
“Can you keep your hands to yourself?”
“Yes.” His eyes crinkled at the corners, but he didn’t mention that both times that I’d awoken, it had been on his side of the bed. He’d been gone before I awoke, but apparently I was a restless sleeper. Or a stealthy cuddler.
“We’ll share the bed. I want the side by the door.”
Alex nodded and headed for the other side. It was late, but not late enough to be up roaming in the halls undetected, so I climbed into bed with him. I pretended that I was getting into my own bed, alone.
It did not help.
I could feel the heat of him, just centimeters away. The bed had seemed much larger from across the room, but now that we were here, Alex’s broad shoulders took up more than his fair share.
I turned off the light before my face gave away the level of my embarrassment—and interest.
“Good night,” he murmured.
“Good night.”
I DOZED, OFF AND ON, FOR THREE HOURS. ALEX’S BREATHING was deep and even. I slipped from the bed one careful centimeter at a time, but he didn’t stir. The mattress did an excellent job of isolating movement.
The room was dark, but I could see well enough to make my way to the bag I’d left near the trunk. I pulled out the silencer and clicked it on. Now I was surrounded by a two-meter radius of silence. No noise inside that radius would be transmitted outside, nor would any wireless signals. This silencer was one-way, so I could still hear the sounds around me. I tucked the silencer in my pocket.
Next, I pulled out the vanisher. This was a new piece of tech that House von Hasenberg had been working on for a while. It was currently undergoing field testing, but I hoped that it would work tonight or I’d have a lot of explaining to do. Working correctly, it would keep me from appearing on any form of electronic surveillance—camera, thermal, and everything else.
Our engineers were trying to combine the two pieces of technology, but for now, I had to carry both. I clicked the vanisher on and put it in my other pocket. I made sure both items were secure. I also had a handful of tiny wireless bugs. If House James was diligent about security, they would quickly find them, but if not, I might get lucky. A few other odds and ends went into my pockets, and then I tucked my com into my bra.
Finally, I performed the complicated finger motions that disabled the main identity chip in my right arm. I didn’t bother activating my secondary chip. None of my backup identities had access to Raventhorpe. With no active chip, I at least had plausible deniability because no chip readers could grab my identity wirelessly.
I crept toward the door. With the silencer I didn’t have to be as careful, as long as I didn’t get close to the bed. Alex remained still and quiet, his breathing even. It was deep in the early hours of the morning. I would not get a better chance than now.
Despite the silencer, I winced when the door hinges creaked. It was a slight sound, but it would’ve been enough to wake me. I edged from the room, checking the hallway for any other stray guests.
If questioned, I was either heading to the library, on the second floor, to borrow a book, or the kitchens, on the first floor, for a cup of tea. It wouldn’t do me much good if I was caught in a room I shouldn’t have been in, but then I’d play it off as drunken sleepwalking.
My bare feet didn’t make any sound on the thick rugs running the length of the hallway. I walked slowly but purposefully. If I was caught, creeping around would be immediately suspicious, while wandering around deliberately implied I had nothing to hide.
Raventhorpe was still and silent around me, cloaked in deep shadows. I probably should have worn a pair of smart glasses to explain why I could see in the dark so well, but it was too late now. I could always pretend I was testing new tech.
I bypassed the wide main staircase for the narrower back stairs. The first-floor study was tucked away at the back of the house. It was also closer to the kitchen if I got caught. The stairs dumped me out into a small butler’s pantry near the kitchen, dark enough that I had trouble making out more than large features like doorways.
I crossed the room and slid the hallway door open. My mental map served me well; I was just two doors down from the study. The hallway was dark and quiet, and no light glowed from under any of the doors.
The study’s door handle refused to turn. Locked, but with an old-fashioned key rather than a keypad or biometric scan. The James’s insistence on making this house appear antique was a boon. It was a mere moment’s work to pick the lock.
I eased the door open and slipped inside. A wall of windows overlooked the side yard and Andromeda Prime’s twin moons produced enough light for me to be able to see well. I clicked off the silencer for a few seconds while I ran a scan for cameras and bugs. My com showed one camera in the far corner that had a clear view of the entire room.
The study was a long rectangle. From where I stood, the space opened up to the left. In front of me, a sitting area had a sofa and two wingback chairs. At the far end, a massive, ornate desk sat behind two uncomfortable-looking chairs. Bookcases lined the wall beside me, filled with leather-bound books that I’d bet good credits had never been opened.
Books were the perfect place to conceal bugs. I carefully hid an audio bug near the sitting area, taking care not to leave any fingerprints, then I hid a video bug pointing at the desk.
Now came the tricky part.
The vanisher made me invisible to the camera, but it was less good at hiding the objects around me. Things held in my hands or very near my body would be hidden, but changes to the room would not. So if I opened a desk drawer or moved some papers, those actions would be perceptible. If someone watched the video, they would see things moving around but not who was moving them. It would be a very short logical leap to guess that the hidden person was me.
I moved toward Stewart’s desk; it was frustratingly clean. Not a single paper marred its smooth surface and accessing the built-in terminal would definitely show up on the video. I carefully tried the drawers, barely pulling to see if any of them were locked. Only one drawer resisted, and it was not locked with an easy-to-pick metal key.
The codebreaker in my pocket could crack it. It was so, so tempting, but common sense won in the end. I had more places to check, and if Stewart James was smart, he’d be monitoring access to the drawer. The codebreaker would find the right combination, but a middle-of-the-night unlocking might trigger some warnings.
I methodically checked the rest of the room, looking for a hidden safe or secret cache. I didn’t find anything. None of the paintings covered safes, and short of pulling all of the books off the shelves, I couldn’t find anything there, either.
If there was any evidence in this room, it was either in the desk or the terminal. I circled back to the desk and ran my fingers over the ornate carvings, feeling for a hidden button. Nothing.
The locked drawer sang a siren song. The proof I needed could be sitting just centimeters away. Or it could be a very clever honeypot, just waiting to trap the unwary, so I tamped down my impatience. I had two weeks to find what I was looking for. There was no reason to rush foolishly, no matter how tempted I was.
I pressed my ear against the door to the hallway. When only silence greeted me, I slipped out and locked the door behind me. The rest of the ground floor consisted of public rooms that held little chance of being useful, so I moved toward the back stairs. Both the library and Stewart’s private office were on the second floor.
I slid open the door to the butler’s pantry. After the moonlight in the study, the interior now appeared pitch black. Before my eyes had time to adjust, strong arms snaked out and yanked me into the murk.