Page 389 of The Black Trilogy

“Don’t be such a stick-in-the-mud. Bradley’s organising costumes for both of us.”

“Super. Fantastic.”

“I’m going as Poison Ivy.”

“Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

Mack leaned in to kiss him, and suddenly the potential embarrassment didn’t matter so much anymore. As long as she was happy. Luke still dreaded to think what costume he’d end up in, but before he found out, he needed to go to his new office.

The Richmond subsidiary of HC Systems was almost ready to open, despite distractions of the Colombian variety. Blackwood’s people had assisted to no end, with Sloane helping some of Luke’s London staff to relocate and Emmy tasking her HR department to headhunt suitable candidates for the other roles. The fledgeling company had even landed its first two contracts, thanks to Emmy’s recommendations.

Luke’s investment in video conferencing technology meant meetings with his London team were easy, and apart from a few late nights and early mornings due to the time difference, running HC’s head office remotely was going smoothly. And that meant he was free to spend most of his spare time in Virginia with Mack. A year ago, the commitment would have given him palpitations, but everything had changed. He’d changed. Mack had changed him. Next up was house hunting, and the thought made him heady with anticipation.

Meeting Ash had been the start of a rollercoaster ride—scary, exhilarating, and fun—but now he was about to step off into the next stage of the adventure. He couldn’t wait.

Early evening found Luke dressed to kill in the Joker’s purple suit while Bradley fussed around, organising last-minute alterations and a multitude of stylists. Honestly, was make-up really necessary?

“I thought we’d go with Heath Ledger’s Joker rather than the Jack Nicholson version, so much more malevolent, don’t you think?” Bradley asked as he rushed past with his arms full of yet more costumes.

Luke didn’t have time to agree before he was gone.

Apparently, the make-up was “absolutely vital. How can you even think of going without?” and by the time Bradley’s team had finished, Luke looked in the mirror and didn’t recognise himself. His hair had a greenish tinge and added extensions, and his face? Whoa. The man never did things by halves, did he?

Then Mack walked in wearing a green leotard covered in sparkly ivy leaves, green tights, green stilettos, and a floor-length cape. Her hair was even redder than usual, and her eyebrows had been replaced with leaves.

Luke took one look at her and groaned. “Bradley, Mack needs a different costume.”

“What do you mean? She looks amazing!”

“I know. That’s the problem. I don’t want every man in the place staring at her for the entire evening.”

Bradley shrugged. “They won’t all be staring. I expect some of them’ll be gay.”

Oh, that made all the difference.

Mack rolled her eyes. “Luke, it doesn’t matter. I’m not going home with any of them. I’m going home with you, and I love this costume.”

“Fine. But I’m not leaving your side all night.”

“Even better.”

CHAPTER 34

OUR DAYS ON Lorelei Cay were the best of my life, but all too soon, the time came to leave. Mick’s funeral was coming up, and I planned to attend with Black. Plus, I had a meeting at the White House with our Dear Leader himself, and he’d get grumpy if I cancelled. Something about the Middle East, apparently, and Nate was coming too.

And this evening was the annual Blackwood Foundation Ball in Richmond. If we left now and didn’t hit any delays, we could make it back in time to attend. Bradley had gone with a theme again to make the event more fun. Or excruciatingly painful, depending which way you decided to look at it.

At least in our time away, we’d sorted out a story for Black’s absence. Oliver and his team had been busy while the pair of us lounged on the beach. The DEA had kindly confirmed that Black had been on a top secret undercover assignment for them, which resulted in the death of a primo drug lord and a successful operation to shut down his empire. Senator Trent was happy, Stone and Belcourt were happy, and their PR team was busy writing waffle for the media. Oh, and the DEA had also smoothed things over with the local police department, which hopefully meant the cops would leave me alone until the next time I did something to annoy them.

As part of the deal, we’d passed all our intelligence on the Ramos family over to Agent Belcourt, and the DEA was busy shutting down his network on the East Coast. The files Carlos provided meant the number of favours the agency owed us sat comfortably in double figures.

Happy days.

And my death? Well, that was an administrative mix-up. Dr. Beech had done a shiny new press release, and apparently the sofas delivered that morning for the staff room at the hospital were very comfortable, thank you. Oliver got both of our death certificates revoked, and since I’d never filed Black’s will, he should be able to slot back into his old life when we returned.

“What are we going to tell people about us?” I asked.

“What, you mean about our change in sleeping arrangements?”

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