Page 98 of The Truths that Deceive

But the strings are thin and strong and tangled. The strings and agendas we both have as we play each other make me want to scrub the sordid off.

And I don’t even mean the sex.

I mean the nasty little mind games of fake trust. He underestimates me because of my age and I… I’m still trying to work out what I underestimate about him.

Maybe I’m afraid to find out because it’ll turn out that I underestimated how little he cares about me, and how far he’ll go to get what he wants.

I’m playing with pure poison and it’s dangerously addictive.

The door to the bathroom opens.

“No. I’ll be there,” a female voice says sharply “I have the payment… I want this dealt with, too.”

Water flows from the sink faucet, then stops. The door opens and closes again. I push open the stall door. Whoever it was is gone. I hurry out of the ladies’ room because I want to see who it was. I can’t explain it, I just need to find her.

It’s not until I step foot in the hall that a woman in mid-discussion with a man looks right at me. The shock on her face tells me everything, and it matches my own.

She turns on her heel and takes off down the hall.

It has to be the woman from the bathroom. I don’t wait. I run after her, and when the elevator closes on her, I hit the stairs because I know who it is.

Felicity Trenton.

Jon Trenton’s wife.

Chapter 27

Smith

Her flight down the stairs is thrilling, unexpected. And I wait, counting seconds, giving her the time to think she’s lost me when what she’s done sinks into her pretty little brain.

Calista’s run and unintentional invitation beats in my veins. The rings have trackers, but I don’t open them. I’m aware of her, my senses heightened whenever she’s near.

This isn’t a run from me, she’s after Trenton’s widow.

For answers.

But it doesn’t look like Trenton’s wife is willing to dish them out judging by the way she moves.

Jones is waiting at the Obsidian Knight headquarters, but any meetings aren’t planned to start just yet. He has, through Reaper, a copy of some of the blueprints. They’re probably the pieces that have hit the market. Jones can turn the smallest thing into nuggets of vied-for gold. Even if I didn’t make it to the meeting, I highly doubt it would matter.

I will.

But right now, I have this to deal with.

My blood’s bubbling, and I’m ready to hunt down my meal.

I head for the private elevator that’s tucked away and take it down to the ground floor, just beating the main one, just beating her. I want to cut it close, to watch where she goes. This time, I’ll trust instinct over tracker.

She’s about half a street ahead of me. Moving fast but carefully. Different than Berlin, but I can pick her style.

Calista’s trained. She can tail. But the rest of it, what makes her so good is an innate need for anonymity. It’s why she hides behind a computer. She likes to find things, track things, do things without being seen. It’s security, and it offers her different ways of peering into other lives.

She’s too pretty to vanish, and to me she’s a fucking beacon of light that draws the eye, sets all instincts quivering.

More than once, I need to move deeper into the shadows as I follow her. More than once she turns a corner and I have to trust my instincts.

She’s closing in on Trenton’s widow. And she is his widow. A quiet word with Mercer earlier today, and he confirmed that the man’s dead.

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