Page 102 of Master of Lies

I stood waiting, like a dickhead. I had no leverage here. Ethan had it all.

He finally turned, as if noticing only now that I was there, and made an impatient sound. “So? Have you got news?”

“Nothing important,” I said.

His face was a cold mask. “Tell me the unimportant news.”

I let out a sigh, hanging on to my patience. “We got close to Nicole a couple of times. The first time she opened the algorithm, we almost got her, but she had a bolthole and got away. We questioned her people, the ones we could pin down, but they were useless. The next time she opened the algo, it was a trap, and she almost got us. Darius is still in the hospital with shrapnel in his back. Nicole is in the wind. That’s the status report.”

Ethan nodded. “You could’ve told me that in a text,” he said. “You didn’t have to drive all the way up here, inconvenience my staff, and waste my time.”

I shrugged. “Live and learn.”

“You said Nicole might be the last person alive who might know who took Shane,” Ethan said.

“She might,” I said. “From the way they interacted, she seemed on equal footing with Boer.”

“That’s good to know, but I told you not to show your face around here until you had something to show for the danger you put my sister through.”

“I’m still working on it,” I said. “But I can’t wait any longer.”

“Sure you can. You have to. Because it’s really not up to you.”

The library door opened. A little girl with long wavy blonde hair burst in. “Uncle Ethan! Could you take me to the—” Her voice broke off as she saw Jed. Her eyes got very big. “Oh boy! It’s him, right?”

“I’m meeting with a colleague, honey. Go on out until I’m done. Off you go.”

But Holly was not fooled. She gazed at him with fascination. “Are you the one that Auntie Frey broke out of jail?”

A snort of nervous laughter burst out, earning me a dirty look from Ethan. “Uh, something like that,” I said.

“You’re handsome,” Holly said, approvingly.

“Thank you,” I said.

“I’ll go tell Auntie Frey!” She bolted out of the room.

“Holly!” Ethan called after her. “Don’t bother Freya! She’s working!”

But Holly was gone, and Ethan was cursing under his breath.

I felt something inside my chest start to relax. Thank God. At least, Freya would know I was here. I had had no way to make that happen other than trusting to luck.

“She did not need this right now,” Ethan said, his voice grim. “She still healing.”

The strange thing is, I actually got why he was so angry, but I couldn’t surrender. It wouldn’t be Ethan’s decision, whether Freya and I ended up together.

I wondered if he would ever forgive me, if I got lucky. Maybe not. He might just hate my guts until one of us croaked. That would be tedious, but whatever. If Freya would consent to be with me, I would barely notice. Ethan Masters snorting and snarling would be like a mosquito buzzing in my ear. An adverse weather condition.

An extremely brilliant and rich adverse weather condition. I was no pauper myself, but I wasn’t in that exclusive billionaire club. But Freya was just as smart as her brother, and she’d freely decided to consort with the likes of me. I just had to convince her to do it again and again, for the rest of her life. And to try to make it worth her while for the rest of mine.

“Hamon,” Masters called. “Bryson. You two, see Clearwater out. All the way back to his car. He needs to get gone, double-quick.”

Hamon gave me an appraising look, flexing his enormous muscles and cracking his tattooed knuckles. I didn’t bother to read whatever word the letters formed. The message in his eyes was clear. Another, equally huge guy with a big, bushy blond beard came into the room and joined him, also sizing me up.

“I’m not leaving,” I said.

“Wrong,” Ethan said. “My mistake was letting you in at all. I thought you might have a report, but no, you continue to be worse than useless. Fuck off, Clearwater.”

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