Eric held a chair for Nikolett, and she sat. Then he planted his hands on the table and leaned forward, looming over the table like a warlord ready to examine a battle map.
“Who is he, and how do we find him?”
Sadly, it wasn’t as simple as asking a question, because no one had the answer. Half the table didn’t even understand the question. They were here because someone had sabotaged a plane of Masters’ Admiralty people, killing one of their own. It took half an hour to catch everyone up on what they knew about the Spaniard, and what had happened over the past few days.
Every time it veered into conjecture, someone yanked it back.
“We’re starting over with facts only,” Grigoris said when he stopped Regina at one point.
Nikolett stayed quiet, listening. She kept her expression neutral when they discussed Angus McAngus and the chancemeeting in the coffee shop. When the facts were laid out, it seemed pathetically obvious that Gus agreeing to meet in Paris right after the Spaniard accepted the job should have triggered alarms. It was too coincidental.
She ignored the way attention slid to her and then away as they very gently discussed that Nikolett’s date was not a ruse to gather information about a suspect. She’d been considering him as a potential husband. She could have wept with gratitude as Regina made it sound like after the date, she was immediately suspicious of Gus, and therefore created a secondary trap by luring him to her hotel room a few days later. Regina didn’t say anything that wasn’t factually accurate, but she made it sound much more logical and reasonable than it had been.
No one but herself, Eric, and Gus, knew they’d been discussing a poly relationship before Grigoris darted him like an escaped zoo animal.
They were working in reverse chronological order from the most recent events to their first known interaction with the Spaniard, and finally reached the beginning. “He told Vadisk ‘say hello to your admiral’ which we now know means Nikolett,” Grigoris said as he finished explaining what happened in Crimea.
Everyone nodded in agreement. It would be easy to stay silent and let everyone operate under that false information.
“No.” It took all her courage to say it. Even more to hold herself still as attention shifted to her.
“Based on something the Spaniard said to me, I believe that first remark wasn’t in reference to me. As Grigoris pointed out, there was some ambiguity with the Russian grammar.”
She could feel Eric looking at her, but ignored him, instead rising to her feet.
“Who was he talking about?” Raphael asked.
Nikolett locked her knees—she was starting to shake. “He was talking abouttheadmiral. The fleet admiral.” She finally looked at Eric. “He was talking about Eric.”
“How do you know this?” Eleni, the Ottoman vice admiral asked.
“I haven’t yet had a chance to talk to anyone about…about what he told me before he escaped from the plane.”
“You’ve been withholding information,” Cezary, the Bohemia admiral scolded.
She was not in the mood to be scolded by a man who thought his age gave him the right to talk to her like that. “No,” she said in an icy voice. “I’ve been busy with the authorities investigating the crash and making sure my man who is currently in a coma received the best care.”
“Did he tell you who he is? How he is tied to the Masters’ Admiralty?” Sophia asked before Cezary could say something else.
“No,” Nikolett answered truthfully. “He didn’t tell me what his ties are to the society, or who he is.”
But she knew. She knew.
Nikolett looked at Regina who nodded and said, “Same type. The other test takes longer,” in Hungarian.
Nikolett hadn’t been sure Regina would remember what she’d asked her to look into just before the plane crash. Apparently, she’d remembered and had run the tests.
“Whatdidthe Spaniard say to you?” Sophia asked.
Nikolett took a step away from the table. She was going to say this and then she was going to run. She didn’t care how it looked. Didn’t care what they’d say about her.
She’d run, he’d come after her, and that would mean they’d have privacy for what came next. She’d rather look like a coward than once again have an audience for getting her heart broken.
Eric was watching her, tense and ready. She could feel his focus like heat on her skin.
“He said that it was never about me. It was always about Eric.”
The air seemed to freeze at her words.
