She was mortified. “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. Our relationship was never like that.”
She had a feeling she was starting to flail.
“How would you define the status of our relationship?” he asked.
“Well—”
“Let me know when you figure it out. Meanwhile, I suggest we both get cleaned up and go downstairs. I don’t know about you, but I need a drink.”
Fifty-Eight
They gathered in the resort’soutdoor bar. The long light of the setting sun bathed the sparkling pool and the luxuriously green golf course beyond in a golden glow. Sophy found the scene oddly surreal. It was hard to believe they were all safe.
The establishment was only lightly crowded. They found a booth that promised privacy and ordered drinks. Bruce took up a position under the table, alert for any bar snacks that might be coming his way. Sophy slipped him a pretzel.
Bea raised her wineglass. “To happy endings.”
Sophy and Luke and Deke followed suit and swallowed fortifying doses of medicinal alcohol.
Luke lowered his glass of whiskey and looked at Deke. “About this particular happy ending.”
Deke groaned and drank some of his whiskey. “I was afraid you were going to go there.”
“In the hologram message you wrote that you and Bea were planning to check out the Maze Gallery and that if youdisappeared, Sophy and I should not waste time looking for you. What went wrong?”
“My fault,” Deke said. “I’m getting too old for fieldwork.”
“It was not his fault,” Bea said firmly. “The plan went perfectly, right up until it didn’t.”
“That happens a lot with plans,” Luke noted. “Start from the beginning.”
“Not much to tell,” Deke said. “A month ago, Bea got an invitation to consult at the Fool’s Gold Canyon Art Colony. The proprietors wanted to verify the existence of the vortex forces. A large honorarium was offered plus a room at the inn.”
“It sounded interesting because of the money, of course,” Bea said. “But it was the location that intrigued me. How could I resist the chance to explore a little-known vortex site that had a lot of mysterious history? I accepted the offer, but then Deke decided to retire, so I changed my mind. I was getting ready to decline, but Deke got a ping and said maybe we should go together if I could get a ticket for a plus-one.”
“What was the ping?” Luke asked.
“I remembered coming across something about the Fool’s Gold site in the Agency files,” Deke said. “Bea and I did some serious digging in her library and came up with a vague link to Bluestone. I was curious, too. I was also getting suspicious. The art colony people approved the request for a plus-one.”
“What could possibly go wrong?” Sophy said.
Deke grimaced. “I figured that if something did go wrong, it would be Luke who would come looking for us, and Bea said you might be with him, Sophy. I had a contact hack the art colony website and print out a second set of reservations for a couple named Ainsley. I made sure you would get the same room we had been booked into, just in case. Figured it would give you a starting point.”
Sophy narrowed her eyes. “Did you know it would be the honeymoon suite?”
“Nope.” Deke shook his head. “Cool, huh? The sad part is that we never got a chance to enjoy it. As soon as we arrived at the art colony we knew something was way off. Found the mood tile in the sculpture in the room and decided to do some serious investigating. As a precaution we took the holographic photo with the message and Bea locked it into the crystal. We started with the gallery. Found the door to the old lab. Ran into the armed Barbies, who made it clear they wanted Bea but didn’t need me.”
“They tried to kill him,” Bea said. “He escaped, managed to find me, and together we made it into the safe room. It was our only option at that point.”
“We were safe in that prepper’s cave,” Deke said. “They couldn’t get at us. But after they put that padlock on the door, we couldn’t get out. So we sat back and waited for you to find us, Luke.”
“Sorry for the delay,” Luke said. “Things got complicated after you left Mirror Lake.”
“Yeah?” Deke cocked a brow. “How?”
“One of the Kaleidoscope shooters, Orston, murdered his partner in your cabin. They were there to get some background on you. Evidently Orston claimed his partner went insane and had to be put down.”
Bea frowned. “Someone was killed in Deke’s cabin? There will be a lot of very bad energy.”
