The informant dropped his head briefly before snapping it back up. He turned to face her, his features on full display in the flickering lamplight.
A tousle of loose, dark waves tumbled over one side of his forehead, and thick brows hooded deep brown eyes. A ridged nose led to the familiar curve of a mouth, and the tan skin of his jaw was dusted with only the shadow of a beard.
Recognition came to Jade first slowly, a trickle of water escaping from a crack in a dam before the whole thing broke. She hadn’t had the whole picture before, but she knew that mouth, those eyes. That voice, as smooth as silk and rich as a full-bodied coffee.
The man from the masquerade.
“It was you?”
A small smirk cracked his emotionless façade, and he gestured to his whole body with his hands up and down. “I’m me.”
Jade scoffed and crossed her arms. “You know what I mean.”
He offered her a slight dip of his head. “It’s nice to meet you as yourself and not as Elena Tavigne.”
A sense of betrayal swirled in Jade’s mind, and she didn’t release the grip of her arms across her chest. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were before,Nicolas?”
Nicolas flung a carefree hand to the side. “It was hardly the time or place. I remain unseen for a reason. Much like you.”
Jade said nothing, waiting for him to continue, her feet still planted in the exact spot where she had stopped after entering the room. “And that reason is...?”
A smirk flashed on his face again, and his eyes fell to his hands as he tugged at the fingers of his gloves, pulling them off. “I like you, Jade. You’re blunt. Straight to the point. You don’t mess around.”
Jade bristled at the casual use of her given name from a stranger. But was he a stranger? She’d been receiving notes—and making decisions based on them—from him for so long, her informant felt familiar to her. And she couldn’t forget the way they had danced together at the masquerade ball. How quickly they became acquainted. How his touch on her waist had banished the breath from her lungs. How her heart had raced when he had pulled her closer to him.
“So why am I here, exactly? Why now?”
Nicolas dropped the gloves onto the tabletop and extended an arm toward the grouping of chairs and sofas. “Have a seat. This might take a while.”
Jade wanted to refuse, her stubbornness getting the better of her, but she had done everything else. She had answered his call, met him at the farmhouse, allowed him to guide her to this bunker. Refusing to sit on a sofa and make herself more comfortable seemed ridiculous now.
He waited until she tore her feet from the thin rug covering the cold stone floor and moved to sit on one of the sofas. Nicolas sat in a chair next to her, extending his arms along the length of the armrests and wrapping hisfingers around the ends. His eyes locked onto hers, but nothing inside Jade was unnerved by his stare. If anything, it helped continue to assuage any uncertainties that arose. She only saw the man from the masquerade ball.
“You’ve done excellent work for the military in this conflict,” he began, bringing his right leg to cross over his left. “I’m not sure they realize entirely how important your work has been in helping the heir to the throne.”
Jade shrugged. “Anyone in my position would do the same thing. And most of the ‘excellent work’ I did only happened because of you, anyway.”
“But I’m not the one out there doing the dirty work. I commend you for that.”
Jade’s brows pinched. He had to be out there somehow. How else was he finding out enough for the leads he sent to Jade? “How do you get your information?”
Nicolas tipped his chin up, the shadow of a smile teasing his lips. “Another good question. In due time.”
Frustration ruffled Jade, but she tried to push it aside. He would give her answers. He hadn’t brought her here for nothing.
“I’ve been watching you for some time now. It’s how I discovered your skills. You’re better than your commanding officers give you credit for. It’s a shame it took me providing you with information for the military to give you the recognition you deserve. Those promotions were long overdue.”
The unease that flickered with his admission of how long he’d been watching her was nearly squelched by the swell of pride within her at his praise. Yes, he’d been watching her, but what he had learned in doing so was that she was good at what she did. He saw her potential more than most in the military did.
“That brings me to a proposition, which is the reason why I brought you here.” His fingers on both hands thrummed the chair arms once. “You and I already work well together. We’ve learned as much from the limited contact I have been able to make and how well you use my information. I would like you to work for me, apart from the military. You would do muchof what you are doing now—following leads I discover—but then you would report any findings directly to me first. And, if I deem it necessary, not relay the information to your military commander.”
Jade maintained an air of calm as her heart thundered. Reporting to Nicolas first and then possiblynotreporting to Matherson at all—it could be considered treason. At the very least, she would absolutely be reprimanded if anyone found out, which could be a loss of rank or even loss of her position within the military entirely. It wasn’t worth that risk.
“Why should I work for you?” Her voice came out stronger and steadier than she expected. “It sounds like a good way to lose everything I’ve worked hard to achieve. There’s no benefit to me.”
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong.” Nicolas lifted a finger in the air to emphasize his point. “Tell me, what is the goal of the military in this conflict over the line of succession?”
Jade crossed her arms again. She wasn’t in a class, and this was no quiz. “I don’t like being patronized.”
