It might be a weakness, but it was really fucking nice to think about someone looking out formewhile I was trying to look out for the world.
I opened my eyes and stared out at the water again… just in time to spot Santi Alvarado leaning toward Jett with a hand on his face.
“What the fuck?” I muttered to the empty room.
After looking closer through watery shadows and blue-tinted light, I could make out that Jett’s eyes were wide and his body language was all over the place. Not guarded. Not reserved. Notstaying the fuck away from Santilike I’d instructed.
Anger flared. My back teeth felt like they were going to break apart. I stormed out of the office and nearly knocked Selene Mercier over.
“Pardon,” I said. “I was just on my way?—”
Her face was tight, and she looked upset. “Can we talk?”
I hesitated, torn between delaying to save Jett from Santi’s clutches and calming the fuck down.
The choice was far harder than it should have been. Harder than it would have been even a few days ago. But ultimately, I forced myself to choose the latter.
“Of course, Selene. Come in.”
She moved past me into the study, and I closed the door behind us.
“What’s going on?”
She stood behind a chair, her long, dark hair glinting in the light from a nearby lamp. As the only other American on the council, she’d been social friends with my grandfather from time to time. This meant I knew her a little better than the others and naturally trusted her more. Whether I should or not remained to be seen.
She inhaled through her nose, then spoke. “I’m sure we shouldn’t be speaking of this outside the game room, but I honestly don’t know the proper procedure for this, Locke. And I’m not sure who on the council I can trust.”
I frowned. There was a reason why the council didn’t conduct our business through conversations. Selene knew this as well as I did. But the idea of her breaking protocol could only mean?—
“One of the players has made an illegal move outside of the game,” she said in a hushed voice.
“What kind of move?”
Her eyes met mine. “Using information in a game to expand personal wealth.”
I stared at her for a moment, uncomprehending. Notwantingto comprehend.
Betraying the rules of the game was unfathomable. Because of the nature of what we did and the secrecy around our legacy,we couldn’t simply boot someone out of the group. If someone left the Paxis Council, they left in a box.
This rule was so well-known, it hadn’t needed to be enforced since before my grandfather’s tenure on the council.
It was also the reason the entire council had to approve any new members, regardless of bloodline or legacy. Santi Alvarado wouldn’t be allowed to learn the truth of the game unless he proved worthy.
Which seemed impossible now that I was going to drown him in my own pool.
“Which of us?” I demanded.
She shook her head and shrugged. “I haven’t gotten that far.”
I let out a frustrated breath. “How do you know this, then?”
Selene moved to take a seat in one of the two armchairs in front of the large desk, so I joined her in the other. “Remember the last tournament? Your grandfather and I made a collaborative move.”
I thought back to the decision to invest in microchips to advance counterfeit-resistant medical supply tracking. As a group, we’d decided Mercier’s own company couldn’t be involved without raising suspicion, so she’d advised which of her competitors should get the contract.
“I remember,” I said.
“A significant number of shares in my competitor’s company were acquired mere hours after that move was played, for a sum large enough to have gotten the attention of Wall Street.”
