Setting aside the impossibility of a random stranger gaining access to a Rien Inc. company computer, it still wasn’t adding up. The only people who knew which room Silver used at the club were employees and past lovers. Silver never slept with the same person twice—Nuri not included—so he wasn’t the latter. Maybe he knew one of the staff members? They could have let it slip…but that still didn’t explain how Scotch had gotten his hands on Silver’s schedule and known when he would visit the club.
He needed to be logical about this. More often than not, the answer ended up being the most obvious one. If he checked off all the potential suspects on the list, what was he left with?
If it wasn’t an ex-lover, an employee of the club, or an employee of Rien Inc. who else could it have been? Who else had access to both the club and the office and was privy to Silver’s schedule? There wasn’t—
A wave of ice flooded through his bloodstream and Nuri must have gone pale because Falc frowned and reached for him.
“Are you all right, Master Narek?” He rested his hand on his shoulder and frowned down at him. “Taking care of his majesty’s needs couldn’t have been easy. Perhaps you should go back and get some rest.”
“No,” his voice cracked and he had to clear his throat to get it to sound normal, “No. I was just…dizzy for a second. I’m fine.”
He was anything but fine, but he sure as hell couldn’t let the butler in on that fact. At the first sign something was off Falc wouldn’t hesitate to get Silver, even if the Emperor was unwell.
Nuri inhaled slowly, trying to calm his nerves, and then forced an easy smile for Falc. “Really, I’m all right. Thank you.”
Falc hesitated.
“I have some work to do,” he said, formulating a plan to both get away from the inquisitive butler and also get him into Silver’s office without tripping Falc’s alarm bells. “I’ll be in the Emperor’s study for the time being. It’s almost three in the morning, I’m sure you’re tired.”
“All right. But if you continue feeling unwell, please inform me so I can summon Doctor Yi again.”
Nuri didn’t wait for him to leave, heading toward the office himself now that the conversation was over.
Once he made it into the room, he shut the door gently and flicked the lock just as an extra precaution. Even though he was determined to search the place for clues, he still took a moment to take in the familiar pace.
He’d spent more time in this office than he could count, but no one was allowed too close to Silver’s desk or his systems. Yet here Nuri was, about to riffle through his things like the traitor Romeo had accused him of being.
He could probably be charged with treason for this actually.
That should have been enough to have him second-guessing himself, but it wasn’t.
There was only one person who knew where Silver would have been that night and had full access to all of the computers at the office.
The Emperor himself.
Nuri didn’t want it to make as much sense as it did, and yet…How else was he meant to explain how calmly Silver had presented that video to him that day? Or why he hadn’t gone after the club for the breach in their security? Then there’d been the question he’d asked when Nuri had gone to tell him that he’d dealt with Ackor Hue. He’d wanted to know if he’d said anything else to him…
After Silver had confessed he’d known about their conversation from the start, Nuri had assumed that’d been why he’d asked in the first place, but what if there’d been another reason. What if he hadn’t wanted Ackor to tell Nuri?
So far, their investigation hadn’t gone anywhere. They couldn’t find whoever sent the message from Rein Inc. because whoever had done it was too clever and prepared.
Silver could have easily routed the signal.
If Silver was behind this, they would never link it back to him.
Nuri laughed, the sound uncomfortable and awkward even to his ears. But he had to be overthinking, right? What possible reason could the Emperor have had to do all of that tohimself?
No, Nuri shook his head as he made his way over to the desk, done with stalling. He shoved the chair out of the way and started with the drawers, honestly not even sure what exactly it was he was hoping to find. Or, not find, as the case may be. Silverdidn’t have a problem manipulating people for his own gain, but no matter which way Nuri spun it, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what would prompt him to set something like that into motion.
Ackor Hue had been an afterthought at best, annoying toward the end of their session, but not pushy enough to rub Silver’s vengeful side. He wouldn’t have bothered filming them doing it, giving him the video, and asking him to blackmail him with it just so he could send Nuri to deliver a threatening letter.
Because that’s all that had happened. Nuri had brought a legal notice and Ackor had gotten a slap on the wrist.
Nuri needed to see the video again.
Having found nothing in the drawers he closed them and then reached for the N.I.M. ball in his pocket, setting it on the desk and accessing it with his multi-slate. The Emperor’s tablet was there already, carefully set in the center, and Nuri commanded his N.I.M. to hack into the systems. It was a trick he’d learned in college during one of the few classes he’d taken without Silver, though he’d never dreamed of using it against the Emperor.
Yes. Definitely at risk of committing treason.
