“Then what?”
“I don’t know.” Dameon folded his arms as he stood before Winter. “You tell me.”
The carefully crafted story that Winter had told himself began to fall apart under the steadiness of Dameon’s stare. But the truth—that he was Sydney’s partner in another dangerous mission, that the president was in danger, that Panacea’s agent might be missing or dead, that he couldn’t tell anyone. Not even one of his best friends.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” he replied. “I’ll be fine. Gavi’s going back to the States after we leave Singapore for our next stop. And Ashley’s an asset to the team. She’s good.”
“Is that why you treat her differently from your other guards?”
Winter crossed his arms. “What’s with your fixation on her?”
“Just seems odd you only hire her for overseas jobs. Why didn’t you keep her on after we came back from London?”
“Because we didn’t need her.” He rubbed his temples. “She’s too expensive, and we don’t use her to her full potential. You know she’s got experience with presidents, right?” Not exactly a lie.
“Yeah, when we were boarding, I overheard her speaking fluent Mandarin to the flight attendant.”
“Are you saying she’s overqualified to be my bodyguard? Because I’d have to agree.”
Dameon hesitated. “I’m just saying. When sheishere, she never leaves your side. Never. Does she go to the bathroom with you, too?”
“Dameon, she stays in the adjoining room. Just like every other one of my personal bodyguards. There’s nothing weird going on here. I promise.” The lie stung and Winter braced for impact.
But even though Dameon didn’t look like he believed Winter, not fully anyway, he gave him a nod and let it go. “Sorry,” he said after a moment. “Maybe I’m reading too much into this trip.”
Winter smiled a little. “Well, you may be right about that.”
A beat of silence hung between them before Dameon finally nodded again. “See you back out there,” he said.
“I’ll be out in a few minutes,” Winter replied. “I just need to close my eyes for a bit.”
Before he left, Dameon leaned closer to Winter.
“And be careful with Gavi,” he whispered.
“You always say this,” Winter began. “I didn’t think you cared who I dated anymore.”
“I don’t. It’s been years since we—” He paused and threw his hands up in frustration. “Look, I mean it,” he went on in a low voice. “I know you invited her, but she always has an ulterior motive. So you might want to ask yourself why she’s really here.”
He scowled. “We’ve only dated for three years. I’m aware of who she is, Dame. I’ve got it under control.”
Dameon studied him, then turned away. Winter looked on at the swing of his friend’s dreadlocks as he shut the door behind him. A current of fear hummed under his skin, the unspoken glances and tension telling him what he didn’t want to admit to himself—that Dameon suspected something. Dameon was better at reading him than most, perhaps because of their past; he’d always been able to sense changes in Winter’s mood. And maybe he couldn’t put his finger on it, maybe he would never be able to give voice to what it was, but Winter knew he could feel it, could sense his friend’s unease stirring.
If Dameon found out, it could endanger his life. That had happened with Leo in London. And it could put Sydney at risk even more.
Winter had to get better at hiding everything, even if he didn’t know how.
He flopped backward onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling, felt the disorientation of being suspended in a tin can forty thousand feet in the air. Maybe this would be the last time his friend suspected anything.Maybe, years later, when he and Sydney had long put this behind them, Dameon would ask if he’d ever had a fling with Ashley or if anything strange had happened between them, and Winter would lie and laugh along, and everything would be fine.
You are going to become a professional liar, Winter Young,Sauda had once told him.Your deception to your loved ones will protect their lives.
He was doing a good thing. Winter repeated it to himself several times, letting the thought cling to him. And although he couldn’t quite convince himself, at least he had sixteen hours on this flight to try. So he lay there, his mind whirling, until the flight finally lulled him into a light sleep.
8Enemies in Plain Sight
From the sky, Singapore looked like an expanse of emerald and blue—swaths of thick jungle interrupted by sprawling squares of farmland or terraced hills of rice paddies, the greenery turning patchier the closer they drew to the center of the city, until the plane banked and the entire city came into view, a massive metropolitan expanse of futuristic skyscrapers and bridges arching over snaking rivers.
Sydney stared at the enormous electronic ads playing against the sides of the skyscrapers as they came in for a landing, her eyes locking now and then on landmarks—twin needle towers joined by a dozen walkways, an illuminated skyscraper that looked like a spiraling fractal, a building in the shape of a giant fan.
