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I glanced up at the sky as I let the ropes fall to the ground. “It’s too dark to take you to the community tonight. Stay with me and I’ll take you in the morning.”

Unease flickered across her face. “I―”

“You’re not my type,” I said honestly.

“Too old? Not pretty enough?”

“You’re only a couple of years older than me, and you’re plenty pretty. Just too female.”

“Oh.” She managed a weak smile. “Well, in that case.” I held out my arm, and she took it. “You’re being very kind, Noah.”

I led her toward the tunnel. “Not really. Just selfish enough to want company for one night. And it’s Keaton, not Noah.”

“But you said―”

“Yeah…” I sighed. I didn’t know how August did it. I’d barely lasted five minutes. When we reached the entrance to the converted cave, I ushered Rebecca inside while I paused at the entrance to look up at the castle. “Get this thing done, August, and come back to me.”

I imagined him rolling his eyes and telling me a few weeks was nothing compared to the time I’d already waited. And he’d be right.

Chapter Twenty-eight

August

I spoon-fed William tiny snippets of visions over the next few days, reeling him in slowly with tales of the beautiful—and completely mythical—woman. I described her dress, the way she wore her hair, and invented a tragic past in which her family had died, leaving her desperate for a man like him. Someone strong. Someone sure of his place in the world. Someone who could rescue her from the drudgery her life had become. He devoured it like a starving man savoring the crumbs offered to him.

If not for the passing of days and the knowledge Keaton was waiting, I might have enjoyed wrapping William around my little finger. But I couldn’t stop thinking about how loud the bees must have become in my absence.

Then there was Bruce. Whenever he was around, there was a watchfulness in his gaze that unsettled me. He never said or did anything. But something in his expression made me suspect he wasn’t buying it. So I watched him while he watched me, both of us locked in a silent, unspoken dance.

He and William were close, but how close? While I whispered in William’s ear to maneuver him to my side, did Bruce pull him in the opposite direction behind my back? I had no proof, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.

Men like William didn’t get where they were without being clever. Were we both playing a role? And what about Bruce? He seemed like more muscle than brainpower, but what if that was a role too? A game within a game within a game.

The longer it went on, the less I slept. And without sleep, my cognitive abilities would decrease, and my objectivity would go. Clever would turn stupid. Two steps ahead would become one step behind. I needed to bring this thing to its conclusion, and soon.

With that in mind, I was seconds away from feigning a vision when Bruce blundered into the room without knocking. I cleared my expression, hiding my irritation behind a veneer of neutrality.

“Problem?” William asked.

“Someone let Rebecca go. We went to check on her, and she wasn’t there.”

William took his time turning the words over in his mind, as he always did. “How do you know someone released her?”

“The rope was cut,” Bruce said. “The tide didn’t wash it away.”

I cursed Keaton silently for not taking the rope with him. I’d taken the one used on Madeleine for that very reason.

“What about Rebecca?” William pressed.

“Not there,” Bruce said with a shrug.

“Did she turn?”

Another shrug. “I’d thought you’d want to know. Especially after what we suspected with Madeleine.”

Oh, they’d had suspicions, had they? Interesting that they’d never mentioned it while I was around. “The man released her,” I said, making a snap decision I hoped wouldn’t prove my undoing.

Both heads turned my way. William’s eyes narrowed. “What man?”