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"Why did you call me your partner?"

Adrianos doesn't pretend he doesn't understand. "Because you are."

"In front of the Crown."

"Would you have preferred a certificate?"

"Possibly. Something embossed."

He leans back. "I'll arrange it."

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

I look at him. The humor disappears first from his face, then mine.

"I didn't know you were going to say that."

"I know."

"Santiago nearly choked."

"An unexpected benefit."

I smile briefly before shaking my head. "That's not what I'm asking."

Adrianos studies me.

"What are you asking?"

"What does it mean?"

His gaze moves toward the city. For several moments, he says nothing. Normally, I would fill the silence. Tonight I let him have it.

"When Nikos died," he finally says, "I thought there had to have been something I missed."

My chest tightens. He rarely speaks about his son unless pushed.

"A warning. A person I should have watched more closely. Some decision that would have changed what happened." His thumb moves slowly against the edge of his glass. "I went through everything afterward. Every conversation. Every security report. Every movement. I thought if I could find the mistake, I could understand how to make sure it never happened again."

"Did you find one?"

"No."

The answer costs him.

"I found dozens of things I could have done differently. None guaranteed a different outcome. That was worse."

I understand before he continues.

"You couldn't control it."

"No."

One word. But more honest than paragraphs would have been from another man.

"Then my parents died. More decisions. More things I should have anticipated. More proof that everything can disappear while you're still convincing yourself you have time."