Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Adrian snorted. “He’s good at nonsense.”
“He carries the air of someone who is massively wealthy. There is no price tag too big. Nothing will stand in his way if he wants it.”
Haru nodded. “All these things you say are true.”
Vitor motioned to Haru and lifted his eyebrows at Adrian, as if to say, “See!”
“Okay, you’ve got a point,” Adrian mumbled.
“These are all things that I would need weeks to teach you, but Haru does them all naturally now.” Vitor folded his arms across his chest and shifted his weight from his left to his right foot as he stared at Haru. “We would need to give you a few talking points to help you if anyone were to ask about your business.” He then looked at Adrian. “And we would need to work on your character a bit.”
“My character? I’m going to pose as his bodyguard, right?”
“At a glamorous party? How many people do you think are going to have bodyguards trailing after them, waiting to chime in if their boss gets in too deep?” Vitor shook his head. “No, you’ll be posing as his lover. It would give you the freedom to cling to Haru as well as mingle with the other guests to pursue separate leads.”
“I don’t know…” Each word tumbled off Adrian’s tongue full of apprehension.
“No, this is a brilliant plan.” Haru walked to the chair where Adrian was and squatted so that he was almost at eye level. “You will cling to me and pretend to adore me while I convince them to give me all their secrets. We will drink champagne and locate Shey. It will work.”
Adrian groaned and dropped his head into his hands. “Oh gods, this is a terrible idea.”
CHAPTER 11
Shey Thrudesh-Vo
“I’m going stir-crazy in here, Ty,” Shey grumbled as he paced his cell. He had no idea how much time had passed. At least a couple of weeks. Maybe less. Maybe more. Everything bled together in an endless monotony that was broken only by random interrogation sessions.
He was getting better at surviving Scarella’s sessions without shattering into a million pieces. He wasn’t sure if he was more frightened by the fact that he could feel himself growing numb to it all or that talking to Ty afterward was the fastest way to pull his fractured mind back together.
His prison mate was taken with the same frequency, but where Shey demanded that Ty talk to him, the other man asked only for silence. Hours would pass and all Shey could hear was Ty’s ragged breathing and the occasional choked sob. When he felt better, his first words would always be about food.
But today had been quiet. Guards had brought food twice, so Shey figured there was about a fifty-fifty chance they’d get food again before he was tired enough to sleep.
“What do you want me to do about it? Shall I just pop over to your cell and put on a bit of a play for you?” Ty snarked.
“Could you?”
A ragged laugh echoed through the cellblock, bringing a hint of a smile to Shey’s lips. He’d gotten glimpses of Ty a few times now as they’d moved Shey to and from his cell for interrogations. Ty wasn’t at all what he had expected. There was something about his tone and words that conjured up an image of a crotchety old man with thinning white hair on his head and bushy gray whiskers on his chin, half covering a face of wrinkles.
But Ty was a wiry, thin young man who looked to be in his early twenties with messy auburn hair that hung down his back. His eyes were enormous, glittering emeralds that dominated his lean face. His clothes hung on his slender frame, but not so much that it appeared as if he’d lost a massive amount of weight while imprisoned. There was a dusky undertone to his skin as if he were normally darker complexioned, but the endless days inside had stolen away his color, leaving him pallid and sickly.
They’d talked endlessly, and yet Shey couldn’t say he knew all that much about Ty. The man was adamant about good coffee, fresh bread, and clean blankets that had been aired in the warm spring sun. He’d traveled throughout the world, but Shey couldn’t pin down where he originally might be from. His accent was almost nonexistent and could fluctuate based purely on the place he was talking about at the time, as if the old memories were also calling up the region’s dialect.
Not that Shey had volunteered any actual information about himself, and Ty hadn’t asked.
“Tell me again how it’s going to work,” Ty ordered.
Shey snorted at the command, but he did as Ty wished. “We’ll go after having a meal.”
“Because we don’t know what waits for us outside this building and we’ll need our strength,” Ty chimed in. There was a murmur of deep happiness in his words. The promise of escape was keeping them both clinging to hope.