“I think that’s a grand plan,” I agreed. “And I have to say, I’ve sat through a lot of boring stakeouts. This isn’t a bad one for sitting for a couple hours.”
He leaned back against the couch, arm up, crossed his ankle over his knee. This position of relaxed leisure was even more tempting. Our hostess arrived with our drinks and a tiny plate of marshmallows with two sticks for roasting.
“Thank you,” I said.
She gave us a nod and left us to our own devices. Abe set his drink on the table, untouched. “For cover, not for drinking,” he said.
“Good call,” I murmured. The elephant in the room, at least for me, was being joined to Abe’s side in a romantic bar, surrounded by secluded trees in front of a roaring fire.
It was not a situation where I needed any extra looseness. But I did like seeing him spike a marshmallow on a stick. He handed it to me, looking uncharacteristically boyish in the crackling firelight.
I allowed it to roast, watched the flames dance and lick across the sweet surface. When I pulled the marshmallow free, blowing on my fingers, he flashed me a serene smile that curled my toes.
“Why did you choose criminal justice to pursue?” he asked. “It can be a lonely and frustrating career, especially without a team working alongside you.”
My eyes found his over the fire; I worked as hard as I could to maintain contact. Not because I didn’t want him to think I was lying. I wasn’t. The truth was just as hard to say with a straight face. “My lying parents didn’t have a strong moral code, to say the least. They would steal an apple from a kindergartner’s hand if they wanted to and they didn’t think they’d get caught. After I—” fled in the night “—graduated from high school and didn’t see them anymore, it felt like my responsibility to punish people like that. To balance the scales of justice, no matter how small. My first criminal justice class felt like…” I pressed my fingertips to my sternum, then stretched my arm out straight. “I felt like a hook had been lodged in my chest and I was being yanked forward. In a really, really good way.”
“You found your calling,” Abe said simply.
“I did,” I said. “I wanted to be a private detective because I wanted to work for myself, work on my own. But I’m slowly learning that taking pictures of employees who are stealing from the company is only so gratifying. This, taking down something bigger than me, feels like the hook in my sternum is on fucking steroids.”
Fewer than four weeks had passed since the first day I’d walked through that dazzling library on my way to meeting Louisa for the first time. This afternoon I’d felt differently towards those books, those students, the value of such a place to our world. I wasn’t a person who had a cultured upbringing, who discussed literature or history or understood classical philosophy. But the vitality of rare manuscripts in what they offered the world was becoming clearer and clearer to me. And the absolute destruction Bernard’s crimes had caused was becoming a cause closer and closer to my heart.
“I understand this feeling well,” Abe said. He removed a Codex business card from his pocket, holding it by his fingers for me to see. “Why did you take this? I don’t doubt at all what you told me. I don’t know what happened to you in the past, Sloane. My guess is your lying parents had something to do with your ability to steal without getting caught. It feels like your past. Not your present. Definitely not your future.”
My lips parted on a surprised inhale.
Sweet, sexy, take-no-bullshit man. No wonder he was so tempting.
“You reacted to Bernard’s name,” I said. “When I was sitting next to you, I caught you respond.”
He swallowed hard. “I caught you respond as well.”
We’d been evenly matched from day one, Abe and I.
“At that stage in the case I was desperate to follow any lead, no matter how small. It was a spontaneous decision, a dumb one, but I wanted to know who you were. Figured checking your pocket was a good start for a small scrap of identifying information. At that point, you weren’t revealing your name to me, remember?”
Emotion flickered across his face, fraught and a little wild. “I remember.”
That still wasn’t the full answer. The full answer was my body’s raw, primal response to Abe. He knew too—was merely waiting for me to reveal the core truth I was hesitant to fully address.
“Growing up, the only way I ever received attention from my parents was by stealing. My instincts, I think, were to steal from you and get your attention. I liked you, Abe.”
The words had spilled out without any editing or uncertainty. My face burned like the fire, and I distracted myself by licking the warm sugar from the tips of my finger.
“Your plan worked,” he said, voice low. “You had my attention, Sloane. Have kept my attention, actually. Even when I should be focused elsewhere.”
I actually gulped beneath the erotic intensity of Abraham Royal studying me like a gourmet dessert he couldn’t wait to savor.
“I am… sorry if it upset you,” I managed. Whispered. “Truly, I am. That was the first time I’d done that since I was a teenager.”
He was watching my lips. Staring at my fingers. Staring at the marshmallow, dripping into my palm. I licked more sugar from my thumb, sighed a little with happiness. It was good. Campfire marshmallows were a brand-new experience for me.
“Why didn’t you give me your real name?” I asked, nudging his knee with mine.
“I stand by that man on vacation is my legal name.” Lips quirked, dry tone, Abe Royal was flirting with me.
“Don’t you dare try to get out of the hot seat.” I pointed my marshmallow stick right at his heart. “Truth for truth. You know the drill.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Honestly? I’m not quite sure. I’ve never done that before. I’ve picked up women, enjoyed sex with strangers where we only exchange first names and pertinent health information. But never once have I given no name on purpose.”
I mirrored his earlier action, waiting for the truth to appear.
“I do need a vacation.” He sighed. “And I really, truly have not had fun in an awfully long time. You were…” He paused, ran his tongue along his lower lip. “You were the most captivating woman I had ever seen, Sloane. Not being an obsessed workaholic for one night—not being Abraham Royal—was suddenly a very alluring option for me.”
This time, I handed him a marshmallow. He took it, popped it into his mouth with sparkling eyes. I laughed. “Talk about alluring.”
He swallowed. “Did that answer your question?”
I nodded, bit my lip. “There’s a real thrill in being another person for a night. Flirting with a stranger at a bar for no reason other than the pleasure of it.”
“Does breaking the rules give you a thrill?” He was still staring at my mouth.
“Not usually,” I said, heart beating fast at his nearness, the scrape in his voice. “Only if I see the action as a means to a greater end. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do, for example, to bring down a person as evil as Bernard. Even if that means bending the rules a little.”
“We do that too,” he said. Swallowed hard. “At Codex.”