Chapter 27
It wasn’t until many hours later that Silver finally collapsed again, this time from exhaustion.
Nuri had lost count of how many times they’d both orgasmed, his body boneless and feeling more like jelly as he struggled to clean himself up before returning to bed where the Emperor was fast asleep.
He settled next to him, allowing himself a second to appreciate Silver’s features while he was unaware.
After what they’d just done, all of the tension that had built over the past couple of days had drained out of Nuri, leaving him relaxed and not as eager to deny himself.
Caught up in the afterglow, Nuri let his hand trail to Silver’s head, lightly twisting a lock of inky hair between his fingers.
There was still a bit of blood under his nails from when he’d clawed the Emperor’s back during a particularly rough pounding, but instead of feeling guilty about it, Nuri found himself smiling wistfully.
The Swiftbond made him addicted to Silver’s come. That was a fact. It made him crave these intimate moments, but it didn’t define how he’d want them. Nuri had to admit that this feeling of satisfaction he got whenever they’d finished stemmed directly from his own twisted desires.
He liked when the Emperor pushed him past his limits. When he held him down and fucked him into oblivion, ignoring his pleas for it to be over.
He liked that Silver wanted him that badly. Badly enough to lose his mind over him.
But he couldn’t let that bleed into other areas of their life, and since there was no way of stopping Silver’s controlling nature when they were outside of the bedroom, anymore than there was when they were in it…
Nuri sighed and rolled onto his back, staring sightlessly up at the ceiling.
This wouldn’t do.
He couldn’t keep running from this. From himself. He needed to figure out what it was he wanted, what he could accept, before—
His multi-slate chimed and he scrambled to answer before it woke Silver.
The Emperor stirred, but settled.
It wasn’t a call, but Nuri decided to take it outside anyway, pulling on a robe and padding out of the room as quietly as he could, N.I.M rolling dutifully after him since he’d forgotten to dock it in his haste to call the doctor.
In the hall, he sat down on one of the wooden benches and finally opened the message from Eli.
The guy, Scotch D’Ver, had confessed to slipping the drug into Silver’s drink.
He’d hoped to film it on his device and blackmail the Emperor for a position at Rein Inc.
He’d claimed to have nothing to do with the video that had played on the projector, and had even shown signs of anger that it’d interrupted his plans.
If not for the video, he would have convinced Silver to go somewhere more private before the drug had taken affect and he’d passed out.
For these reasons, Eli believed Scotch, but at the end of the message he made the biggest reveal.
Scotch had also taken responsibility for filming Ackor Hue.
His relief at having finally solved that mystery was short lived.
According to Eli, the email had been sent to Ackor Hue from one of Rien Inc.’s computers, but Scotch had gone through all this trouble tonight to try and bag himself a job. Even if he’d somehow found a way to visit the building, visitors weren’t allowed access to any of the company computers.
Nuri sent a quick message back requesting their team run facial recognition on all of HQs stored security footage for the past three months, but that wasn’t the only thing that didn’t sit right with him.
Since Nuri had visited himself, he also knew more about the security level at the club.
Club Spade wasn’t simply a classy establishment because of the hefty membership price tag.
They’d needed a keycard just to get the elevator to stop on the right floor.
With that being the case, even if someone had wanted to follow Silver upstairs, they wouldn’t have been able to.
Since he was the Emperor and therefore a V.V.I.P member, whenever he visited the rest of that floor was sealed off.
It was high-class, practically impenetrable security.
He’d personally combed through the footage he’d retrieved from Club Spade and could say without a shadow of a doubt that no one even remotely close to Scotch had entered the VIP room Silver always used.
In fact, in those three days he’d viewed, aside from Silver, only the cleaning crew had been given access.
He was waiting on thorough background checks for the crew, but one member had completely disappeared without a trace.
Up until this point, he’d thought that was a good sign he was looking in the right direction, but now he wasn’t so sure.
Nuri was also a little surprised that Silver hadn’t been more upset about the video, given all of that.
He paid for privacy and full disclosure, yet somehow someone had broken past all their safeguards and set up a hidden device to film him, and…
He’d waved Nuri off when he’d suggested they press charges.
That was…unlike him.
Silver was many things, but forgiving wasn’t one of them.
“Master Narek.” Falc appeared but was instantly silenced when Nuri held up a hand, not wanting to have his train of thought broken now that he was finally on the right track again.
Setting aside the impossibility of a random stranger gaining access to a Rien Inc.
company computer, it still wasn’t adding up.
The only people who knew which room Silver used at the club were employees and past lovers.
Silver never slept with the same person twice—Nuri not included—so he wasn’t the latter.
Maybe he knew one of the staff members? They could have let it slip…
but that still didn’t explain how Scotch had gotten his hands on Silver’s schedule and known when he would visit the club.
He needed to be logical about this. More often than not, the answer ended up being the most obvious one. If he checked off all the potential suspects on the list, what was he left with?
If it wasn’t an ex-lover, an employee of the club, or an employee of Rien Inc. who else could it have been? Who else had access to both the club and the office and was privy to Silver’s schedule? There wasn’t—
A wave of ice flooded through his bloodstream and Nuri must have gone pale because Falc frowned and reached for him.
“Are you all right, Master Narek?” He rested his hand on his shoulder and frowned down at him. “Taking care of his majesty’s needs couldn’t have been easy. Perhaps you should go back and get some rest.”
“No,” his voice cracked and he had to clear his throat to get it to sound normal, “No. I was just…dizzy for a second. I’m fine.”
He was anything but fine, but he sure as hell couldn’t let the butler in on that fact. At the first sign something was off Falc wouldn’t hesitate to get Silver, even if the Emperor was unwell.
Nuri inhaled slowly, trying to calm his nerves, and then forced an easy smile for Falc. “Really, I’m all right. Thank you.”
Falc hesitated.
“I have some work to do,” he said, formulating a plan to both get away from the inquisitive butler and also get him into Silver’s office without tripping Falc’s alarm bells. “I’ll be in the Emperor’s study for the time being. It’s almost three in the morning, I’m sure you’re tired.”
“All right. But if you continue feeling unwell, please inform me so I can summon Doctor Yi again.”
Nuri didn’t wait for him to leave, heading toward the office himself now that the conversation was over.
Once he made it into the room, he shut the door gently and flicked the lock just as an extra precaution. Even though he was determined to search the place for clues, he still took a moment to take in the familiar pace.
He’d spent more time in this office than he could count, but no one was allowed too close to Silver’s desk or his systems. Yet here Nuri was, about to riffle through his things like the traitor Romeo had accused him of being.
He could probably be charged with treason for this actually.
That should have been enough to have him second-guessing himself, but it wasn’t.
There was only one person who knew where Silver would have been that night and had full access to all of the computers at the office.
The Emperor himself.
Nuri didn’t want it to make as much sense as it did, and yet…
How else was he meant to explain how calmly Silver had presented that video to him that day?
Or why he hadn’t gone after the club for the breach in their security?
Then there’d been the question he’d asked when Nuri had gone to tell him that he’d dealt with Ackor Hue.
He’d wanted to know if he’d said anything else to him…
After Silver had confessed he’d known about their conversation from the start, Nuri had assumed that’d been why he’d asked in the first place, but what if there’d been another reason. What if he hadn’t wanted Ackor to tell Nuri?
So far, their investigation hadn’t gone anywhere. They couldn’t find whoever sent the message from Rein Inc. because whoever had done it was too clever and prepared.
Silver could have easily routed the signal.
If Silver was behind this, they would never link it back to him.
Nuri laughed, the sound uncomfortable and awkward even to his ears. But he had to be overthinking, right? What possible reason could the Emperor have had to do all of that to himself?
No, Nuri shook his head as he made his way over to the desk, done with stalling.
He shoved the chair out of the way and started with the drawers, honestly not even sure what exactly it was he was hoping to find.
Or, not find, as the case may be. Silver didn’t have a problem manipulating people for his own gain, but no matter which way Nuri spun it, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what would prompt him to set something like that into motion.