Chapter 4 #4
Guests moving toward the ceremony.
Staff.
Musicians.
Family.
Women in silk.
Men in tuxedos.
Someone carrying champagne.
Someone adjusting flowers.
Someone laughing beside the fountain.
Vesper is here.
Somewhere.
Watching.
Again.
“No one leaves.”
Kane turns sharply.
“Can we maybe save the lockdown, interrogations, and full-body searches until after I exchange vows?”
“I need to identify every—”
“Blackwell.”
Drew steps directly in front of me.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Travers.”
“No.”
“I don’t have time.”
“You have all day. Haverhill has forty minutes.”
“Thirty-seven,” Kane says.
Drew points at him.
“Go get married.”
Kane looks between us. “I’d really like confirmation nobody is planning to assassinate me first.”
Drew glances toward Sergei.
Sergei shrugs.
“I was paid only for entrance.”
Kane closes his eyes.
“That is remarkably unhelpful.”
Leo shakes his head.
“This whole thing was stupid.”
I look at him.
“I know.”
“No, I mean all of it.” Leo gestures toward Sergei, the device, the estate. “We invited a mystery hacker into Haverhill’s wedding.”
“Yes.”
“I’m finding Jade.”
Drew looks at him. “Why?”
“Because when she realizes this happened, she’ll somehow blame me.”
Fair.
He walks away.
I stare at the photograph.
“I fucked up.”
The admission is quiet.
Drew hears it anyway.
His face changes.
Less clown.
More friend.
“Hey.”
“I gave an unknown person access to a private event.”
“Yeah.”
“I built the credential.”
“Also yeah.”
“I violated my own security architecture.”
Drew tilts his head.
“You want the honest answer?”
“Yes.”
“That was spectacularly stupid.”
Vale laughs.
I glare.
Drew claps a hand against my shoulder.
“But she’s not here to assassinate anybody.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.”
“She breached my perimeter.”
“She sent you Sergei with gold teeth.”
Sergei lifts his Scotch.
At some point he acquired Scotch.
Drew gestures toward him.
“This is comedy. Highly committed comedy.”
I look back at the photograph.
“She planned this.”
“Yeah.”
“Sergei draws attention at the gate.”
“Yeah.”
“While she enters somewhere else.”
“Yeah.”
“Then she sends the photograph so I know.”
Drew grins.
“Now you’re getting it.”
The anger changes.
Slowly.
Into something else.
Admiration is an inconvenient emotion when directed toward someone currently humiliating you.
Drew sees it.
“There he is.”
“Who?”
“My boy.”
“Stop talking.”
“You like this.”
“No.”
“You fucking love this.”
I look at him.
He laughs.
“See? This is why you like her. Nobody does this to you.”
He’s right.
That makes it worse.
Drew puts both hands on my shoulders.
“Listen. She wants you spinning.”
“I am not spinning.”
“You almost shook Sergei out of his orthopedic shoes.”
“They’re Berluti.”
“That is not the point.”
I take a breath.
Drew continues.
“Pretend you don’t care.”
“I care.”
“I know. Everybody knows. She probably knows too.”
He points toward the wedding lawn.
“Which means she’s probably watching you right now.”
I stop.
There.
That’s it.
Vesper isn't merely inside.
She’s watching.
She knows exactly what I do when information slips beyond my reach.
She wants Ghost searching for her.
Again.
London Bridge with flowers.
Drew grins.
“Got you.”
I straighten my jacket.
Adjust my cuff.
Roll my shoulders.
Control settles back into place.
“Maintain the perimeter,” I tell my security chief. “No visible escalation. Nobody exits without normal verification.”
He nods.
Drew smiles.
“There he is.”
I glance toward Kane.
“Go get married.”
Kane looks relieved.
“Finally.”
Drew points after him. “Go get Bookworm.”
Kane starts toward the ceremony.
Vale follows.
Jalen grabs a drink and trails behind.
I start walking.
Drew catches my shoulder.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
“She doesn't really know who any of us are.”
I look at him.
“Ghost never told her Kane Haverhill. NBA. Royal Oaks. None of it, right?”
“No.”
“So calm down. She came here to fuck with you, not murder Haverhill.”
“Excellent reassurance.”
“I’m good at this.”
“No one has ever said that.”
He claps my back and walks beside me.
Behind us, Sergei calls out.
“What about me?”
Drew turns.
“Open bar is that way.”
Sergei looks toward the terrace.
“Excellent wedding.”
We continue toward the ceremony.
Music begins.
Guests settle into their chairs.
My gaze wants to scan every face.
I don't let it.
Drew notices anyway.
“Act normal.”
“I am acting normal.”
“You’re checking reflections in champagne glasses.”
I stop.
He laughs.
“Wild.”
I sit beside him.
Let Vesper watch.
Let her believe Sergei and the photograph did nothing.
My pulse says otherwise.
My mind is cataloging every woman within sight.
Every posture.
Every head of caramel hair.
Every face turned away.
The bridal music starts.
Guests rise.
Drew leans closer.
“You know what’s funny?”
“No.”
“You spent years trying to find her.”
I keep my eyes toward the aisle.
“And?”
His grin widens.
“She found you first.”
My jaw tightens.
Because he’s right.
Somewhere inside Kane Haverhill’s wedding, Vesper is watching Ghost exist in the real world.
And I have absolutely no idea which pair of eyes belongs to her.