Chapter 15
Iget two blissful weeks with my wife before my friends ruin everything.
Two weeks.
No Blackwell board.
No ARGUS.
No encrypted threats.
No unidentified network traffic.
No Russians.
No surveillance feeds unless you count the weather station Sabine dismantles on our third day because she thinks its firmware is “embarrassing.”
We honeymoon along the South of France.
Not Monaco.
Not anywhere Blackwell owns enough real estate to turn relaxation into a corporate meeting.
Sabine chooses small places.
Old stone villages.
Markets where she argues over cheese in rapid French and then accuses me of overpaying because I look American when I wear sunglasses.
Tiny restaurants with six tables.
Beaches accessible only by climbing down paths that have absolutely no business being called paths.
One morning, she wakes before sunrise and disappears.
I find her forty minutes later sitting barefoot on a dock eating a croissant while an elderly fisherman attempts to explain to her why his boat engine hates him.
She has grease on one cheek.
Naturally.
Another afternoon, she takes me to a village bakery because she remembers going there with her father as a child.
The woman running it now is the granddaughter of the original owner.
Sabine cries over bread.
Pretends she doesn't.
I don't mention it.
At night, she sleeps sprawled across me like she spent her entire life claiming she didn't need another human being and is now making up for lost time.
I don't complain.
I also don't tell her that I haven't slept this well since I was probably twelve.
Nobody needs that information.
For fourteen days, Ghost and Vesper disappear.
So do Xavier Blackwell and Sabine Beaumont.
We're simply us.
Then my phone reconnects to civilization.
It immediately becomes a mistake.
Thirty-seven messages.
Nine missed calls.
Four threats from Jade.
Six from Drew, though two are videos of a turkey fryer I refuse to open.
Kane sends:
YOU HAVE A WIFE NOW. YOU CAN'T KEEP HIDING HER.
Vale:
Newport. Christmas. Stop pretending you didn't see this.
Leo is more concise.
Come.
Then there is an Evite.
An actual Evite.
I stare at it.
Sabine walks out of the bathroom wearing one of my shirts and drying her hair with a towel.
“What?”
I hold up the phone.
“Jade's aunt sent me an Evite.”
Sabine stops.
“For what?”
“Christmas.”
She considers.
“That is sweet.”
“No. It's disturbing.”
“Why?”
“Who still uses Evite?”
She smiles.
“People with cats.”
I look back at the invitation.
There are animated snowflakes.
Someone has added little paw prints around the border.
Four cats appear in the photograph at the top, all wearing red bows and expressions suggesting litigation.
“I've changed my mind.”
“About Christmas?”
“About having internet access.”
Sabine takes the phone from me.
Her eyes light up.
“Oh, look. There is RSVP.”
“No.”
She presses something.
“Sabine.”
“Two attending.”
“Traitor.”
She hands it back.
“Your friends miss you.”
“They have phones.”
“They want to see you.”
“They have already seen me.”
“They want to see your wife.”
“That is exactly the concern.”
She laughs.
Then kisses my cheek.
And because marriage has apparently made me weak, six days later we're in Newport.
Leo Holt's house looks like Christmas attacked an eighteenth-century European fortress and won.
Stone.
Marble.
Massive windows overlooking black Atlantic water.
Enough garland to strangle a small army.
Gold ribbon winding around staircases.
Candles everywhere.
Two Christmas trees.
I have no idea why anyone requires two.
There is mistletoe in locations I strongly suspect Drew personally selected.
And tinsel.
So much fucking tinsel.
I stop inside the foyer.
Sabine stands beside me wearing a dark green dress and the expression of a woman trying not to laugh.
“This is obscene.”
“Thank you.”
“You didn't decorate.”
“No.”
“Then I can say it.”
“Correct.”
From somewhere inside the house, Drew yells, “BLACKWELL'S brIDE HAS ARRIVED.”
I close my eyes.
Sabine lights up.
That is the problem.
She likes him.
I still haven't figured out why.
Drew appears at the end of the hall wearing black trousers, a velvet dinner jacket, and an antler headband.
He opens both arms.
“My favorite hacker.”
“No.”
He walks directly past me.
Sabine meets him halfway.
They hug.
Actually hug.
I stare.
“When did this happen?”
Drew releases her.
“Group chat.”
Sabine nods.
“We talk.”
“You talk?”
Drew looks offended.
“Constantly.”
I look at my wife.
“About what?”
She and Drew exchange a glance.
“No,” I say immediately.
Sabine smiles.
“Nothing.”
“Absolutely not.”
Drew points toward her.
“See? Controlling.”
“You sent my wife seven memes before breakfast yesterday.”
“Eight.”
Sabine corrects him.
“The dog one didn't load.”
“Right. Eight.”
I stare at both of them.
This marriage has introduced vulnerabilities I did not anticipate.
Isa walks in behind Drew and takes one look at my face.
“Relax, Blackwell.”
“I am relaxed.”
She slides an arm around Drew's waist.
“He likes pretty women and attention. He likes me more.”
Drew looks down at her.
“Significantly.”
“Smart answer.”
He kisses her temple.
There.
That's Drew.
Loud enough to make strangers think he's flirting with every woman in the room, while anyone who actually knows him can see his entire orbit recalibrates the second Isa appears.
Sabine notices too.
She leans toward me.
“He's completely hooked.”
“I know.”
Drew hears.
“I am standing right here.”
Isa pats his chest.
“Yes, baby.”
He immediately forgets to object.
Sabine looks at me.
I look at her.
We both smile.
“Traitors,” Drew mutters.
The rest of them converge.
Hannah hugs Sabine.
Stella hugs Sabine.
Jade approaches like an interrogator at an airport checkpoint.
Sabine straightens.
“There she is,” she whispers.
“Don't show fear.”
“I have none.”
Jade stops directly in front of her.
“You owe me the entire wedding story.”
Sabine smiles.
“Hello to you too.”
“And kidnapping.”
“No.”
“Sergei.”
“Maybe.”
“London Bridge.”
“Possibly.”
Jade turns to me.
“I like her more than you.”
“Most people do.”
Leo appears behind his wife carrying two glasses of wine.
“That was faster than expected.”
Jade takes one without looking.
“Thank you.”
Leo hands the other to me.
I accept it.
Marriage has made all of us alarmingly predictable.
Kane appears next, Hannah tucked beneath one arm.
“You actually came.”
“I was coerced.”
Sabine says, “He was excited.”
I turn.
She sips champagne.
“Were you?”
Kane asks.
“No.”
Vale walks past.
“He was.”
“Why does everyone think they know me now?”
Drew reappears carrying a tray of drinks.
“Because your wife broke the seal.”
“I regret introducing her.”
Sabine hooks her arm through mine.
“No, you don't.”
I look down.
Cornflower eyes.
Caramel curls falling over one shoulder.
Wedding ring catching beneath the Christmas lights.
“No.”
I don't.
Jalen doesn't come.
Apparently there is a limit to how many couples one single man can tolerate before self-preservation takes over.
His message to the group reads:
LOVE YOU ALL. NOT SPENDING CHRISTMAS WATCHING FIVE MARRIED MEN LOOK AT THEIR WIVES LIKE THEY INVENTED OXYGEN.
Then:
I'M SKIING.
Drew claims Jalen has a woman in Vail.
Kane says rumor suggests she is “serious.”
Vale says Jalen denies this.
Leo says denial from Jalen means nothing.
Sabine wants details.
I have none.
Drew claims he does.
Nobody believes him.
“I have sources,” he says.
“You have gossip,” Isa replies.
“Sources with gossip.”
“Same thing.”
Sabine leans across the table.
“What does she look like?”
Drew lowers his voice as if discussing state secrets.
“Brunette.”
“Groundbreaking,” I say.
“Hot.”
“Excellent intelligence.”
“Mean.”
Sabine nods.
“Now I'm interested.”
Isa points her fork at Drew.
“You don't know any of this.”
“I know his flight went to Colorado.”
“Lots of people go to Colorado.”
“At Christmas?”
“For skiing.”
Drew looks around.
“Exactly.”
Nobody understands what point he thinks he made.
Dinner lasts nearly three hours.
There is too much wine.
Too much food.
Too many stories I would prefer Sabine not hear.
So naturally every story concerns me.
Vale tells her about the first time we all got drunk at Royal Oaks.
Kane tells her about the night I tracked down a stolen car before the police did.
Leo tells her about a security camera incident I had successfully buried for more than a decade.
Jade quietly supplies details whenever the others exaggerate.
Which is often.
The other women are worse.
By dessert, Sabine knows things about my adolescence I had intentionally allowed to die.
She looks delighted.
“You hacked the school's grading server?”
“I did not change grades.”
“You got inside.”
“Yes.”
“You were sixteen.”
“Seventeen.”
Her smile becomes unbearably proud.
Drew points between us.
“This is disgusting.”
“What?”
“The way you two get turned on by felonies.”
“We don't.”
Sabine and I answer simultaneously.
Everyone laughs.
Drew gestures broadly.
“That. Exactly that.”
I take a drink.
Across the table, Jade is already asking Sabine what I was like when she discovered Ghost was me.
I catch only part of the answer.
“...thought he might be Leo's father.”
Leo chokes on wine.
I turn.
“What?”
Sabine's eyes widen.
The women start laughing.
“Nothing.”
“What did you say?”
Hannah is covering her mouth.
Stella has tears in her eyes.
Jade looks delighted.
“Sabine briefly thought Ghost might be Leo's divorced father.”
I stare at my wife.
She looks guilty.
“It was a working theory.”
Drew falls sideways against Isa.
I close my eyes.
“Why?”
“Age profile.”
“I was in my twenties.”
“I did not know that.”
“The photographs.”
“Men lie.”
“You had photographs of me.”
“Fragments.”
Drew wipes his eyes.
“Blackwell, she thought she was cyber-dating somebody's dad.”
“Stop.”
Sabine is laughing now too.
“I eliminated him quickly.”
“How comforting.”
“Your Italian was too good.”
“That was the deciding factor?”
“Partly.”
Drew points toward me.
“Imagine finding out your hot mystery hacker is actually Mr. Holt.”
Leo says, “Please stop.”
“I would have deleted NULL,” Sabine says.
I look at her.
“Immediately?”
“Without hesitation.”
At least we agree on something.