Chapter 11 #2
After the healer departed, Asterius and Keir followed her into the corridor. Zer remained near the bed with Avaneel, although the growing crowd of pixies had pushed him farther toward the wall.
Gomez watched Luke for another moment. Some of the delight faded from his face.
“Now tell me what happened to you.”
Luke reached beneath his shirt and drew the thumb drive from the hidden pocket sewn into his waistband. It looked harmless lying across his palm. A small piece of plastic and metal, no different from a hundred others he had carried over the years.
Gomez stared at it. “Please tell me you were not nearly murdered over office supplies.”
“I don’t know what’s on it.”
“That’s a very strange non-answer, Luka-million.”
“Patrick gave it to me before my interview and asked me to deliver it.”
“Patrick, your boss’s assistant?”
“Yes.”
Gomez looked from the drive to the bruises Luke hadn’t been able to hide. “Why would a corporate trainer be asked to deliver something people are willing to kill for?”
“I don’t know yet.”
The answer was true, even if it wasn’t complete. Luke had spent years keeping his work separate from the rest of his life. The lies protected Gomez—or that was what Luke had always told himself.
They had not protected him today.
Gomez watched him for another moment. “You’re doing that thing.”
“What thing?”
“The one where you answer my question without actually telling me anything.”
Luke closed his fingers around the drive. “I’m telling you everything I know about what happened today.”
“That qualifier is doing a lot of work.”
Luke didn’t deny it.
Some of the humor left Gomez’s face. “Fine. What happened after Patrick gave it to you?”
“I took it to the arranged meeting place. Someone intercepted the exchange before I could complete it.”
“The people Connal rescued you from?”
“Yes.”
“And they wanted the drive.”
“That’s what I assumed. They didn’t stop to explain.”
Gomez looked pointedly at Luke’s bruises. “How inconsiderate of them.”
“They had blocked the exits and interfered with communications before I arrived. Connal and his brothers got me out before they could take it.”
Gomez’s gaze shifted toward Connal. “Thank you.”
Connal inclined his head. “Luke is my mate. I will always come for him.”
Gomez held his gaze for a moment before nodding. “Ooookay. That’s an intriguing answer. Note to self, ask questions later.”
Luke returned the drive to the hidden pocket at his waistband. “After that, Hale sent me instructions for a secondary delivery.”
“Hale, as in Mr. Hale, your boss?”
“Yes.”
“And you thought going to a second location after someone ambushed the first one was a good idea?”
Luke could hear how reckless the decision sounded when stripped of everything Gomez didn’t know. Walking away would have allowed whoever compromised the exchange to choose the next time and place. Luke had needed to regain some control.
“I thought finding out who had compromised the exchange was better than waiting for them to try again.”
“That sounds suspiciously like something a person says immediately before making a terrible decision.”
“I wasn’t alone.”
Gomez glanced around the room. “I’m beginning to understand why you collected an entire set of sword-wielding bodyguards.”
“They are not—” Luke began.
“I know. Powerful fae warriors. One of them is your—and I’m leaning heavily on my romance-reading expertise here—magical soulmate. Another one kidnapped me. I’m simplifying.”
“The warehouse had been prepared before we arrived,” Luke continued, pretending Gomez hadn’t called Connal his magical soulmate.
He was definitely not ready to have that discussion.
“Whoever prepared it used some kind of magical structure against Connal and his brothers. They wanted the drive, but they were also prepared to trap anyone with magic who came near it.”
Gomez’s gaze dropped to where Luke’s hand rested over the drive. “That’s why the king said Connal needed to rest and recover.”
“Yes.”
“And why you look like you tried to fistfight a building.”
“That part was unrelated.”
“Of course it was.”
Luke expected another joke, but Gomez’s expression tightened instead.
“You disappeared,” Gomez said. “I couldn’t reach you. I didn’t know where you were, and then Tall, Dark, and Kidnappy appeared in our apartment and carried me into another dimension.”
“Realm,” Zer corrected.
“No one asked you.”
Luke sat on the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Because you have a weird way of showing it.”
Luke accepted the blow. Gomez had spent years trusting that Luke’s business trips were exactly what they appeared to be. He had never needed to understand the precautions Luke took before leaving or the contingency plans that existed in case he failed to come home.
Today, those safeguards had failed them both.
“I never intended for any of this to reach you,” Luke said.
“But it did.”
“I know.”
Gomez studied him. The anger Luke expected never came. Hurt did, quieter and far more difficult to face.
“If something happens to you,” Gomez said, “I deserve to know enough to understand why.”
Luke looked at his best friend. Gomez was safe, but only because Zer had crossed into the human realm and taken the decision out of everyone else’s hands. If Luke had died in that warehouse, Gomez would have been left with nothing but a fake interview and a missing roommate.
“You do,” Luke said.
Gomez waited.
Luke wanted to give him more. The truth had remained locked away for so long that he no longer knew how to offer part of it without risking all of it.
Not here, surrounded by people whose loyalties he was still learning.
Not while he didn’t know whether Hale had betrayed him or whether the drive contained something capable of threatening an entire magical realm.
“I can’t explain everything yet,” Luke said. “But I won’t disappear without leaving you answers again.”
“That sounds dangerously close to a promise.”
“It is.”
Gomez released a slow breath. “Fine. I’m temporarily postponing this argument on account of magical exhaustion and the fact that I have approximately six hundred questions for the tiny but perfect pixie sitting beside me.”
Avaneel beamed.
“We’re going to revisit it,” Gomez warned.
“I know.”
“When I can stand up and throw things.”
“I’ll make sure nothing breakable is nearby.”
“Coward.”
The familiar insult loosened something in Luke’s chest.
Gomez pointed toward the place beneath Luke’s shirt where the drive had disappeared. “What happens to the world’s most dangerous office supply now?”
“I find out what’s on it.”
“How?”
“My laptop is in the backpack beside Connal’s chair.” Luke glanced toward it. “But human technology doesn’t work in this realm.”
“You will not return to the warehouse,” Connal said.
“No argument from me. Whoever prepared that trap may still be watching it.” Luke looked toward Cosmo. “I need a secure place in the human world where I can examine the drive without alerting Hale or anyone monitoring his systems.”
“The King has allies who may be able to provide one,” Cosmo said. “You will give him the full account first.”
Luke nodded. That was fair. Silenus had offered protection without demanding blind obedience in return. The drive had already drawn Luke into a conflict involving magic. He didn’t know whether the danger extended to Silenus’s people, but the possibility was enough to justify a full account.
“We should let both patients rest,” Cosmo continued.
“I am recovered,” Connal said.
Luke and Cosmo looked at him.
Connal scowled. “I am recovering.”
“Progress,” Luke said.
Cosmo rose and stretched. “I’ll inform Silenus that Gomez’s treatment was successful and that Luke has more to add to his report.”
Gomez raised one hand. “Before you go, I was promised snacks.”
The chamber doors opened.
A stream of pixies flew inside carrying enough food for a dozen people.
Cosmo stepped aside as they passed. “I suspected they would take that request seriously.”
Gomez’s eyes widened at the trays descending around him. “I love this place.”
“You were kidnapped less than an hour ago,” Luke reminded him.
“And I remain deeply traumatized. The pastries will help.”
Luke shook his head, but he couldn’t stop the smile pulling at his mouth.
Gomez was safe. His legs were healing. He knew enough to understand the danger surrounding Luke, even if the larger truth remained unspoken.
Connal sat in the chair behind Luke, close enough that Luke could feel his presence without looking. The drive pressed against Luke’s waistband, carrying answers someone had already tried to kill him to obtain.
For the first time since Patrick placed it in his hand, Luke was not carrying that threat alone.