Chapter 16 #2
“You’re the only person who truly knows everything about me, from my Siphon to the smuggling. Even Bernard didn’t know everything about my power. And after a life of secrets and hiding, it’s nice to be… open with someone.”
He closed the distance between us, keeping his hands in his pockets, his eyes on mine. “How do you do it? Siphon, I mean.”
“I assume it’s not unlike how you use the dice.”
He searched my eyes, as if trying to find the answers there. “And the origin of your power… Born or made?”
I thought it was a strange question, but replied, “Born this way. As far as I know.”
“If that’s true, Nina, and I don’t doubt you, do you understand that with my artifacts in your possession, you could be the most powerful person in the realm? You could be the next Architect.”
I scoffed. “I don’t want to be powerful, and I don’t want your artifacts. I just want my mother back.”
He reached between us, taking the hand resting in my lap and shoving a pair of dice into my palm. His fingers curled around mine, closing them into a fist. “Take them back for now. I know you don’t want them, but you should still have them. Just in case.”
“What about the last die?” I quirked a brow.
His lips stretched in a brief smile, not the full one I’d seen before, but close. “Greedy girl, aren’t you?”
“I often want things I shouldn’t,” I murmured. His hand still held mine, and I felt his pulse dance against my wrist. Nearly matching my own heart rate, which rushed from his nearness, from his stare wandering across my bare skin.
“As do I,” he said quietly. He glanced down at our hands, letting go as he realized he was still holding me. “Found anything interesting in here besides fruit and booze?”
“I have, actually.” Pleased he’d asked, I slid from my perch, grabbed the wine, and started down one of the aisles of cargo, where a large shipment was draped with a protective sheet. “Guess what it is?”
Max passed a hand through his hair. “No idea.”
I pulled the drape, tossing it in a small pile near the tire. “It’s a car!”
“Oh.” His brows raised in fake excitement. “That’s nice.”
“Nice? It’s a motorcar! You’re not nearly as impressed as I was,” I said, disappointed by his reaction.
He shrugged, walking around the frame of the car’s body, a slick black metal shell that gleamed in the afternoon light. “We have lots of cars in the New City. You’ll see when you get there.”
“Really?” I frowned. “I suppose they wouldn’t be much use in the Fissures. Too many canals. But still…”
“It’s a very nice car, I’ll give you that. Much nicer than the one my friend drives.” He went to the passenger side and opened the door, gesturing for me to get in.
“You have a friend?” I asked, approaching. “Why am I just now hearing about this?”
“I have lots of friends. Is that really so surprising?”
“Not at all. You’re just so warm and friendly.
Super approachable and all,” I remarked as I jumped into the seat, a soft light brown bench that could only fit a driver and a single passenger.
Max shut the door when I was seated, striding around the hood with a grin and a glance toward the windshield.
He slipped himself in the driver’s seat, behind a large steering wheel. His head nearly scraped the soft top, he was so tall. “Where to, miss?”
I leaned back, resting my head against the bench as I took a long sip of wine. “What are my options?”
“I’ll take you anywhere you want,” he said quietly.
I smiled at him, wishing it could be so easy as pressing a pedal and leaving this city for good. I offered the bottle to him. “Where do you want to go, Maxence?”
His grin faded, but he took the wine from me and took a thoughtful sip. “If it were up to me, I’d take you to my gambling hall first. Watch you play those poor suckers into bankruptcy.”
“You have a gambling hall? As in… you own it?”
His gaze shifted sideways awkwardly. “Yes. Several, actually, throughout the New City.”
“I can’t believe I’m just learning this now. You really have told me nothing about yourself!”
“And you’re surprised I have friends and a job. Honestly, Nina, what kind of man did you think I was?”
The buzz from the wine made me giggle. “Alright. We go gamble. Then what?”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “Depends. Is this a date?” It felt like it. “Because I thought you were already claimed.”
“Claimed?” I squealed, the word echoing through the hold. “First, that’s a terrible way to describe it. Second, what are you talking about?”
He swallowed, wincing. “I might have followed you from the surgery that first night, after Broussard nearly shoved me off the table. I wanted to see where you lived. Don’t look at me like that; that’s why I didn’t tell you before.” He cleared his throat. “But I saw you with someone.”
That night I smuggled the last bodies, I had heard someone in Matthieu’s alley. It had been him. “I’m not with Mattie. He’s just a business partner, I suppose. We use each other.”
Max shrugged a shoulder, taking another long swig. “Lucky bastard.”
“He’s an ass. Sold me out to the Commissioner.”
He licked his lips before replying, “I can kill him, if you’d like.”
“Max—”
“I know where he lives.”
I shouldn’t have found it funny, but it sent a bubble of laughter spilling out of me. Perhaps the wine had been too much with too little in my stomach.
He propped his arm across the bench, the other resting on the wheel.
The wine sat on the floor of the car between us.
For a moment, I could picture us driving together in the streets of Valveron.
A glimpse of another life, another time, where we weren’t gamblers or body snatchers.
I was sure he could feel me admiring his profile, but he said nothing; instead, he met my stare.
His lips were soft in a pleasant expression.
“You smell like a fruit basket.”
“I really like oranges,” I whispered.
It took a long second before he realized, a slow smile fighting for control across his face. The windows to the car began to fog from the heat in the hold and our quiet breaths.
He finally spoke, looking ahead at the imaginary road before us.
“If this were a date, I’d let you win at cards a few times.
Then I’d take the long way home, do circles around town until I ran out of gas.
Until I’d have to pull over, and it would be just us.
No bodies, no dice, no Commissioner breathing down our necks. ”
“And then?” I asked, quite interested in where this night was going.
His fingers tightened on the steering wheel, knuckles blanching. “And then I’d ask you what you’re running from, Nina.”
I scoffed, staring out the window. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You can’t lie on a date, Ace.”
I rested my head on his shoulder, letting my eyes fall shut from the heavy haze of wine. “Good thing this isn’t a date.” I reminded him as much as myself.
His arm bent slightly across the bench, brushing his fingers across the crest of my shoulder. “No,” he admitted. “It’s not.”