Chapter Two #3
“Yes.” My backpack slides from my shoulder. I try to heft it back up, but my eyes are on Dane and I’m not paying attention. The bag falls sideways, and items spill out of an open zipper: A tube of lip balm rolls across the floor, and that little Celia’s Guide plops out, along with my phone.
“I—what is that?” Dane asks.
“My phone.” I gather everything and stand.
“The book.” That smile has disappeared. His face is hard and serious. “Where did you get it?”
I stare at him and then look at the small gray guidebook in my hands. “The bookseller here. In the exhibit hall.” I point down at the exhibit hall on the ground floor below.
Dane’s eyes glitter, and I have to hand it to him: He looks formidable, living up to Eric’s description of him as a calculating villain.
I’m a little annoyed that I find him attractive, but it’s the kind of unattainable-leading-man level of hot that means nothing because he’s out of everyone’s league.
He folds his arms against his chest and looks in the direction I’m pointing.
“You know what that is?” he asks.
I consider playing dumb and saying it’s a cute little guide to Barcelona, but I know we both know what it is.
“Seems like it’s what the kickoff puzzle in the Enigma Challenge points to,” I say. “Did you solve the code at the devil statue too?”
His eyes sweep over me, then back to the guidebook. “I’ll buy it from you. How much do you want for it?”
I’m thrown by the offer. I stare at him a beat too long.
“How much do you want, Dr. Wilder?”
“Go get your own,” I say. “There were a few copies left.”
Dane shakes his head. “They’re sold out. How much do you want?”
“It’s not for sale,” I say.
He regards me for a long moment, his face inscrutable. “You know what the Enigma Challenge entails?”
“Yes. It happens at this conference, and it’s got five puzzles. I entered at that little computer-box thing.” I jerk my finger toward the kiosk.
He looks faintly horrified. “You entered your information?”
“I gave it the solution to the puzzle on the agenda, and it asked for my info.” Annoyance surges. “Is there a point to this, or do you interrogate everyone who participates in the Enigma Challenge?”
One of his eyebrows goes up. “But you don’t really know what the challenge is. You don’t know what you’re doing.” I might be imagining it, but the space between us has shortened. He’s closer, and I can feel heat radiating off him.
I tilt my chin up. “I’m not selling you the book. Eric seems to think you’re pure evil. For all I know, that’s true.”
He closes his eyes briefly, and his lips part on a little exhale, like I’m being impossible. “Any animosity Eric Howland has toward me is entirely mutual. And if you don’t—you know what? It doesn’t matter. Sell me the book.”
“Absolutely not.”
It crosses my mind that he could easily pull the book out of my hands right now. He could overpower me in an instant. But he doesn’t.
“Zoe,” a familiar voice behind us says. “What are you doing?”
I turn to see Eric approaching. He’s wearing a horrified expression, and I know it’s because I’m talking to Dane Seaver.
A spark of petty pleasure goes through me for all the times Eric told me what to do, who to talk to, and when.
Not that I listened, but he never stopped trying.
And I’m still irked by whatever that was with my phone at the hotel this morning.
I open my mouth, but Eric’s eyes flit to Dane’s, and is that panic I detect in his expression? “We need to go,” Eric says. “We have that meeting with my contacts here.”
Eric seems to think that my basking in the presence of some cryptology guys who are attending this conference will enrich my research. I’m pretty sure he met them online, and I think he expects me to take notes. I shake my head. “I’m not going.”
“This has been scheduled weeks in advance,” Eric hisses. “We cannot be late.” He glances at Dane. “Sorry you have to see this, Seaver.”
“Personnel disagreement?” Dane asks, his tone casual. Like we’re all just standing here discussing the Spanish weather.
“Not exactly. We won’t be work colleagues much longer.” Eric gives an ugly little laugh. I don’t bother reacting; he’s threatened to fire me from his grant before. It’s one of the reasons I dumped him this morning. It makes going to his meeting even more pointless.
A faint smile plays on Dane’s mouth. He slides his hands into his pants pockets. “I’ll have to watch out, then, because Dr. Wilder and I have just teamed up to work together on a special project.”
My eyes snap to his. He’s watching me as though waiting to see my reaction. Before I can deny this, Eric snaps, “What? What special project?”
Dane shrugs like it’s nothing. “The Enigma Challenge.”
Eric’s mouth drops open. He hisses, “You partnered with her for the Enigma Challenge?”
Dane turns slightly toward me like he’s waiting to see what I’ll say. Waiting for me to contradict it. But Eric tilts his face to the side and manages to look smug, like he’s confident it’s not true. Like he knows me and I would never.
So I hold his eye as I say, “Yes. He did.”