Primal Bargains

by Raleigh Davis

  Morgan is more reserved, taking me in with a quiet greeting. I get the sense she’s sizing me up, judging if I’m worthy of Gideon. I suppose I understand the impulse.

  “I understand you’re in security.” Her voice is low and soothing, quite the contrast to Raven’s more chipper tones.

  I nod. “That’s… that’s how Gideon and I met.” I’m not sure how I’m going to explain the rest of it without betraying Gideon’s trust.

  Morgan’s smile is knowing. “Gage mentioned you were working out there. I’m glad Gideon came out.” She looks to him, her smile dimming. “We were all worried. Gideon tends to pull away when he’s hurt, and when he disappeared… We were scared.”

  He doesn’t seem to pull away from me when he’s hurt. In fact, he told me to scrub harder at his arm, then opened up to me. And the orgasm…

  I draw in a breath. “I’m glad we could come out tonight then.”

  “So am I.”

  We share a smile that feels like maybe we’re friends now.

  “Okay.” Raven tugs on my arm. “Let’s meet the rest of them.”

  I’m less certain I’ll get a warm welcome from the guys. And I can’t stop obsessing over which one of them might be trying to steal from Gideon. As if sensing my unease, Gideon appears at my side.

  “I’ll help with the introductions,” he says smoothly.

  Raven beams at him. “Isn’t he sweet?”

  Gideon’s expression is so bland and mild you could feed it to an infant. “I really am.”

  I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.

  We head toward Gage and Bishop first. Gage says hi as briefly as he can while Bishop looks me up and down. He’s not hostile about it, more like curiously concerned.

  “I hear you and Gage are in the same field.” Bishop is a big guy, and his voice sounds like it’s been dragged out of his massive chest.

  “Um.” I glance at Gage, who hasn’t cracked a smile. “Kind of. Mine is more small scale. Personal security rather than national security.”

  “If I let Gage do the new security system,” Gideon says, “I’d end up with a self-aware tank or something. Imagine Gulizar running one of those.”

  “You joke,” I say, “but that’s exactly the kind of thing the Army would dump on us with no training or even an instruction manual.” I take a sip of my drink. “Just bam, one day we’ve got five self-aware tanks we’ve got to keep track of and have zero use for.”

  “You were in the Army?” That got Gage’s attention.

  I nod. “Signal Corps. That’s how I got into working with electronics.”

  “Hmm.” Gage’s eyes narrow. “Have you ever thought of working in defense contracting? We could use more veterans.”

  Gideon’s arm slips around my waist. “You’re not stealing her away.” There’s more than amusement in his tone.

  Bishop nods toward Gideon’s fingers. “You broke those. Want to tell us how?”

  I feel the cold, hard metal of the splint tap against my hip.

  “Accident,” Gideon says. He lies so coolly and quickly it almost scares me.

  Bishop raises an eyebrow. “Gage is already the talkative one. You can’t take that title.”

  “What did happen?” Raven asks. “All you said was that someone tried to break in. But the news made it sound much more serious.”

  A muscle in Gideon’s cheek twitches. He doesn’t want to say, but he doesn’t want to be rude to Raven. His gaze focuses on Gage and Bishop like a laser.

  “Someone went for my safe.” He’s watching them like a hawk, looking for any betraying flinches.

  I’m watching them too, linked to Gideon by his hold on me, the two of us feeling these guys out together.

  “He got hurt stopping them.” I make my tone admiring even as I look for any guilty tells in Gage or Bishop.

  Nothing. Bishop kind of frowns while Gage doesn’t react at all.

  “At least you stopped them,” Bishop says.

  “They sent an ambulance just for that?” Gage asks.

  Raven rolls her eyes. “He shouldn’t have done it in the first place. Whatever’s in that safe isn’t worth hurting yourself.”

  Neither of them react to that or ask what’s in the safe. Huh. Either they have nothing to do with the break-in or they’re really good at hiding their reactions. Considering that they’ve both built multibillion-dollar companies, they’re probably excellent at hiding their reactions. I can’t imagine you get far in Silicon Valley if people can read you easily.

  “What’s in that safe is irreplaceable,” Gideon says.

  Both Gage and Bishop go wide-eyed as they realize exactly what Gideon means by that.

  “They’re after—”

  “What—”

  They start and stop speaking together, clamping down when they remember that Raven is listening.

  Clever Gideon. He just got them to reveal they had no idea what was in his safe until just now. Which means they had nothing to do with it.

  Which leaves Cassian and Archer. Cassian is teasing Morgan about something, but he’s watching us while we do. There’s an edge to his gaze that makes my hair stand on end. All his smiles and laughs seem very fake, like he’s covering up something much darker beneath.

  Archer… I can’t say anything about Archer’s motives until he arrives and I get a look at him.

  “They didn’t reach the safe,” Gideon reminds them. “No harm, no foul. And Tess is making sure they’ll never get that close again.”

  I’m sharply aware of Cassian listening to every word.

  “That’s right,” I say brightly. “I can monitor everything from here.” I hold up my phone. “And I am.”

  Gideon pulls me closer. “Told you she was good.”

  Gage and Bishop look like they’re holding in so many questions they could explode. But they manage it, anger clamping their jaws shut. And I don’t think they’re keeping quiet solely for my benefit—they looked to Raven, not me, and then shut up.

  So Raven doesn’t know much of anything about the notebooks. Interesting. I wonder what Morgan and Oscar know. Probably no more than Raven—there seems to be a very deep secret binding all these men together, a secret the other three have no idea exists.

  “I’m glad you have someone looking out for you,” Bishop says slowly. “You know, you can ask for anything you need.”

  Gage nods. “I can have a team at your place in five minutes. It can only help.”

  I elbow Gideon, because if we can trust these two now, we could definitely use that offer.

  And faintly, flickering in the back of my mind, I wonder when we became we.

  “We can discuss it later.” Gideon cranes his head to look back at the entry. “Archer’s here.”

  There was zero sound of his arrival, so how did Gideon know that? When I turn to see Archer in the flesh, I’m confronted with Gideon’s twin. Not so much in looks and build—Archer is dark blond, his eyes the color of strong coffee, and less muscled than Gideon. But the way he holds himself, the way he looks out over the room, taking it all in—exactly the same as Gideon.

  “Excuse me.” Gideon drops a kiss on my forehead and walks over to Archer. Without a word to each other, they disappear down the hallway.

  Gage, Bishop, and Raven are all staring at me when I turn back. I guess the kiss was kind of telling.

  “So,” I ask them all brightly, “do any of you like to knit?”

  Raven tucks her arm into mine, a conspiratorial smile on her face. “I love it.”

  Chapter 19

  We head back to our favorite room in the house without a word between us. If we’re in Ira’s house, we’re going straight to our study.

  It’s a small room, not used as Ira’s main office because it was too small. So Ira offered it to us, but it sort of became mine and Archer’s. We planned a lot of shit in this room, filling the desk with scrap paper and schemes. The desks are completely clear, all our papers gone somewhere. Along with our schemes
.

  There’s a wet bar now, probably because no one’s expected to do any real work in here anymore. I pour myself a glass of tequila and take a sip. “You don’t have any questions for me? Everyone else did.”

  Archer sprawls in his favorite chair, his legs stretched out. “You were up to something. I didn’t want to interrupt.” His gaze meets mine. “Did it succeed?”

  “Still working on it.”

  Archer looks like what people mean when they say fallen angel—dark blond hair, midnight eyes, and a serious, almost pious expression. Look closer and you’ll see he’s no innocent.

  If it’s Archer behind all this, I’m going to have a hell of time maneuvering him into admitting it. He knows me too well to give anything away like the other two did. That unconcealed surprise when I revealed it was the notebook the thief was after? Dead giveaway.

  So it wasn’t those two. Which leaves Cassian or Archer.

  Out of all of them, I don’t want it to be Archer. I don’t know if the rest of us would have stayed in touch if not for what happened with Ira—but Archer and I would have. He’s like the brother I never had. Gage sat quietly when I was going through all the shit with my parents right after I dropped out, but Archer commiserated. Archer understood all that pressure, the need to be perfect, to be better than everyone, but only via the narrow path your parents defined.

  He understands how it fucks with you, how you can never really let it go even as you hate it with your whole being.

  After the break-in, Archer didn’t call and my parents didn’t call. I tap my sternum once, sharply. There’s probably a good lesson for me in that.

  “Are you pissed at me for not calling?” Archer asks with a raised eyebrow. “I figured you didn’t want to be bothered.”

  He’s right—I wanted the intruder to try again. I didn’t want to field everyone’s expressions of sympathy. Expressions that didn’t do much to hide their selfish interest in getting the gossip.

  “Nope.” I knock my splint against my glass. “Like I keep saying, I’m fine.”

  “Good.” Archer watches me closely. “Glad to hear it. Now, do you want to tell me what you’re up to so I can help, or are you going to keep suspecting me of I don’t even know what?”

  Fuck it. This is Archer, and if he is behind it, I’d rather lock horns right now than keep dancing around it. It’s giving me a fucking headache. “Looked at your notebook recently? Maybe figured out what it says?”

  That was the other thing that came to me as I realized Gage and Bishop were innocent, something that should have come to me from the very beginning—someone’s finally cracked the code of their notebook. And that’s why they want the others.

  Archer snaps up. “No. I haven’t looked at that notebook since…” He’s gone pale. “That’s what they were after.”

  “Went right for the safe,” I say. “Didn’t even try for anything else.”

  “And you thought it was one of us. That explains the crazy rumors and your turning into a hermit.”

  “Can you blame me?”

  Archer’s dark eyes are intense. “No. I’d come to the exact same conclusion. Probably do the same thing. But why go after your notebook? I just keep mine in my office. Anyone could grab it.”

  I put my finger to my lips. “There was an entire CIA’s worth of spyware on my security cameras. I’d move that notebook pronto and not say anything near any kind of recording device.” I flop into a chair, relief flowing through me. Archer might still be behind it, but it feels good to finally talk about it openly. “And I think they were after Tynan’s notebook.”

  “You have that?”

  “I was the executor of the will. And there was no one else to give it to.”

  “You ever look inside it?”

  I shake my head. “I figure it’s the same as the rest of them. And it would be… It’s Tynan’s.”

  Archer leans forward and steeples his fingers. “The notebooks were mentioned in the will. Anyone could have found out they existed.”

  “But there’s no other identifying details. Why care about something so random? Why not go after his other papers or the algorithms he designed? Those would look way more valuable. It has to be someone who knows there’s more to the notebooks.”

  “So, one of us.” Archer taps his fingers together. “You narrow it down any?”

  “Probably not Gage or Bishop. They were definitely shocked when I said the notebook was in the safe.”

  “Leaving me and Cassian.” Archer’s smile is sharp. “I can tell you it wasn’t me, but I know that doesn’t mean shit.”

  I shrug. “You’re my top suspect, to be honest.”

  “I’d be my top suspect too in your place.” He’s dryly resigned.

  My sternum throbs again. “I really wish you weren’t.”

  But it makes sense—if anyone could decode the notebook first, it’d be Archer. He was supposed to become a lawyer—part of his parents’ grand life plan for him. He got into Harvard Law and was all set to join a white-shoe firm the second he graduated. Except… Archer wanted to study linguistics. Not at all prestigious, not at all well paying, in no way a credit to his parents. But he loved it.

  Archer knows words. It’s why he was able to create that translation program. And isn’t a code just a type of language?

  He gets up, pours himself some tequila. “So, it’s all about the notebooks. I wish I had figured mine out, but I haven’t. It could also be about that first algorithm.”

  Ice crackles along my spine. “That algo is crap. The field’s moved way beyond that in the past few years, and it…”

  I don’t finish that because we both know what that algo did. And I was the one who told them to go ahead and put it into the car.

  “What if it is about that?” Archer’s voice is quiet.

  I take a deep inhale. “It’s a weird way to do blackmail. And we’re all targets then.”

  “We’re all targets if it’s really about the notebooks even though those are useless.”

  I run my hand over my face. I miss the days when I only had to run a billion-dollar company and listen to my parents berate me for being a failure. Those fucking notebooks. “Maybe they aren’t just some puzzle Ira left for us. Maybe they have to be together to make sense. Assembled like Voltron or something.”

  Ira was always on us about how we were stronger together. The lesson didn’t really stick until he died though.

  “You’d have to let us look at Tynan’s then.”

  “I told you, you’re suspect number one.”

  “But you confessed all this to me anyway.” Archer sprawls back in the chair. “What’s up with the woman? Gage says she’s living with you.”

  “She’s not living with me,” I say. Although she’s most definitely sleeping with me tonight. “She’s staying in the cottage while she rebuilds my security system.”

  Archer nods. “Yeah, I usually have contractors stay in my home while they’re redoing the tile.”

  I shift my shoulders. “I’m feeling a little paranoid lately. I want to keep her close at hand.”

  “I can understand that. So you’re not sleeping with her?”

  I take a long sip of my tequila. Raven always manages to find the best liquor, then teases me by never saying where it’s from. “Not yet.”

  “Is that smart? Considering your security situation at the moment.”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  Archer snorts. “We grew up together. Your business is my business.”

  “I met you when I was twenty-two. How is that growing up together?”

  “You know what I mean.” His tone is dark.

  I suddenly realize I’ve hurt his feelings. Archer isn’t one for any kind of emotional expression. In fact, you could call him robotic if you wanted to be a dick. But he’s got feelings even if he doesn’t show them. He understands logically why I suspect him… but logic isn’t everything.

  I find myself wishing Tess were here, strange
ly enough. She hasn’t even met Archer, but she’d know what to say. She’d smooth things over so that I can make it better.

  But she’s not here because I can’t pull her any deeper into this. And words alone can’t fix it.

  “You should meet her,” I say. “You’d really like her. She’s…” I recall her face as she cleaned my wounds last night. “She’s got a soft heart. A huge sense of responsibility. And she’s not afraid of me.”

  Archer lifts his glass. “Congratulations. It sounds like you’ve found the perfect woman.”

  Is she? He might be right about that. “Too bad my life is too fucked up for anything like perfection.” I put all the weight pressing on my heart into that.

  Chapter 20

  The dynamics of this group are… puzzling to say the least.

  Archer and Gideon finally came out after about an hour together, rejoining the rest of us. I wasn’t lonely though, because Raven and Cassian did their best to keep me entertained. Cassian is beyond charming, making me laugh with every word out of his mouth.

  He’s also… not quite manipulative, but I am definitely being managed by a master of human interaction. It’s not off-putting, but I am on guard. Victoria would hate him—she thinks men who try too hard to make you laugh are trying to hide something.

  Maybe Cassian is trying to hide the fact that he’s behind the break-in. I’ve been watching my phone like a hawk, checking for a message from Gulizar. Nothing so far.

  But things here are going along—Cassian making me laugh, Raven chiming in at spots and keeping my wineglass full. And then Gideon and Archer come back, and the atmosphere starts to snap.

  I don’t know if the rest of them can sense it, but I’m pretty sure if it was only the guys here, there’d be some very intense discussions about some notebooks.