Trade Secrets

by Beth Ryan

  “Have you found her?” Ivonne asked.

  At her words, Eisley scowled and turned away. His demeanor reminded me of a turtle I’d seen—wrinkled, slow moving, and furious at everything around it. I’d watched it snap out at empty air, fighting against nothing at all while it hid in the shadows with beady eyes that stared down anyone who came near.

  “I have not.” Eisley’s words were low, addressed to President King rather than Ivonne, and his body language said all it needed to about who held his respect.

  Irritation rippled through the room like a tangible thing, starting with King and flowing to both his children. It was whispered in the sound of cloth shifting as King crossed his arms, and in the way Joshua cleared his throat. Ivonne’s huff of annoyance followed.

  “Robert,” President King said, “Please tell me you’ve got some leads on where she might be.”

  “It is only a matter of time,” Eisley turned fully toward King as he spoke, his voice like a pebble caught in your shoe, both painful and impossible to ignore, “until that bitch and her conspirators are located. Criminals and miscreants, the lot of them. There is only so far they can run... We’ll track them all down soon enough. They aren’t as clever as they think they are, you know.”

  Though he wasn’t looking at me, his words felt like a personal insult to my own abilities at keeping one step ahead of him. I wanted nothing more than to join the Lemniscate in that moment, to continue my life of crime right beneath his nose and get away with it all.

  I could see that future laid out in front of me. Cooper would fulfill whatever scheme had brought him here and then vanish back into the comfort of his real name. I would remain, married to the heiress of the Lemniscate fortune, pulling strings and unraveling threads from the inside. Doing the kind of work Audry had always wished we could do.

  Eisley would suspect me of course, but he’d end up chasing his tail for years trying to pin down any evidence that might turn the others against me. And in his final days, when he was too weak to leave his deathbed, I would kneel beside him and tell him everything.

  He’d be too far gone by then to convince anyone of the truth. He’d die knowing he’d failed. That there was someone out there clever enough to outwit him. That I was that person.

  I stepped forward, eager to join the conversation.

  “You’re looking for Alice Giovani, right? I don’t know what information has been offered, but I would love the chance to help in any way I can.”

  King watched me with that same calculating and curious gaze that he’d used on Cooper, and Eisley looked surprised that I had dared to interrupt. Joshua’s expression revealed nothing as he continued to lean on the doorjamb, arms crossed. Even Cooper’s attention had fallen on me again, though by the disgusted look on his face and the agitated way he was tapping his left thumb against his pointer and middle finger, I could tell he didn’t understand why I might be desperate to do whatever it took to impress the Lemniscate.

  Only Ivonne ignored me, her focus on the mirror above the fireplace.

  “If you’d like, I could—”

  “Hush, boy,” Eisley snapped, and then turned to President King. “I already don’t like this one. I’ve seen where he comes from, and he isn’t suited for your daughter. The choice is clear. We should get rid of him now and be done with it.”

  “This is Ivonne’s future, and her choice to make.”

  Ivonne continued to stare at the scene through the large mirror, unconcerned by the intensity of Eisley’s gaze as he turned to her with a raised brow. Her eyes met his in the reflective glass when she spoke.

  “You know as well as I that I have twenty-four hours to make my choice,” she told him. “It’s an important one, and I won’t be rushed.”

  “You must see that the choice is clear here,” Eisley repeated, waving his hand between Cooper and I. If I weren’t so focused on ensuring that I didn’t die in the next twenty-four hours, I might have felt insulted.

  “Twenty-four hours,” King declared when Ivonne did not deign to answer. The President’s voice was that of a man used to making important declarations. “No more, no less. Then you will choose who you will marry.”

  “And the other,” Eisley glanced at me with a wide grin. His teeth were as rotten as his soul, and I swear I could see the fire reflecting in his eyes as he spoke. “Well, the other will be taken care of quite easily.”

  Cooper sucked in a breath, finally understanding how dire our situation had become. Any chance that the members of the Lemniscate noticed his strange reaction was smoothed over by the sound of the not-so-secret passageway opening once again. The figure that emerged was obscured by the low lighting, but his mass spilled out of the doorway, too large for the shadows to contain. His broad shoulders cut a distinct line through the dark as he clasped his hands behind his back.

  “Rhys,” Eisley addressed the man, turning toward him and stepping closer. “Tell me you found something.”

  “We’ve received intel,” Rhys said at a much louder volume than Eisley had used. He paused, hesitating when his eyes landed on Cooper and I. We were outsiders, untested in our loyalty. He chose his next words carefully. “There is an urgent message from our allies.”

  “Go on,” Eisley prompted. He didn’t spare us a second glance, unconcerned with leaked information. He had no reason to fear us. As far as he was concerned, one of us would someday be privy to all the information that came with being a Lemniscate. The other would be dead.

  “The Argentinians have requested a last-minute visit. They’ll be here tomorrow evening to discuss renegotiating the steel contracts.”

  A real crease of concern marred Eisley’s weathered forehead. He stepped closer to President King to whisper something I couldn’t quite make out. Unfortunately, a combination of important life events and Audry’s useful skills had shuffled my plans to learn lip-reading onto the back burner several times over the years, so as they muttered back and forth, I took stock of the room once again.

  Ivonne, still staring into the mirror like some flashy bird unable to look away from its reflection. Cooper watching the proceedings from where he stood beside me, his knuckles brushing ever so slightly against my own. King and Eisley arguing, and Joshua standing by the door throughout it all. Near, but separate.

  I wondered how Joshua had found Cooper despite my best efforts, and why my client was refusing to meet the gaze of the silent man just as much as he was refusing to meet mine. Things were beginning to fit together now, pieces of a puzzle that spoke of a young man who was second in line for the family’s inheritance, and found his sister too self-absorbed for the position she was born into.

  “I don’t think that will be necessary,” King replied, his voice raising once again. “There are procedures in place for occasions such as these. They’ve never failed us before.”

  “But—”

  “Rhys,” Joshua barked, cutting through the disagreement between King and Eisley. They both stopped to stare at him. Unaffected, he pushed himself off the wall and turned to the servant. “The monotony of entertaining political guests will only bore our new friends. Show these young men to their rooms and bring them anything they might need. North wing, I should think.”

  “West,” Ivonne disagreed.

  Joshua waved a dismissive hand, but Ivonne still smiled at her small victory.

  As we followed Rhys out the door and back into the foyer, I turned to catch one last glimpse of the King family. At my new angle, I could see beyond King and Eisley, into the room behind the fireplace. Inside were a row of empty chairs and half a dozen computer screens covered in bright blue lines and red dots, spread across a map of the world as it had been before the collapse of the environment so many years ago.

  Joshua had disappeared, and Ivonne stood in his place by the door. As she moved to shut it, our eyes met. Walking backward, I winked at her and watched her nose scrunch up in confusion. A thrum of satisfaction ran through me. It was the most honest reaction she’d had
since I met her.

  I attempted to turn back around, and found myself struggling to regain my balance, an unexpected wave of vertigo hitting me. As Rhys helped to steady me, Ivonne hesitated to close the door between us, her eyes wide and lips parted. There was something about her, about the way she twisted the tides of a conversation to benefit her and about the way she took everything in stride, that reminded me of myself.

  I was proud of my talents in deception and restraint, but as I walked up the stairs behind Rhys I reminded myself that the people around me now weren’t the same sheep I’d led by the hand toward obvious conclusions.

  Lying, backstabbing, and getting their way was everyday life for Ivonne and her family. I could claim I had mastered the game of manipulation all I wanted, but that didn’t change the fact that the Lemniscate were the ones who had created that game in the first place.

  17

  I pressed my back against the solid wood of the bedroom door as it snapped shut behind me. Whatever energy had kept me upright in the presence of others rushed out of me like a broken steam pipe, along with any semblance of self-control I might have had.

  I slid to the floor, my head dropping to rest against my knees as I wrapped my arms around them. Dread had become a familiar friend in the years after my mother vanished. Now it felt like an enemy, clawing its way up my throat.

  I ran through the directions I’d memorized on my way here, and then ran through them backward, trying to calm myself down. The lack of proper lighting as Rhys guided us deeper into the house had made everything feel more ominous, and the further we’d walked, the darker everything became.

  Cooper had been following at a more sedated pace, and I’d glanced back at him, hoping to catch his attention. Now that we were out from under the prying eyes of the King family, there was nothing I wanted more than to run through the facts with the only other person who knew how we’d gotten here. Yet Cooper was looking the other way every time my eyes found him. The silence that lingered between us was suffocating.

  “So, about the missing Giovanni girl,” I started, more to break the silence than anything else.

  “Don’t.” Cooper was ice as he turned his dark eyes on me, made darker by the poor illumination around us. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to a halt. Rhys was halfway down the hall before he realized we’d stopped following him and by that time Cooper was already pointing an accusatory finger at me and speaking in a threatening whisper. “Don’t. How could you even think of using the information you have on her to gain favor with the Lemniscate? That girl might have broken the law, but what you’re doing is so much worse. Scheme all you want, but keep Alice out of it.”

  With that, Cooper stormed ahead. He passed Rhys and reached the other end of the hall before realizing that he didn’t know which direction to turn. He huffed and stood there with his arms crossed, a full-on sulk settling in.

  “Your rooms,” Rhys said when we caught up with Cooper, pointing to two doors that the angry young man had already passed.

  Cooper pivoted and marched around me to enter the room on the left, slamming the door behind him.

  Rhys politely nodded to me before heading back the way we’d come.

  Finally alone, frustration and indignation burning me up inside, I’d slipped into the room on the right.

  Now sitting on the floor, taking deep breaths as I tried to calm myself, I considered the familiarity between Cooper and Alice Giovanni. He hadn’t bothered with her last name. Hadn’t liked it when I offered information on her. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was the one he had come here to protect.

  I closed my eyes, compiling a list of people who had been looking for her tonight. Eisley, President King, Ivonne. In fact, the only person who hadn’t said a word about her disappearance had been Joshua.

  Another puzzle piece fell into place.

  Brows furrowed, years of experience took over as I tried to align timelines and suss out what purpose Joshua might have for Cooper Hall.

  The high price of Jimmy’s death finally made sense now, even if nothing else did. His role in Joshua's plot was a small one meant to get Cooper here without suspicion. Yet the part it played in the bigger picture made it crucial, and valuable, information. Without Jimmy’s death, Cooper Hall’s financial profile wouldn’t stand up against the scrutiny of the Fraud Department. Without Cooper Hall’s false profile, Joshua’s plans didn’t work.

  What those plans were, and why Cooper had to use a fake profile to ensure they worked, I didn’t understand. If Joshua was expecting to need a fall guy for whatever the crime was, there were innumerable servants who could be framed. If he needed someone loyal, blackmail wasn’t going to get him far. If he wanted someone with a special skill set, then Cooper was also off the list. That boy couldn’t sneak for the life of him, and I’d seen his reaction to shooting a man firsthand.

  Pulling off my glasses, I pressed the heel of my palm into my eyes. I took deep breaths, reminding myself that this wasn’t the end of me. The Lemniscate might have me in their grasp, but I was the best at what I did, and what I did was fix complicated situations. There was still time.

  I slid my glasses back on my nose and my credit card out of my back pocket. Bringing up my profile, the version that any law abiding citizen had access to, I stared at the figure above my photo. My account balance had changed from the almost-million I’d earned at being aware of the circumstances of Jimmy’s death to a symbol, a single endless loop. I could still reveal the details of my recent transactions with another click of my spectacles, but that was a desperate move and one I wasn’t certain I was ready to risk. There was no telling what the Lemniscate could track inside their little forcefield bubble, and I was already taking a risk by bringing them in the first place. I wasn’t about to let them track the source code of the spectacles back to Audry just because I wanted to know how many credits I’d made.

  “Audry is fine,” I said, watching the balance on the display despite knowing the effort would be wasted. There was no indication of truth, no way to confirm that my best friend really was okay. Now there was only the glow of the infinity symbol staring back at me.

  I’d always relied on the ups and downs of my own credit balance to determine what was true in the world. Now all I had was my intuition and a prayer.

  I tried again, this time speaking words that would reassure Audry as soon as she realized I was missing. We hadn’t needed to communicate like this for years and Audry’s first instinct would be to check her messages, but her second would be to check the facts.

  “I am alive,” I whispered into the dark room. The most important fact, the one she’d be most worried over. “I am safe. I am coming home. Audry does not need to worry about Nate.”

  When she realized I’d disappeared, Audry would check each of the statements I’d made. She’d say them out loud and watch her own credit counter to determine the truth of the situation. Hiding what had happened to me wouldn’t be enough to keep her away now and with Cooper in the mix I really couldn’t handle another surprise. I needed her to stay calm and unaware of the danger I was in.

  Turning off the credit card, I picked myself up off the floor. Pacing toward the window, the craving for a cigarette drew my hand to the place where my overcoat pocket should have been. It was then that I realized I’d forgotten to retrieve the blasted thing before going upstairs.

  Cursing, I was halfway down the corridor before I considered what repercussions there might be. I slowed down, glancing around the empty corridor. No one was nearby, and the mansion was silent, but a little red dot in the right corner of the ceiling caught my eye. The camera tracked my movements as I came closer, and continued to stare me down like a disapproving parent as I passed.

  The desperation to have my possessions back, as well as a goddamn cigarette, pushed me on.

  As I passed the portraits and tapestries lining the walls, I took my time inspecting them. There was every chance that the cameras were only recording my actions rather than speci
fically tracking me, but I couldn’t take that chance. I pretended to admire the expensive vases and statuettes displayed in the alcoves that were scattered throughout the mansion. I paused to run my fingers over a particularly obnoxious ceramic bowl.

  All the while, my face was plastered with a look that was one part reverence and two parts greed. It was a flawless act.

  As I turned the final corner, I arrived at the top of the grand staircase.

  The foyer spread out below me, the moonlight casting long shadows and giving the marble floor an eerie glow. I descended the stairs with measured steps, determined to prove that I wasn’t in a rush. I could feel my heart beating in my chest as I forced myself not to run to that little closet in the receiving room. Gripping tight to the age-smoothed banister, I stared up at the chandelier like it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

  Impatient, but unwilling to risk anything, I paused long enough to study one of the statues that were positioned at the end of the staircase. I had to admit the craftsmanship was incredible, the detailed eyebrows and the subtle dimples of the woman impressing me even as I yearned to turn away.

  I ran a finger over the back of the statue’s neck, curious if it had been created before the trading chips came into use. There was something etched into the place where a trading chip scar would usually be.

  Curiosity spiked, I stepped around the statue and leaned in. I was barely able to read the words under the weak moonlight. When I did, I furrowed my brow.

  “Ad Mortum, Sine Circa.”

  The words looked Latin to me. Though I’d met a man who had offered to teach me German a decade before, I had never learned any of the dead languages. It was nothing that I could make sense of.

  Satisfied that I’d done my due diligence in looking like a curious and law-abiding citizen, I turned away from the statue and slipped into the crimson and cream receiving room. The fire had been put out, and a chill was creeping in.