Tate stroked Roman’s hand, then tapped his fingers in time with the do do do do do do, reminding him of the rhythm they’d both found earlier.
Roman chuckled. “At least they gave us a song that has a beat we can work with.”
Chapter Six
Selene perched on Luca’s knee as they both watched Oscar order them fake passports. They’d doctored the photos to give Selene a blonde bob haircut and Luca a blue Mohawk. They were going to have to actually do that to their hair so they’d match their new passport photos, before they could go on the run.
Selene thought about her parents, her sister, her aunties, uncles...all the people she’d have to leave behind.
She leaned her head against Luca’s, and he wrapped his arm around her waist.
They were worth it, her men, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t mourn the people she’d leave behind.
At least she’d been able to say goodbye to Roman.
Roman’s comment was nagging at her like a fly buzzing too near her ear that she couldn’t swat away.
“Shit, even if I get him all my bitcoin, he says it will take two days. We wouldn’t get these until after you two were already supposed to be in Boston.” Oscar scrubbed his hands over the top of his head. “Fuck it, we’ll make it work. I’ll tell him to get started, and then have them shipped to wherever we end up. We’ll have to find someplace—near an international airport—”
“But if we wait, won’t they be looking for us, even with that, uh, hair?” Luca’s free hand came up to touch his temple.
“We arrive late, get right on the plane. They won’t have time to capture us,” Oscar replied, sounding more confident than she felt about that plan.
Luca hesitated, and then quietly said, “If they have us placed on a watch list, no matter how late we arrive, with facial recognition—”
Oscar’s jaw clenched and Luca fell silent.
“If you two want to go to Boston, if you don’t want to be with me—” Oscar didn’t bother to hide the heartbreak in his words.
“Shut up. I’m thinking. Have your dramatic moment later.” Selene kicked Oscar’s thigh lightly with her heel.
“Ouch, damn it, Selene. I was trying to be all open and emotional...”
She hopped off of Luca’s lap and started to pace. They were in Oscar’s house, in his “office,” all of them clustered together in front of his main computer command center. There wasn’t a huge amount of room, and the guys—her guys—had to roll their chairs back and forth out of her way as she moved.
“My cousin was trying to tell me something.”
“He was trying to tell you to be fucking obedient to the Grand Master,” Oscar snapped.
“No, it wasn’t just that. He suggested you come with us to Boston.” She tapped Oscar on his head as she went past. He responded by smacking her ass with an irritated grunt, but she could feel that some of his panic was fading.
“Perhaps he was told to say that, to make it easier for the Grand Master to control you. They must know about...about us.” Luca smiled, and there was something in the expression that told her there were times he still wasn’t completely sure this thing between the three of them was real. Growing up in a cult full of religious freaks had really done a number on him.
“She knows. And she’s pissed at me. That’s why she’s trying to rip my fucking heart out of my fucking chest,” Oscar snarled.
“I agree. There is an aspect of punishment here,” Selene said, “but I don’t think she’d do this…take apart three people who have been through so much together.”
Luca frowned. “But you said the trinities are formed for a reason—intellectual, social, scientific.”
“Because together those three people can do something, change something, in a significant way,” she countered. “And the three of us, we’re good together. We already proved that we are effective agents of change.”
“You mean chaos,” Oscar said with a snort.
“We’re dangerous together,” Luca said softly. “Perhaps too dangerous.”
“If it were just about being dangerous, she’d keep the two of you together and I’d be left out,” Selene said. “I’m the most dangerous of the three of us.”
Oscar was a data-mining specialist who could find almost anyone or anything with a computer. Luca built bombs.
And only an idiot would think they were more dangerous than the nuclear physicist.
Her men weren’t idiots, so they nodded in agreement.
Selene brushed a strand of hair away from her eyes. “I think...I think that Roman was trying to tell me that there is more going on here. Maybe the letters are a cover and she needs us for a mission.”
“Or maybe she’s going to marry you two off to some fucker I’ll have to murder.” Oscar folded his arms.
“Maybe she needs someone to think that because she secretly needs us to work together, but the only way to think that would be if she creates a—”
Oscar rolled his eyes. “Okay, well now you’re just turning this into the plot of a bad romantic suspense novel—secret societies, arranged marriages, super villains...”
Selene didn’t even acknowledge his comment, continuing to spin her conspiracy theory. “—she creates a rift that someone can exploit...maybe someone will try to kill you, Oscar.”
“Why do you sound so excited at that possibility?” Oscar reached out and grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap. But under the faux outrage was amusement.
Luca cleared his throat. “Why don’t we try to figure out who the woman is? Scarlet is her name, I think. She’s the one who doesn’t seem to fit here.”
As one, she and Oscar turned to Luca.
“Huh,” Oscar said.
“Oh,” she added.
Luca’s lips twitched.
Less than five minutes later, Oscar had found her, using no more than a first name and a photo he pulled from his surveillance system. Scarlet Hall. She was a high-level conference and event planner. The kind
