Hidden Devotion (Trinity Masters #5)(26)

“I called for breakfast,” he said.

“Thank you.” She didn’t look at him.

He went to the bathroom, and when he came out she was gone. When breakfast arrived, he ate methodically while checking his email. Then, just as methodically, he picked up her untouched plate and hurled it against the wall.





Chapter Eight




He couldn’t decide if the location was a deliberate attempt to intimidate him. If so, it was mostly working.

Franco looked around the dimly lit bar—except it wasn’t a bar, it was a gentleman’s club. Not the kind with strippers, the kind with wood paneling, fireplaces, hunter-green plaid wallpaper and leather club chairs.

The bouncer had asked for ID then checked it against a list. He could only assume this was a membership place, and that the man he was here to meet had made sure his name was on the list.

Franco wasn’t sure what he hoped to get out of this conversation with Devon. He’d asked Juliette for the other man’s number because Devon was the only person besides her to whom he could ask his questions. The kiss had complicated things with her, and before this went too much further, Franco wanted some answers, so here he was.

Instead of looking like a grown-up frat boy, the way he had in Florida, the man who rose from a club chair in a small alcove was six feet of intimidation in a dark suit and tie. Franco tugged on the front of his sweater vest, hoping he didn’t look like a geeky high schooler. He had a bad feeling this sweater vest actually was a piece of his old high school uniform, but he didn’t exactly have a ton of winter-weather clothes, so he’d packed everything he thought would work.

“Francisco.” Devon held out his hand.

“You can call me Franco.” They shook.

“Franco. Thank you for meeting me here.”

“I’m the one who should say thank you. To you. For meeting me.”

Devon gestured to the other chair and Franco took a seat. The chairs were isolated from the rest of the room—a perfect place to have a conversation about a secret society.

“What can I get you to drink?”

“What’s good here?”

Devon’s lips twitched. “I’ve never had a bad drink.”

“Right. Guess that was a stupid question. Uh, I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

Devon pressed a small button on the wall. “Another Glenlivet, please.”

“I can’t decide if that’s creepy or cool.” He peered at the call button.

“Cool. Always go with cool.” Devon’s shoulders relaxed and he sat deeper in his chair.

“I have to tell you, so far this is all exactly what I expected.”

Devon raised his brows. “I thought you didn’t believe your grandfather’s stories? How is it that you had expectations?”

“I didn’t believe, but I’m saying that if there were a secret society, this is how you’d want to find out about it.” Franco gestured around them. “Sitting in a dark corner of a members-only club, having a beautiful blonde show up at your door. Hollywood would approve.”

Devon laughed, but Franco had seen the way his shoulders tensed when Juliette was mentioned.

“Juliette said you had some questions?”

“I do.” Franco dug the list out of his pocket.

“You wrote them down?”

Franco waited for the tuxedo-clad waiter to set down his drink—which was a small glass with a finger of amber liquid in it—before continuing. “Yes, otherwise I’d forget.”

“I’m surprised Juliette didn’t answer your questions.”

“We got off topic,” Franco admitted. Devon’s shoulders tensed once again. Okay, there was definitely something going on between him and Juliette.

“I’ll do my best to answer, but until you’re a member there are some things you can’t know.”

“That’s question one. If I’m not a member, why are you telling me anything?”

Devon raised his glass in a salute and took a sip before answering. Franco did the same and manfully suppressed a cough. It was whiskey. He hated whiskey.

“There are actually quite a few people who know something about the Trinity Masters but who aren’t members. Most of those people are legacies, like yourself, who chose not to join. Our secrets are safe with them because they were raised knowing the consequences. Others are those who were recruited and offered membership but declined.”

“People decline?”

“Not often, but it happens. Joining is a high-risk, high-reward game.”

“I’m trying to imagine how that conversation would go. ‘You seem smart; do you want to join a secret society? We offer you wealth and power but you have to marry who we say and by the way, you’ll marry two people not just one.’”

Devon chuckled. “When potential new members are evaluated, one fact that’s assessed is whether or not they’d be open to the trinity marriage.”

“Why a trinity marriage?”

Franco finished his whiskey as Devon told stories about other famous trinities, including Vice-Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, who’d been in a relationship with Lady Emma Hamilton and Sir William Hamilton. The gossip papers of the nineteenth century had called it an affair between Lady Emma and Lord Nelson, but it had been so much more. The three-way union had helped end the Napoleonic wars, and both Emma and William had mourned Lord Nelson after his death.