Hidden Devotion (Trinity Masters #5)(42)

They sat in silence, Juliette struggling to come to terms with what she’d just learned. “It wouldn’t hurt so much if it weren’t for last night.”

“I’m not making excuses for him, but I know Devon loves you. He loves you, and he clearly knows you’d hate him if you knew what he did. It may not be right, but people do stupid things for love.”

“No wonder Sebastian kept asking about the files. They must have realized that once I was Grand Master, I’d learn the truth.”

“And you’d have the ability to have them killed.”

Juliette laughed. “You’re rather bloodthirsty.”

“It’s rare that I meet someone who actually has the ability to order a hit.”

“I’m not a mob boss.”

“But you could be.” Franco’s expression was almost envious.

“And here I thought you would be a voice of restraint.”

Franco’s head was bent over the next file. “Ha. You should have waited to put me on the small council.”

“It’s not the small council. This isn’t Game of Thrones either.”

“But it could be.”

Juliette rolled her eyes. Her stomach was still in knots but Franco’s silliness made her feel better. The urge to find both Sebastian and Devon and scream at them was clawing and tingling under her skin.

She went around to take a seat at the desk, nearly tripping over her bag in the process. Pulling out a sheet of stationary, she dashed off a note to Devon and called the courier service. She then ran it upstairs, passing it off to a deliveryman who assumed he was there on library business. While she had cell service, she took the time to send Sebastian an angry text message.

When she returned to the headquarters, Franco had moved to the table and there seemed to be even more files out on the floor in piles. He’d found some hot-pink Post-Its (why did Harrison have hot-pink Post-Its?) and was creating some sort of labeling grid on the surface of the table.

Leaving him to it, she went back to the desk, almost tripping on her bag a second time.

Picking up the duffle, she pulled out the box Franco had brought her and put it on the desk, then added the files from home to the stack of current members. Franco kept a sharp eye on her, clearly feeling proprietary about the papers. Raising her hands in a sign of peace, she returned to the desk.

The box was a puzzle, the mystery a good distraction. While mentally composing precisely what she’d say to Devon, she broke the wax seal—which was just a dollop of wax, despite the fact that she knew the Grand Master had a wax stamp. She’d seen her father use it.

She opened the carved wooden box. It smelled of cedar and almonds, and the interior compartment was much smaller than she’d expected, the sides of the box each about an inch thick, which explained why it was so heavy.

Inside was a pen, paintbrush and a small glass vial. Each item was carefully held in place by small wood props built into the bottom of the box. The vial’s cork has either rotted away or fallen out, because there was nothing left in the vial. She picked it up and carefully sniffed, jerking her head back. Whatever had been in there, it now smelled like a combination of lemon and rotting almonds.

Next she picked up the pen. It was heavy gold-toned metal shaped into a sharp-edged geometric pattern. As she turned it in her hand, the edges proved how sharp they were, cutting into her finger.

Yelping, she dropped the pen and stuck her finger in her mouth.

“You okay?” Franco looked up.

She took her finger from her mouth. “I opened the mystery box.”

“What’s in it?” Franco came over to look.

“A pen, a paintbrush and an empty vial.”

“Huh.” He studied the open box. “That’s odd. Do these things have any significance to the Trinity Masters?”

“Not that I know of. There might be something in the records…”

“Is that a hint to get back to work?”

“Nice try pretending you aren’t loving this.”

“Love-hate. It’s a love-hate kind of thing.”

When Franco went back to the papers, Juliette returned to the box. The most puzzling thing was the paintbrush. She took everything out. Once again giving herself a paper-cut-like injury from the ridiculous pen.

Sucking on her injured finger, she used her free hand to poke around the inside of the box, and was rewarded for her efforts when her nail caught in a small divot. She pried the bottom panel up, uncovering a folded sheet of paper hidden inside.

“Eureka.”





Chapter Twelve




What a complete clusterf*ck this day had turned out to be. He’d handled the issue with Sebastian, but now he had mountains of information to try to sort through and verify with other assets and surveillance.

And then the messenger had arrived, bearing a note from the Grand Master. This time it had clearly been Juliette’s handwriting—she wasn’t trying to disguise it. The note had been signed “G.M.”

Respect for the Grand Master had been instilled into him since he was a baby, and as he walked down the marble hallway he had to remind himself that Juliette’s word was now law.

There hadn’t been instructions as to where he was to go, but since it had been a formal note, he stopped and put on a robe, forgoing taking off his other clothes. If at all possible, he’d rather not be naked and vulnerable for what was undoubtedly going to be a very crappy conversation.