Machek met his gaze. Blinked. “This is disconcerting, isn’t it? Especially when you look like my much-younger brother, not older. If you’ll tell me who does your work, I know any number of people who’d love to make him rich.”
Work? Oh—plastic surgery. Rule smiled a trifle grimly. “Clean living.”
Machek snorted.
Cullen sat while they were talking, taking the other wing chair. Scott fell back to the wall sheltering the stairway, where he could keep an eye on most of the room. Lily holstered her weapon, advanced toward Jasper, and held out her hand. “It’s good to meet you.”
His eyebrows flew up. “Is it?” But he rose automatically and accepted her outstretched hand.
“Well,” she said after they shook, “that’s a surprise.” She glanced at Cullen. “It’s a very slight Gift, but it feels like yours.”
Cullen leaned forward, studying Machek intently.
Machek frowned at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You must have seen the wrong news clips, or you’d know that I’m a touch sensitive.”
“Son of a bitch,” Cullen said. “You’re right. He’s a sorcerer.”
Machek stiffened. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m frequently ridiculous. You’re still a sorcerer.”
“But—” Machek drew a breath, exhaled, and waved one hand. “Never mind. I have a touch of the Sight. It doesn’t make me a sorcerer, but if you—”
Cullen didn’t let him finish. “What do you think a sorcerer is, anyway?”
“The legal definition is someone who sources their spells outside themselves. Since I don’t have any spells—”
“The legal definition is bullshit. You must know that. You’ve stolen enough texts to understand—”
“I steal them. I don’t read them.”
Cullen looked astonished. “You must.”
“Why?”
“Never mind,” Lily said, finally sitting down herself next to Rule. “Whatever you call your Gift, it must come in handy in your profession. No one can pass a dummy magical item off as the real thing when you can see the magic, or lack of it.”
He cast her a wary glance. “Yes, well, I’m retired, actually. Or was. Is he”—a nod at Scott—“just going to stand there?”
“Yes,” Rule said.
Machek’s eyebrows lifted. “What is he—a bodyguard? Do you trail bodyguards everywhere?”
“Yes,” Rule said again. “Every so often, someone tries to kill me or Lily. I’d like to hear about the deal you wanted to make.”
“We should get to it, shouldn’t we?” But instead of launching into explanation, he leaned forward, head down, rubbing his hands together as if they ached. “I want,” he began. Stopped, and muttered, “No, I’m making this too complicated. Keep it simple.” He drew a ragged breath and raised his head. “This would have been easier if you’d brought Cynna Weaver. She could have found…they took something of mine, you see. Something I want back. But you wouldn’t bring your Finder, so I have to ask for my side of the deal first. After that, I’ll tell you everything. Do whatever you ask.”
Rule’s lips twisted. “We’re supposed to give you what you want and trust that you’ll honor your end of the deal afterward?”
“I’m afraid so.” He glanced at Lily. “You did insist on bringing the authorities along, in the person of your fiancée. Once I’m all officially confessed, I may not be free to retrieve what’s mine.”
“Speaking of which—” Lily began.
“No. We won’t speak of it. Not at all.”
Very softly she asked, “Where’s Adam?”
His eyes widened. Just for a second, so briefly she would have missed it if she hadn’t been watching closely. “Out of town.”
“They’ve got him, don’t they? Whoever ‘they’ may be, they’ve got your partner, Adam King.”
EIGHTEEN
JASPER Machek shook his head. “You’re wrong.”
Lily studied him. He had good control, but he didn’t do stone-face as well as his brother. He couldn’t keep the fear out of his eyes…eyes so much like Rule’s, except for the crow’s-feet, the subtle toughening of skin that comes with age. “Easy enough to prove. A phone call would do the trick.”
“I don’t have to prove anything.”
“You might want to rethink that. Kidnapping’s a felony. Failure to disclose a felony is a felony.”
“There’s nothing to disclose. Adam likes to get away from everything sometimes, doesn’t even take his cell phone. I won’t tell you where he is because, well, I don’t want him to know about this. Any of this.”
“I suspect he’ll notice when you go to jail.”
“I’m hoping you won’t arrest me.” He rubbed both hands along his thighs and essayed a smile, directing it at Cullen. “That would be in part up to you, I imagine. If you get your item back—with damages,” he added quickly. “Payment for the, uh, insult and inconvenience—maybe you won’t feel the need to press charges.”
Cullen responded to that with a scornful curl of his lip.
Machek just smiled. “Money’s useful. Think about it.”
He didn’t really care, Lily thought. Staying out of jail wasn’t what mattered at the moment. Later it might, but not now. “Okay,” she said, mildly. “We won’t talk about Adam. How long has your stolen whatever-it-is been missing?’
“You’ve got things switched.” He leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg at the knee. He had long legs, much like his brother’s, to go with a similar build—tall and lean, with wide shoulders and slim hips. He was lighter than Rule, though—less muscular, with elbows and shoulder blades and knees providing an emphatic punctuation where bone met bone. He slid a glance Rule’s way. “I won’t discuss my stolen property, but I love to talk about Adam. That would be a distraction, though, wouldn’t it? A waste of time, and I have a deadline. I have to give them what they want or they’ll destroy my property.”
“And you don’t have the prototype anymore. Or so you told Rule.”
“We should make that deal before I say more.”
“My boss will have to approve any deal I make. At this point you haven’t given me much reason to push him for any kind of deal.”
He frowned. Fidgeted with his hands—long fingers, a little longer than Rule’s—rubbing them on his legs again. “I need to stay free until my property is recovered. After that I can talk about all kinds of things, and we can renegotiate. If you can agree—or get your boss to agree—to that much, we have a deal.”
“The timing of an arrest is up to me. I can agree to delay it until you have your property back.”
“Good.” His breath gusted out. “That’s good. We have a deal.”
“You need the prototype to get your property back, but you told Rule you don’t have it anymore.”
“That’s right.”
“Who took it? How? Where were you?”
He shook his head. “I’ll answer all that gladly, but not yet.”
“We can’t recover it if you won’t tell us anything.”
“Oh, I don’t expect you to. I had to tell them the prototype was missing. These aren’t people you can lie to.”
“They?”
“Their identities will be up for discussion later, not now. Fortunately, they agreed to a substitution. Instead of the prototype, they’ll take the man who made it.”
Cullen barked out a laugh. “First you steal from me, then you want me to exchange myself for your lover? With balls that big, I don’t see how you get your jeans zipped in the morning.”