visit?”
“Oh, it’s darling,” she said. “Cutest little cocktail bar. Right near the old auction house. Kensley’s. You know it, love?”
This time, Abe and I couldn’t help but lock eyes. “Oh, I know it,” I said. “Thanks again for the tip. I’ll bring you biscuits this week.”
When I hung up, Abe was already starting to put Bernard’s office slightly back together. “If we want to get back to London and to that cocktail bar, we should get going.” He stopped, looked back over at me. “Nicely done, by the way. If she’s no longer meeting with Bernard every week, I want to know who a book thief is meeting, weekly, right next to the auction house we’re staking out.”
I exhaled, proud of myself. Invigorated that another person was here to catch me in the act. That never happened.
A quick thirty minutes later, and I was shutting the office door firmly and re-locking it. We both let out deep breaths. I pulled my hair into a ponytail while Abe stretched his neck, brushed a few wrinkles from his jacket.
“To cocktail hour?” I asked softly.
“Making demands and taking me on a date,” he whispered. “Partnership with you sure is strange.”
“Girls like me do enjoy dates that involve watching potential suspects from behind bushes.”
He stared at my mouth for so long I worried he’d kiss me right here, in the middle of the fucking library. Instead he growled, “Let’s go.”
I was helpless not to follow his broad back, his refined and elegant profile. Down the spiral staircase, we were back in the ethereal library. The same students were still in the same seats, same positions. Different books. The room was filled with the devotional scratch of pencils, the clicking of keyboards, the sound of books being shelved by various librarians.
A dark-haired girl wearing a black sweater sat in a far corner by herself. She looked like me, so much so that I stopped walking. Stared. Felt transported back to those four years in college when I was constantly alone. The girl didn’t appear sad, but the look on her face didn’t convey happiness. I’d floated in that same gray area, accepting my goals were to make enough money to pay for classes then graduate and make enough money to pay my bills. I worked nonstop, very aware that any fuck-up with my grades or behavior could lose me the scholarship I relied on.
Those connections—with friends or boyfriends—never excited me anyway. My background was a tightly guarded secret, and that meant no one got in.
Abe touched my wrist with a look of genuine concern.
“Are you okay?” he whispered. The pressure of his fingers was comforting.
“Of course,” I replied. “Let’s go make our train.”
He didn’t let go immediately. And when he did, he seemed disappointed in me.
I knew why. I had lied to him.
And not lying to each other was one of our rules.
23
Abe
At 6:00 p.m. on the dot, I smoothed a stray hair back into place. Brushed one piece of lint from my cuff. Shut my extremely organized suitcase.
I was ready for a night of cocktails with Sloane.
I was ready for a night of surveillance on a potential suspect that was probably part of a web of international book thieves.
My laptop pinged with two emails bearing Codex addresses. One from Freya with a bunch of pop culture memes attached I refused to understand. One from Delilah, with a quick summary on The Black Stallion case: I wouldn’t normally do this, since you’re on vacation, but the Thornhills win again! Book was retrieved, in mint condition, from the museum’s secretary who thought she could make extra cash. She shouldn’t have admitted all those secrets to her favorite married couple. And because I know you’ll ask, our fee has already been paid by the client.
I blew out a relieved breath. Nice work, I wrote back. “Never trust a married couple” has been my life’s motto since day one. And, because I know you’ll ask, yes, I am enjoying my vacation.
I was getting better and better at the outright lies now. Although, as Sloane and I strategized on the train-ride back to London, I couldn’t stop hearing the voices of my team in my head. Not my usual guilt over wanting to capture Bernard all by myself. I could hear them chatting logistics, devising plans and maps, getting ready to strike a big target.
Because, if this was starting to come together the way I thought, Sloane and I would have a lot to do the night of the