Do you have any idea who might want you dead badly enough to hire the Syndicate? And I’m betting whoever it was also told them to take the hit out on me. So someone who knows I deal in information.”
Ferdinand shook his head. “I don’t have any big deals going. Nothing that someone might want to disrupt.”
“Who benefits from your death? Any ex-lovers or other surprises in your will? What about Evelyn? Does her family know?”
Ferdinand’s expression turned wary and his eyes flickered to Ian before returning to me. “What do you know about Evelyn?”
“I know about you and Evelyn,” Ian said. “I’m the director of security; give me some credit.”
I said, “You were supposed to meet her the night you were taken. I met with her the next day. She said you were together.”
He blew out a breath. “We are. We’re keeping it quiet because we know neither of our families would approve.”
“She said House Rockhurst didn’t order the attack, but if someone in the House was upset about your relationship they might think taking you out served two purposes.”
“Maybe,” he allowed. “But it wasn’t Evelyn.”
“I agree.”
“Otherwise, all of my assets go to family. Hannah would be the one to gain the most by becoming heir, but we’ve talked. She doesn’t want it because it would give her bastard husband more power. The rest of my personal assets are split among all of you.”
“After you disappeared, Hannah told me she planned to abdicate.” That put me next in line if anything happened to Ferdinand. “Please don’t die,” I told him seriously.
“I’m not planning on it.” He gave Ian a hard stare. “You heard nothing about Hannah.”
Ian nodded easily.
Ferdinand told us what he remembered of the capture and the captivity, but they’d kept him drugged and blindfolded, so it was precious little. He did tell us that they’d killed all of his bodyguards and jettisoned their bodies.
Poor Edward. The young man with the quick smile and easy laugh who’d been my bodyguard these last few months didn’t deserve to die. And now his family would never have closure. I made a mental note to set up a fund for his sisters.
When Ferdinand started hinting he’d like some time alone, Ian and I retired to the captain’s quarters. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t a random hit. Someone had put thought, effort, and money into it. They had targeted me and Ferdinand but not Hannah, Benedict, or Catarina.
What was I missing?
I mulled it over as I got ready for bed. I used the cosmetics kit to return my hair to its usual light brown with blond and red highlights. I felt more like myself with my hair back to normal.
Ian reclined on the bed, clad in a pair of low-slung pajama pants and nothing else. He looked to be asleep, but when I paused to admire the view, one eye cracked open. “You changed your hair back.”
“Yeah, I’m stuck on this attack problem so I thought I’d knock out another item on my to-do list while I thought about it.”
Ian sighed and sat up. “We’re missing something, and being out of contact for four days doesn’t help.”
I worked through the time line out loud. “I caught a tricky encrypted message of just the word ‘Go.’ I was attacked publicly and violently. Meanwhile, Ferdinand was snatched silently, without leaving a trace. The next morning, I met with Evelyn and then a few hours later, someone painted me as a traitor. Do we know who started that rumor?”
Ian shook his head. “I had people looking into where the traitor rumor came from, but I didn’t follow up with them. Too much other stuff going on. You didn’t tell me about the first message you’d caught.”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
I tapped my fingers against my lips and paced at the foot of the bed. Something about the original message had been important. I focused on how it had felt to unlock the encryption because my emotional memory tended to be more permanent than the thoughts themselves. Joy and pride and a fierce sense of accomplishment. Then confusion. I stopped midstride.
“The message that kicked off the attack was encrypted twice. The outer encryption I’d never seen before. But the inner encryption was standard von Hasenberg encryption.”
Ian’s gaze sharpened. “Someone connected to the House was involved. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“At the time, there was no way to tell you without explaining how I knew. Then I had to run and it slipped