on my phone, not my laptop,” I admitted. “I’m not an amateur.”
“No, sir, you are not,” Delilah agreed. “Which luxurious hotel are you staying in?”
I nodded at our former librarian and fellow history buff. “The Langham.”
Henry brightened. “Perfect pick. You’ll be close to all the best things to do as a tourist. You can even get some Sherlock Holmes sight-seeing in.”
I kept my face impassive. “Is that so?”
“Absolutely,” he continued. “And I can give you a list of the best bookstores in the city. Bring Freya back another stack of paperbacks.”
“Please and thank you.” Freya grinned. “And I should mention that these Hawaiian shirts I bought for you are real lady slayers.”
“Am I to be slaying women on this trip?”
She spread her arms wide. “What else—or who else—are you going to do on vacation?”
I hid a smile while straightening my tie. Freya was going to start sounding like my mother soon. Or even worse, like Jeanette, my stepmom. Combined, the two maternal figures in my life were like hawks when it came to my dating life, and my lack of romantic entanglements their prey. My last serious relationship had been more than five years ago—a woman named Caroline who I’d dated for a year. My obsession with work (her words) and inability to have fun (also her words) were the death-knell for that relationship.
It hadn’t been the first time I’d been accused by girlfriends and lovers of exhibiting a serious dearth of frivolity. And yet, like hobbies and free time, spontaneous fun was never a natural fit for me either. A string of one-night stands had been my only experience with love these past five years—and ever since founding Codex I’d had only one driving motivation in my life.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Capturing Bernard Allerton no longer felt like a driving motivation but rather something more vengeful.
Maybe I did have a problem with obsession.
“A reminder that while my employees are off dating each other like contestants on a reality show, my personal life shall remain personal,” I finally said.
“Dry spell, huh?” Freya shot back. She held out her palm for Delilah to high-five it.
“The level of professionalism in this office is disintegrating at a shocking rate.” I made a show of pulling up my emails to conceal my amusement. The sudden sight of my messages, and the secret I was keeping from my team, sparked a tendril of guilt in my chest. All of this was compounded by the guilt I felt at leaving them with cases and deadlines while I’d be off—presumably—gallivanting through one of the world’s most beautiful cities.
“Uh no,” Freya said, snapping her fingers. “Is that your inbox? It’s 5:01 p.m. Which means you’re officially on vacation.”
“My red-eye’s not for five hours,” I said, sounding peevish. “What update do you have for me on the contract from the Allegheny Museum?”
“I will be sharing all updates in our staff meeting with our working employees,” Freya said.
Sam Byrne walked into the office carrying a plastic bag. “Leave him alone, Frey. He’s a workaholic in recovery, like me.”
“In recovery seems a bit bold for a simple, ten-day vacation to London,” I said. “Where I’ll have full access to my—”
“Email and phone the entire time,” Delilah and Freya droned in unison. “Yeah yeah, we get it,” Delilah said. “We shall be expressly disobeying those orders for the duration of the ten days.”
Sam gave me a sympathetic smile. “It’ll be okay, Abe. The first few days will be a struggle, but once your brain lets go of the stress, you’ll be able to enjoy it, I promise.”
Sam and Freya had just returned from a four-day vacation to Prince Edward Island. Which was one of the reasons why I’d decided to plan this trip. It was true that my last vacation had been taking my mother to Sedona when I was twenty years old.
It was absolutely true that I’d been working long hours, catching up on cases and paperwork after Sam and Freya had infiltrated a secret society of book thieves two months ago. The publicity had led more libraries our way, which we were thrilled about. Still I was tired. Tired in a way that I hadn’t been for a while, exhaustion snapping at my heels, leaving me feeling unhinged.
Of course, deep down I knew where this unhinged feeling sprouted from.
I felt another twinge in my chest and ignored it. I had always wanted to spend real time in London—not for the occasional business trip but for leisure. Pleasure. Culture, literature,