Synek was back in his regular uniform of dark denim, motorcycle boots, and a leather jacket the next day. His hair was unkempt like she liked it, and she didn’t have to look to know that his cigarette was in place.

Sometime this morning after they’d both woken up, showered, and gotten dressed, it hit her that something was rather domestic about them now. Whether it was showering together, which always ended with needing another, or watching him make his tea—they weren’t just two people working on a goal.

They were in a relationship.

Funny that she had never expected it to happen this way. She’d always imagined those cliché but special moments when the man would ask her outright and she would either agree or deny him.

That wasn’t remotely what happened here.

There was no need for questions or a full-blown conversation about it; she was his, and no part of her thought otherwise.

His one, as he liked to say.

“What’s that thought you’re having?”

His voice brought her around to him and the way he was staring. The sight of him managed to bring a smile to her face.

Everything about him was distinctly masculine. The way he stood, the hair on his jaw, the tattoos she could see through the thin shirt he wore. Yet in his much larger hands, he held a dainty cup of tea.

“What?”

“You smiled at me,” he said. “What were you just thinking about?”

“Relationships,” she answered, grabbing an orange from the basket in front of them and going in search of a knife.

A curious expression crossed his face as he ventured over to her, setting his tea down to pluck the orange from her hands. “What about them?”

“I’ve never been in one.” And now that she thought about it, she had never seen a particularly healthy relationship either. “My parents didn’t really get along, and they were only together sporadically as far as I can remember. And even when they were on, things were always a bit … tense.”

They might have been able to make her, and both loved her in their own way, but her parents’ relationship defined dysfunctional. Despite her desire for a family, she knew they were better off separate rather than together.

“So is it what you’ve imagined?” he asked, expertly peeling the orange far better than she would have managed on her own, even as simple a task as it was.

It wasn’t a question for him either.

Iris smiled. “The sex is great. No denying that.”

That managed to get a burst of laughter out of him, and the carefree sound made her smile. He might not laugh often, but when he did, his entire face lit up, and it might be completely mushy of her, but she loved seeing his smile and that dimple in his left cheek, and hearing that unguarded moment of happiness.

He peeled off a slice of orange, extending it to her like an offering. Of all the things he probably knew how to do with that knife, he was feeding her.

“I think I’ll keep you,” she said as she bit into the orange.

“You say that like you have a choice.”

No, it was starting to feel like she didn’t, yet she didn’t mind it.

She plucked the rest of her orange out of his hand. “I don’t?”

“You could leave,” he said with a smile that was more threatening than anything else, “but I’ll find you.”

Only he could make a threat like that sound so tempting.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now, shouldn’t you be getting ready to … do whatever it is you’re doing with the Den?”

After the fundraiser, she had been working on the governor solely while he handled things with the Kingmaker. She wasn’t sure exactly what he and the other mercenaries were up to, but she could guess while she was working this angle, they were still keeping tabs on the governor himself.

“Plenty of time for that. I’m more concerned about you.”

Yeah, she was starting to realize that. And worse, he didn’t seem to realize how cute she found it that he was expressing this level of concern when she was merely going to be in the presence of Shepherd housewives.

“I can handle myself.”

“Of course, luv”—but that didn’t matter to him in the end—“Winter is ...” He stopped speaking. His gaze intent on her face.

If there was one thing she didn’t like about Synek, it was how he was able to read every emotion on her face even when she didn’t want him to. Worse, she’d tried not to make a face at the mention of the hacker, which probably only made her discomfort more obvious.

“What was that look for?”

“Would you drop it if I said I didn’t want to talk about it?”

She expected him to say no.

“Reluctantly.”

It would have been easy to just tell him she didn’t want to discuss it—that there was nothing to talk about—yet she found herself opening her mouth anyway. “Winter doesn’t like me.”

“Nonsense,” he said, waving that away. “She—”

“Made it abundantly clear that she doesn’t,” she finished for him.

Which was fine.

She still believed that as long as Synek trusted her and felt about her what she felt for him, nothing else mattered, but just the expression on his face made her wonder how true that was.

For a moment, Synek looked as if he wanted to argue, but maybe it was her expression that told him there was no misunderstanding. “She just needs some time, I reckon. It’s … complicated.”

Complicated.

Yeah, she was beginning to hate that word.

“She’ll come around,” Synek finished with a shrug.

Right … she’d just keep that in mind in the interim. “Okay.”

He used the hand holding his knife to scratch at the beard he’d yet to trim. She wasn’t complaining. “What’d she say to you?”

Iris thought back on their conversation in the boutique, remembering the fire in her eyes when she proclaimed how she didn’t trust her with Synek. “I think she’s worried about you mostly.”

She had a feeling Winter wouldn’t like anyone Synek was with. She tried to remember that instead of taking it personally, but it was hard. Especially because she knew that if anyone’s opinion could sway him, it would be hers.

Synek didn’t look as if he wanted to drop it, but in the interest of time, considering he really did need to leave, he let the subject drop. “She’ll make sure you get a chance to look around, yeah?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

He pressed a kiss to her lips, fast and hard. “Stay safe,” he said in a way that brought a smile to her face.

“It’s just brunch.”

“With people we can’t trust. If you need me for anything, ring me, yeah?”

“I will,” she said even as she knew she wouldn’t.

Not because she could take care of herself, though that was true as well, but because she didn’t want to call him away from something the Kingmaker had asked of him. From what she knew about his handler, he didn’t like to wait and he didn’t like to be defied.

As Synek disappeared out the door, Iris stared after him a moment before she went to get dressed.

He wasn’t the only one with a job to do.

* * *

An hour after she had gotten dressed and left the brownstone—courtesy of the same car they’d driven in the night before—Iris drove to the governor’s place on the Upper West Side.

The traffic was light, and after only a half an hour, she was slowly cruising down the street looking for a parking space.

She found one between a Mercedes G-Wagon in an interesting shade of rose gold and a Lamborghini.

Iris didn’t get out right away. She remained in the comfortable confines of the car as she inserted the comm into her ear and made sure the camera fixed to the front of her dress was working properly.

“Stop fidgeting with it.” Winter’s voice came over loud and clear.

Not nearly as pleasant as when it was Synek in her ear.

“Are you picking everything up?”

“Yep.”

Good.

Then she’d leave it at that.

Iris climbed out of the car and straightened her dress, glancing at her reflection in the windows to make sure she looked presentable before she started across the street.

There was a small square patch of grass in front of each brownstone, all with a manicured rose bush in the very center. The homes on this street were very much like the ones where she and Synek were staying, but nothing like his actual apartment.

Which did he prefer?

The question had plagued her ever since he’d taken her there days ago, and she’d seen the state in which he was living. He might have spent his time in London for the most part, or bouncing from city to city for the Kingmaker, but even if that was the case, he still deserved something more permanent.

Somewhere that was actually home and not just another place to crash.

It broke her heart to think he thought that was good enough for him—that he didn’t need much. They had spoken of what would come after this, once the governor was arrested and her father was freed, but while she knew she wanted him when this was all over, she hadn’t considered anything else beyond that.

It wasn’t that his apartment was a deal breaker. She just wanted him to have more, and if he wasn’t willing to give it to himself, then it was up to her to do it.

They might not have asked the night of the fundraiser, but here at the brunch where it was a bit more intimate, Iris found herself telling the fifth person the name of the designer for her shoes.

Half of what she said was a repeat of what Calavera had told her, but she didn’t think the ladies were actually listening. Most were just tripping over themselves to talk about when the next collection was launching.

After ten minutes of standing there, she quietly excused herself and made her way over to the bar. She grabbed one of the carafes and poured a drink, her gaze sweeping the room to make sure no one paid attention to her as she slipped up the back staircase.

“Is anyone up here?” Iris muttered.

“Nah,” Winter’s reply was immediate and dry. “You’re good.”

Even if she wasn’t happy about it, she was a good resource to have.

The floorboards only creaked slightly as Iris made her way down the hall, recalling the layout she had memorized. The door the farthest down to the left was the governor’s home office.

With one last glance behind her, Iris tried twisting the door handle but only managed an inch.

Locked.

Plucking two of the hair pins from her hair, she made a quick pick set and lowered to her haunches. She slowly worked the locked, smiling once it clicked open.

The office was designed in deep shades of brown from the mahogany desk and sturdy chair to the bookcases taking up three of the walls—all filled with encyclopedias and books on politics.

The last wall, however, didn’t have books or trinkets of any sort. It had a large-scale printout of a world map. In some places, the map was a brilliant gold, but she found the matte black in other areas curious.

As she drew closer to it, she ran her fingers over it, feeling the dip and change in texture when she traced over two different countries. She picked at the black, soon realizing that it was meant to come off.

If she had to guess, the governor had scratched away the places he had been.

Down in the left-hand corner was a logo—a serpent tied in an elaborate knot. It might have just been the brand, and the governor could have only been a collector, but something about the giant piece made her curious—she just couldn’t figure out why.

Putting it to the back of her mind for the moment, Iris spun around and hurried over to the desk, going through the unlocked drawers first before deciding which one she would risk opening.

She didn’t have enough time to go through each of them, not before someone got suspicious that she hadn’t returned quite yet.

She only hoped something useful was inside.

The top drawer clicked open moments later, the inside filled with an assortment of pens, paper clips, and other work paraphernalia that she hardly paid attention to. There wasn’t much inside that would be of any use to her, though she did find a token in the back corner.

Again, something with the logo of the snake.

Now, there was no doubt in her mind that the logo meant something. She just needed to find out what.

As Iris pushed the drawer closed and pocketed the token, she was just coming around the desk when a woman appeared in the doorway.

“What are you doing in here?”

Her heart sunk in her chest as she came face to face with Kava, Dorothy’s assistant.

“Shit.”

Winter’s exclamation came a little late now that she had been caught, but Iris didn’t have time to think about that when the last thing she needed was Kava believing she was snooping.

Though she had been.

“I was looking for the bathroom. This door was open,” she said, careful not to speak too quickly or let any of her panic thread around her words.

She made a point to look around again, to make sure she still looked curious as opposed to someone who’d actually found something worth looking into.

“It’s the other door down the hall,” Kava said, her gaze never straying from Iris.

It was hard to tell whether she bought what Iris had said, but she didn’t stick around to find out. She merely nodded and slipped back out into the hallway, hurrying back the way she came.

That had been far too close, and considering someone was supposed to be watching for this, Iris had only one person to blame.

“Sorry,” Winter said, and from the way her voice had gone soft and embarrassed, Iris didn’t think she had done it on purpose.

“Let’s … let’s just be more careful,” Iris said, letting it go.

After all, there was still much more of the house she needed to go through.