“You mentioned her once during the game. You also mentioned that she’s a duchess.” Savannah deployed a pointed smile. “How hard could a duchess namedZellapossibly be to track down? I’m betting there’s only one.”
“And yet…” Rohan took a step forward just to see if Savannah would step back. “The Hawthorne heiress’s head of security hasn’t managed to find her.” Another step. “Ask me how I know.”
Savannah didn’t so much as blink. “You’ve been keeping tabs on them. Avery’s people.”
Rohan had been on this yacht for hours, and he’d put his time to good use. “The heiress is still MIA,” he informed Savannah. “They haven’t found a trace of her, and for what it’s worth, I would wager that they won’t be keeping us here past dawn.”
“They’re just letting us go?” Savannah challenged. “All of us? Even me?”
Rohan reached into his jacket and pulled out a single sheet of paper, presenting it to her with a flourish. “Even you, love.”
Savannah ignored the term of endearment. “What’s this?” she demanded.
“The nondisclosure agreement they’re going to be asking us to sign.” Rohan arched a brow.Your move, Ms. Grayson.
A lesser mortal’s eyes might have flashed, but Savannah’s composure was as much a weapon in her arsenal as Rohan’s charm was in his. “I won’t be signing anything,” she said.
“I would wager that you will.”
“No morewagers.” Savannah took a step—a rather aggressive step—toward him. “I’m not playing this game with you anymore, Rohan.”
“Want to bet on that?” Rohan knew he was pushing his luck, but luck was meant to be pushed. “The NDA doesn’t say anything about your father or his death. It covers the duration of the Grandest Game and our time spent aboard this yacht, and that is all. Now that you’ve lost the element of surprise, Avery’s people clearly don’t consider you much of a threat.”
That barb drew blood. Savannah’s delicate upper lip curled back from pearly white teeth. “And Jameson Hawthorne just as clearly considersyouhis lapdog,” she retorted. “I assume he offered you money to help him find Avery, starting by finding out what the duchess knows about the so-called Watcher?”
That was, in fact, exactly what had happened.
“And you doubtlessly agreed,” Savannah continued mercilessly, “because heaven forbid you have to rely on a promise from me.”
Rohanhadrelied on Savannah’s promise—when he’d given her his dice. “Without Avery Grambs,” he pointed out, “there is no prize money for you to give me.”
“I don’t care about Avery, and I don’t care about the money.”
One of those things was true.
“You never wanted the money,” Rohan replied. “You wanted to be heard. You wanted to make the whole world listen to you.” He cocked his head to the side. “You still do.”
This time, Savannah’s eyes did flash, like lightning striking ice. “How wouldyouknow the first thing about what I want?”
Rohan’s mind went unbidden to the last time they’d kissed, soaking wet and treading water beneath a dock. Savannah’s shoulders had been bare, her pale eyes all fearlessness and frost.
I decide, she’d told him then.Not you.
“You aren’t in the habit of wanting things.” Rohan’s voice came out quieter than he’d meant for it to. “You set goals. You achieve them. End of story. Perhaps you still want your revenge against Avery and the Hawthornes. Perhaps you do not. But I would wager a great deal you’ll want that decision resting in your hands and no one else’s.”
You see, love.Rohan willed her to feel the heat in his gaze.I do know you.
“If I had any interest whatsoever in wagering with you, Rohan, which I do not, I would wager that the reason you are so desperate for money has something to do with the Mercy.”
The Devil’s Mercy was an institution of unspeakable influence, part gambling club, part secret society—and the only home that Rohan had ever known. He’d been raised in the halls of the Mercy, had risen through its ranks doing everything he could to prove himself a worthy heir to a legacy that stretched back to the Regency period. Once every generation or two, control of the Mercy passed from one Proprietor to the next. At the moment, all that stood between Rohan and the only thing he’d ever wanted was the little matter of ten million pounds.
Jameson had promised Rohan that money if and only if Rohan helped him find Avery, starting by luring the duchess out and wringing every last bit of useful information out of her. And if Rohan could, in the process of doing so, also find a way to disqualify Zella as his competitor for the Proprietorship, all the better.
The Mercywaspower, and if Rohan played all of this exactly right, that power could still be his for the taking. “I’m hardly desperate, love. Desperate men rarely come out on top.”
“You don’t say.” Savannah arched one delicate brow. “How much would you like to bet that I’ll find the duchess at the Mercy? You obviously consider her a rival.”
During the game, Rohan had given Savannah a few select truthsabout who he was, but she didn’t fully know what was at stake for him. She didn’t know that he was playing not merely to return to the Devil’s Mercy but toleadit.