The path down to the shore was rocky and uneven. Moonlight was in short supply. Victory was sweet, the way it always was for Rohan.
Down below, a light on the dock came on.
“There’s no one there.” Savannah came to a standstill. They were still closer to the house than the dock, the path lit by delicate strings of lights. “No Hawthornes. No Hawthorne heiress.”
“I’d wager the game makers will make their appearance just before dawn.” By Rohan’s calculations, they were nearing twilight. “We’ll see if either of the other teams makes it out in time. For now, it’s just us.”
Just Rohan and Savannah Grayson.
She stopped suddenly and turned back toward him. “Truth or dare.” Rohan had not expected that. “Pardon me?”
“Truth or dare, Rohan?”
Something in Savannah’s tone reminded Rohan of the brush gliding through her hair, the slice of the knife, the shattering rose, his hands and hers, bit by bit by bit.
And then Rohan reminded himself that Savannah Grayson liked fighting dirty. “If I pick dare, are you going to dare me to give you the longsword?” Nice try, love.
Savannah was undeterred. “Truth or dare, British?”
“Truth.” Rohan knew the game she was playing. He knew exactly what she was going to ask.
“What’s the name of the organization you work for?”
“Technically, at the moment, I don’t have an employer. I’m on a sabbatical of sorts.” Rohan could have left it there. The Devil’s Mercy was not a name spoken lightly—not by Rohan, not by anyone who valued their life or livelihood. Not even here, in the dead of night, alone. And yet… Rohan hadn’t gotten to where he was by avoiding risk.
When he won the Grandest Game, when he took what was rightfully his, when he became the Proprietor and wore the crown… I will be the Devil’s Mercy. That made its secrets his to tell or withhold.
Rohan gave Savannah Grayson her answer—a true one, a partial one. “The Mercy.” Rohan felt the words on his lips as much as he felt Savannah’s presence beside him in the dark—though it wasn’t quite so dark anymore.
Hello, twilight. “Truth or dare, Savannah?”
She was too proud to back down now. “Truth.”
Rohan wondered what she’d thought he was going to dare her to do. He took a single step toward her. “What are you after, Savvy?”
He’d asked versions of that question before, but every instinct he had said that this time, he might get the real answer, the mystery of Savannah Grayson, solved.
“If you’re not playing for the money,” Rohan murmured, “what are you playing for?”
Savannah stalked slowly toward him, then stopped, leaning forward, her lips so close to Rohan’s that he could taste the kiss that wasn’t as she gave him his due.
An answer, partial, but true. One word. “Revenge.”
