Ghost Silk (Ghost Perfume, Book 2) | ✔

11 - Tell the truth - Part 1

I estimated impatiently that Jackal was no more than half an hour away.

"So we're waiting for the revenant? What were you going to say before?" Lukas asked. A lock of his hair fell over his forehead. He brushed it away. He was making quick, efficient work of my nails.

Neutral, he'd said. But I wasn't sure what neutrality from Lukas was supposed to look like.

I checked to see if Alexander was in the vicinity, but we seemed to be alone. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Ask me, Rosie."

Lukas's nail beds were perfect, the nails short and shiny. A couple of heavy silver-and-black rings circled his long fingers. He used the edge of his thumb to clean a bit of extra polish off my nail.

"By the way, want a color too?" I asked.

"Sure. Choose for me."

My first instinct was to choose black for him, because I thought it'd be insanely sexy, but the effect could be too uncheerful in combination with his dark rings. I pulled out a teal-blue, a deep yellow and a dull orange. "How about these?"

He looked pleased and put his fingers into my palm. I painted the blue on the nails of his thumb and forefinger, then switched to the orange for his middle finger. His palm was warm against mine.

"Lukas, if I crossed through the portal now, what would you do?"

He spoke steadily. "It's between you and Michael."

"So you'd do nothing," I said hopefully. I thought he wasn't being very honest, though. He'd definitely seemed to side with Michael at first.

"No. I have to do what Michael says," he corrected. "But I'm saying I don't have any personal opinion. So stop being mad at me, Rosie."

No opinion – what a liar. I put blue on his ring finger and yellow on his pinkie.

"Did Michael actually tell you to stop me from crossing? Or – or did Gabriel?"

"Yes. Michael's still angry, and Gabriel doesn't disagree with him."

I tried not to wilt about that as I switched my attention to his other hand. Punishment, punishment – scrub the word from my head. "Do you have to salute and click your heels whenever Michael or Gabriel enter the room?"

His hand twitched in mine. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"That, that you're always wearing a uniform, metaphorically." I put yellow on the three middle fingers.

He chuckled. "You know, darling, when I first started working –"

"At your security company?"

"Um, yes. When I started working, there was a uniform and a shit-ton of rules. No nail polish, hair no longer than here –" he gestured, " – no piercings, and that's only the basics. But I had that changed." He looked smug.

"Good for you ..." I put blue on his pinkie and orange on his thumb. "So you have some influence over the uniform, you mean?"

"Of course I do."

I peered at him. "If Michael talks about his men, does that include you?"

"Definitely not. I'm a fucking Al – look, what are you asking? We have some workers who report to us, I guess."

I took a deep breath. "Well, my question is, would you talk to Michael or Gabriel about letting me through the portal?"

"No."