“Come in.”
The door opened, and he expected to see Mimic or Bang Bang, both of whom usually had trouble sleeping and liked to talk shit with him until their eyes got heavy.
Instead, it was Wyatt, standing there with the warm light of the lamps washing over him. He wore a pair of light gray sleeping shorts and a black T-shirt, his glasses on and his hair tousled in a couple of different directions.
“Busy?” Wyatt asked, peeking in.
“No, no. Just having some wine before bed. Want a glass?”
“Sure,” he said, stepping into the room. “Damn, this is massive.”
“I kind of wish this wasn’t our last night here.” Roman pulled a dewy bottle of wine from the ice bucket and poured a glass, bringing it over to Wyatt as he admired a marble statue of an elephant, spiderweb-thin cracks spreading across its tusks and ears.
“Good job today.” Roman looked into Wyatt’s eyes, committing each fleck of golden brown to memory. “For someone who rarely shoots a gun, you handled yourself exceptionally well.”
“Thanks,” he said, taking a big drink of his wine. “I still can’t even process it. It’s like my servers are bugging out or something.”
“Taking someone’s life is never easy, even if it’s in self-defense. It’ll take some time to really sink it. But when it does, and when you’re ready, I’m here to talk about it. Getting it out of your system helps. It really does.”
Wyatt smiled, his lips disappearing as he took another drink. “Thanks, Roman.” He went over to the dark blue couch set on golden tiger claws. He took a seat, sinking back into the plush cushion. “So, do you want to tell me why you’ve been so secretive? How did you even get that phrase? Was what you said true?”
Roman moved to sit down next to Wyatt, finding it difficult to resist the magnetic pull that existed between them. Like two celestial bodies rotating around the same sun, their paths destined to crash. Would that be tonight?
“It was. I got it from Remy himself. I, well, hooked up with him, like I said, and he ended up spilling it all to me. There’s other ways of finding the phrases, not just through dicking down the creator of this crazy egg hunt.”
Wyatt scoffed, shaking his head. He drank, his Adam’s apple bobbing with his sips. The room became a couple of degrees hotter for Roman. He sat up, adjusting himself.
“What’s the next phrase?” Wyatt asked, his gaze focused on a vase overflowing with peonies.
Roman knew this was a test. Wyatt was dipping his toes in the opaque pool of information Roman tried to keep to himself. He valued the idea of holding as many cards close to his chest as possible, especially considering the possibility of a leak in their otherwise tight-knit crew. It worried Roman and made him want to keep quiet about everything except the most vital pieces of information.
“Listen to the blue jays sing. It’s like paradise.”
Wyatt blinked, cocked his head.
“That’s it, that’s the phrase?”
Roman nodded, and Wyatt started to laugh, the sound of it filling the room, jumping over to Roman, causing the two men to devolve into a fit of laughter. “This is insane,” Wyatt said as his breath started coming back to him. “I don’t even know what I’m laughing at. I just—this is wild. How am I sitting next to my high school freaking sweetheart, working on a job that could set us all up for life. How the hell?”
Roman chuckled, residual laughter bubbling up in his chest. He stretched his leg out, his knee grazing Wyatt’s. “Life’s crazy. One second, you’re dreaming about someone, and the next, they’re agreeing to come along on a heist of a lifetime.”
“Is it really a heist? We’re just collecting some pages, which—by the way—I still have no idea what they’re about.”
Roman smirked, having almost forgotten how blunt Wyatt could sometimes be. He liked it. Kept him on his toes. “We have to steal the book, which didn’t exactly go great the first time we attempted it. This time, I guarantee the security will be increased, and the job is only going to be harder. Now, do you have any other terminology issues you’d like to bring up?”
Wyatt shook his head. “Nope, nope. That sums it up pretty well.” He hid his smile behind another drink, his lips coming back with a glitter of moisture to them, catching the dim lamplight that softened everything in the room. Wyatt’s leg bounced slightly, causing it to rub against Roman’s, sending lightning bolts racing up his thighs.
“High school sweetheart, huh?” Roman said, circling the conversation back.
“Well, yeah, we were inseparable. Was I not yours?”
“Of course you were. You were more than that, everything all at once. You were my happiest moments and my biggest regrets.”
Wyatt’s voice dropped. “What did you regret?”