She could handle climbing onto a boat, but refusing would make her seem churlish. Except as his hand enveloped hers, her knees actually went weak, which put her off-balance when she stepped down and fell into him.
“Sorry,” she said, her hands automatically bracing herself on his hard chest.
His fingers tightened on her waist like an involuntary reflex. They both froze, gazes locked. The embers in his eyes danced, and she had a feeling hers were, too. She knew she should step back, oh, about now. And he should be letting her go. Neither of them were moving. She felt dizzy, then realized she hadn’t taken a breath since his hands had gone around her. His mouth opened, as though he were going to say something. Or lean down and kiss her.
Yes, kiss me.
Oh, jeez, that was her command, not the Dragon’s.
“Whoa, who’s getting hot and bothered on my boat?”
They spun to see a man who was jumping down from the roof. He chuckled, low and genuine. Cyn didn’t refute the fact that they were getting hot and bothered so she didn’t either. The two did the manly kind of hug, shoulder to shoulder while patting each other’s back. Kade was cast in silhouette, so all she could see of him was the outline of tousled wavy hair.
“Come on in.” Kade waved for them to follow him into the cabin. “Thought this might be the best place to meet for unofficial business, and I happened to be staying the night here anyway.”
Cyn looked around. “Suits you.”
“There’s nothing like being rocked to sleep. It doesn’t hurt that the chicks dig it.”
Kade assessed her the moment she stepped inside, his moss-green eyes revealing his curiosity about her role in all this subterfuge. They also revealed the swirling mist that marked him as a Deuce.
He thrust his hand at her. “I’m Kade.”
His hand was strong and calloused and didn’t give her the jolt Cyn’s hand did. “I’m—”
“Garnet,” Cyn said.
“Nice to meet you, Garnet.” Kade slid a smile to Cyn. Yeah, he got it. At least Cyn hadn’t called her Ms. Smith.
Kade didn’t need a yacht to impress the chicks. He looked like a guy who owned a sailboat, a surfboard, and probably a Sea-Doo or two. His sun-burnished hair even appeared wind-tossed, though that was probably because they’d roused him from sleep. He didn’t look like a police officer, that was for sure.
Cyn chuckled, tugging on Kade’s flowered shirt. “Going Jimmy Buffett?”
“Someone was always haranguing me to get a life outside the Guard.” He raised his arms out. “This is it.”
That’s when Ruby saw the dagger tattoo on the inside of his right arm, the sharp tip at his wrist. An elongated V with curved lines at the top was incorporated into the hilt. For Vega? More interestingly, the tattoo shimmered with magick, though it didn’t move like the Dragon did. Her gaze went to Cyn’s forearm, realizing that the faded scar there matched the design of Kade’s V.
Cyn picked up some paperwork on the table, shaking his head as he tossed it down again. “Still working on your off time.”
“But I do have a beer while I’m reading over the case notes.”
“I appreciate you seeing us like this.” Cyn handed him the book they’d found at Brom’s. “Is there anything on these pages?”
Kade flipped through them, flattening his tanned hand on one every now and then. The fog swirled blue and gold in his eyes, and a glow emanated from his hand. “Yeah, but it’s fighting me.”
“‘It’?” she asked, checking to see that the book was still just sitting there.
“The magick Brom used to hide his words is strong. Deciphering it is like holding quicksilver. I’ll try picking up his state of mind while he was writing.”
He closed the book and his eyes, his square chin lifted. “He wrote this in a frenzied state. A while ago, twenty years or more. It took a few days to get it all down. I can feel his impatience, his confusion over the visions.” He opened his eyes. “Seers get bits and pieces, at least what I’ve heard.”
“So he’s not dead?” Ruby asked.
“Not that I can tell.”
Cyn leaned against one of the cabinets. “Can you bring out the text?”
“I haven’t done anything like this in years. Remember the Deuce who was killing all the psychics? He kept a diary, and he hid the entries with a similar spell. I can unlock the spell, yes. It’s set at the beginning of the book when the Seer starts writing it. Unlocking it reveals the text in the same timeline that it was written. The murderer killed a psychic every week, then wrote about all the juicy details. Once I unlocked the first entry, I had to wait a week for the next one to appear. It’s a wait-and-see process. You want me to start?”