Possess(The Syndicate: Crime and Passion 1)(4)

I loved to look around the cities we went to and I lost myself in taking in the scenery, watching avidly, though I’d never be a part of the world that went on around me.

Adrian cleared his throat to get my attention, and I glanced at him. He still didn’t look at me, kept his eyes firmly on the road, but he was aware that I watched him nonetheless.

“So what do you think about it?” he finally asked.

“The city?” I said.

He nodded.

“It’s okay. Pretty,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

This kind of question was unlike Adrian. He was open enough when asked a direct question, but I couldn’t recall him ever initiating a conversation, certainty not one as meaningless as what I thought about the city.

“No reason,” he said.

I tilted my head, kept my eyes on him.

“Maxim mentioned it,” he said, his voice flat, monotone, but I was not sucked in by his seeming disinterest.

And I didn’t for a moment believe that Maxim had “mentioned” anything. Even the phrase was unbelievable, suggested that Maxim had casually raised the subject. The idea was laughable. Maxim never casually did anything.

I knew better than to confront the topic directly, though. Temperamentally, Adrian and Maxim couldn’t have been more different, but they shared the stubborn habit of revealing things, if they ever decided to, in their own time. I’d learned to save myself the frustration of pushing.

“Really?” I said as casually as I knew Maxim hadn’t when he’d spoken to Adrian before.

“Yes. He just mentioned it. That you might be a little uncomfortable,” Adrian said.

I knew that he would say no more, probably regretted having said anything at all. In fact, I wondered what had driven him to speak. He wouldn’t tell me, though, so I turned my mind to other thoughts. Well, one in particular.

Maxim hadn’t told me where we were going until we’d gotten on the plane. He had, however, raised it with Adrian before, had taken seconds he wouldn’t ordinarily waste to discuss the issue with Adrian.

Why?

It was true that I’d never wanted be within a thousand miles of Santo again, hadn’t even allowed my mind to contemplate the idea, not even once since I’d left with Maxim that night.

But I’d never said so to him, had put the thought of ever being near Santo again at the back of my mind with the other relics of my past. Which left me with the question of why Maxim had given it any thought.

I turned that question over and over in my mind but was no closer to an answer when Adrian pulled to a stop in front of a large building.

It was located in the city’s financial district. The building wasn’t tall, but it was formidable, its smooth stone facade both classy and cold, almost foreboding.

“Stay here,” Adrian said.

I stayed put and watched as he got out and looked around, dark eyes seeming to look everywhere at once. When he was satisfied, he walked around the car and opened the door.

“Thank you,” I said when my feet hit the ground, the stifling air again hitting me.

He nodded and led me toward the door. I watched as he quickly punched in a key code and only barely kept myself from smiling.

More than once, I’d overheard foolish souls question Adrian’s intelligence. Between his stoicism and near silence, people who weren’t intimidated by him forgot he was there, or worse, made the error of underestimating him.

And underestimating him was an error, a grave one, because Adrian’s mind was a steel trap, every action, every word purposeful. He’d entered the key code without blocking his hand, giving me, but only me, a clear view of the numbers.

That had been intentional.

I wouldn’t acknowledge it, just as he hadn’t. If I did, he’d probably deny it and then feel compelled to have the number changed, so I kept my lips sealed but gave him a lingering look and a soft smile.

It was all the thanks I could give, and all that he would accept. He didn’t acknowledge it, though, and instead opened the door and ushered me into the building.

I’d known Adrian since he’d been barely out of his teens, and I wasn’t any closer to understanding him. I hadn’t figured out why he sometimes went out of his way to do little things like that, things he knew Maxim would disapprove of.

Another mystery I wouldn’t solve today, but I appreciated his consideration.

We went deeper into the building, this first floor looking dilapidated, though it seemed the floor had been swept. I knew, though, that we would find something vastly different when we reached our final destination. We stepped onto the elevator, and when it dinged, signaling our arrival, what greeted me may as well have been from a completely different building.