I left Nolan panting in bed and took another, very quick shower to rinse off all the sweat once we were done with our workout. I put on a comfy nightgown and was brushing my teeth when he came in behind me, looking cheerful.

He kissed the top of my head before heading back into the shower himself.

Our bed was a mess. The satin sheets were half off the mattress already, so it was easy to pull them aside. Not quite so easy was the task of putting new sheets on, but I got it done.

Nolan was still in the bathroom when I slid under the covers a few minutes later. I closed my eyes for just a second, then remembered my phone was still in my purse. I got back up and went to get it.

Nolan’s phone was in there too. I took it over to his side of the bed and plugged it in to charge.

I was just settling back into bed when Nolan’s phone started going crazy. It turned itself back on when it got enough power, I guess, and all the notifications were now going off at once.

The sound was on low. So Nolan couldn’t hear it from the bathroom, but the little dings and buzzes were plenty loud from where I was.

I slid over and reached out for the phone, just planning to flip the little side switch to put it on silent.

But I froze when I saw the screen.

Right there at the top was a little stack of notifications. Texts from Gina.

Nolan’s stupid ex. Who had been calling him on our honeymoon.

I heard the sink shut off, and the bathroom lights went out. I flipped Nolan’s phone over, screen down. And hurried back over to my side of the bed.

Nolan noticed his phone was on his nightstand, charging. He gave me a sleepy smile that I took to mean thank you.

Then he picked it up and looked at the screen.

He put it on silent, set it back down upside down, and slid into bed without saying another word.

I rolled over, turning my back to him.

NOLAN

Yena was silent beside him in bed. Her energy had changed.

A few unread texts from Gina were there at the top of his notifications, visible on the lock screen. He stifled a groan when he saw them.

It was not until he was in bed, inching toward Yena, that he realized she had probably seen those notifications, too, when she plugged in his phone.

Nolan could tell she was still awake. But she was not acknowledging him.

He thought about stroking her arm and asking if she was alright.

But it was too easy to just let it go for tonight.

It was possible she was just tired. Or stressed, thinking back on their incredibly awkward meeting with Luna, now that her wine buzz had faded.

He could not bear, though, the idea of sleeping apart from Yena in this bed. He scooted close to her and draped one hand over her waist. She sighed and let her weight fall back into his chest, and soon her breathing slowed, telling him she had fallen asleep.

The phone rang in Nolan’s hand just as he looked down at it, wondering if the private investigator was actually going to call him this morning, like he said he would.

Nolan picked up and held the phone to his ear.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” the man said.

Nolan asked, “What have you got for me?”

“I sent a courier about an hour ago with the surveillance photos. If he’s not there yet, he should be any minute now. I instructed him to deliver the package directly into your hands only.”

There was a knock on the door. Nolan’s first thought was that it was the courier arriving exactly on cue. He told the PI to hold on and found it was his secretary at the door, asking if the prince was available.

Nolan shook his head and closed the door.

“I’ll call you later,” he said to the man on the phone. “Any surprises you want to warn me about?”

There was a pause on the line.

“Just what you’ve been expecting. He spends most of his nights at the home of the Secretary of State. Takes a strange route there, up and around the mountainside.”

Nolan nodded to himself. He was staring out the window in his office, not looking at anything in particular.

“I figure he’s avoiding highway traffic cams,” the PI continued. “I only followed him the whole way from his house one time. Once I knew where he was taking that road, I let him drive it alone and took the time to beat him there and get into position to catch his entrance.”

“Anyone else meet them there?” Nolan asked.

“Yeah,” the man said. “You’ll see. You’d know better than me, who the others are.”

“Thanks.”

Nolan was about to hang up when then the investigator added, like an afterthought, “Oh. And there’s a girl too.”

“A girl?”

“A pretty, young one. Girlfriend, looks like. She’s at Adan’s house a lot but doesn’t stay over nights.”

Nolan was surprised at the stinging emotion he felt in response to this bit of information.

It was fear. For the girl.

That reminded him. “Anything at all yet on the other one? The human?”

“Hmm,” the PI grumbled. “That one, nothing new.”

Nolan told the man to keep him posted and hung up quickly. He heard sounds outside his door and figured whoever it was that needed to see him was tired of waiting.

His secretary was waiting there with the courier, whose eyes went big when the prince suddenly appeared in the doorway. The young man bowed and held out a big, heavy envelope like he was offering a sacrifice to a god.

Nolan’s secretary made some rapid comments about the courier insisting on waiting for the prince, and that he was sorry to bother Nolan at all. He added quickly that there were more messages he would like to pass along as well.

But Nolan waved him off and took the parcel, then gave them both a simple “Thank you” and paced backward into his office and closed the door again.

There were hundreds of photos in the package. Huge, high definition, glossy full-color photographs that captured every second of dozens of scenes in which Adan was moving through his daily life.

Nolan flipped through them quickly. He’d have to circle back and study them more closely later, when he had more time.

Pictures of Adan’s arrivals and departures from Harlan Kerr’s big mountainside mansion made up the bulk of the photographs.

Nolan started sorting the pages into two piles on his desk. One pile was all photos of Adan alone, or with his buddy Kerr.

The other pile was smaller. He put the pictures that featured other people in that one.

Those were the most interesting to him.

There was another hesitant knock at the door. Nolan ignored it but increased his speed.

Piles sorted, he stashed away the larger one into a file in his desk drawer.

He took the smaller pile and spread the photos out all over his desk.

He gave them a quick scan. Recognized a few politicians, who were pictured meeting at Kerr’s home as well.

And saw the girl that the PI had mentioned. She was cute, and – the man was right – very young. Nolan squinted at her photo, thinking for just a second that he recognized her.

He gave up trying to place her, though. And filed the pictures away, locked his desk, and put the matter out of his mind for the time being.