Song and Key Read online

  Keller pulled his arm away from her surprisingly strong grip. He patted her hand as if placating his grandmother. “I understand. Thank you for the advice. Good night.” He left Mihaela with the half-finished bottle.

  When he got to the room, he found Seva in bed with his arms behind his head and his gaze fixed on the ceiling. Keller went to the bathroom and pulled the light cord. After brushing his teeth, he pissed, flushed, and joined Seva in the bedroom.

  “What are you thinking about?” Keller asked as he started to strip.

  “I was wondering if the thermal springs are open all night.”

  Keller made a happy hum. “We should find out. Every muscle in my body hurts.”

  “Okay.” Seva slid out of bed, pulled on a pair of sweatpants over his boxers, and went to the door. “Are you coming?”

  “Yeah. Sure.” Keller recovered from his surprise at being invited, turned off the light, and followed.

  “ARE you sure you don’t mind locking up?” Radu asked, putting on his coat.

  “Of course not,” Cosmina said. “Go drink and play whist with your friends.”

  “Thank you.” Radu gave her a paternal kiss on the cheek. “See you tomorrow evening.” He stepped outside and turned left on the main street. Near the center of town, he encountered Captain Darius and greeted him. “You’re going the wrong way.”

  “There’s something I have to do before the card game,” Darius said.

  “You don’t want to miss it. We actually have something interesting to talk about tonight.”

  “Yes, I’m sure everyone will want to talk about the Americans. I won’t be too late.”

  Radu looked at his watch. “Well, you have plenty of time anyway. I’m going to stop off somewhere myself. See you at la Moro’s.”

  “See you there.” Darius touched the brim of his hat with one finger and walked away.

  Radu continued down the street.

  THE man waited in the alley just out of sight, ready to pop out when the car arrived. He’d only been there a few minutes when the shiny black luxury sedan pulled over to the curb. The window rolled down silently and smoothly, and a manicured hand beckoned. The first man came to the window and bent down to look inside.

  “I’m disappointed in progress,” said the man in the back seat.

  “It was going well, but something has changed.”

  “Let me hear your excuse.”

  “Two historians have come to town. Americans. They’re crawling all over the ruins.”

  “Why are you telling me this? Get rid of them.”

  “They’re Americans.”

  “Even Americans have accidents in the mountains.”

  “We tried to frighten them away, but I don’t think it worked.”

  “Then try harder.”

  The window rolled up, and the car pulled away. The man on the curb ducked back out of sight and went to his next meeting. His preoccupied mood was remarked on, and he made an effort to appear to enjoy himself. He knew he had to produce results soon or he’d be dealt with. He’d seen how TWISM handled failures, and he would do anything to avoid such a fate. Somehow he must get rid of the two Americans.

  “ISN’T it a little late for jogging?” Cosmina asked as Keller and Seva came down the stairs in sweatpants and T-shirts.

  “We’re going to see if the thermal springs are still open,” Keller answered.

  “There won’t be anyone there this late, but you can go in. There’s a booth to collect money from tourists and hikers during the day, but at night it’s open to local people and guests. You have to bring your own towels, though.”

  “I’ll get them,” Seva said, turning around to go back up the stairs.

  “Why don’t you join us?” Keller asked, propping himself against the wall in such a way that it made his biceps bulge.

  “I can’t tonight, but ask me again sometime,” Cosmina flirted. “If you’re ever alone.”

  Keller smiled. “I get your point.”

  “I hope I wasn’t too blunt.”

  Keller’s smile stretched into his trademark charming grin. “I’d say you’re pretty sharp. I love a smart woman.”

  “No, you don’t,” Seva called down from the top of the stairs.

  Cosmina chuckled. “I think you have been busted. Enjoy the springs.”

  “You’re not coming?” Seva asked politely as he joined them.

  “I have an appointment early in the morning,” Cosmina said. “I must go home and prepare.”

  “Perhaps next time, then,” Seva said. “Come on, Keller.”

  It was little more than a ten-minute walk to the wooden booth that marked the head of the path to the thermal springs. The nearly full moon shed enough light for them to make their way without flashlights as they crossed the wooden walkway that led to a series of rock pools. They saw no one else around to interrupt their privacy as they climbed down to the first spring. Steam rose in curling wisps from the surface of the water, bringing with it the eggy smell of sulfur.

  “It’s not exactly rose petals,” Keller said, wrinkling his nose as he pulled his T-shirt over his head.

  “No, it’s more like a dinosaur farted.”

  Keller chuckled before he pushed his sweatpants and briefs down his long legs. “This is going to feel so good,” he said, putting a toe in the water as he attempted to be casual about his nakedness. Seva had been blowing hot and cold all day, and Keller was still more than a little surprised to have been invited to join in, particularly after the hostility on the return leg of their adventure and the distantly polite public dinner. “Whoa! That’s pretty hot.”

  Seva rolled his eyes. “Ease into it.” He shucked off his long-sleeve T-shirt and sweatpants.

  Keller climbed gingerly into the water and sat on the bench carved into the rock. He watched Seva lower himself into the pool, admiring the play of his partner’s hard muscles thrown into stark relief by the moonlight.

  “What’s that martial art you do?” he asked, still staring.

  “That was random,” Seva said as he got settled. “Hapkido.”

  “Why that one? Because you’re part Korean?”

  “When you know hapkido, you don’t need to know any other forms of self-defense.” Seva’s tone was smug, but in a friendly way.

  Keller laughed. “Looks like it’s a pretty good workout, judging by the shape you’re in.”

  Seva shrugged modestly. “I still do my boot camp calisthenics almost every morning.”

  Keller shuddered in mock horror. Sure, he stayed in shape, but he didn’t hit the gym every day if he didn’t have to. “Jesus! Are you some kind of masochist?”

  “Not that I know of.” Seva stretched his legs out and flexed his feet. “This is perfect. A good hot soak is exactly what I needed.”

  “Yeah,” Keller said absently. His brain kept replaying the image of Seva getting into the chest-deep water, and he couldn’t make it stop. It was like having a song stuck in your head: not exactly annoying, but it was having an effect.

  His partner might annoy the shit out of him sometimes, but he was intriguing, and there was no denying that Keller’s dick was getting hard while he thought about Seva’s body. He shifted a bit in the water so it wouldn’t be as visible if Seva was looking.

  “So, what do you think we should tell Mr. Fitzroy about tonight’s interesting events?”

  Seva shrugged. “I’d say that’s a moot point until we get cell reception.”

  “We could write him a letter?” Keller suggested wryly.

  “Not funny.”

  “But I take it you still think the whole scene this afternoon was set up?”

  “Of course it was.” Seva looked across the small pool at Keller. “What else could it be?”

  Keller nodded, agreeing, but then shook his head. “You’ll laugh, but can we, just for a minute, pretend it was a real vampire?”

  “Why?”

  Keller shrugged. “To explore all the possibilities. Anything else would be s
hoddy investigating.”

  “Well, you’re the expert on shoddy.” Seva’s eyes were dancing with amusement despite his superior tone.

  “Hey!” Keller splashed water at Seva.

  “You don’t want to start this,” Seva warned. He didn’t sound like he was kidding.

  “Am I supposed to be scared?” Keller taunted.

  “You should be.”

  Keller snorted. “The day I can’t take you, I’ll have a tag on my toe.”

  Seva smirked. “That day may come sooner than you think.”

  “I’m right here,” Keller said, lifting his chin in a beckoning gesture. His cocky grin was a white flash in the moonlight as he spread his arms in a deceptively relaxed posture. He and Seva were just joking around, but there was an undercurrent of something else, something he couldn’t define, that put him on his guard.

  When Seva launched himself without further warning, Keller was ready, or at least he thought he was. He’d never sparred with Seva in hand-to-hand combat and didn’t know what to expect, but he imagined the supple agent was an accomplished close-quarters fighter. He wasn’t wrong.

  Trying to subdue Seva was like trying to cuddle a wildcat. Seva moved with astonishing quickness and brutal directness. Keller found himself gasping for air from a two-finger jab under his diaphragm, and then Seva shoved his head under the water. Keller waited a beat, tucked his head to his chest, and managed to get his arms around Seva’s upper thighs. He bent his knees and then surged up to flip Seva backward. However, Seva grabbed Keller’s shoulders and pulled him down too. Keller landed on top of Seva, and for a few seconds, they were pressed together face-to-face under the water.

  They had a moment of simultaneous recognition as they both realized that the other was aroused, and they flung themselves away to gasp for breath on opposite sides of the pool.

  “I’m going to call that a draw,” Keller said when he had enough breath for speech, feeling like they had crossed a line. His heart was racing, and not just from the wrestling. He couldn’t bring himself to look at Seva and see what kind of expression was lurking in his partner’s eyes.

  Seva was breathing hard too and not attempting to make eye contact. “I would like a rematch… in a gym… with proper clothing,” he added.

  “Right.” Keller nodded. “That’s what I was thinking too.” It was absolutely not what he was thinking, but he hadn’t decided whether or not he was thinking the thoughts currently in his head.

  Seva cleared his throat. “We should talk about what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

  That sounded like a great idea to Keller. “Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that we need to go back to the ruins and look around some more.” Keller paused, then sighed a little and decided to try to act like a professional colleague. “We don’t have to talk about our little sword fight just now, but I feel like I have to at least say that it’s a perfectly normal physical reaction to the adrenaline of a fight. It doesn’t make you gay or anything.”

  Seva made a face of disgust. “Are you saying that for my benefit or yours?”

  “I’m just saying it. You know, stating a fact.”

  “Since you’re so concerned, listen to me carefully,” Seva said, sounding slightly angry. “I don’t care if you’re gay.”

  Keller threw up his hands in frustration. “I’m the one trying to reassure you! And why do people keep thinking I’m gay in spite of the fact that I’ve slept with half the women on the planet?”

  Seva snorted. “I think you answered your own question.”

  “Oh, like I’m overcompensating or something? Sorry to disappoint you, but I’ve had sex with half the men on the planet too,” Keller argued.

  “You don’t have to convince me that you’re an equal-opportunity slut. I’m hardly shocked that you got hard while you were rubbing against me,” he said, more than a little smug.

  “I wasn’t rubbing against you. We were wrestling.”

  Seva raised his brows in mock surprise. “That was wrestling?”

  “What do you call it?”

  Seva hid a smile. “I thought you finally gave in to your lust for me.”

  Keller guffawed. “Hey, you pounced on me.”

  “If you issue an engraved invitation, don’t be surprised when I RSVP.”

  Keller paused a moment, squinting at Seva, reconsidering his assumption that uptight also meant straight. “You’re fucking with me right now, aren’t you?”

  Seva hesitated before answering but gave in to a smile. “Maybe a little.”

  Keller grinned back. “You’re all right, Song.” His heart rate was returning to normal, and it seemed like everything would be okay.

  “So… are you sure you weren’t surrendering to your powerful attraction to me?” Seva asked melodramatically.

  Keller laughed. “I’m sure.”

  “That’s okay. Someday you will.”

  Keller shook his head, still smiling but starting to get confused again about where their banter was going. Was Seva sincerely flirting with him, or was he ironically joking about being gay? Not that it mattered—they had a job to do. “I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

  “Worry? I look forward to it.” Seva smirked at the look on Keller’s face. “You look like you’d be good in bed.”

  “Ha. Ha.” Keller climbed out of the pool and turned his back to Seva. He couldn’t see Seva’s face when he bent over to pick up his towel, and didn’t know if Seva was looking, but he hurried to get the towel around his hips anyway. “I think the joke’s gone on long enough.”

  “I’m not joking.”

  “What?” Keller said, turning around as he dried off with a second towel. “I’m supposed to believe you’re gay?”

  Seva took a deep breath and answered honestly. “Only because I am.”

  Keller was obviously not a homophobe, but it was still difficult for him not to react. In the most neutral tone he could manage, he said, “Okay, fine.” He pulled his shirt on, ignoring the weird jumping sensation in his guts. “You’re gay. No big deal.”

  “We’ll see,” Seva said as he stepped into his sweatpants.

  “If this is one of your head games….” Keller scowled and let the unspoken threat hang in the air. He was confused and mildly annoyed that they seemed to be talking at cross-purposes, and he was prepared to be genuinely pissed off if Seva was just fucking with him.

  “Let’s go,” Seva said, shaking his head. “We need to get some sleep.”

  Keller wouldn’t have minded pursuing the subject a little further, but for once he didn’t. It felt like they were on the edge of something, and he wasn’t ready to jump off that cliff just yet. Not without any idea what was down below. Switching the subject was probably smarter. “We should do something about the lack of cell reception.”

  “Do you expect me to build a tower?”

  “No, but surely we’re smart enough to come up with an alternative.”

  “We could drive to Sinaia and see if we can buy some radios.”

  “Like walkie-talkies?”

  “Yes, Keller, like walkie-talkies,” Seva said with heavy emphasis.

  “Sounds good. I’m not looking forward to another day of hiking around in the gorge,” he said.

  “You should be more positive, like me. Think of the fresh air, the beautiful views, and the great exercise,” Seva advised.

  “The wolves and vampires and blisters,” Keller argued.

  “You whine a lot. I know your bitchiness isn’t from lack of sex,” Seva teased, “so it must be that you’re having the wrong kind of sex. Sleep with me and your attitude will improve, I promise.”

  “Stop it,” Keller said firmly. “I could pull off a flirty act like that, but when you do it, it’s just not funny.”

  Seva shrugged. “I’m not trying to be funny.”

  “You’re so full of crap,” Keller huffed as he walked away.

  He hadn’t taken more than a few steps before he remembered that the suite only
had the one bed, and nearly stumbled. He was going to be sleeping with Seva by default, and he doubted his attitude was likely to improve. Quite the opposite, in fact, if his confused feelings and the tension between the two of them continued. Physical proximity wasn’t helping, and Seva’s unexpected flirty teasing had totally thrown Keller off his game. He had no idea what was going on between them, and they were supposed to be working. He resolved to get into bed, ignore Seva, go to sleep, and tomorrow they’d focus on the assignment. Once that was completed, everything would go back to normal.

  When Keller glanced back, Seva smirked at him.

  Chapter Seven

  Tuesday morning, at an unreasonable hour for two men supposedly on vacation, at the inn

  SEVA rose at six as usual and went out to run a couple of miles. He did a half-hour set of calisthenics and then returned to the inn. As he approached the building, a black car pulled away from the curb and drove off. When it was gone, Seva saw Cosmina standing on the side of the road.

  “Good morning,” he called out. “Nice car.”

  “Yes,” she agreed when Seva reached her. “My early morning appointment. A gentleman who wishes to improve his English.”

  “Does he live here?”

  “No, no, Domnul Creanga lives in Sinaia. He owns a hotel and a restaurant there. He’s quite wealthy and expects to become even wealthier.” Cosmina smiled. “He wants to be more fluent when he becomes part of the jet set.”

  “He’s got the right idea. Luxury hotels in exotic locations are a license to print money.”

  “Ah, but you must start with a great deal of money,” Cosmina pointed out.

  Seva nodded. “True, unless you have a silver tongue and connections to investors.”

  “That does not describe Atanase Creanga. He doesn’t use persuasion to get what he wants.”

  “I see.” Seva met Cosmina’s eyes. “I hope he hasn’t tried convincing you of anything.”