Trade Secrets by Beth Ryan

Author:Beth Ryan [Ryan, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, disabled character, trade secrets, sign language, lgbtq, the donovan chronicles, dystopia, Slow Burn Romance, thriller romance, Nate Donovan, conspiracy thriller, deaf character, tech noir, cyberthriller, cyberpunk, Cooper Hall
ISBN: 9781386249320
Publisher: Mad Lantern Media
Published: 2020-06-09T04:00:00+00:00

16

Time didn’t slow when I saw him. The world didn’t collapse out from under me. There were no outward signs that something earth-shattering had changed in the space between one moment and the next. To the others, nothing significant had occurred, yet seeing my client standing there changed everything.

You don’t know me, and I don’t know you.

My own words echoed in my head as I stared at him. I couldn’t follow my own advice now, couldn’t look away from the man I’d hoped I had already saved. His blond hair was slicked back again. He didn’t look anything like he had when I’d left him behind in that alley, gun in his hands and fear in his eyes.

He was still wearing his clean, white button-down and shiny black shoes, standing as though he’d never bent his spine a day in his life. Aside from a smudge of dirt on his temple and a coat the color of bile wrapped around him, Cooper looked for all the world like he belonged right where he was.

The vague sense of dread I’d managed to suppress thus far redoubled as I waited for someone to comment on the obvious. On how much I didn’t belong. On my threadbare appearance and troubled past. Either I hid my worry well, or the Lemniscate cared little enough about me that they didn’t notice how my fists clenched at my sides and my eyes never left Cooper’s form.

“Did you have any trouble?” President King asked by way of greeting.

“There was a glitch in the tracking, but we resolved the issue,” Joshua replied. With a heavy pause to glance back at Cooper he added, “Obviously.”

“Tch! It’s two thousand seventy-nine, and technology continues to fail us?” Ivonne shook her head and stepped around her brother to hold her hand out to Cooper. She spared a glare for Joshua before introducing herself once again. “Ivonne King.”

“Cooper Hall,” Cooper replied with all the ease and charm of a sanct-born. He took her hand and, rather than shaking it, he brushed his lips across her knuckles. His voice seemed deeper than it had when we first met that morning, and his newfound ability to restrain himself manifested in a stoic refusal to look my way. “A pleasure to meet you.”

I snorted, unable to stop myself as I watched the shaky and desperate man who had come to me only hours before suddenly capable of the grace and airs that should have kept him calm and reasonable from the start.

Finally, at my incredulous noise, his attention returned to me.

“And you are?” he asked, his words laced with contempt.

“Ah, yes,” Ivonne said, drawing the attention in the room back to her. “Monsieur Hall, I’d like to introduce you to your competition. This is Nathan Donovan. The two of you seem to share a few sentiments regarding the Lemniscate. Sentiments that mark you as uniquely qualified to join us. That’s why you’re both here, of course. But where are my manners? Please, let me take your coats.

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