Page 25 of The Scarab's Game

“What does better security mean to you?”

To tell him she was staying with me or not? Ensure he ejected me from the gallery or convince him I was an antiquities broker? “Higher floor, with a private balcony, rather than one accessible from other rooms.”

“She’s here on a contract for us and we’re paying for her room. It’s not your business to move her around without notifying me.”

Jenn hadn’t mentioned that part. He was paying for her room?

Of course he was, Em, it’s a business contract.“Not to worry—we’re covering the cost.”

“You think this is about money?”

“When my sister heard, she insisted we pay.”

His wandering gaze rested inside the office, no doubt on the door that blocked our conversation from Jenn. “Monaco has one of the largest per capita police forces. How can she be unsafe in her own hotel room?”

“She’s a tough cookie. She’ll be fine.”

Dante turned a glower on me. “This is how you treat your sister’s best friend? Someone breaks into her hotel room, and you brush it off as though it were a stubbed toe?”

Well, shit. He reallywasworried about her, wasn’t he?

That doesn’t make him a good man.

“I only meant to say?—”

“You should go to your meeting.” He jutted his chin toward the front. “I’llcheck on her and then confirm if I believe she’s safe or not.”

Great.

Not only had I not won him over, I’d probably driven him closer to her.

Chapter 10

Jenn

I stared at the painting,darkness all around me, other than inside the sphere of light cast by the light bar. I held it so close it didn’t even illuminate the entire painting. And yet I saw nothing.

Nothing other than Emmett and Dante leaving to…

Deep breath out.

Their muffled voices carried through the door, but not clearly enough to make anything out. Except that they were still in the hallway. Instead of Emmett heading to his meeting with Jean-Philippe. No raised voices and no sounds of a scuffle, so they weren’t fighting.

What was with the two of them?

Emmett worked with several alpha males, so it wasn’t as though he thought he had to be the leader of the pack. Or maybe Emmett could work with the men he’d known most of his life, and the new ones were a problem?

That wasn’t it. He was best friends with Scarlett’s boyfriend and seemed to get along well with Drew—both of them had been on the Reynolds team for fewer than six months.

Maybe Dante was the problem?

Maybe he was the one causing the stress?

Or maybe it was me? I laughed and shook my head. There was no way Emmett was fighting with anyone over me.

I had to get my head out of the clouds and focus on the painting.

The layer of varnish was even. Ultraviolet fluorescence showed an almost perfect application. The notes from Massimo’s conservator indicated his work was isolated to the top left corner. He hadn’t mentioned revarnishing the entire painting, so I’d expected the top left corner to appear different under UV.