Chapter 76

Out of the corner of his eye, Quinn saw Tam wince. He put a restraining hand on his lover’s knee under the table and with the other took a sip of Malbec. Nothing like drinking Argentine wine in Indonesia, but then, we’re all internationalists, Quinn thought bitterly.

As the brunch group, which had swelled to include far more than the Parkers, posed for more pictures at an assortment of chocolate Easter bunnies afterward—no wonder movie stars despised the paparazzi, Quinn thought—he begged off, saying he needed a breath of air. He hurried down the stairs past a Chinese birthday party, the guests all dressed in red, and out the door down the winding paths that bordered the brimming kidney-shaped pools, pausing before the white, domed mosque. He listened to the melismatic call to prayer and answered it with a prayer of his own as there was for him only one God, who protected the weak and the strong alike and held them both accountable.