by Lexi Blake
I should have seen this coming. My search for a cab would have to wait. If there was any possibility that Albert could give me information about Lucas Halfer, I had to do whatever I could to make that happen. If that meant suffering through playoff hell, then so be it. “Fine, I’ll give Dev another chance, but I can’t promise you anything.”
“I’m not asking for anything but understanding.”
“All right. The first part of the date was great, so I guess I can stay a little longer. It will give me time to talk to you about how crappy your security is.”
Albert’s eyes widened and a frown turned his mouth down, his fangs peeking out. “It isn’t bad. It can’t be. We paid top dollar to a security firm.”
I made note of the slapdash way the security cameras were installed. There were far too many blind spots. A nasty little thought struck me. “How long has this club been open, Albert?”
“It will be six months next week.”
Nightclubs aren’t the richest hit in the human world. Most humans had given up carrying huge wads of cash, but our world was different, and human law didn’t govern this club. I was betting there were a few differences between Ether and other more mundane clubs.
“Do you have a poker room?”
Albert nodded a bit sheepishly, if a seven-foot demon can ever resemble a sheep. “Yes, Master Dev insisted it would be a good draw. There is a room for poker and several other games. It is very popular.”
“And the house takes a cut, cash only, I assume.”
“Most of our business is cash.”
“Oh, Albert, you’re such a lucky little demon,” I said with a smile. “I’m about to save your boss a ton of money.”
* * * *
If you want to rob an establishment, the best, easiest way to do it is to install the security system yourself. No muss, no fuss, you can just walk in, get what you came for, and make it look like anything you want on the way out. Break a few locks, mess up a few cameras, and the cops never think it’s an inside job. You would be surprised at just how much trust people place in security professionals. Get a good ad in the Yellow Pages, establish a few legitimate clients, and let the suckers walk right through the door. I didn’t know the whole story behind Dev’s security firm, but I would bet they had been in business for less than five years, had good but not amazing recommendations, and placed the lowest bid.
I could feel Albert’s eyes on me as I walked back to the VIP room. I knew he was hoping I would fail in our little bet, but I had a feeling he was out of luck. I pulled the gold hoop out of my right ear and slipped it into my bag before smoothing down my dress. I walked up to the sofa and smiled my brightest smile. Dev looked up and smiled back.
I wasn’t privy to the same insider knowledge the security company would have, so I had to use whatever assets I had at my disposal. I was going to do this the old-fashioned way. My first and most important asset was Dev himself. The safe would be located in his office on the second floor. I noted that the place seemed to be using keycards on all their private doors. Keycards are better than everyday keys but not by much. I prefer systems that require something personal from the user, whether it be a retinal scan or thumb print. Nothing is foolproof, but at least that requires some planning. All one needs to break into a room guarded by a keycard is sticky fingers.
“Hey, Zoey.” Dev looked slightly chagrined, and I knew he was about to apologize, but I really didn’t have time for that.
I sat down on the couch next to Dev and draped my arm around him. I did this for two reasons. I needed to put him at ease. I needed him happy and thinking about how nice it was to be close to female body parts. It also put me in the perfect position for what I was about to do.
I looked up at the basketball game with what I hoped was interested eagerness on my face. “Who’s up?”
Daniel was immediately on his guard, but luckily Dev didn’t know me as well. He immediately started discussing the game. I feigned interest, occasionally patting his chest flirtatiously. Dev obviously enjoyed the attention. He scooted closer to me, his hand moving dangerously close to my thigh. I found what I was looking for on the second try. There it was. A little piece of plastic in his right jacket pocket. It was the simplest thing to slip it out and into my purse while he was pointing at the screen and complaining about the Mavericks’ lack of defense.
I safely tucked the package away, flipped my hair back and “discovered” I’d lost something.
“Oh, my gosh,” I said in a panicked tone. “I lost my earring. Does anyone see it? It’s a gold hoop.”
Everyone gamely looked around the room. After a moment, I sighed. “Duh, I’m so stupid. I know where it is. I probably dropped it in the bathroom.”
“Do you want me to have my staff find it?” Dev asked.
“Oh no, please, don’t go to any trouble. I think I know just where it is. You keep track of the game for me.”
Dev gave me a huge smile and squeezed my hand before he let go. “Okay, but hurry back.”
I promised I would and headed off toward the bathroom. I stood by the door for a moment, watching the movement of the security cameras as they swung back and forth. To a layperson, it would simply look like a bunch of cameras moving carefully to try to catch as much of the building as possible. To a thief, it was a path to success. The person who installed the cameras timed them perfectly to create a path from the back door of the club to the stairs that led to the second floor, all the way to Dev’s office where the safe was kept. It was just a matter of timing. It took me a few minutes, but I got the sequence down and then I was off.
I realized I was smiling as I managed to make it to the stairs. I was sure the cameras had caught nothing of my journey across the club. It had been a long time since I ran a job on my own, much less one where there was no pressure, and I enjoyed it.
A large bouncer guarded the base of the stairs. I wasn’t sure exactly which species could lay claim to him, but I was betting he was one of the weres who hadn’t called in sick. Carefully keeping my back to the camera, I approached him.
“Sorry, miss, the second floor is off limits,” the big guy said.
I smiled brightly. “Oh, Dev said it was all right.”
“The boss sent you?”
This was the part where I blushed and stumbled over my words in an entirely charming manner. “Um, I kind of left something in his office this morning.”
“No problem, I’ll have someone run up and get it for you.” He pulled a walkie-talkie out of his pocket.
“Oh, god, no!” I practically shouted. “Please, you can’t do that. Look, it’s kind of personal, and by that I mean it’s entirely personal, and I would be horrified if anyone else had to find it. It’s just Dev and I were…this is so embarrassing. I left my panties in your boss’s office…there I said it. I’m so sorry. I could just die now.”
The big guy tried to contain his laughter, and I knew I was going to make it in. There was no way the big bad werewolf saw me as anything other than some bimbo his boss had banged, and a human bimbo at that.
I smiled my best “humans are harmless” smile and pulled out my trump card. “He gave me the key, you see. I think he realized how embarrassed I am.”
“Well, don’t let me keep you then.” He gestured me on.
Then I was home free. I slipped the keycard into the door and sighed with pleasure as I heard that loveliest of sounds—the click of a forbidden door opening just for me.
I waltzed into Dev’s office. Normally I would leave the lights off, but Dev obviously wasn’t concerned with conserving energy as the lights were already on. I looked around the office and realized this was much more of a window to his soul than the club. The club was a marvel of hard-edged decadence, but this office was softer. It was comfortable, with none of the pretense of the floor below. The desk was large and looked good, but it was obviously old and had a sturdy feel to it. There was a comfy-looking chair in one corner with a small bookcase beside it. I let my fingers glide over the sp
ines as I read the titles. He seemed to like thrillers as books by Steve Berry, James Rollins, and Preston and Child populated the shelf. I could see Dev sitting in that chair, reading escapist fiction just like I did late at night when I couldn’t sleep.
A small framed picture caught my eye. I picked it up and saw a smiling man in clothes that looked like they were from sometime in the seventies. It must be his human father. His mother and the Fae side of his family would never allow themselves to be photographed. Dev said his father died, and his Fae family no longer spoke to him. This might be the only piece of family he had left. I suddenly felt like I’d seen something he might not be happy sharing with me. I felt the weight of my intrusion and decided it was time to finish the job and get out of here.
I was just about to find the safe and leave the note Albert and I agreed on when something pushed me roughly against the wall. I felt the breath knocked out of my lungs and the pressure of a hard body against my back. I hadn’t heard a thing and knew that whatever was behind me was dangerous. I knew in that moment what it felt like to be a rabbit just before the rattlesnake struck.
“Thief.” There was a harsh whisper against my ear. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this.”
Chapter Seven
“Jerk!” I muttered as I shoved an elbow into Daniel’s chest. I used every bit of force I could muster from the position I was in, but my hearty attempt at violence didn’t even illicit a groan.
Though I couldn’t really hurt him, Daniel took the hint and backed off. I turned around to face him. He stared at me with grim intensity.
“I started the night thinking I needed to save you from Dev, but it turns out Dev is the one who needs protecting.” I could hear the disappointment dripping from his quiet condemnation. “I didn’t realize we’d started stealing from our friends.”
“I’m not stealing from Dev.” It hurt that he would even think that about me. Whatever we’d become, I thought he knew me better than that.
“That’s not what it looks like from my perspective, Zoey. You stole his keycard, lied about your earring, and made damn sure the cameras didn’t catch you. I watched you the whole time. Did you think you could fool me? You haven’t been interested in basketball once in your life.”
“Not once,” I admitted. “I did lie about losing my earring, and I did steal the keycard, but let me tell you it wasn’t hard to make sure the cameras didn’t catch me. That was the easy part.”
Daniel stopped his lecture for a moment, and I could see the gears working in that brain of his as he searched for a logical reason for me to be up here rather than my need to commit a felony. “They’re about to get hit…”
“…by their security company,” I finished for him. I was satisfied by the slightly guilty look on his face. “I figured it out while I was talking to Albert, who knows I’m up here, by the way. Albert is Dev’s right-hand…man, so to speak. Speaking of which, how did you get up here? I had the keycard, so I was able to talk my way in. I seriously doubt the bouncer just let you come on up.”
Daniel waved off the thought. “The bouncer was easy. He was susceptible to certain mind tricks. He’s taking a nap in the alley.”
“Oh, Jedi mind tricks,” I said with sarcastic fervor. I wasn’t impressed by Daniel’s vampiric talents. I thought they were cheating, but they did come in handy every once and a while.
Daniel smiled faintly. “Something like that. So can we go back down now?”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I can’t. Albert doesn’t believe I can crack the safe. You should feel free to leave whenever you want to. I didn’t invite you up here. Come to think of it, I didn’t invite you to crash my date.”
“Would you believe it was a coincidence?”
“Not if God came down from the Heaven plane and told me himself.” I glanced around the room and noticed the lovely pastoral painting on the wall. A quick pull revealed the safe I was looking for. At least Dev had it bolted to the wall. That wouldn’t help him when it came to the security company, but it might deter the casual thief.
Daniel shrugged. He sank down into the chair behind the desk. It was obvious he wasn’t going anywhere until I went with him. “Fine. I went out and talked to Ingrid, and she mentioned Dev owned this club. It wasn’t hard to figure out he would take you here. And Ingrid told me to tell you she told you so, but I don’t know what that means.”
I put my hands on the safe, the metal cool under my fingers. I genuinely loved doing this. Safe cracking is an art form I became acquainted with at a young age. While other kids were learning about history and writing poems about frogs, I was studying the teachings of Harry C. Miller and his scientific approach to lock manipulation. My father spent hours teaching me to listen for the delicate sound of the notch on the drive cam sliding into place. It took time and infinite patience to expertly manipulate a lock, so I did it more for recreation than any professional purposes. During an actual job, it’s much simpler to just have Neil pull the door off and take what’s inside. I sighed. I didn’t have time today, either. As much as I loved the fine art of manipulation, it was always easiest to just know the combination. I let my hands drop and turned to the desk. I was pretty sure I would find what I needed there.
“What I’m trying to figure out is why you bothered to come here in the first place. I thought you wanted me to get out and date.” I shuffled through the papers on Dev’s desk.
“Not him,” Daniel said with a certainty that I found really annoying.
I also found it annoying when he turned over the calendar on the desk. There it was. 36-12-2. Why bother having the safe if you leave the combination lying around? I always asked myself this question and people constantly surprised me with their level of stupidity when it came to security.
Daniel echoed my frustrations. “Is that safe a Wentworth 2500? I’m betting it is because that’s a try-out combination. He didn’t even change the combination from the manufacturer setting. He deserves to get hit.”
“You don’t get to pick.” I wasn’t about to let him change the subject. I had spent the past years so lost in sadness and grief that the anger I felt was liberating. “You don’t get to choose who I date. I didn’t leave you. You left me. I don’t owe you anything. You don’t get to have a say in what I do with my life from here on out.”
“I didn’t leave you,” Daniel said quietly. “I died. I didn’t have a say in that either.”
I clenched my fists in tight balls at my sides. “I’m so sick of that excuse, Danny. You died. Get over it. It’s been five years. It’s not like you’re the first person who ever died or even the first to come back.”
“I came back different.”
He hadn’t seemed different that first night. He’d been scared and worried and so grateful to be alive, but he’d been Daniel. “No, you didn’t. You came back to me. You loved me. You wanted me. You didn’t come back from death different. You came back from the Council different. They changed you, not death.”
“They showed me that things couldn’t be the same. They showed me the logic of my situation, and I am grateful to them.” Despite the heated air between us, Daniel was perfectly calm. It was the crux of my frustration with him. I couldn’t fight him because he never got emotional. He was always in control. “Now, could we please finish up here and get back downstairs? You need to let Dev know you can’t see him again.”
“I’m not going to tell him that. If he asks me out again, I’ll go.”
“No, you won’t, Zoey,” Daniel returned sharply.
I noticed his right leg was bouncing. It was a nervous habit left over from his human days that I hadn’t seen in years. Perhaps he wasn’t so calm. I smiled and slid onto the desk and slowly crossed my legs. I leaned forward, giving him a good view of the girls. For the first time in a while, I saw a look of trepidation pass across his face.
“I like him, Danny.” I let my voice get deep and low. That leg just kept bouncing. “I like him a lot. He’s the first man in many a y
ear to catch my interest, and I have no intention of letting that go. I have plans for him.”
Daniel finally noticed his leg moving and forced it to still. There was only a little strain to his voice as he got to the point. “I won’t have you faery struck. I won’t allow him to control you like that.”
I laughed long and hard at that one because it was the most ridiculous excuse I’d heard in a long time. There’s a myth about faeries and their sexual prowess. I think it was probably perpetuated by faery males themselves. The legend goes that once a human had sex with a faery, they became “faery struck” and would follow the faery anywhere. The victim of the faery would become the faery’s slave in exchange for the possibility of getting back into the faery’s bed. As faeries had been groping humans for centuries and we weren’t a population of drooling sex slaves, I seriously doubted the myth.
“I think I’m willing to take a chance on that one, Danny, but I will get back to you and let you know if it’s true. I managed to survive sex with you, and that was pretty mind blowing. I haven’t wasted away because you won’t sleep with me anymore.”
Daniel’s eyes darkened, and I knew he was remembering that night. He chose to change the subject. “He’ll get you into trouble, Zoey. He’s surrounded by all manner of creatures with these clubs. You need to get out of this life, not deeper into it.”
“That’s my choice, Danny.” Weariness threatened to overtake me. “The sooner you realize it, the sooner we can both get on with our lives. We can’t go on like this, you know.”
He looked away. “I know.”
This conversation was like so much of our lives since that terrible night. It was a stalemate. “All right. Let’s crack this beauty open and call it a night.”
I dialed the lock and pulled the handle. I felt Daniel come up behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders and every nerve in my body went on full alert. Despite what I said earlier, I would do almost anything to get back into his arms. I was in far more danger of becoming Daniel’s slave than Dev’s, and I think Daniel knew it.
