by Jodi Redford
Yeah, the sisters of fate were surely laughing their fucking asses off.
“I can’t believe the nerve of you.” Fury sizzled from every one of Leena’s pores.
Her animosity wasn’t unexpected, given her reaction at their reunion the other day, but the last thing he wanted was her creating a scene in front of all these people. He’d done enough damage by clocking the asshole who’d manhandled Avi. Not that he wouldn’t do it again in a heartbeat. “Whatever new grievances you’d care to air with me can be done another time and place.”
“Like hell. You think you can parade my baby sis around looking like a whore while you do your dirty work?”
Bloody fuck. She thought he was using Avi as the shell in a confidence trick?
A sputtering sound came from Avi. Wisely intuiting that potential fireworks were about to erupt, he grabbed Leena by the elbow, and still keeping a firm hold on Avi, steered both sisters toward the rear exit. The three of them stumbled out into the deserted alley, disturbing the feral cats scrounging for scraps near the garbage bins. Ignoring the stench of kitchen grease and various other putrid scents he didn’t care to pinpoint, Jerrick set about putting Leena squarely in her place. “If you dare refer to your sister as a whore in my presence again, so help me gods, I will tan your backside.”
“Lay a hand on me and I’ll kill you.”
The baleful vehemence oozing from Leena took him aback. She was the one who cheated on him behind his back as well as a host of other sins. Why the devil was she acting like the wronged party? Damn woman was out of her mind.
Leena shifted her focus to Avi. “How could you let him reduce you to this? You look like a tramp.”
He growled low in his throat, but Avi held him off with a raised finger and a glare directed at her sister. “First of all, you’re talking out of your ass. You have no idea what’s going on here.”
“I know what he is, so that gives me a better than good inkling, baby sis.”
“Secondly,” Avi continued as if she hadn’t heard Leena’s harsh rebuttal. “My wardrobe choices are of no consequence to you. I’d appreciate it if you’d refrain from the derogatory terms. It’s extremely petty and judgmental of you.”
Surprisingly, Leena’s cheeks flushed pink. “Fine, I’ll reserve my opinion on your fashion statement for now. But I still don’t like any of this.” Her gaze hardened again as it landed on him. “He’ll hurt you, Avi. Pull you down into the seedy squalor of his existence and turn your soul black, just like his. I don’t want to see that happen to you.”
Leena’s pronouncement sat like a bitter pill in the back of his throat. Despite the distaste of them, her words were no different than the ones he’d given to himself time after time. Even she knew the consequences of what a life with him would bring.
Hell, maybe that’s why she’d betrayed him all those years ago. Better that than commit herself to the some wretched fate with him.
The vise increased its pressure on his chest. The darkness of his emotions had nothing to do with Leena. He held no love for her anymore, so no point berating himself over the past where she was concerned. But when he thought of Avi, the weight of his regret threatened to crush him.
Transferring his focus to her, he caught the state of her shivering. Impossible to tell if she was suffering from the chill in the air or the dismal fallout from Leena’s assessment. Tugging the cloak from his shoulder, he wrapped the garment around Avi and tried to pretend that the visual daggers Leena speared him with didn’t bug him. “If you’re finished browbeating your sister, I’d like to put a rest to this unpleasant encounter before the ticket cops squeeze a week’s wages from my wallet for double-parking.”
“What do you care?” Leena’s expression turned several shades meaner. “Not like you know the meaning of an honest week’s wage.”
“Leena, stop it.” There was no missing the distress in Avi’s tone. More concerned for her than any trivial insults Leena hurled at him, he tucked Avi under his right arm and herded her toward the alley exit.
“Mark my words, baby sis. He’ll only bring you down. Get out while you still can.”
The taunting echo of Leena’s shout tailed them like a mocking specter. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t tune them out, nor the muffled sob Avi valiantly worked at hiding from him.
The drive back to her apartment was tense and miserable. She didn’t need to look at Jerrick to know how heavily the scene back in the alleyway of Lillyfields weighed on him. Damn Leena for being such a raging bitch at times.
“Jer, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
She made a vague gesture with her hand. “Everything. But mostly for being related to Leena. She had no right to say those horrible things.”
“Even if they’re true?”
She gaped at him. “How can you suggest such a thing? Your soul is far from being black.”
“Maybe, but it’s also not pure as driven snow.”
“Whose is? No one I know.”
“Would you stop making excuses for me?”
The whip crack of his heated retort startled her. Uncertain where his anger was coming from and how to treat it, she huddled deeper into her cloak. “I’m not.”
“Yes, you are, Avi. I wish to hell you’d open your eyes and see the glaring truth standing right in front of you. I’m the last individual you should have anything to do with. I’ll only bring you down. Leena’s right in that respect.”
She shook her head fiercely. “I don’t know what’s gotten into her. Why she said those things. Perhaps she’s jealous. Who knows? Bottom line, I hold zero stock in her opinion.”
“Maybe you should. After all, she was with me for almost two years. Was engaged to me. She damn well knew me better than most.”
His announcement sat on her sternum like a two-ton brick. “I spent fifteen years with you. Does that account for nothing?”
“There’s a vast difference between my relationship with Leena and you.”
Was he bound and determined to hurt her? Decimate her heart until there was nothing left? “Oh, that’s right. You actually fucked my sister,” she stated, unable to keep the bitterness from creeping in. “Whereas you only fake it with me.”
“Avi—”
“Don’t say anything more. My emotions have had enough bruising to last me a lifetime tonight.” Stomach queasy, she turned her back on him and pillowing her cheek in her hand, stared glumly out the Air Racer’s passenger window.
By the time they reached The Fairest Rose’s back alley, she was more than ready to call it a night. Abandoning the vehicle, she made her way inside the building and upstairs to the apartment. She traipsed into her room and listlessly changed into her sleeping gown before going into the bathroom to wash up. Dialing on the faucet, she glanced in the direction of the mirror and caught her reflection. The makeup job she’d labored so painstakingly on now mocked her. She’d wanted to be pretty and desirable for Jerrick. He probably thought she looked as ridiculous as she felt.
She could never compare to the beautiful femme fatale Leena had once been. She didn’t hold a prayer of being the type of woman who would make Jerrick weak in the knees and profess his undying love to. Why oh why had she given in to this stupid urge to be something—someone—that she clearly wasn’t destined to be?
Cupping her hands beneath the streaming cascade pouring from the tap, she splashed her face until her eyes stung from the mixture of hot water and unshed tears. Her motions bordering on painful, she ruthlessly scrubbed her face clean with the lavender soap and watched the residue of her folly swirl down the drain.
Chapter Twenty-One
“There’s no need for you to come to work with me today and scare off all my customers with your glower.” Tugging a brush through her hair, Avily stepped in front of Jerrick, hindering his view of the visio screen. Despite the remaining kernel of anger inside her, she couldn’t help her brief flash of concern at the haggard lines etched around his eyes. He looked like
he hadn’t slept a wink last night.
That made two of them.
He ran a hand down his face before peering up at her from the sofa. “We’ve gone over this. Until I get a hold of Casper’s research and pass it over to those bastards, I don’t feel safe leaving you alone for too long.”
“I won’t be alone. I have customers in and out all day.”
He offered her a grudging nod. “Fine. Just make sure your fanny is back up here by six. I want to get an early start over to the club.”
“Sorry, but that won’t work for me.”
His dark eyebrows formed a deep V. “What do you mean it won’t work for you?”
“It’s Saturday.”
“And? You have a hot date tonight?”
Of course he would forget. How very typical. “Yes. With Thane.”
His trademark scowl zipped right in place. “Damn it, Avi. Not tonight. Call and cancel.”
The nugget of anger quadrupled in size. “I don’t freakin’ think so.”
He shoved his hands through his hair before stretching forward and thunking his elbows on his knees. “Look, I know you’re pissed about last night. Don’t use this as an opportunity to pay me back for it.”
Gods, she wanted to clobber him. “Believe it or not, every decision and thought I make doesn’t revolve around you. I promised Thane before any of this happened that I’d have dinner with him. I’m not going to break my word.”
“For fuck’s sake, this job is more important than a date.”
“You don’t even have a plan yet for breaking into Casper’s lab.”
“I do now.”
She glared at him. “Oh, you just happened to devise one in the last five seconds? How convenient.”
His thin smile held no trace of humor. “No, I put good use to my insomnia. Whittling out a course of action seemed more productive than tossing and turning all night.”
She refused to let her concern reblossom over his lack of sleep. “And what is this grand scheme you’ve hatched?” She expected him to hold her off as usual, so it came as a welcome surprise when he steepled his fingers in front of him and laid out his strategy to her.
“It’s nothing fancy or elaborate, but time definitely won’t be on our side. Getting into Francesca’s apartment isn’t the obstacle. Getting Casper’s records out of there is. The only way we can successfully sneak everything out is if no one is around.”
“Go in after closing?”
“I thought of that. But we’d still have overnight staff to worry about. Not to mention I don’t know how light a sleeper Francesca is. I could always knock her out…” his crooked grin countered the beginnings of her rebuttal, “…but I have a hunch you’ll shoot that idea dead in the water.”
“Hell yeah. I happen to like Francesca.”
“I didn’t mean I’d do it physically. I’d slip something in her drink. But I think my other option is better.” Easing to his feet, he rolled his shoulders, working out the kinks. It took all the strength she possessed not to crumple into a mindless puddle of drool.
Damn him for being such a destructive force on her heart and body. “What’s Plan B?”
“We trip the fire alarm. It’ll get everyone evacuated from the club and grant us approximately thirty minutes before emergency services arrive. I’m counting on all that goddamn traffic to pad our time to an extent.”
She couldn’t resist giving him a smirk. “Told ya Amora Moon was the perfect thief’s holiday.”
His mouth curved in a reluctant smile. “You’re never going to let me hear the end of this one, are you?”
“Nope.”
“So what do you think of the plan?”
She mulled it over, her foot tapping the floor restlessly. “It is simple. I like that. But the time frame makes me nervous. What if Casper has some heavy-duty security on his lab entrance?”
“I’ve already factored that in. Odds are there isn’t even a lock on the door. Why would he need it if he and Francesca are the only souls who’d have access to that area? But playing devil’s advocate, if there is one, worse comes to worse, I’ll use my magic.”
She gaped at him. “You never use your magic.”
“Yeah, and I’ve never had a job of this magnitude before. I’m flexible.”
Holy shit. That would be one for the record books. She almost wished he would have to use his magic, just so she could hold it over him the rest of his life.
Petty, but oh so worth it.
“In that case, you have my approval. I think it’s a damn good plan.”
He beamed.
“But we’re not doing it tonight.”
His smile dissolved and reconfigured into the mother of all pissy scowls. “You’re breaking that date, Avi.”
“If you’re so damn insistent on it, then you call Thane.”
He held out his hand. It took all the control she had not to whip her hairbrush at him. “I was being sarcastic.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Too bad. I’m not breaking the date, damn it. Your plan will work just as easily tomorrow as tonight.”
“Do you not get the importance of this?” he growled.
“I do. But it’s only one day difference. You’re making an issue out of something that doesn’t have to be.” She tossed aside the brush and planted her hands on her hips. “Or maybe this has nothing to do with the formula and everything to do with me going out with Thane.”
“I already told you I don’t like him.”
“Oh, now it’s that you don’t like him. I thought it was your lack of trust that instigated your problem with Thane.”
He gave a vicious nod. “Damn straight. I don’t trust him either.”
“I don’t really care if you do or don’t. You have no say in my relationship with him. Know why?” She waved a hand wildly between her chest and his. “Because we don’t have a relationship. You made it perfectly clear last night that fifteen years doesn’t amount to jack shit with you. Guess that makes me a free agent, eh?”
“Damn it, Avi. You misread everything I said.”
“Sometimes it’s not so much what you say as what you don’t. But that’s always been the case with us, hasn’t it? Me foolishly waiting for you to give me the words I long to hear, even knowing they’ve disappeared from your vocabulary. Well I’m done waiting. Done hoping. And I refuse to waste another second of my life on this impossible dream of you.”
Every centimeter of her shaking with repressed emotion, she turned and stomped down the stairs.
Halfway through her midday rush, she received her second unpleasant encounter of the day. Grimacing, she scanned for a possible avenue of escape as Leena stepped through the front entrance. Exactly what I don’t need.
Her frantic search for a duck-and-run route evaporated when she spotted the woman following close behind Leena. Avily blinked. “Mom?”
“Hello, dearest.”
The next instant Avi was folded in Tula Donahoe’s plump, cinnamon-scented embrace. It was so precisely what Avi needed at that moment that her eyes welled with tears. She shut out Leena’s presence, the fight with Jerrick, and every other matter that weighed on her shoulders and instead devolved into a ten-year-old girl who desperately required the unconditional love of her mama.
Tula petted Avily’s hair and cuddled her close. “There, there. I’ve missed you too, sweet girl. Now what is this nonsense about you streetwalking?”
Jerking her head away from her mother’s ample bosom, Avily glared at Leena. “Oh my gods! I can’t believe you told her that pile of horseshit.”
Tula made a tsking sound. “Dearest, remember our discussion about your cussing. Much as I adore you, you do have a tendency to resemble a dockworker at times.”
In speech and dress, apparently. “You’re right. I’m sorry. But I promise you I haven’t resorted to streetwalking. I’m not that desperate.” Yet.
Evident relief bloomed across Tula’s rosy, apple cheeks. “Thank goodness. I found it hard to b
elieve, but when your sister showed up on my doorstep, despondent over how you’re ruining your life, I confess to being rightfully worried.”
How nice. Leena couldn’t be bothered to visit their mother for fifteen years, but the moment Avi did something wrong in her sister’s eyes, Leena went running to their mother. And upset her, no less.
The news adding extra fire to Avily’s resentment, she pinned another hard look on Leena. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I wish this ridiculousness would stop. Furthermore, those things you said to Jerrick were completely uncalled for. I’d like for you to apologize to him.” Furious as she was at him too, he still deserved the atonement from Leena.
“There is no way in hell I’m apologizing to that piece of shit, baby sis.”
An outraged gasp broke from Tula. “Leena!”
“Yes, Mother, I know. Watch my cursing.”
“Not only that, but to speak that way of Jerrick.”
Leena’s features grew ugly with scorn. “Why do you defend him? You know what he is.”
“Yes, and you did too. That didn’t stop you from being with him once upon a time.” Tula’s gaze drifted into the territory of remonstrative. “I love you, but I also don’t condone the pain you brought upon our house and his. I want you to know that before you continue casting aspersions.”
“I was with him when I was a foolish young girl, Mother. Before I knew the truth.”
“The truth of what?” Avily demanded, well beyond her patience with Leena.
“That his kind are a plague upon the human race.”
His kind? Was this not about Jerrick being a thief then, but fae? She stared at her sister. “Where is this coming from? You’ve never been prejudiced against the fairies.”
“And that was my first mistake. As it is yours and every other moron who continues to let them shit all over us and hold us down in their disgusting filth and tyranny.”
