Lover Enraptured: Thieves of Aurion, Book 2 (2 page)

Thirty minutes later, Avily twisted the caps from two bottles of Larry the Fairy and tossed them into the small trash receptacle wedged between the folding chairs she’d dragged from her shop. One of the many benefits to The Fairest Rose being located on the main drag—her store provided prime viewing to the gaudiness of Amora Moon.

She passed the spare bottle to her drinking companion. “You do realize we’ve been sitting here for half an hour, and I
still
don’t know your name.”

“Hmm, makes two of us.”

“You don’t know your name either? Maybe I should cut you off.”

A rumbling laugh tumbled from his chest. “Thane Pearce, superhero pickpocket tackler at your service.”

“Oh good, you’re not nearly as inebriated as I’d feared.” She clinked bottles with him. “Pleasure to meet you, Thane. I’m Avily Donahoe. Have I thanked you recently for rescuing my coin purse?”

“Well, it’s been at least five minutes.” The huge smile spreading across his face could have lit the entire downtown.

Damn, he was attractive. And his sinful-as-chocolate accent was to die for. If it panned out he had a legal profession and no blindingly orange shirts hanging in his closet, he’d be the most normal, dateable man in existence.

So why didn’t she feel the tiniest spark? She’d been asking herself that very question for the last half hour and kept conjuring the same depressing conclusion.

Because he’s not Jer—
She stopped before mentally finishing the statement.
No, I will not utter his name or think about him again.
“First time seeing Amora Moon in Technicolor detail?”

Thane nodded before wedging the bottle between his knees. “Recently relocated from Frittona. Far cry from anything back home.”

She chuckled. “You picked a heck of a time to initiate yourself into the craziness of this city.”

His gaze moved to her and took it’s time exploring her face. Flirtation sparkled in his eyes. “Couldn’t agree with you more. Apparently I need to thank the sisters of fate for blessing me with perfect timing tonight.”

Praying their shadowy alcove in The Fairest Rose’s doorway helped mask the blush heating her cheeks, she flicked a piece of imaginary fuzz from the knee of her cream-colored pants.

“Imagine all this traffic is good for business,” Thane offered casually.

She returned her attention to him, grateful for the slight change of subject. “It helps. God knows, once Amora Moon’s done with, I’ll be begging to make enough merca to keep me out of debtor’s prison.”

“So things are as difficult here as they are in Frittona.”

She empathized with the weariness in his voice. She could relate to the daily frustration of struggling to make a living in a fae-controlled world. “What trade are you in?”

“I’m an antiquities dealer. My specialty is tribal relics.”

“I should introduce you to Mordak Lucio. He has a shop not far from here that’s jammed to the rafters with tribal pieces. Back when I used to be a th—” The incriminating word vacuumed into her mouth before ratting out her thieving past. Her heart boomed at the close call, nearly drowning out the rowdy partiers milling on the street.

Thane stared at her patiently, obviously waiting for her to finish. When she didn’t immediately comply, he tipped his head. “You were saying?”

“Never mind, not important. Besides, I want to hear more about your antiquities business. Are you planning to open up a shop?”

“Thinking about it. I’ve started scouring the local real estate for a potential spot. Who knows, maybe we’ll end up becoming neighbors.”

The unmistakable flirtation was there again. She plucked at the pleat in her pants. If only she felt the same earth-shifting, palm-sweating, about-to-jump-out-of-her-skin excitement that he-who-shall-not-be-named elicited.

Thane cleared his throat. “My apologies. It just occurred to me I’ve been monopolizing your evening.” His trousers made a soft scritching sound when he shoved from the chair.

“Would you like to have dinner some time?”
Where the hell did that come from?
She dug her fingernails into her thighs and blinked up at Thane.

A slow smile stretched his mouth. “Absolutely. How does this coming weekend sound?”

“Perfect.”
Holy hell, someone stop me before I agree to conceive his children.

“It’s a date then. I’ll stop by later in the week, and we can firm up plans.”

All she could do was nod dumbly as he turned his back and strolled off into the crowd. No, not the
only
thing she could do. She had a nice solid wall behind her perfect for banging her thick skull against.

She wasn’t romantically interested in Thane. It’d be a thousand degrees of wrong to give him false hope. But she couldn’t very well call him back and retract her offer.

Times like this, she really wished Mara wasn’t off on her honeymoon. Having another female to commiserate with her pathetic plight would go a long way toward easing the tension pounding at her temples.

Plus, she needed someone to lend a hand finishing the remaining bottles of Larry’s.

“Oh, who am I kidding?” If ever she needed to tie one on, it was now. Heaving a sigh, she stretched for the nearest bottle.

Chapter Three

Jerrick snapped to with a groggy start. Only instead of harsh light, he was met with Lex Tarker’s shocked face.

“I swore you were dead.” Lex tripped over his own tongue. “You barely had a heartbeat, for gods’ sake.”

It took forever to wade through the murky morass of his memory. Bleary-eyed, Jerrick scanned his surroundings. A massive empty warehouse. Colorful graffiti stenciling the dull gray walls. Why was he—?

Events from earlier ambushed his brain.

Avi.
Those motherfuckers had threatened her.

Fear an icy blade in his chest, he lurched to his feet. He took no time to ponder if his captors or Lex were responsible for loosening his bindings, and instead raced to the door at the opposite end of the building. He tried the knob and found it locked. If those assholes thought that’d slow him down, they were in for a rude awakening.

Any other day, it would have been an affront to his skills to rely on his magic. When it came to Avi, he was more than willing to bend his self-imposed rules. The sturdy metal proved no match against the forceful blast of his fury and panic. White-hot sparks ricocheting off the steel, the door sheared from its hinges and flew several feet before careening into a nearby garbage bin. He loped outside, desperately scanning the shadowed lot. There were no buildings beyond the warehouse. No sign of life. And sure as hell no way to get the fuck out of there short of hoofing it or calling for a transit cab.

Impatience and fear staking their hazardous toll, he dashed inside the warehouse. A sliver of relief embedded beneath his skin when he spotted his jacket hugging the base of a steel support beam.

His fearful glances darting every which way, Lex tailed him across the room. “Shouldn’t we, uh, be getting out of here? What if those men come back?”

Ignoring Lex, Jerrick dug inside his jacket’s interior pocket. He pulled out his micro com and a folded sheet of paper that hadn’t been there earlier. He opened it with a rough crackle, his gaze zipping over its contents.

Apologies for the subterfuge, but it was the only way we could be assured your reputation in acquisitions is deserved. Not that the kelluta won’t be enjoyed.

The goddamn tribal statue he’d been hired to lift from the wealthy collector in Gobridier.
Sonofabitch.
The entire job had been a setup. He crumpled the paper and whipped it to the floor.

“I mean it. I really think we should get out of here.”

Lex’s timid demand cracked through Jerrick’s haze of fury. Transferring every ounce of his rage to the man cowering in front of him, he clamped Lex’s scrawny throat with one hand. “I’m giving you five seconds to tell me what part you’re playing in this shit.”

A strangled gurgle sputtered from Lex. “Y-you’re…ch-choking…me.”

“Kind of the whole idea.” Jerrick squeezed harder. “I can play this game all night, if you want.”

Lex’s face turned a dark shade of red. “R-rather…you didn’t.”

“Then you better start talking.”

“About w-what?”

“Tarker, I’m getting real sick of your bullshit, and having my innards fried has made me an ornerier son of a bitch than usual.” He vised his hand tighter. “And you better believe if they’ve hurt Avi, you’ll be praying for mercy.”

“Avi? Don’t…know…
Gaarrg
.”

Jerrick loosened his grip, allowing a sliver of air down Lex’s esophagus. Powering on his micro com, he sent a sync link to central transit. After acquiring his coordinates, the dispatcher promised a driver within five minutes. Far as Jerrick was concerned, it was four minutes and fifty-nine seconds he didn’t have. Nerves strung to the breaking point, he cut the link and shoved the com into his pocket before returning his focus to Lex. “Who are your employers? Your five seconds starts now.”

Lex’s eyes grew enormous behind his thick eyeglasses. “Fitzsimons Accounting.”

“Why the
fuck
would an accounting firm hire a thief?”

“Oh, you mean
those
employers. I thought you were talking about my nine-to-five job.”

Jerrick could feel his eyeballs throbbing. “Let’s try this again. I want the names of the bastards behind the kelluta job.”

“I don’t know. No names were exchanged.”

“Convenient. We’re at three seconds.”

“Wait!” Lex jerked his head, and his eyeglasses slid down the bridge of his nose. “I have one of their sync-links programmed into my micro.”

Jerrick knew better than to get his hopes up, but his pulse revved anyway. “Where is it?”

“My trouser pocket.”

He used his free hand to fetch the communicator. He clicked it on and shoved it in Lex’s hand before digging his thumb a fraction deeper into the side of the man’s neck. “Pull up the link.”

Lex’s fingers fumbled over the touchpad. “Here, this one.”

Snatching the communicator, Jerrick glanced at the number, committing it to memory before hitting the connector sync. After a few disjointed buzzes from the communicator, a recorded female voice broke through the static and announced the link had been disconnected.

Jerrick hurled the communicator against the wall and glared at Lex.

“I still had a one-year contract on that micro.”

“Tarker, that’s the least of your worries right now.”

“Surely you don’t mean to still choke me.”

“No, I’ve moved on from that plan.” Jerrick curled his mouth with menace. “Too quick and painless.”

“But I had nothing to do with whatever’s going on. I’m a victim here, just like you.”

“Bullshit. You helped set me up.”

Lex tried shaking his head, but it didn’t budge much thanks to the firm grip of Jerrick’s hand. “No. I swear they only hired me to arrange your services in acquiring the ivory kelluta. That was the extent of our dealings. You’ve got to believe me.”

He couldn’t afford to trust anyone at this point. Which was why he saw no choice but to drag Lex along when the transit driver pulled into the lot a few minutes later. Until he was reasonably satisfied that Lex knew nothing, there was no way he was letting him out of his sight.

Giving the man a less-than-gentle nudge into the backseat, Jerrick climbed in after him and gave the driver the address for Avi’s shop. Plowing a hand through his hair, Jerrick visualized squeezing the life from his captors. He wanted to kill them. So badly, he could taste it. No one threatened Avily and got away with it.

The insane bottleneck of the roads doubled the time it should have taken to reach Primus Avenue. Jerrick dug for a couple of bills and tossed them to the driver before grabbing Lex by the collar and hauling him from the vehicle. Quickening his pace, Jerrick maneuvered through the aggravating horde of Amora Moon revelers, his pulse ratcheting. He shoved past a barricade of costumed fairies and slammed to a halt the second he spotted Avily slumped unconscious in the doorway of her shop. The oxygen exploded from his lungs in a sharp, painful cannon blast. “Sweet gods,
no
.”

Knees threatening to give out, he hunkered next to Avily and brushed aside a lock of her pale hair with trembling fingers. A heavy snore broke past her lips, releasing the awful tension in his gut. The next instant that emotion was replaced with an equal dose of anger when his attention snagged on the discarded liquor bottles nearby. “You little idiot.”

He had half a mind to tan her backside for putting a scare in him
and
foolishly endangering herself by passing out drunk and leaving herself defenseless. The streets of Tul’dea were overridden with lowlifes who possessed unsavory ideas of what they’d like to do to helpless, unconscious females they were fortunate enough to stumble across.

Then there was the sinister threat of the individuals who’d threatened to harm her if Jerrick didn’t do their bidding.

With that reminder steeling his fury, Jerrick gathered her into his arms and hefted to his feet. The door behind her was unlocked. He cycled between relief and anger over that fact. Nodding to Lex, he motioned for the man to precede him inside the shop.