Lover Enraptured: Thieves of Aurion, Book 2 (24 page)

“You spoke to her precisely two minutes, and you got her name
and
her jewelry.”

She flipped her hair with a sassy flick of her hand. “Because I’m that good, baby. Stamp that on
my
plaque.” Giving him a finger gun, she pivoted and retraced her path to the bar. After pausing beside Juliette and discreetly replacing the earring, Avi ventured to the blond businessman.

Jerrick fully expected her to begin instantly chatting up the guy, but instead she unclipped her cloak and draped it on the neighboring stool. The man’s eyes threatened to bug out of his skull as he gaped at Avi’s sexy getup.

“That little minx.” Jerrick didn’t know whether to applaud her or cry foul over her devious maneuvering. That damn dress and sexier-than-hell shoes gave her an unfair advantage that they hadn’t agreed upon.

He swiftly came to a third possibility as the male mark at the bar continued to eye-fuck Avi—embedding the asshole’s teeth in the wormholed countertop. With no warning, the man snagged Avi by the arm and dragged her onto his lap.

A menacing growl charging from his lungs, Jerrick shoved up from his seat and stalked to the bar. Avi saw him coming, and her eyes widened. With a calmness that belied his murderous thoughts, he plucked her off the creep’s lap and planted her on her feet before he turned back to the guy and crunched a fist into his nose.

Blood spraying from his nostrils, the man howled and clamped a hand over his face. “You goddamn son of a bitch! You broke my nose.”

“Consider yourself lucky that’s all I did.” He tossed Avi’s cloak over his shoulder and hauled her away from the idiot.

A bristling force of hostile energy stepped in his path, blocking him. Slamming short, he accepted Leena’s fulminous glare, weary tension falling over him like a horsehair blanket that refused to be shrugged off. After fifteen years of absence, he’d been treated to a double whammy of his deceitful ex.

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—some
one
—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.”