Lover Enraptured: Thieves of Aurion, Book 2 (25 page)

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
tsk
ing 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 believe, 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.”

A distressed sound escaped their mother. “Leena, please don’t speak such vileness.”

“
Vile?
” Leena spat the word. “They’re the foul disease eating away at this planet, Mother. If there’s any vileness found in this equation, it’s them.”

Avily struggled to understand the source of her sister’s vehement hatred. Yes, there certainly had been some cruel injustices inflicted on humans at the hands of the fae, but Leena had never been on the receiving end of it. “They were here long before we showed up. In case you forgot, they once considered
us
the foul disease.”

“For which they enslaved and beat us.”

Again, nothing that Leena had personally endured. And the oppression of the old guard was a thing of the past, for the most part. Yes, the inequality was still there, and many of the royal faes continued to get away with too much. But the slave bans put in place many moons ago protected the human race from the chains and taskmaster whips of those long-ago dark days. “You’re speaking nonsense. What purpose does it serve holding a grudge for offenses not even affecting you?”

“You think any of them would hesitate at shackling us again?”

Avily tossed up her arms. “Good gods, Leena. Paranoid much?”

“You’re the worst kind of fool if you don’t see the possibility. Made all the more so by the fact you’re sleeping with the enemy.”

“That’s it.” Temper quaking, Avily swung her arm toward the door. “Get out. And don’t you dare come back here looking for merca.”

Leena stalked toward the exit. “I hope you come to your senses before it’s too late.”

“Same here,” Avily bit out.

The moment her sister disappeared in the crowd outside, Avily dragged her hands over her face. “My gods. What was that?”

Her mother shook her head. “You’re as clueless as me. I didn’t raise you girls to be closed-minded in any way. Leena’s prejudices disappoint me. And to speak that way of Jerrick.” Tula’s expression suddenly turned hawklike. “Is there something you would like to tell me?”

She didn’t need to read between the lines to know her mother was referring to Leena’s sleeping-with-the-enemy crack. “No. There’s about as much merit to the accusation of me being romantically involved with him as me streetwalking.”

Tula sucked in a deep breath and released it regretfully. “I have a confession to make. Deep in my heart, I always hoped he’d wake up and see what a treasure he has in you.”

Jeez, like mother like daughter. She nibbled her lip and cast her gaze to her strappy sandals. “I have a confession to make too. I coerced him into teaching me the trade. All those years you thought I was bringing home merca courtesy of an after-school job at the grocer? I wasn’t.”

“Dearest, you think I didn’t know that?”

Her jaw dropped. “What?”

“I suspected it from the start. It wasn’t an easy thing for me at first. As your mother, how could I go along with you committing any kind of crime? Particularly when I knew you were doing it to keep us afloat.” Remorse painted Tula’s expression. “Sweet child, there was a part of me that felt horrible for not stepping in.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

“He needed you.”

Avily blinked. “Want to run that by me again?”

“What Leena did—it eviscerated his soul. I saw it in his eyes. Saw it in the way he closed himself off from the rest of the world shortly after everything happened. Then he went the opposite direction and immersed himself in all known vices. He was on a bender headed straight for self-destruction.”

She hadn’t seen any of that. Just went to show how proficient he’d always been at lowering those shutters with her. “I still don’t understand why you think he needed me.”

“Baby, Jerrick might put up this tough front of being solitary, but I’ve never known anyone who needs someone more than him. Someone to pull him out of himself, give him purpose. Someone who’ll shine a light into all those dark, lonely corners that inhabit his soul.” Tula patted Avi’s cheek. “He needs you. He always has.”

“Trust me, Mama, he doesn’t,” she said flatly. Great, just when she’d finally started to hammer it into her own stubborn brain that she had no future with Jerrick, along came her mother, equally delusional.

Yeah, definitely like daughter like mother.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sitting like a bump on a log in Avi’s apartment all damn day was doing nothing to improve his shitty mood. Deciding the risk of getting doubly aggravated by some kissy-faced Amora Moon attendees would be worth a breath of air and a much-needed brew, Jerrick slung on his jacket and thumped down the stairway. The sound of chatter drifted into the back hallway. Judging from the volume, Avi was experiencing a nice rush. Which meant she’d skin him alive if he ventured out there.

Grumping under his breath, he detoured into the alleyway. No point taking the Air Racer. By the time he fought traffic and then located a parking spot, he could already be on his tenth ale. Not that he was shooting for that number.

Fifteen sounded better, to his way of thinking. It’d been a damn long time since he’d tied one on. Tonight would be a hell of a good opportunity to rectify that. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he headed toward the alley’s exit.

Out on the street, festival-goers were congregated around a mini chapel that’d been erected on the corner of the intersection. Raucous cheers erupted from the crowd when the newly joined bride and groom honored the spectators with a passionate clinch. Jerrick rolled his eyes.
Fucking corny.
He had half a mind to walk up on the dais and shake some living sense into the couple.

Why? Because they’re blissfully happy and you’re not, you fucking putz?

Sounded about right.

Awarding the wedding party a wide berth, he elbowed his way through the masses of people and ducked into the first bar he came to—and promptly began to march his ass back through the door when he spotted Lex gobbling a club sandwich at the window booth.

Of course Tarker spotted him. “Jerrick!” Lettuce hanging out of his mouth, Lex flagged him down.

Why did I leave the fucking apartment?
Repeatedly pounding that admonishment into his brain, Jerrick did an about-face and reluctantly strode to Lex’s booth. Feeling uncomfortably like a cornered mongrel seconds from gnawing off his own leg to escape the deadly trap he’d landed himself in, Jerrick cautiously slid across from Lex.

“You know…”

He winced, steeling himself for whatever family recollection Lex had in store for him.

“…this sandwich is tasty,” Lex finished.

Jerrick allowed his shoulders to relax, and he stretched his legs, settling in.