Yes. That’s right. That’s what we’d been talking about.
“I’m beginning to see the problem now,” Nathan muttered.
I wasn’t listening, distracted by a familiar looking blond at a gambling table a few spots away.
“What’s she doing here?” I asked myself as Caroline’s eyes locked on mine, a warning in them.
“Liam. Hey. I figured it out. This isn’t A’s usual un-trusting bullshit. Someone’s fucking with her head.”
I barely registered Nathan’s conversation as I squinted at my friend and the clear “Do not approach/stay away” vibe she was giving off.
Caroline’s hair hung loose around her shoulders. The strands blown out and curled. Her dress was revealing. A gold sparkly number that offered a generous glimpse of her cleavage every time she leaned over the table. The Fae next to her had his arm around her back, his smarmy eyes sliding down her body like he thought he owned her or something.
“My guess—it has something to do with her roommate. They’re the only ones who could have gotten close enough to do this,” Nathan was saying.
She’d cut me out, I realized, running our conversation from earlier in the evening through my head again.
Probably to protect me. Only I’d ended up in the barrow anyway for entirely different reasons. The irony.
“Aw, crap,” Nathan said, finally discovering Caroline’s presence. “The wolves are here too.”
One side of my lips hooked up as I took an inordinate amount of pleasure in his irritation.
Nathan tugged on my arm. “Did you know they were coming?”
“Nope.”
And I was a little peeved about that fact.
“Liam wants us back down there,” Nathan informed me.
“Does he now?”
Too bad. I wasn’t going anywhere. Not until I’d had a little chat with my best friend.
The female one. Not the irritating enforcer who’d claimed the role for himself.
Nathan strengthened his hold on me. “If you keep staring at her like that, you’re going to blow whatever operation she’s working on. Let’s go. There’s nothing for you to do here.”
I let Nathan tug me away, knowing that what he said made sense.
“What about the other thing? The reason we came up here?” I asked as he hustled me past the gambling tables.
“You remember now,” Nathan observed.
“It comes and goes.”
“We need a code word for next time so we can warn each other when something is off.”
“I doubt it would work.”
“Probably not,” Nathan agreed, sounding sour. “If he showed himself to you, it’s because he wanted to be seen. This feels like a trap. I don’t know about you, but I’d really prefer not sticking around to find out.”
“Agreed.”
Fae traps were insidious things that were hard to escape.
“Finally—common ground,” Nathan exclaimed, widening his eyes for comical effect.
