Dread settled in my gut as I opened the door. Nothing good happened this early in the damned morning. Piers stood on the other side. He stared up at me with brown eyes full of fear and I felt like an asshole as his gaze darted to the gun in my hand.
“What?”
He flinched and stared at his feet. “Madam Winters said she received a call from the Kings. They tried to reach you, but your phone must be on silent. She sent me here. Please don’t shoot me.”
I grunted. “I’ll think about letting you live.”
He snuck a peek at my face, and I officially wished I was less of a fuck because his wide eyes were scared.
“I’m not gonna hurt you or I would’ve already. And? What else?”
“They want you to go to this address. I think they found Van’s Porsche,” he said quietly and shoved a piece of stationary with silver snowflakes lining the edges in my direction. I stared down at the flowing script on the paper and took it from him. The location was outside of town. I glanced up at him.
“Get coffee together for all of us. You’re coming, too.”
He grinned and nodded, hustling off. Someone had given him one of the hotel uniforms and the clothing fit him nicely. I had to wonder if Madam Winters had thought it was funny to dress him that way after the trouble he’d caused or if he’d simply been given one as an employee.
“The Kings might have found something?” Winter asked, sitting up on the bed. His white hair gleamed in the low light and I couldn’t keep my eyes off his slim chest or pink nipples. He made my mouth water without trying. “Daddy? Did you hear me?” He blinked his big blue eyes like a sleepy kitten. I could only stare for a moment. He was naked under the blankets that fell around his body and the curve of his hip stuck out. He was the embodiment of temptation.
“Don’t get your hopes up, baby.”
He nodded, but by the smile he flashed I already knew his expectations were floating around Neptune. “Do you think anyone will mind if I take a quick shower?” he asked, hopping out of bed to rush toward the bathroom. The eyeful I got of his cock and round, touchable ass as he sped away had me wanting to follow him and fuck him under the hot, steamy water.
“I don’t care if they do. You do whatever you want, sunshine. You deserve it.”
He laughed from the bathroom and the pleasant sound echoed. “What will you do if they’re mad at me, Daddy?”
The water began to splash against tiles in the other room and enticed me closer. I went to lean my shoulder against the doorjamb. The smoky glass shower door didn’t give me a clear view of Winter’s profile, only a tease, but that delicious glimpse had me wishing I could throw him back on the bed. “They’ll get one look at my ugly face and shut their traps.”
“Daddy, you’re not ugly,” he said with a laugh.
My body warmed and it was a shock to feel good. I hadn’t given two shits about the scar on my neck, or at least, I hadn’t thought I’d cared, but maybe part of me needed to know Winter found me as attractive as I did him.
“Are you going to shower with me, Daddy?” Winter asked as the scent of something floral hit the air, maybe shampoo.
“No. Not right now,” I said, then moved off to get dressed.
Winter talked the entire time he got ready, and it was nice because he mostly didn’t need a lot of input from me. Being near him was like having a pretty canary that sang and all I needed to do to make him happy was grunt yes or no occasionally. Usually a man would be irritated with me by now.
“Don’t wear anything like you did last night,” I growled out as he started digging through the dresser drawers to find a shirt. Plenty of his clothes had been brought over, so he had to be searching for something in particular.
He laughed and glanced over his shoulder at me. “I wasn’t planning on it. It’s too cold out.” He dragged a long-sleeved black sweater out of a drawer and put it on, and while the V-neck made me want to devour his soft skin down to the point, coupled with black jeans, it was a mostly conservative outfit. I walked over and kissed his forehead. “I don’t want you to tease anyone but me with your clothes.” I traced my finger along his left collar bone, across his chest, and then tapped the other one.
“Yes, Daddy,” he said with a smirk. “I won’t.”
We both threw on coats, then left the room, and Piers met us at the front desk. There were three cardboard travel cups of coffee lined up along the edge of the sign-in spot. Darcy would have a fit about cups on the desk if he was here. I was grateful to snag a coffee and sucked down the black brew.
With a sigh, I dragged out my phone and made a call. It took some time to arrange one of the Courtesan’s cars—I couldn’t take three people in the Roadster—and about fifteen minutes later we were able to get on the road in a red Audi, with the cleanest black leather interior I’d ever seen outside of a sales lot.
“Other than the address you gave me, do you know anything about what we’re walking into?” I asked Piers.
He glanced up, and I stared at him in the rearview mirror. “No. I wasn’t told anything else. Sorry,” he mumbled.
“It’s okay,” Winter was fast to say, turning around in his seat to look at Piers. “You’re doing a great job.”
I wanted to roll my eyes because I couldn’t understand how Winter could forgive and forget so easily, but when he flashed me a tight smile, I thought maybe he hadn’t let everything go, he was just trying to be nice. That made me like him even more.
I drove the Audi out of town, and about a half hour, maybe a little more, passed as I navigated the snowy roads.
