Grepper shrugged. “He never told me the details. I only know your father hoped to match the owner with a buyer who would bring the painting back into the public sphere.”
I swayed on my feet. My father knew Grepper?
Roux snarled.He could be lying.
He could, but a sixth sense told me he wasn’t.
“So your father contacted Gordon, and Gordon contacted me.” Grepper stared into the fireplace.
It took everything I had not to shake him and scream,Then what?
But, yikes. My father, Gordon, and Grepper were buddies?
Finally, I ventured quietly, “And did he find that kind of buyer?”
I meant Grepper, of course — or his younger self.
His fingers tightened around his glass. “He thought so. Your father was on his way with a contract, but…”
I tilted my head when he trailed off.
“But?” I whispered.
“He never arrived.” Grepper looked me straight in the eyes, waiting.
My knees buckled, and I would have hit the floor if Roux hadn’t darted under my hand to steady me.
“You mean…” I started, but my voice failed me.
Grepper nodded sadly. “The brakes failed. His car went off the road. The contract never arrived.”
I bared my teeth. “More significantly, my father died.”
Grepper nodded. “Sadly, yes.” He waited a few moments, then turned up the wattage in his eyes. “I’m deeply sorry for your loss. But let us focus on the painting for now. As you said, time is short.”
The sound of car engines straining up the mountain road reached us, and the hair on the back of my neck prickled.
The vampires are here,Roux warned.
Yes, but I couldn’t stop now.
“What happened to the painting after that?” I demanded.
“No one knows but the man who took it.”
I clenched my fists, desperate to learn who that might be.
Grepper pointed to the painting, hinting. “The man who took it and kept it hidden for all these years.”
Roux growled under his breath, and I wondered why. Then it hit me.
Gordonhad had my father’s painting on the wall for all these years.
I sank into a chair, staring past my trembling hands.
Roux paced in front of me, rubbing one side of his body against my legs, then the other, showing Grepper his teeth.
The warlock raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I merely speak the truth. Gordon, on the other hand…”
