Andthatwas how Dravka had found out. How Tavak and Ravu had found out as well.
The Cluster went a little wavy and she reached out her hand behind her, seeking the firmness of the brick wall. The cool stone helped center her thoughts, if only a little.
“He—he knows?” Valerie asked, shaking her head.
Tavak quirked his brow bone. “Obviously.”
His dry tone did nothing to help soothe her sudden nerves or the nausea rising in her stomach.
“It’s true then?” Ravu asked, his voice rough.
Valerie looked up at them both. The two brothers had never fully trusted Valerie. She didn’t think they trustedanyonebut each other. But in their own way, they cared for her. She knew that. They’d known each other for five years now.
“Yes,” she whispered. “But…but it’s not…”
She trailed off, not knowing how to explain the circumstance. Madame Allegria wanted to keep the terms of their agreement quiet. Her aunt didn’t want her telling the Krave that soon they would have their freedom from the brothel. Except Valerie didn’t really care about what she wanted.
But looking at them now, she didn’t knowhowto tell them. It didn’t seem right to make some half-rushed explanation of the past day and a half. They would know soon enough when Valerie began cancelling their clients. And once Eve’s townhouse sold, once the collector on Genesis wired her the credits for what he was claiming, she would be able togivethem something. Something concrete. Something tangible.
Not just more empty words.
“It’s true,” she told them, her eyes straying to the door of Dravka’s room. “But there’s more to it, things I’ll explain to you in the coming week. Just not right now.”
“What are you up to, Val?” Ravu asked, his eyes narrowing on her.
“I’m—” She licked her lips, rubbing at her arms when the flesh prickled into bumps there. “I’m trying to make things right. For all of you. I just need time to do it.”
Tavak’s brow bones slammed down, his slim lips pulling into a frown. His and Ravu’s eyes were different than Dravka’s. They were golden and silver in color, those strands weaving through their irises, instead of blue and green.
“Just trust me on this, okay?” she whispered. “I’ll tell you everything, I promise.”
After a moment of hesitation, they both inclined their heads in a brief nod. They stood there in silence until Tavak finally said, “We have to go prepare for the night.”
Valerie hesitated but then nodded. Swallowing, she said, “I need to check on him but I’ll be downstairs later.”
They both left the Cluster. They preferred to bathe and prepare for the night in their client rooms. They called them the ‘mating rooms.’ It kept things…separate in their minds. They became whatever their clients wanted of them in the mating rooms. And that took time. Every time they stepped inside those rooms, they became something different. They slipped into a role that they were expected to play, a role that they were used to.
That was how Dravka had explained it to her once. One of their more painful conversations.
Valerie stood in the quietness of the Cluster. It was dark. Through the small window, she saw the beginnings of the silver projection of the moon lightening the sky. The only other source of light in the Cluster was coming from the slit in Dravka’s ajar door, from the flickering candle sconce on his wall.
Taking a small breath, she walked towards it and pushed inside.
“Dravka?”
Chapter Ten
He was lying on his back on the bed, staring up at the flickering shadows playing along the ceiling.
“So it is true then?” he rasped, not turning his head to look at her.
Valerie bit her lip. Had he overheard what she’d said in the sitting room? Of course he had. Keriv’i had better senses than humans. They could see better in darkness, hear things from farther away, smell things that humans couldn’t.
She went to his bed, sinking down onto the floor next to it, her knees pressing into the thin rug.
“I didn’t mean for you to find out that way,” she said softly.
Slowly, he turned his head to regard her. Their faces were close. All Valerie had to do was reach out a hand and stroke his face. Keriv’i males were hairless but their skin was—supposedly—very sensitive. And to her it felt like soft suede.
