A low, slow voice interrupted from the door. “That was the truck stop, sweetheart. Jo’s Gas and Dash. We ate there.”
Yana laughed. Her breath was warm and somehow sticky. “Oh. That’s right.”
Cash looked over her head at Jerome. A slender, tall man in a good suit stepped around Shanko and offered a tip, a fifty-dollar bill pinned between his knuckles. Shanko looked at it and barked a harsh laugh at him as he turned and walked out. Left with his flashy gesture limp in his hand, Jerome casually tried to tuck the money back in his pocket.
He was….
Cash licked the salt of despair off his lips and carefully peeled Yana’s arm from around his neck. He looked at Donna, who looked ruffled, but not by her visitor, and then at Arkady. Maybe that knock on the head had thrown him off more than he thought.
“He’s human,” Arkady confirmed for him.
“Part human,” Jerome interjected. “My grandfather is a kushtaka. Once I have an heir, I will be too. And you’re—”
He stuck his hand out. At least the fifty wasn’t in his fingers this time. Cash accepted the handshake, Jerome’s fingers cold as they wrapped around his.
“My ex,” Yana said. She ran sharp red nails down Cash’s arm. “My daughter’s father.”
Arkady leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs in front of him at the ankle. His eyes were bright and liquid, dangerous enough to make Jerome nervously shift his weight. It wasn’t about him any more than it wasreallyabout Cash, but if Jerome survived the wedding night, he’d learn.
“And currently my lover,” Arkady said.
“Again,” Yana said. She smiled, bright and empty, under Arkady’s glare. “Oh, don’t pout. You’d put him down, and he was so pretty, and it seemed a shame to let him gather dust.”
“Or Cash,” Cash said dryly to Jerome. “Most people stick with that.”
Jerome looked uncomfortable. He’d get used to that too.
“Okay,” he said. “Andwhatare you?”
There was a brief, unpleasant pause at the insult. Cash broke it with a dry chuckle as he took his hand back. Either Jerome didn’t have any clue just how rude that was, or he did and he was stupid enough to show his true nature day one. Either way, it was Yana’s problem.
“Late,” Cash said. “Camp is going to send proof of life today, so I don’t want to miss that.”
Jerome laughed like it was a joke, and Cash shifted his money from “stupid” to “clueless.” He turned to Yana.
“Why don’t you come with me,” he said. “You can catch up on how Ellie’s doing.”
Yana rolled her eyes. “It’s camp,” she said. “If they’re still sending photos, she’s doing fine. You worry too much. It’s not like it’s her first year.”
Cash clenched his teeth. He was used to Yana, but sometimes her blithe self-centeredness still caught him off guard.
“Go,” Donna instructed. She reached over the table and flicked Arkady’s king over to cede the game for him. “Let your brother and I get to know your latest beau. Maybe he’ll impress us. Stranger things have happened.”
Jerome had, at least, enough common sense to look worried. After a knee-jerk glare at her mother’s order, Yana gave in with a shrug.
“Fine,” she said. “Show me pictures of Ellie while I unpack. I smell like gas fire anyhow.”
Arkady half turned in his chair to watch them leave. His expression was unreadable, which just meant he was irritated. Cash considered an apologetic look but decided against it. He was here to help plug a leak. Being the forgiven ex was just the cover story.
That was a lie. Cash didn’t even need the monster’s snigger to know that. It was a useful lie, though. Just like the one Cash told himself where the ache under his breastbone was just the fishhook of Arkady’s magic.
He let Yana take his arm and headed out of the hall.
Chapter Eleven
“SHE LOOKSlike you,” Yana said. “I mean, of course she doesn’t. But she does.”
Cash knew what she meant. Taken individually—her nose, her hair, the length of her legs—Ellie looked like an Abascal. She moped at him sometimes that she wasn’t asprettyas herdad, and it wasn’tfair.Taken altogether, though, no one had ever questioned that she was his.
