Dead Man’s Deal. Jocelynn Drake
I shoved to my feet, but paused as my eyes caught on the bed. I rarely dreamed about the Towers and that was the first time I had ever dreamed about Lilith. Was it a nightmare brought on by the stress of Robert’s news? Maybe my mind demanding that I confront something that I refused to think about—my dwindling time until I paid my debt. Or was the nightmare a warning? Was my time almost up? Would I soon have to pay for the year that I owed magic?
Shaking my head, I grabbed a pair of clean boxers, jeans, and a T-shirt without looking at them and headed for the bathroom. Fear curled in my queasy stomach. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to leave Trixie and Bronx in the lurch if I suddenly died. If all went well, I’d be back in a year. I was afraid of facing Lilith for that year in the underworld. As keeper of all visiting souls, she was going to make my year an undead hell unless I found a way to set her free so that she could visit the land of the living on a more permanent basis.
And this world had enough to deal with. It didn’t need someone like her running around.
Stripping off my dirty boxers, I turned on the water and jumped into the shower, not giving it time to warm up. The cold water cleared away the last of the fog and got my brain working past the old memories and horrors. If Reave was threatening to bring the world to war and put my brother in the dead center of it all, I needed to be thinking clearly. The only problem was that I didn’t have a fucking clue as to what I was going to do, but I needed to figure it out fast. Preferably before the Towers learned that the puny mortals were plotting something.
As the water warmed up, I grabbed the shampoo and lathered my hair, wishing I could wash my mind clean just as easily. The bathroom door opened and I stilled for a second before ducking under the spray to rinse away the soap.
“Gage?” Trixie’s voice rose above the rush of water, pushing away the last of the tension.
Wiping the water from my eyes, I pulled the curtain back and forced a smile on my lips. “Want to join me?” I teased, but I had no interest in sex. Just the sight of her helped to ease the pain in my chest. For once, I simply wanted to hold her and let her presence chase away the last of the ghosts from my past.
She shook her head, smiling at me, but I still saw the worry in her eyes. “Not this time.” Leaning forward, she gave me a quick kiss before stepping away so that I couldn’t pull her into the shower with me.
I closed the curtain again and grabbed the soap. “Give me a minute. I’m almost finished.”
“It’s okay. I just stopped by to tell you something.”
There was a long pause and I froze in the process of spreading soap over my chest. Her voice didn’t sound like it was going to be a happy something.
“You’re here to tell me that you’re pregnant and want to run away with me so we can be broccoli farmers in Montana,” I said, trying to get her to laugh.
“Do they grow broccoli in Montana?”
“I have no idea.”
Another long pause twisted in my tender gut. I dropped the soap and jerked the curtain back again. “Are you pregnant?”
Trixie scowled at me. “No, I’m not pregnant.”
“Oh. Good.” I closed the curtain and quickly finished rinsing off. “Then what’s up?”
“The Summer Court is in Low Town.”
I turned off the water and jerked the curtain completely open. Trixie’s eyes skimmed over the entire length of my naked body before rising back to my face.
“Nice,” she murmured with a grin.
It was my turn to scowl at her. I grabbed a towel hanging opposite the shower and started to dry off. “Have you spoken to your brother?”
“Not yet.”
“Have the king’s men made another grab for you?”
“No.”
I stopped drying off and stared at her in confusion. “Then how do you know?”
Her lovely mouth twisted up into a frown. “I just … know. It’s a feeling. I can’t explain it. Summer elves know when the Court is near. This isn’t just a few of my people. Both the king and the queen are in the area.”
I nodded, wrapping the towel around my waist before stepping out of the shower. “Fine. Then we have to be careful.”
“I trust my brother. He’ll be fair about this. He’ll send word as to whether the queen will meet with us before he comes after me again.”
“All the same—”
“All the same,” she interrupted with a knowing smile. “I’m going to stay with Bronx this afternoon until my shift and then I’ll be at the parlor with you until we go on our little adventure tonight.”
“Shit! That’s tonight?” I groaned.
My nightmare had completely wiped my memory of the fact that I was scheduled to conduct a little larceny with Trixie this evening. I wanted to strangle the king of the Summer Court. He had been hounding Trixie for three centuries, trying to force her to be his consort after it was discovered that he and his wife couldn’t have children. If he made another grab for her, I was afraid that Trixie would bolt and I didn’t want to think about living without her.
“I’m going, Gage,” she warned. “I’ll agree to extra precautions, but I won’t stop living because of the bastard. So you can get that look off your face.”
“What look?” I tried for innocent, but knew she wouldn’t believe it.
“The one that says you plan to lock me in a room and guard it with a thousand trolls.”
I grinned at her. “That’s not a bad idea.”
Trixie leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “I’ll see you tonight and I’m still going.” The elf quickly slipped out of the room before I could grab her, leaving me with only the haunting scent of her floral perfume.
With a sigh, I finished getting ready and met Robert in the kitchen, where he was pouring himself a cup of coffee. He stepped out of the way as I grabbed a mug and filled it.
“Everything good?” he asked from the doorway as I took my first sip.
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh as my grumbling stomach accepted my peace offering of heat and caffeine. I’d appease it with actual food when I made my way to the parlor.
“How long have you two …?”
Robert’s voice drifted off and I smiled. I had never let myself imagine this day. I never thought I’d see him standing in the kitchen with me while we drank coffee. I never thought we’d talk again.
“I’ve known Trixie for a couple years, but we’ve been dating only a couple months.”
He grunted and took another drink of his coffee. Last night he’d told me that he was divorced and had no kids. We had learned odd facts and collected strange stories about each other’s life, but there were big gaping holes in his past that I was waiting to have filled in.
“I want you to stay in my apartment,” I said before draining the last of my coffee.
“Why?”
I walked over to the faucet and rinsed out my mug before putting it in the sink. “It’s safer. I don’t know who else knows about the information Reave’s trying to move or if anyone knows you’re involved. We need time to think and plan. No one knows we’re related, so they won’t think to look here.”
Robert frowned at me, looking as if he was ready to argue.
“Just for a few days. It won’t be bad. I’ve got cable, Internet, video games, and food in the fridge. You can spend the day eating, gaming, and watching Internet porn for all I care. Just stay here.”
“Can