Steal the Light (Thieves) (10 page)

“I’m not stealing from Dev.” It hurt that he would even think that about me. Whatever we’d become, I thought he knew me better than that.

“That’s not what it looks like from my perspective, Zoey. You stole his keycard, lied about your earring, and made damn sure the cameras didn’t catch you. I watched you the whole time. Did you think you could fool me? You haven’t been interested in basketball once in your life.”

“Not once,” I admitted. “I did lie about losing my earring, and I did steal the keycard, but let me tell you it wasn’t hard to make sure the cameras didn’t catch me. That was the easy part.”

Daniel stopped his lecture for a moment, and I could see the gears working in that brain of his as he searched for a logical reason for me to be up here rather than my need to commit a felony. “They’re about to get hit…”

“…by their security company,” I finished for him. I was satisfied by the slightly guilty look on his face. “I figured it out while I was talking to Albert, who knows I’m up here, by the way. Albert is Dev’s right-hand…man, so to speak. Speaking of which, how did you get up here? I had the keycard, so I was able to talk my way in. I seriously doubt the bouncer just let you come on up.”

Daniel waved off the thought. “The bouncer was easy. He was susceptible to certain mind tricks. He’s taking a nap in the alley.”

“Oh, Jedi mind tricks,” I said with sarcastic fervor. I wasn’t impressed by Daniel’s vampiric talents. I thought they were cheating, but they did come in handy every once and a while.

Daniel smiled faintly. “Something like that. So can we go back down now?”

I folded my arms over my chest. “I can’t. Albert doesn’t believe I can crack the safe. You should feel free to leave whenever you want to. I didn’t invite you up here. Come to think of it, I didn’t invite you to crash my date.”

“Would you believe it was a coincidence?”

“Not if God came down from the Heaven plane and told me himself.” I glanced around the room and noticed the lovely pastoral painting on the wall. A quick pull revealed the safe I was looking for. At least Dev had it bolted to the wall. That wouldn’t help him when it came to the security company, but it might deter the casual thief.

Daniel shrugged. He sank down into the chair behind the desk. It was obvious he wasn’t going anywhere until I went with him. “Fine. I went out and talked to Ingrid, and she mentioned Dev owned this club. It wasn’t hard to figure out he would take you here. And Ingrid told me to tell you she told you so, but I don’t know what that means.”

I put my hands on the safe, the metal cool under my fingers. I genuinely loved doing this. Safe cracking is an art form I became acquainted with at a young age. While other kids were learning about history and writing poems about frogs, I was studying the teachings of Harry C. Miller and his scientific approach to lock manipulation. My father spent hours teaching me to listen for the delicate sound of the notch on the drive cam sliding into place. It took time and infinite patience to expertly manipulate a lock, so I did it more for recreation than any professional purposes. During an actual job, it’s much simpler to just have Neil pull the door off and take what’s inside. I sighed. I didn’t have time today, either. As much as I loved the fine art of manipulation, it was always easiest to just know the combination. I let my hands drop and turned to the desk. I was pretty sure I would find what I needed there.

“What I’m trying to figure out is why you bothered to come here in the first place. I thought you wanted me to get out and date.” I shuffled through the papers on Dev’s desk.

“Not him,” Daniel said with a certainty that I found really annoying.

I also found it annoying when he turned over the calendar on the desk. There it was. 36-12-2. Why bother having the safe if you leave the combination lying around? I always asked myself this question and people constantly surprised me with their level of stupidity when it came to security.

Daniel echoed my frustrations. “Is that safe a Wentworth 2500? I’m betting it is because that’s a try-out combination. He didn’t even change the combination from the manufacturer setting. He deserves to get hit.”

“You don’t get to pick.” I wasn’t about to let him change the subject. I had spent the past years so lost in sadness and grief that the anger I felt was liberating. “You don’t get to choose who I date. I didn’t leave you. You left me. I don’t owe you anything. You don’t get to have a say in what I do with my life from here on out.”

“I didn’t leave you,” Daniel said quietly. “I died. I didn’t have a say in that either.”

I clenched my fists in tight balls at my sides. “I’m so sick of that excuse, Danny. You died. Get over it. It’s been five years. It’s not like you’re the first person who ever died or even the first to come back.”

“I came back different.”

He hadn’t seemed different that first night. He’d been scared and worried and so grateful to be alive, but he’d been Daniel. “No, you didn’t. You came back to me. You loved me. You wanted me. You didn’t come back from death different. You came back from the Council different. They changed you, not death.”

“They showed me that things couldn’t be the same. They showed me the logic of my situation, and I am grateful to them.” Despite the heated air between us, Daniel was perfectly calm. It was the crux of my frustration with him. I couldn’t fight him because he never got emotional. He was always in control. “Now, could we please finish up here and get back downstairs? You need to let Dev know you can’t see him again.”

“I’m not going to tell him that. If he asks me out again, I’ll go.”

“No, you won’t, Zoey,” Daniel returned sharply.

I noticed his right leg was bouncing. It was a nervous habit left over from his human days that I hadn’t seen in years. Perhaps he wasn’t so calm. I smiled and slid onto the desk and slowly crossed my legs. I leaned forward, giving him a good view of the girls. For the first time in a while, I saw a look of trepidation pass across his face.

“I like him, Danny.” I let my voice get deep and low. That leg just kept bouncing. “I like him a lot. He’s the first man in many a year to catch my interest, and I have no intention of letting that go. I have plans for him.”

Daniel finally noticed his leg moving and forced it to still. There was only a little strain to his voice as he got to the point. “I won’t have you faery struck. I won’t allow him to control you like that.”

I laughed long and hard at that one because it was the most ridiculous excuse I’d heard in a long time. There’s a myth about faeries and their sexual prowess. I think it was probably perpetuated by faery males themselves. The legend goes that once a human had sex with a faery, they became “faery struck” and would follow the faery anywhere. The victim of the faery would become the faery’s slave in exchange for the possibility of getting back into the faery’s bed. As faeries had been groping humans for centuries and we weren’t a population of drooling sex slaves, I seriously doubted the myth.

“I think I’m willing to take a chance on that one, Danny, but I will get back to you and let you know if it’s true. I managed to survive sex with you, and that was pretty mind blowing. I haven’t wasted away because you won’t sleep with me anymore.”

Daniel’s eyes darkened, and I knew he was remembering that night. He chose to change the subject. “He’ll get you into trouble, Zoey. He’s surrounded by all manner of creatures with these clubs. You need to get out of this life, not deeper into it.”

“That’s my choice, Danny.” Weariness threatened to overtake me. “The sooner you realize it, the sooner we can both get on with our lives. We can’t go on like this, you know.”

He looked away. “I know.”

This conversation was like so much of our lives since that terrible night. It was a stalemate. “All right. Let’s crack this beauty open and call it a night.”

I dialed the lock and pulled the handle. I felt Daniel come up behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders and every nerve in my body went on full alert. Despite what I said earlier, I would do almost anything to get back into his arms. I was in far more danger of becoming Daniel’s slave than Dev’s, and I think Daniel knew it.

“I only want what’s best for you.” He barely touched me, but heat flared on my skin. His fingers were cool, but no amount of chill could make me forget how hot it had been between us. That single night was burned onto my soul.

“I don’t suppose pointing out that being with you is best for me will change your mind?” I asked quietly.

“I’m not good for you, baby.” I could feel him against me, his body making a liar of his words. His erection pressed against my hip. How many times had he worked over me, a smile on his face as he connected our bodies? He touched my hair so softly that I wondered if he meant to do it. “I was once but not anymore.”

“What do we have here?” Dev asked from the door.

Daniel practically jumped back, and I turned to see Dev and Neil standing in the doorway. Dev was standing with his arms crossed, his sensual mouth set in a straight line. Neil’s hand was on his hip, and I could tell from his expression exactly what he was thinking.
Damn, girlfriend, you got caught with your hands in both the cookie jars.
It was pretty much what I was thinking, too.

My heart fell. I needed to explain, and I wasn’t quite sure where to start. I hadn’t been caught safe cracking in…well, ever. It was a completely new experience, and one I found I didn’t relish. I really liked this guy, and while I might have been out of the dating scene for a while, I doubted that getting caught with my hands in his safe was the way to get a second date. To top it off, from Dev’s point of view, I was stealing from him with my “ex-boyfriend.” I blamed Daniel. If he hadn’t followed me up here and lugged all of our baggage along, I would already be downstairs discussing the situation with Albert.

“I was just…” I started, not really sure where I would go from there.

“Damn it!” Dev cursed under his breath when the safe came open. He punched a fist in the air to show his frustration. “Seriously? This is seriously happening? I can’t believe it. That freaking company came highly recommended. I wanted to go American, but no, I end up off-shoring my security to a bunch of Nagas because they give me this Buddhist ‘save-the-earth green security’ crap. Then they turn out to be scamming me? Do you have any idea how much I laid out for that system? I have them working on my new clubs. Now I have to change everything. Crap, this is gonna cost me a fortune. Next time I’m gonna say ‘fuck the whales’ and hire some firm that doesn’t recycle.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Albert talked to you.”

Dev finally took a breath and seemed to calm down a bit. “Yeah, I didn’t believe him. Then I watched the cameras from the security room. They didn’t pick you up at all. They picked up the big, scary vampire though. What the hell did you do to my bouncer? He’s asleep in the alley mumbling something about beef jerky and bunny rabbits.”

“I wasn’t trying to go unseen,” Daniel said in his defense.

Neil stepped forward. “Um, Daniel, Charlene said your time was up, and she left with a really hot shape shifter. She also mentioned you were a cheap date and there was some talk about your parents not being married, but I don’t think that’s a big deal anymore.”

“I don’t see how she can call me cheap with what she charges.” Daniel sounded offended. “I could only afford to pay her until two am.”

“I knew she was a hooker.” She just had that look about her.

“Did they really think I wouldn’t figure this out?” Dev was asking no one in particular.

“Yes.” I would have thought it was obvious, but Dev seemed to struggle with the idea.

“You didn’t figure it out,” Daniel seconded. “Zoey did.”

“Ooo, pretty guns.” Neil’s eyes widened as he looked into the safe.

There were three shiny handguns in the safe along with what looked like a big hunk of cash. That security firm was losing a rich score. I decided to ask Dev to maybe not mention my name when he confronted the Nagas. Nagas were Indian river creatures who were usually peaceful, but they could turn into giant ravenous snakes, and I didn’t particularly need anyone else pissed off at me. And their heist methods were actually quite earth friendly. They hadn’t planned on killing anyone, and I’d heard that they gave ten percent of all their profits to Greenpeace.

“Yeah, well I’m going to be using those on one slick salesman when I can catch him,” Dev swore.

Neil’s head came up, his whole body on alert. “Do you normally let people come up the stairs?”

Dev frowned. “No one should be here. I’ll go look.”

He started for the door, but Daniel stopped him. “Neil, pass out those guns. I don’t like the sound of this.”

“Take it.” Neil pressed a gun into my hand. He was the closest one to the safe. He tossed one to Dev, and then placed the third in Daniel’s hand before anyone could speak.

“Are you sure this isn’t overkill?” Dev asked. “It’s probably just a guest who thinks this is a snack bar or something. All of this could have been avoided if you hadn’t put my bouncer to sleep.”

I checked the clip and eased the safety off because the back of my neck was tingling. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t explain that to Dev.

Neil didn’t arm himself. Neil preferred the old ways. He would never use a gun when he could rip and claw an enemy. Of the four of us, Neil was the only one smiling. Despite his sweet-looking face, he genuinely enjoyed a little violence.

“If it’s a drunk guest, we’ll just quietly escort them back down,” Daniel explained, his voice tight.

The door to Dev’s office exploded inward, silencing any further discussions.

The sound cracked the air around me, and I acted on pure instinct as pieces of wood flew everywhere. I threw myself in front of Daniel.

Pain, pure and visceral, bloomed from my shoulder. I winced as I looked down. The door had splintered into stake-like pieces and one lodged itself just under my clavicle. It wasn’t deep, but there was just enough blood to worry me.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Daniel twisted me around so he covered my body with his.