AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Exactly what a thief would say.” He turned away from me.
“You know what? I was going to be nice and help you so you didn’t get roasted by a dragon for failing your mission, but screw that. You can go find Tony yourself.” I crossed my arms over my chest with finality.
I don’t know how I expected him to react, but he was silent as he approached a locker and pressed his index finger to a lock pad. That opened the locker, exposing a huge arsenal of weapons and armor. Yep, this place had total secret agent vibes going on. But if he kept insisting on calling me a thief, it was going to get downgraded from Secret Agent Hideout to Supervillain Lair, pronto.
I blinked when after hanging the vest up, Mateo started peeling off his skin-tight black T-shirt, exposing his broad, muscular shoulders and lats that formed a perfect V down to his trim waist. Would a hero or a villain be more likely to have such a perfectly sculpted body? Hmm. Maybe he was a bit of both.
I’d satisfied myself that he was, in fact, responsible for the artifacts on display at the museum. Why else would he have the feeds constantly playing on the screen? It wasn’t exactly a gripping show. If that wasn’t enough, I’d spotted his museum name tag on his desk as well, naming him as Head of Security. So he was truly looking for a missing artifact, and hadn’t just shown up at my house in the middle of the night to kidnap me. Then again, he did kidnap me. And he had stated very clearly that he didn’t care much about rules.
I was still trying to figure out if all this made him more of a villain or a hero when he turned around, revealing some perfect pecs. I had to remind myself that he was still wearing an illusion, which meant what I saw wasn’t necessarily what I got, but glamour spells usually worked with whatever was already there, so whatever this guy was, he was fit.
“Okay, I’ll stop calling you Little Thief. But you’re going find this artifact for me. Or else.”
“Or else what?”
“Or else I’m locking you up in Desmon’s dungeon and throwing away the key.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Wouldn’t I? Technically, you’re still my prisoner.”
“No…wait… I only agreed to bring you to where Tony’s staying. I never said the artifact would be there. He could have sold it already, for all I know.”
“I guess we’d better hurry, then. You have three days.”
“Three days? You just totally made that up.”
“What if I did?”
“Okay, whatever. But can we at least please stop by my place so I can grab my phone and change?” I stuck out my foot. “I don’t even have shoes.”
“Footwear is overrated.”
“Says the one with heavy combat boots.”
He looked down at his feet but didn’t reply.
“I also need to feed Sriracha. It’s way past his breakfast time.”
“Sriracha? Isn’t that a type of hot sauce?”
“Yes, but it’s also my cat’s name. He throws a fit when his food is late.”
“What’s the worst he can do? Bite you with his smoosh face? Does he even have a jaw?”
“Hey now, I happen to like his smoosh face. And trust me, he’s vicious when he wants to be.”
Mateo rolled his eyes, clearly not convinced. “Fine. We’ll go.”
Chapter 4
Mateo
Sriracha’s sleek coat glistened in the sunlight as he groomed himself, never once taking his eyes off me.
Since I had decreed that Eva was staying with me until the locket was in my possession, and I doubted a simple trip to her brother’s place would produce the much-sought-after artifact, I insisted she pack up some clothes and bring them over to my place, together with her cat.
She agreed on the condition that I feed her precious feline as she got her things together. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I had made the deal. But the little cat didn’t like me to begin with. Not only that, his breakfast was several hours late. The end result was that the peeved Persian attacked me on sight. His little smush face meant his jaws and teeth were weak, but he had strong claws for such a small creature. Fortunately, my thick skin and fur meant I survived his numerous attacks.
