Witch slapped him on the back of the head as she walked past him. “He says he knows something about Slater,” she said as she hitched her hip onto the edge of the desk. “Although he doesn’t seem her type either.”
Jonah resisted the urge to stand up straighter or try and dust off his jeans. He wasn’t used to being dismissed, but it was fine. Everything was theatre, even if it was real, and right now, he had to play the supplicant.
And none of them had seen him at his best.
“And again, I didn’t takeherto dinner either,” he said.
“She’s nothistype, Levi,” Shiloh said. He idly unwrapped and rewrapped the dressing on his hand, the end tucked neatly under his thumb. A smirk tilted his mouth briefly as he said that—they both knew, protests aside, exactly who Jonah’s type was—before he put it away. “Or that’s what he said, just before he told me he didn’t know fuck all about Deborah Slater.”
Jonah licked his lower lip, the memory of blood and a rough touch suddenly to the forefront of his mind, before he dragged himself back on track.
“That was yesterday, when I didn’t want to get involved,” he said. “But now her problem has gotten all over a friend of mine. If I want to help him, I need to talk to her.”
Witch pulled a sour face and pushed herself up off the desk. “That’s it?” she snapped as she stalked forward. The heels of her motorcycle boots clacked on the floor. “What the fuck do you think we are, her answering service?”
She grabbed him by the shoulder. Jonah didn’t try to dodge. The collar of his T-shirt dug into his neck as she dragged him toward the door. He staggered and grabbed the table for balance. His fingers brushed the dead bird’s feathers, and he felt the itch of the hex worked into it.
“That’s what I need, not what I know,” he said.
Levi held up his hand. “Wait,” he said. Witch made an annoyed sound but let go of Jonah’s shirt. This time he gave in to the urge to pull it straight over his shoulders to tidy himself up. Levi leaned forward, his elbows on the table, and nodded to him. “Go on. And if you don’t make the last five minutes worth my time, I’ll let Witch beat the smartass out of you before she chucks you back onto the street.”
Witch chuckled darkly and nudged his shoulder with her fist. “Go on,” she said. “Disappoint my dad like you’ll disappoint your boyfriend tonight.”
Jonah clenched his teeth on a cluster of scathing clever insults. He wasn’t here to start a fight, and he definitely wasn’t going to win one if he did.
“Go fuck yourself,” he told her.
She flushed angrily and started to pull her fist back. Levi clicked his tongue against his teeth and made her falter.
“You get to beat himifhe doesn’t say something interesting,” he said. “So we have to let him say something first.”
Jonah rolled his head from one side to the other to crack his neck. Then he held up his hand to count off what he… OK, “knew” was a strong word. What he had.
“She has something you want,” he said.
Levi sighed and sat back, his hands laced together over his stomach. A heavy gold ring glittered on his ring finger, the metal scarred until you could hardly see what was etched underneath.
“And I can get it for you,” Jonah said.
He bit his tongue, but it was too late to take the words back. That hadn’t been part of the script, but it smoothed his ruffled pride as Levi straightened back up again like someone had him on a string.
Pride goeth before an ass-kicking, no Carrow ever had said.
“Do you know what it is?” Levi asked.
“No,” Jonah said. “But that doesn’t matter. She does, and if she wants my help, that’ll be my price.”
Levi glanced up at Shiloh. “You trust him?”
“No,” Shiloh said.
“Good boy,” Levi said. “Do you think he might be able to pull this off?”
Shiloh studied Jonah for a second with those mismatched eyes. The flicker of heat was gone, replaced by cold assessment. After a second, he pulled his mouth down at the corners in a reluctant grimace. “Maybe. Like I told you, she chased him down, not the other way around. She wanted something. ”
Witch grunted. “He could have walked out with her Sharpie,” she said. “Come on. Look at him. What good would he be to her?”
Levi scratched his jaw.
