Cole scratched his beard, trying not quite hard enough to hide a smirk. “I see.”
“You seenothing,” Dorian snapped.
“If you say so, Red.”
“Charlotte D’Amico is a liar and a thief, and that’s putting it kindly.” Dorian lifted a hand, counting down on his fingers. “She’s been playing me from the start. She’s got connections to at least one powerful demon crime syndicate—which, by the way, she refuses to discuss. She’s oddly fixated on two pieces of art from my collection—which, by the way, shealsorefuses to discuss. She’s manipulative, selfish, infuriating, and… and bloody hell, Cole. I wish I’d never met her.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“Sarcasm? Really? I bear my soul, and that’s the sage advice you have to offer?”
“Sage advice?” Cole shook his head, still smirking. “Okay, here’s the thing. Wolves? We mate for life. Takes a long time to find the one, but when we do, we fuckingknowit. And there’s nothing we won’t do for our mate, no matter how badly she fucks up. I meannothing, brother.”
“I’m not a wolf.”
“And I’m still single, but that’s not the point.”
“Have you not heard a word I’ve said? She’s after my art, Cole. Left to her own devices, the woman would probably steal the very silverware from the dinner table. In fact, I should check my collection. For all I know, she pocketed her fork after brunch the other day.”
Cole laughed, his eyes like half-moons in the smoky haze. “If you think this is about your art—or your damn silverware, for that matter—you’re even blinder than you are stoned.”
“She’s connected to Alexei Rogozin, for fuck’s sake!”
“Connected how, exactly?”
Dorian didn’t have an answer for that—not for lack of trying. Charlotte had completely shut down at the mention of the demon’s name. Before they could revisit the conversation, Duchanes attacked, and they’d nearly died.
Dorian, because of Duchanes and the demon.
Charlotte, because of Dorian.
A surge of guilt rose inside him, but he chased it away with another swig of moonshine.
“I know you nightwalkers don’t like to be tied down,” Cole continued. “I get it. Keep your options open for the long, immortal slog. But I’ll tell you what, Red. That look in your eyes?” He tilted his glass in Dorian’s direction. “That’s not the look of a man just out for a fuck. That’s the look of a man who—”
“Whatever you’re about to presume about my present state of affairs, about what I feel, about whom and how frequently I choose tofuck, allow me to disabuse you of—”
Dorian’s cell buzzed, cutting him off.
Aiden.
Keeping his eyes locked on Cole’s irritating, know-it-all smirk, he took the call, hoping his friend had some good news about Charlotte’s sister Sasha.
“Where the bloody hellareyou?” Aiden demanded. “For fuck’s sake, Dori. Your brothers said you took off without even—”
“I’m upstate. Have you found the girl?”
“What are you doing up—”
“Sasha,” Dorian said. “Is she with you?”
“Not yet. I’ve been to every club and coffee shop and dreadful hipster bar in Brooklyn too—no trace.”
“Keep looking. She’s not safe with Duchanes on the loose.”
“And what of Charlotte?”
Across the table, Cole snickered.
