Page 91 of Devil in Her Details

He couldn’t be effective out here when half his attention was in there. Couldn’t think straight when every other thought reached back toward that stubborn little lynx.

“She is fine,” Maxen shot back to him flatly.

Not reassuring at all. “I know she’s bloody fine.”

Maxen gave a grunt. “Doesn’t stop one from worrying, does it?”

Dagger sighed, dragging a hand through his hair roughly. Never missed a chance to get his point across, did he? “You should never have disregarded Reaper when he came to you from the start. You should have handled this entire affair differently.”

Several heartbeats passed. “Are you suggesting I’ve lost my edge?”

“I’m saying,” Dagger said softly, “that things are changing. And if things are changing, the old ways need to change too.”

Silence fell between them.

“You’re right,” Maxen said after a moment. “Things have changed.”

Dagger grimaced. “I’m not blaming you.”

“I know. I just don’t like change.”

Dagger’s mouth twisted. “Nobody likes change. But that doesn’t mean change cares what we want. If it did, you might not have your wife now, brother.”

The man’s annoyance was instant. “Watch your mouth.”

“Simply saying,” Dagger retorted.

“Think about your own woman.”

His woman. Those two words still punched him in a gut. “She’s not like Calliope and Violet. She’ll never settle here, and I’ll never leave.” Look at how his brothers had reacted just to him staying away one night. “Her life is with her kind in London.”

Maxen didn’t disagree.

Yes, he’d have to be blind not to see the truth right in front of him. Lilly Trenton, that wildcat with her doe eyes, was in the middle of an adventure in her life. And all adventures end. She’d move onto the next when she was done with this one.

“We have your back,” Maxen said, clapping his hand on Dagger’s back. “Always.”

Dagger nodded. He didn’t want to dwell on anything beyond the task at hand. Fortunately, Calvington’s impatience seemed to visibly deepen.

“It’s almost time.”

Chapter Nineteen

Fury’s was as empty as before. Lilly’s mind, however, was not.

She was bothered.

Extremely, supremely, bothered.

Is that so.

Those three words from Calliope troubled her to the extent she couldn’t get them out of her head. The problem with that seemingly small “Is that so” was that it left entirely too much room for interpretation. Lilly had filled that room approximately twelve times since they’d left the shop and hadn’t arrived at a version she found comfortable.

At first, she’d thought it merely Calliope’s response to her leaving Brighton at some point, but the more Lilly pondered and pondered, the more she thought it had a direct relation to the “does Dagger know” question.

Of course, Dagger did know.

But the way Calliope had said it . . .