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Thane raises one dark, sardonic brow. “Daddy issues?”
Acid tries to keep a straight face, but his lips twitch as he takes a mouthful of beer. “We, ah, might not be the men to help you with those. Try Ferragamo.”
“I wish I could join in your fun. I’ve had a hard time joking about my father since he murdered my mother right in front of me.”
Both Acid and Thane’s expressions turn blank with shock.
“We thought that was gang shit,” Acid says.
She smiles sweetly at him. “No. Just my daddy issues.”
All humor and teasing drops from Acid’s demeanor, and he puts his beer aside. “That fucking sucks, your highness. All right, what’s your business here?”
“I want to set a bounty. Two, actually. One for a hunter to handle. One for Thane.”
“If you wanted to set a bounty, you should have said. I’ll get Zag.”
He starts to get up, but Chiara holds out her hand. “No, I want to talk to you two first.”
Acid sits back down again, his brows drawn together. “Strife bounties don’t come cheap, and neither does Thane. Can you pay?”
Chiara hesitates and then takes her diamond ring off her finger.
“No!” I reach for the ring but she holds it out of my reach and gives me a meaningful look. That ring belongs on her finger. I love seeing it there, fuck-off big and sparkling. I helped put it on her finger and I’m proud of that. I look at it sometimes while I’m balls deep in her and it reminds me that she’s mine.
That she’sours.
Chiara explains what she wants done while sirens are blaring in my ears. She’s not offering up that ring. I’ll pay for her goddamn bounties myself.
“That’s part one. What do you think?” Chiara asks.
Acid is shaking his head. “I think you’re fucking crazy.”
“Will you do it?”
“Hell, yes. I’ll handle it personally.”
“Thank you.” She turns to Thane. “What I want to ask of you might be more difficult, but Vinicius has told me about the things that you can do. I don’t know if this is possible, but can you please look into my father’s emails and text messages and see if there’s anything that might connect him to the Black Orchid Killer?”
Chiara explains about the mayor ambushing her and the reason she suspects he might know the killer and is protecting him.
Thane rubs a hand over his jaw. “The mayor got to you? Where were you?”
“At a doc—at an appointment.” Chiara’s poker face has been firmly in place since she stepped into Strife, but suddenly it slips, and she blushes.
Thane’s gaze flickers to her belly, and my hackles stand to attention. One word, one fucking innuendo and I will leap over this table and punch his teeth out.
He gives a lazy shrug. “That’s not hard. If something’s there, I’ll find it.”
“Thank you.” Chiara puts her ring in the middle of the table.
Acid contemplates it and shakes his head. “Keep your fancy rock. Just consider us even after this.”
“All right. I’ll consider us even if you get my bounty for me, and if Thane scours every corner of every device that my father owns.” Chiara picks up her ring and puts it back on her finger.
“Pleasure doing business with you, your highness.”
She stands up to go, and I cup her lower back and murmur in her ear, “Could you give me one moment, princess?”
