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“He left not long after you found Ingrid.”
“Annika,” I correct him.
He raises his eyebrows and laughs.
“What did we get ourselves into?”
I rake a hand through my wet hair, sighing.
“Fuck if I know. But let’s face it, it’s all because of me and…her.”
“Yeah, we’re just willing collateral damage,” he says, laughing again, completely unbothered. “Come on, show me where they went.”
* * *
“What the hell just happened, brother?”
After they sped away from the parking lot from the edge of the forest, we just about managed to catch up with them.
Far too late though.
We didn’t stand a chance.
Now, we’re on the floating dock, watching them wave dramatically at us from the boat that speeds away. They had everything ready for their theatrical exit. There’s no time for us to prep our boat. They’ll be out of sigh before we finish.
“They played us, that’s what happened,” I say, wiping a hand over my face.
“Nah, we’re players too. This is just our official invitation.” Finn turns his back on the calm sea, tapping my shoulder as he walks away with a great big smile on his face. “Let the games begin, brother.”
I’m powered by adrenaline, desire, and frustration, but they seem to go hand in hand. Somehow fueling each other and putting more kindling to this obsession that grows for this woman.
Maybe it’s that pure, naive look that makes me so damn hard, or maybe it’s the fact that underneath it all, there’s probably not an ounce of innocence about her. She’s a witch in disguise, stirring a potion that drags me closer and closer to her. But her potion smells of wildflowers in bloom and she might as well douse me in it because I’m coming for her.
Wherever the woman is, she’s already mine.
But I’ll play her game. Relinquish the control. Because she’s been doing a damn good job so far with the rules.
* * *
“You guys are fucked, aren’t you?” Madds smirks.
He cocks his head as I take a seat on the couch across from him and Vin. We’ve gathered in Midnight, as we always seem to do since we opened this place. I look up at my brother and he just shrugs, turning to head to the bar.
“Don’t answer that,” Madds continues, shaking his head as he leans back. “I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that you shouldn’t. You’re big boys, you know yourselves you shouldn’t. But… the dick wants what the dick wants, and sometimes the heart agrees with it too.”
“Damn, you’re a veritable poet, man.” Finn places a drink in front of me before he takes a seat on the free armchair to my right. “Realistically, it’s not common knowledge who they chose to strike the deal with. The people who would try undermining us theoretically don’t know, and even if the information would get out, it’s information we can control. How much damage can it really do to our reputation?”
“Just get our money back and we’ll be good,” Vin grumbles, shaking his head in some sort of acceptance. But I can see the shadow of a smirk there.
“We will. As of now, we’re the only ones who know the painting isn’t real, so it’s all under wraps.”
“Actually…” Carter walks into the barroom from the corridor that leads to the office. “Our money has been returned, and that second part isn’t entirely true.”
She really did send the money back. I didn’t fully believe her when she said it, yet now this seems like some sort of test. Technically, I got what I was chasing her for.Technically.
“Explain,” Vin says, cocking his head, and my shoulders suddenly tense up.
“I kept an ear out since we found out the painting was a fake. Someone’s been knocking on some doors for information, very low key around the underground art world. I did a bit of digging and one very angry man who bought a disturbingly expensive painting from two women, found out a couple of months ago that a fake had been sitting behind his alarmed glass display in his mansion.”
