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I nod. Knox is already stationed on a rooftop across from the building. Dredd will be joining him soon and is connected via my earpiece. Stiel is at his computer, watching the security cameras for any hint of Maximus. Once I set the operation in motion, it will only take a few minutes to retrieve the Keystone, but those are minutes I’ll be without any easy connection to backup.
“Good. I want us in and out without a single human being aware of what happened.” I place Drusila’s spell bag in my pocket. Bruder Security has worked much more difficult and more complicated jobs than this one, so this should be relatively quick and painless.
My focus is jerked to the seam of the elevator doors as it arrives at the penthouse. I’m hit with the heated sensation of soft hands on my chest, touching me beneath my glamour.
A feral roar builds in my chest as the doors open. Julianna is wearing a gold dress that hugs tightly over her hips, dips in at her waist, and strains over her full breasts. Her long tanned legs are exposed high up her thigh, and she wears matching strappy gold shoes. They aren’t the ones I selected for her. When my gaze finally locks on hers, she delivers a devastating smirk, and I can’t help but think that every item she is wearing is in spite of me.
Don’t test me, baby girl.
“You’re late.” I scowl, adding several more spanks to a punishment I’ll never get to dole out.
“I’m here,” she says curtly and gives Eden a hug. “I told you I could’ve just met you at Freddy’s.”
Her brown eyes stay focused on Eden.
“We’re leavingnow.” I let out a demanding huff.
I gesture for Julianna to reenter the elevator. She takes her time, languidly making her way back in. She moves her hips with a slow, knowing swish, showing off the plunging back of her dress and the bare length of her tanned skin. There is a freckle that sits on her spine right above her tail bone. I’d first seen it when I bent her over my knee, my T-shirt riding high on her waist. My claws tingle with the need to be free of my glamour and trace along that sensitive spot.
“Is that dress for me or Freddy?” I ground out.
“Why would it be for you?” she bites back, turning to face me, missing my eyeline by a half an inch.
I clench my fists, wanting to wrap my tail around her throat and force her to meet my gaze.
“Are we going?” She casually leans back against the elevator’s handrail, the picture of composure, but I see the nervous way her hands clutch her small gold purse.
Rook and I follow her in.
If the ride down in the elevator is an icy one, the short one in the back of Rook’s black SUV is arctic. I don’t know what I expect from her. I know she won’t thank me for what I did to help her. Her pride won’t let her. But she is sitting next to me in that siren dress, smelling like every one of my fantasies, and I just want her to admit that I was right.
Instead, the only sound in the car is the atmospheric honks and beeps of the traffic outside.
When we arrive at the metal and glass rectangle that is Freddy’s building, I notice an even more incognito setup than the wrap party at the entrance. There are two guards I can see stationed inside of the lobby. Otherwise, there would be no way to tell that Hollywood’s biggest players are showing off their stolen artifacts several stories up.
The moment Rook slows the car, Julianna slides over to look out the car window, and her manicured hand is on the door handle, preparing to open the door herself.
An irritated growl crawls its way out of my throat.
“Can you really not stand being next to me so badly that you have to jump out of the car before we even stop?” I ask in a hushed tone, the heated grip I felt when I saw her step out of the elevator filling my chest. “You aren’t even going to talk to me?”
“You need my presence to get in. You don’t need my conversation.” She shifts closer to the door, popping it open an inch.
“Look at me.” I reach for her but don’t make contact. “Look at me, Julianna.”
“What?” She whips around to glare at me, the door half-open, one foot already out of the car.
“You were right to end things when you did. You distracted me. You pulled me from my purpose. That needed to end.”
She lets out a snort of a laugh. It isn’t the practiced laugh she saves for potential arrangements or the free and wild one I’d seen only a week ago. No, it is angry and harsh.
“You always tell the truth.” She shakes her head. “Can’t say you didn’t warn me. Of course, that would’ve come in handy when you decided to attack Richard.”
“I told you I take care of what is mine. And you are—weremine. You agreed to that.” I struggle to keep my voice low and the monster contained. “If you want an apology for what I did to him, you won’t get one. It had to be done.”
Her fist clenches on the door handle so when Rook arrives on the other side, he struggles to open it fully.
“Did they drop the case, Julianna?”
