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“I thought so. Jac…”
Sighing, I trace a finger down her spine, and she shudders. “Don’t.”
“MG—”
She rolls her shoulders to push my touch away.
“We’ll get to see them,” I assure her.
“No, you pushed his buttons wrong.”
I did, didn’t I? I like to think of it as a talent of mine, really. Pissing him off.
Thinking, I tap my hand on the seat beside me, behind her back, where she now sits. “This museum… Did it say shit about a reward?”
She nods. “And it’ll look good for whoever hands them over. Good press is good press, even for the Quinate.”
“He’ll never let me have them.” I look at her. “But what if he can’t have them either?”
“I don’t know,” she says, “This is—” She stops as her phone starts to vibrate, and she pulls it out. Holds a finger to her lips as she shows me the name on the screen. MG answers and hits speaker. “Hendrick.”
“What are you playing at, Cat?”
I can hear his annoyed words, even without it being on speaker.
“Nothing.”
He’s silent a moment and then he says, “Jac’ll never stop coming for them. I don’t care about them, per se, but they’re not his.”
She slaps a hand over my mouth before I can speak.
“He thinks they’re his and not yours.” She looks at the phone. “Are you going to come to Harry’s?”
“No.” Hendrick says something that’s muffled, and I’m sure the ass is working while he’s talking. “I’m tired, Cat. Of all the bullshit. The glares, the hate, all of it. I just—it doesn’t matter what I want. But what you gave us? I checked out the museum, it’s legit, maybe some good publicity will be nice, and if they have it, then part of the fight will be done. And Jac…”
“So you’ll come by?”
“Lili loved Jac, and he loved her. I told you he devoted his happiness, his life, to keeping her safe. He’s a fuckwit, but maybe this will let him move on? I’ll call him, and you and your friend come by tomorrow at ten. You know where. Downtown.”
“Done.”
He hangs up, and I frown at her phone like it holds answers. Maybe he did love Lili. Like,loveher, love her. Smart MG seems to think so, and it twists something inside me, the way she looked when he said all that.
What he said about me—not the fuckwit part, but about how I tried to keep Lili safe, how he wants me to move on—it shifts things. Makes them hurt, feel thin like spun glass.
Of course, it could all be Hendrick working on winning points.
“You can let me out here,” she says.
I press a button, and when we pull over, I think we’re uptown somewhere. I haven’t paid attention through the tinted windows.
As she reaches for the door, she leans over and kisses me. “Until tomorrow, Jac.”
Then she gets out, and again, I’m alone, left to sit in the aftershock of her presence. So, I sit back, close my eyes, and wait for Hendrick’s call.
* * *
The tingling in my spine has nothing to do with MG, and everything to do with the necklace that I’m holding.
