He almost fell down the stairs. “It does now.”
Emilie was making another pot of coffee in the very slow coffee maker that night when Gavin and Chloe finally arrived. Ben wasn’t even going to touch all the unspoken vibes bouncing between them. He didn’t want to know. Gavin was being aloof. Chloe was being perky. Perky Chloe meant she was deliberately ignoring something, but again…
He wasn’t going to touch it.
Not my business.
The one who was his business landed in the roof garden a little past ten, walking back into the apartment as if she’d never left. Tenzin glanced at Ben, looked over at Emilie, then nodded and climbed up to her loft.
Emilie noticed Tenzin walking in. “How did she…?” She glanced at the front door, then the garden doors. “I missed something.”
“Stairs outside,” Chloe said smoothly. “Emilie, do you think the coffee is ready yet?”
Emilie cleared the frown from her forehead and said, “Uh, sure. Let me get you a cup.”
“Thanks so much.” Chloe leaned over the plans Gavin had spread over the library table.
Did Ben notice a new ease between them? Probably, but he wasn’t asking any questions.
Definitely not my business.
“This is the room,” she said. “Think about it. We searched this library off the main hallway, then went into this room, which was like a…”
“Billiard room,” Gavin said, reaching across the table to take the cup of coffee Emilie held. He set it down in front of Chloe. “We went from there to… here.” He pointed at a room on the blueprints. “But this room was far, far bigger.”
“I think they just combined them,” Chloe said. “Look, if they took out this wall, it would be the approximate size—”
“Clever girl,” he said. “You’re correct. They took out this wall and made these two bedrooms into one larger room. We jumped across that hall and into the bedroom with the painting.”
Ben noticed where they were pointing in relation to the plan he was forming in his mind. “This bedroom—the expanded one—did it look occupied?”
Chloe shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Good.”
Emilie leaned over the table. “I feel like I’m in a movie,” she said with a grin. “What are we planning?”
“We are planning nothing,” Gavin said. “I cannot be involved in this step at all. In fact, Chloe and I are going to have to create a plausible alibi for whenever Ben and Tenzin… do what they do.”
Chloe looked up. “We need an alibi?”
“We’ve already been seen snooping around the house,” Gavin said. “In that particular room, no less. If anything is stolen from it, the O’Briens will look at me first unless I can give them reason to dismiss me.” Gavin glanced at Ben. “My favors only go so far. I’m not willing to anger the O’Briens to steal a painting when I’m not making a profit.”
Chloe frowned. “So if you were making a profit?”
Gavin raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “An entirely hypothetical scenario. I’m a legitimate businessman.”
Tenzin climbed down the ladder, still playing human for Emilie. “For now. What did we decide?”
Ben tapped his chin. “We need to know more about this ‘Lady.’”
Emilie asked, “Why? Does it matter? She has my grandmother’s painting.”
“We need to know more so we can lure her away from the house,” Tenzin said.
Ben looked at Gavin. “She was at your pub.”
“One of thousands,” Gavin said. “You expect me to know the particulars of every single patron?”
Ben gave him a look, and Gavin smiled.
“All right. You win. She’s not one of thousands. Cormac sent her an introduction.”
Emilie frowned. “So she could go to your pub?”
Ben hesitated. They really needed to get Emilie away if they had any chance of strategizing openly. It would be impossible to organize an operation with Tenzin without talking about flying. Emilie wasn’t ready for that. Ben wasn’t ready to tell her.
“Hey, Emilie?” Chloe looked at her watch. “I’m borrowing Ben’s car tonight to run an errand in Harlem. Did you want me to drop you at home while I’m heading up there? It’s not that much farther.”
Bless you, Chloe.
But Emilie wasn’t an idiot. She turned to Ben. “Trying to get rid of me?”
He opened his mouth, but Tenzin was the one who answered.
“We need to plan, and you need plausible deniability,” she said. “On the off chance anything goes wrong, you can honestly say you didn’t know anything about what we’re doing. It’s not just you.” Tenzin nodded at Chloe and Gavin. “We’re kicking them out too.”
Gavin turned. “You think so?”
“I know so,” Tenzin said. She rolled up the map. “You’ve done your part. Chloe, are you comfortable staying at Gavin’s house for a few more nights until this is all settled?”
A look passed between Gavin and Chloe that Ben couldn’t read.
“Yeah,” Chloe said quietly. “Sure.”
“And thank you, Tenzin, for offering my house,” Gavin said. “That does seem to be a habit with your group of friends, doesn’t it?”
Tenzin shrugged. “Don’t have houses in convenient places then. Or decorate worse.”
Chloe said, “If I’m intruding—”
“Of course you’re not.” Gavin cut her off. “I told you earlier that you’re welcome to stay as long as you like. And tomorrow night you’re starting work at the pub. If you’re staying with me, I can give you a lift.”
Chloe opened her mouth to protest, but Gavin cut her off before she could argue.
“They have their plans,” he said. “I have mine. We need an alibi, and the pub will provide it. I’ll tell you more in the car when we’re taking Emilie home.” He cocked his arm in Emilie’s direction. “Shall we?”
Emilie glanced at Ben. “Can you… uh, help me get my stuff together downstairs?”
“Of course.” He took her hand and led her away from the others. He stepped down two stairs and paused while she hopped on his back with a giggle. “I wish you didn’t have to go, but…”
“I get it.” She kissed his neck. “Is it wrong that I’m so excited about this? I’m sending you to commit a crime.”
“It’s not a crime when the painting belongs to you in the first place.” He reached his bedroom door and kicked it open. “Whoever this woman is, she either stole it herself or bought it from someone who did. There’s a reason it’s not displayed with the others. She knows it doesn’t belong to her.”
Emilie slid off his back and walked around the room, picking up her few things that were scattered around. Dress. Earrings. He tossed her the lacy bra sitting on an end table.
“I’m going to miss you,” he said.
She smiled. “I’m just heading uptown.”
“I know, but it was kind of nice having an Emilie all to myself for the day.”
She paused, looking at the ground. “I wish…”
Ben stepped closer. “What?”
Emilie shook her head. “Nothing. Being silly. I better get home. My grandmother will be wondering at this point.” She held out her things. “I don’t suppose you have a bag I could borrow?”
He went to the closet and brought out a backpack. “Don’t tell your grandparents anything at this point. I’m not sure what our timeline is, but it could be a while, depending on what we need to do.”
She nodded as she folded her dress and placed it in the backpack along with a few other things. “Tell Chloe I’ll get her stuff back to her soon.”
“I wouldn’t worry. She’s got a ton of clothes.”
“Still.”
“Hey.” He tapped her chin to make her look up. “Everything all right?”
Her eyes were wide. “Yeah. I just wish I could stay longer.”
“When this is all over, we should plan a weekend away. Maybe go upstate or down south. Somewh
ere out of the city.”
She smiled. “That sounds nice. I have a brother who lives in Savannah.”
“You have a brother?” He frowned. He didn’t remember her mentioning a brother.
“Not really.” Her cheeks went red. “He’s one of those friends that feels like a brother. We knew each other in school. It’s not important.” She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. “I guess this is goodbye.”
“For now.” He wrapped an arm around her and lifted her up to deepen the kiss. Their tongues danced in new familiarity. She put her hand on his cheek and sighed, releasing a breathy moan against his lips.
“I could kiss you for hours.”
Ben nipped at her bottom lip. “Soon.” Reluctantly, he set her down and grabbed the backpack and her hand. Leading her upstairs, he thought about what it might be like to have her in the apartment. What if he told her the whole truth? Would she react as well as Chloe? It was too soon—way too soon. But he couldn’t help but let his mind wander ahead.
Ben kissed her goodbye at the door, leaving her in Chloe and Gavin’s care. When he turned around, Tenzin was stretched out in the air, hovering over the map of Rothman House, staring at the blueprints.
They both spoke at the same time. “I have a plan.”
“That won’t work,” she said.
“Why not? You can carry that much weight, can’t you?”
“Of course I can.” Tenzin munched on a small bowl of almonds. “It’s not the weight. If it’s framed like the others, it’s probably no more than a hundred pounds. The weight isn’t the issue. It’s the size.”
“They moved it into the house. It has to be small enough to get out. The dimensions aren’t—”
“The dimensions aren’t small enough for me to fly it off the top of the roof without anyone noticing.” She stood and leaned over the blueprints. “You’re right. The problem isn’t getting in, it’s getting the painting out. That said, just getting it up to the roof and flying away isn’t an option. This is not a piece of jewelry or a Fabergé egg. I can’t just—”
“A Fabergé egg?”
Tenzin looked up. “What?”
“Do you have a Fabergé egg?”
Her eyes darted away. “Maybe.”
“Maybe? You’re not going to give me a straight answer about a Fabergé egg?”
Tenzin opened her mouth. “Uh… no.” She looked back down. “It’s a guest house, so the security isn’t top-notch, but the O’Briens do have wind vampires patrolling the roof. They’ll notice another wind vampire. Especially one trying to take off with a large painting. The dimensions are awkward.”
“You are maddening.” He sat down and crossed his arms. “Fine. The roof is not an option. There’s no way to sneak it out the front door. The back is guarded more heavily than the front. So none of my ideas—”
“Who says we can’t take it out the front door?”
Ben frowned. “They’re big doors, Tenzin, but I do think the staff will notice someone walking out with a giant piece of art.”
“Of course they will,” she said. “But if we do this right, not only will they let us in the front door, they’ll help us carry the painting out.”
Three days later, Gavin called Ben.
“I have an in,” he said. “She’s a wine collector.”
“And you sell whiskey.”
Gavin made a small huffing sound on the other end of the line. “I’m a multifaceted creature, Benjamin. I have a wine cellar that rivals the finest in Paris. I also happen to have just obtained a case of 1980 La Romanée-Conti.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“It would if you collected wine.” Gavin’s voice lowered. “I’m dropping hints and massaging egos at the moment. This woman is… eccentric. Not mad like yours, mind you, but a definite eccentric. I can tell Cormac is getting fed up with her, but her reputation in France can’t be ignored.”
“What is she?”
“She’s a patron. One of her sycophants called her a muse, if you can believe it. She’s rich and she funds new businesses, supports artists, has some winemaking enterprises here and there. Supposedly she’s working with a partner on a blood-wine that will blow all current competitors out of the water, so everyone is pandering.”
“Have you ever heard of this woman before?”
“That’s part of the mystique. She’s a shadow. No one even knows her name. Everyone, even that grumpy Irish bastard, calls her the Lady.”
Ben tried to imagine Cormac O’Brien deferring to a French aristocrat and almost burst out laughing.
“Is she an earth vampire?”
“No,” Gavin said. “Wind like me. At least that’s the rumor. I’ve never seen her fly.”
“Damn.” Wind vampires tended toward paranoia, which meant her rooms at Rothman House might have been reinforced. “Gavin, have you apologized for trespassing at the party?”
“Not yet, but I let Cormac know I’d like to. Simple mistake. Carried away by bloodlust. The usual excuses. Cormac doesn’t seem overly offended, but that’s where the wine comes in.”
“How?”
“I’m trying to arrange a tasting for her,” Gavin said. “Dinner and a couple of bottles of the 1980 La Romanée-Conti as an apology for trespassing on her territory. I figure a reasonable promise of groveling and ten-thousand-dollar wine should lure her out of the house. I can’t give you an exact night though. Does your… activity contain a certain margin for flexibility?”
“It will if it needs to.”
“Good.”
Ben cleared his throat. “How’s Chloe doing?”
“She’s fantastic. I’d say she was born to sell drinks, but that would insult her dancing.”
Chloe had been staying at Gavin’s for the past four nights, but she still came over during the day to grab things and practice with Tenzin. She didn’t share a whit of what she and Gavin were up to—if they were up to anything—but she seemed happy and content to stay at the vampire’s place for a while.
Gavin did have an enormous house. It was possible he was simply being a benevolent host with no ulterior motive.
Possible. Not probable.
“Be careful with her,” Ben said quietly.
Gavin paused at the other end of the line. “I’ll leave that alone and try not to be offended you said it. I know she’s important to you. She’s brilliant at the bar and doing extremely well. Most of my servers are a bit younger, and she’s a natural leader. I can see her managing very quickly if it suits her plans.”
“Don’t get too attached. Tenzin is already bitching that she’s not always around.”
“Well, Chloe disna belong to Tenzin, does she?” Gavin growled. “She’s an assistant, not a bloody servant.”
Ben’s eyebrows went up at the hostility in Gavin’s tone. “Fine. I’ll pass along the message. And you pass along whenever you get word from Her Lady of Eccentricity, okay?”
“Done. I’d like this finished as quickly and as cleanly as possible.”
“Trust me. I feel exactly the same way.”
20
Chloe wiped down the bar, absently watching the door for any sign of Gavin. While she cleaned, she poured drinks and kept an eye on the younger servers at the Bat and Barrel. It was the nicest pub she’d ever worked at, and she enjoyed herself. The patrons were far more civilized than she expected.
Most nights seemed to swing about half and half between vampires and humans. More humans earlier in the evening. More vampires later. Gavin had told her the pub was a mecca and neutral ground for “day people” like herself. Humans who worked in the vampire world could come and be among others like themselves. Vampires traveling through town could get a safe and easy drink from one of the servers with a red pin on their collar, and everyone could taste the finest whiskeys and wines.
No arguments. No sketchy dealings. Absolutely no violence.
Yep, pretty much the most mellow place Chloe had ever worked, including the family-owned Italian
place in Little Italy.
Gavin walked through the door dressed in an impeccable grey suit. Since he’d left the house that evening wearing a concert tee and a kilt that made her mouth water, she knew something was up.
“Hi,” she said as Gavin approached the bar. “That’s a fancy suit. What’s up?”
“The wine tasting for Cormac and our French guest is at midnight,” he said in a low voice. “You might want to call your roommates and let them know you’ll be late.”
“Aren’t you my roommate now?”
His eyebrow lifted. “Have you decided to take me up on my offer?”
Chloe’s cheeks heated. “No.”
“You mean not yet?”
“Gavin—”
“Call please.” He lifted her hand and kissed the knuckles. “For me, dove. I have to prepare the cellar tasting room and contact the chef.”
“You got it.”
Gavin backed away. “So you like the suit?”
She shrugged. “I liked the kilt better.”
His smile was wicked. “They always do.”
She raised a hand and flicked her fingers away in an irritated gesture, but she couldn’t stop the smile on her face.
Chloe noticed other servers glancing at them. She knew the other employees assumed that she’d formed some kind of relationship with Gavin, but she didn’t really care. They could think whatever they wanted. And since they thought she was with Gavin, no one—human or vampire—hit on her, which was a relief.
She pulled out her phone and called Ben, conscious of the many ears at the bar.
“Hey, Chloe. What’s up?”
“I think I’m going to be late tonight.”
Ben fell immediately silent.
“Going to be helping Gavin with a wine tasting,” Chloe said quietly. “Supposed to be around midnight. So… yeah. I’ll probably be late. You might want to go ahead without me.”
“Understood,” Ben said. “They’re supposed to be there at midnight?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Thanks, Chloe.”
“No problem. I’ll see you later.”
She hung up and slid her phone in her apron. Then she turned to the young female vampire who’d sat down at the bar. “Can I help you?”