Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(22)

“Yes, those angels,” I agreed. “It was horrible. The light was everywhere, and he was burning.”

“Well, he’s fine now, Zoey,” Dev said with more sympathy than I expected since we were talking about Daniel. “These angels, were they gunning for Daniel or you?”

It was a question he had to ask because I’d had fairly nasty things come after me before. He also knew that if anything wanted to come for me, it would have to get through Danny. I shook my head against the firm muscles of his chest. “Neither. I think Danny just managed to piss one of them off. It doesn’t matter. I won’t have anything to do with either of them again. I think I made myself very clear. I’m only taking straight jobs from now on. Get in, grab some stuff, and get paid.”

Dev sighed. “Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.”





Chapter Seven





When it comes to my chosen career, Tom Petty is totally correct. The waiting really is the hardest part. There’s no Monster.com for thieves. We don’t have a social network where we can put out the word we need a little green. There are several reasons for this omission in the modern world of networking, the first being thieves tend to not like one another. It’s a competitive world, and let’s face facts, thieves tend to not be really good people.

Unlike some IT guy who calls up old friends when he gets laid off, a thief is probably trying to hide from his old colleagues. I don’t know what it’s like in real-world thievery. By that I mean guys who steal paintings that don’t bring about the apocalypse or cars that aren’t inhabited by their former magical owners. The real-world guys might refer for each other every now and then. They might get together for a beer years later, but that’s not the way it tends to go in the arcane world. If your crew splits up in the arcane world, it’s probably because someone tried to screw someone else.

The idea of waiting was heavily on my mind for the whole two days I was forced to lay in my father’s guest room. Despite the success of Dev’s donation, the doctor had convinced my dad and my boyfriend that I should lay around doing nothing for a couple of days. Dev made sure I was inundated with flowers, movies, and books but refused to allow me out of bed. For a man who didn’t like vampires, he was certainly willing to listen to Alexander. Dad had tried to bar Dev from the house, but one way or another he showed up every night and climbed into bed with me, holding me to his chest and threatening me with all manner of torture if I didn’t follow doctor’s orders. Not even the promise of sex had moved him this time since he decided I was too fragile. To my father’s surprise and Neil’s delight, Dev even sent over a chef to make sure I ate well.

All of that was nice, but I really had work to do.

I needed a job. I needed to make some hard decisions about the way my life was going to go. The past seven months had been spent in a strange waiting pattern, allowing the way I felt after Sarah was taken to keep me in limbo. Dealing with the angels was a wakeup call. I couldn’t just sit around and hope for some magical solution to fall in my lap. I wasn’t giving up on the idea of saving Sarah. I just had to start living my life again. The morning after my meeting with the angels, I told my dad I wanted to work, needed to work. Daniel needed cash, and I was sure Neil had gone through most of his. I was the leader of this crew. It was my job to bring in the clients, and no one could find a job faster than Harry Wharton.

I was hoping he would find something soon as I let myself into my house the afternoon I was sprung from my comfy jail.

“So, don’t get pissed,” Neil said as he graciously held the door open for me.

“What did you do?” I prepared myself to get really pissed.

I threw myself down on the couch. Alexander had been right. I was still really tired. I tried not to think about how Daniel must feel. His wounds had been grave, ultraviolet rays being one of the only things that can really cause a vampire some serious downtime. Coupled with the fact that he’d weakened himself by trying to detox, he was taking his time healing. He was still being held in the safe room. If the doctor proclaimed him healthy, he would get out tonight. I knew I should have waited to see him, but I didn’t want to deal with it. I knew how it would go down. Daniel would feel guilty, and he would undoubtedly pull away for my safety. When he found out I needed a transfusion, well, I was just hoping he didn’t decide to leave town.

“Okay, I got tired of waiting and invited Chad to dinner,” Neil said with a look of hopeful anticipation on his face.

I let out a deep breath. Chad I could handle. “Please tell me you don’t expect me to cook, and I’ll be fine with it.”

“As if. Honey, you can barely microwave soup. I will be thrilling our audience with my amazing manicotti al forno, a spinach salad, garlic bread, and I made a raspberry cheesecake.”

“This is why I let you live with me.” My stomach rumbled at the thought.

“Let me? You couldn’t live without me.” Neil sat down on the couch next to me. He was wearing neatly pressed jeans and a lavender polo. He sat closer than I would have felt comfortable with any other male friend, but that contact was necessary to Neil, and I had come to find it soothing. I let my hand find his. “So, are you going to ask or should I just tell you and we can pretend you don’t care?”

“How is he?”