Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(60)

His hand came up, a glint of metal shining in the moonlight as he tossed the Revelation my way. I reached up and caught it. The little piece of jewelry hummed in my hand.

“See, Zoey,” Daniel all but snarled at me as he advanced. “I still know how to steal.”

I placed the Revelation around my neck as I eased out from under Dev. This was obviously a conversation that required me to stand toe to toe with my husband. I scrambled out of the van before he could force me to stay inside and lose the chance to stand up to him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, Daniel?”

Neil ran up the road in wolf form. He took his place next to Chad, who absently stroked his lover’s fur. He was busy watching Daniel and shaking his head in surprise.

“What it means, baby, is it’s time for you to hang it up.” Daniel loomed over me. The trouble with going toe to toe with Danny was the crick I got in my neck from staring up at him. “Let’s talk about how you f*cked up tonight. First, you went into a situation with no intelligence whatsoever.”

I felt my face start to flush with anger. How dare he? I’d been through hell and he wanted to lecture me? “I didn’t have any intelligence because you were too busy playing politician to do your job, Danny. You had one job to do—check out that farm. But no, you got too caught up in your own plans to consider the job you were hired to do.”

“Hired? You want to treat me like a hired hand, baby, you better pony up some more cash because you pay shit for all the crap I have to do to save your ass.” Daniel looked over my shoulder toward the van. “Hey, Quinn, get out here because I have a few things to say to you.”

“Leave him alone, Danny.”

“Is he asleep? He fell asleep after getting you arrested?”

“Don’t you blame him. He fought like hell. They drugged him. We were both drugged and carried out of the B&B. We were taken to the farm after I found the Revelation. I found it, Danny, not you. I had it in my hands when those witches came for me. I might have been a little more on my guard if you had done the reconnaissance. If I’d known I was walking into a killing field, I might have taken that bitch a little more seriously.”

Daniel held me by the shoulders. “Maybe if you hadn’t been so hot to take your boyfriend on a job, you would have had adequate backup. You need to make a choice, baby. Do you want to be a pro or do you want to get a cozy house in the suburbs and start spitting out Dev’s illegitimate children?”

“Jesus,” I heard Chad sigh under his breath.

“How dare you?” I screamed because just saying it didn’t express my rage. It was welling up inside me, all the pressure and terror of the night forcing its way up like a champagne bottle begging to be uncorked. I could handle it one of two ways. I could let him hold me while I cried or I could vent that rage at him. He’d chosen path number two, and I didn’t even feel a hint of guilt for following him.

“I dare because I’m the idiot who had to watch you f*ck everything up, Zoey,” he yelled right back. “Did you think I wasn’t watching? Do you think I didn’t try to get to you? I tried to fly to you and got hit with some ultraviolet light laser shit. Damn near took my head off. I tried everything I could. I couldn’t get to you, but I saw every mistake you made, babe. You were just asking to get killed, and it was because you were going to do anything you could to save that idiot. You had a chance to run. You had a chance to get away, but you sat there with him. You let them take you.”

“I couldn’t leave him.” I knew what I should have done. Danny didn’t need to tell me.

He shook me lightly. “Yes, you could. You could have done your job, which was to get the item and get out. We could have gotten him later. You were reckless and stupid.”

He forgot so easily. “Like I was when I didn’t leave Oliver to fry you?”

“That was me, Zoey. It was different.”

“No, it wasn’t,” I said very clearly. I wasn’t thinking. He pushed my buttons and I reacted. “It wasn’t different at all.”

Daniel stopped, and if he’d taken any blood that night, it didn’t show in his face as he went stark white. “What are you trying to say, Zoey?”

I threw my hands up. I shouldn’t have gone there. I tried to backtrack. “This is why my father never worked with the same crew twice, Danny. Neither did your dad. The rules don’t apply when you care about the people you work with.”

Daniel wasn’t buying it. “That’s not what you meant, Z. I can see it in your face. I saw it when you went to him after that demon let you go. Why did he let you go, Zoey? What the hell did you promise him? Screw that. Just tell me why you didn’t run. Just say it. Say it!”

“Because I love him.” I shook a little as I said it, but he left me no choice.

Daniel’s fangs popped out, his claws lengthening. For a split second I was afraid of him, but he took his anger out on a large tree, shoving his fist clean through it. He stood there shaking with emotion, and I started to come down from my volcanic rage. It was like this between me and Danny sometimes. We pushed and pushed until something broke, and we had to put us back together. I just didn’t know how to fix it this time.

“It doesn’t change how I feel about you, Danny.” It was a stupid thing to say, but it was all I had.