Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(139)

This would be the time when Daniel yelled at me for insulting myself. He’d long ago stopped listening to me when I did things like bitch about my weight. He wouldn’t let anyone insult me and that included me. Louis simply knelt down beside me. “Non, non, mon ange. Tu es pour moi la plus belle. You are beautiful. Did I not prove how much I love your body tonight?”

“I know. It’s just the other women. They can be mean.”

“Then you must have your beautiful clothes,” he replied, clucking. “But Zoey, I can’t send you out into the city. Donovan is watching.”

I thought for a moment, even though I knew exactly what I was going to say next. I bit my bottom lip like I was thinking really hard. I finally smiled as if I’d come up with the best idea ever. “I could order them off the Internet.”

He sighed and I knew I had him. “Zoey, I will know if you have tried anything.”

I smiled brightly and threw my arms around his neck. “I promise, Louis. I’ll just play around in the good websites. Neiman’s and Nordstrom and Harrod’s! I think Mark Jacobs has a new collection coming out. Neil can help me. He knows what looks good on me. Oh, I’m so excited. Can I start this afternoon?”

He pulled away slightly. “Perhaps you should wait until I’m awake.”

“Oh, so you want to spend your time with me picking out clothes?” I asked, giggling like a f*cking idiot. “I think you’d rather take them off me, Louis. If Niles and Elof let us have any time at all.”

His face darkened. “I am still their master, Zoey. They will obey me. Fine. But if I find you’ve done anything you shouldn’t…”

“Are you going to spank me, Louis?” I asked with a little smile. “I warn you, I might like it.”

“God, Zoey, you’re going to drive me crazy. I’ve never met anyone like you. Go. It’s almost dawn and I need to get to my resting place. Don’t ask me where it is. It’s better you don’t know.” He released me and walked over to his dresser. He pulled out two things, a Visa and a set of keys. “If you look in the top drawer of my desk, you’ll find the address of a hotel in the city where I keep a suite. Have your packages sent there and I will send someone to collect them. Zoey, don’t break me, darling. We’re in the middle of a war.”

“I promise nothing,” I said with a smile. I kissed the bastard and walked to the door where Trent would be waiting.

“I’ll see you soon, mon ange,” Louis said and the poor man looked love-sick.

I left his bedroom with the keys to Daniel’s salvation firmly in my hands.





Chapter Thirty-Four





Neil was pacing the floor wearing nothing but a pair of sweat pants and an overly large T-shirt when I slipped into the room. It took him a minute to realize I was with him, and I used that moment to study my best friend. He seemed…older, slightly harder. I couldn’t have explained it if I had to, but I knew Neil was different.

When he turned his eyes to me I saw that he’d been crying. “Is it true?”

I didn’t pretend to not know what he was talking about. I knew he’d heard everything Marini had said to me? including the fact that I blamed him for Dev’s death. I felt the tears that were always there, just on the edge of my eyes, begin to seep out. “Yes.”

Neil’s mouth dropped open and he held his head in his hands. “Why? Why would Marini kill Dev? What the hell does he get out of it? Oh, god, how can Dev be dead?”

“I can’t quite believe it either.” I did what I did when I thought about Dev now. I breathed. I lived. My heart felt like it would stop, but I made sure it kept beating. It had seemed a distant reality while I was working, and that was what I thought of spending time with Marini, but it all rushed back in now. “I keep expecting to run into him as I walk down a hallway. He’ll grab my ass and pull me into an alcove to have his way with me.”

Neil slumped down onto the sofa. There was a plate of food on the table but he hadn’t eaten much of it. If I hadn’t already known something was wrong, that would have been a huge clue. “I knew the minute I figured out you were down here that Lee was dead. He wouldn’t have let them take you. He would have fought to the death to keep you out of here, and he wouldn’t have retreated, even though it probably was the smartest play. I knew when I caught your scent here that they’d killed him but…I thought Marini would want to keep Dev around.”

“He did.” I hesitated because I knew the next few minutes would be some of the worst minutes of my best friend’s life, and now I was very unsure I wanted to be the one to tell him. “It was a stupid ruse to trap Marcus. He’s in a silver-draped coffin god knows where.”

“So how did Dev die? Was it an accident?”

“It wasn’t an accident. He was murdered.” I couldn’t quite make myself form the words that would shatter his world but he was a smart boy. He knew there was only one name I wouldn’t just toss out there as truth.

“No,” he said resolutely. “No. It wasn’t Chad. He wouldn’t do that, Zoey. I know he seems crazy but he’s harmless. I know him.”

“I watched him do it, Neil.” I had to tell him the truth. I couldn’t risk Neil trusting Chad. Who knew when Chad might decide he needed another person in that body of his? “He drained Dev and then he tossed his body on Danny’s doorstep. I watched it happen.”