Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(69)

“No, Z,” Daniel replied, his voice sleepy as he pushed my hands away. “That one is your responsibility.”

Dev groaned, and I felt him sort of half sit up so he could get a look at whoever was invading our room. He glanced at the clock and then rolled over. “Neil, it’s only one. It’s hours and hours until we need to be up. What are you doing?”

Neil didn’t stop pulling me inexorably toward the end of the bed. “Need to talk to Z. You two feel free to sleep away the afternoon.”

“No,” I whined because it wasn’t fair. They’d kept me up forever. “Sleep.”

“No more sleep for you,” Neil vowed. “Lee sent me. He wants to talk to you. Naturally after the events of last night, he knew you would be all naked and stuff, so he sent me, who is not at all disturbed by nakedness. I was looking forward to it because it meant the boys would be naked, too.”

Daniel’s blue eyes opened as he realized I was clutching the covers and it was uncovering him. He frowned at me and snagged the sheet from my hand, which sent me a good foot in Neil’s direction.

“Your wolves, Z.” Daniel was immovable on the subject. “We offered to find you more amenable guards but no, you had to have hard-case Lee, who sends Neil in to drag your ass out of bed.”

Dev pulled a pillow over his head to shut out the noise. Neither was going to be any help. It was just like a man. They would defend you to the death before the sex but after they just wanted to sleep.

“Come on, Z,” Neil was saying as my ankles left the warm confines of the bed. Ankles were followed by legs and I gave up the fight. “Lee says the coffee is really good.”

“Coffee?” I asked, though I was sure my voice was muffled because my head was still under the covers.

“I have a mug waiting in the bathroom,” Neil promised. “You can drink it while we scrub you down with really hot water. You need it, Z. This place smells like a brothel.”

I forcefully shoved the covers back and tried to climb out of bed more gracefully than Neil’s plan for my exit. I scrambled over Daniel, not caring that he got an elbow to the stomach.

“Damn it, Z,” he cursed, reaching down to pull the covers back up. “Dev, roll over or you’re going to be cold.”

Dev moved his body, bringing himself closer to Daniel. He rested his head down, just barely touching Daniel’s shoulder. He closed his eyes again, and they looked so gorgeous there together.

I stood up and saw Neil staring at them, his eyes wide.

“They’re just cold,” I replied, walking into the bathroom even as I heard Dev start to snore lightly. Neil was my best friend, but I was holding last night close to my heart for a while.

“I doubt that, Z, but we have other things to talk about. Less fun things. Less superhot dudes getting it on things, and that makes me sad.”

The shower was already on, and Neil had pulled out clothes for me. I opened the door to the shower after a long gulp of some really good coffee. “What’s with all the help?”

Neil shrugged. “That Diana woman asked if I was your Lad in Waiting. I thought it sounded like fun. She explained it was like a body servant.”

“These Brits take the whole queen business very seriously,” I commented as I washed away last night’s overindulgences. “Bris is back.”

“Yeah, we got that. All the houseplants grew like three feet and then there was that lust magic that never seems to stay contained in your little room. I’m getting a T-shirt, Z. Secondhand lust can be hazardous to your health.”

I cringed a little. That magic really could be hazardous. If you weren’t ready for it, there could be some serious morning-after regret the next day. “How pissed off is Lee?”

“We went pub crawling when he realized what was happening,” Neil explained. “He drank a lot of beer and charged it all to Dev. I think he’s okay with it.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Lee would have been super pissed if he’d found himself in bed with some stranger because he got caught up in Dev’s lust magic. “So if Lee isn’t pissed off, why did he feel the need to drag me out of bed?”

Neil lit up a little. “We thought you might like a chance to ask our Aussie friend some questions before Daniel gets a hold of him and all he can do is cry and pee himself. Zack’s out running errands, so the timing is perfect.”

I took the towel he offered me and smiled brightly. No one ever let me ask questions. “That is a brilliant idea.”

“Lee has noted in the past that you get left completely out of interrogations even though it’s usually your butt on the line,” Neil explained as I started getting dressed. “Who would have guessed he would be a champion of women’s rights?”

“Or he just wants to piss off Daniel and Dev because he got his ass shot again yesterday.”

“He doesn’t like that,” Neil agreed. “Either way, I think it’ll be fun.”

I concurred and proceeded to get ready for my stint as badass interrogator.





I peered into the small room in the basement and wondered exactly what Hugo Wells was into. The basement of the townhouse contained three small rooms, each with steel reinforced doors and small bars over the little windows in the doors. On the wall opposite the rooms was an arsenal. Guns covered the stone siding along with long lengths of silver chains. Off in a corner was a coffin, and I knew what it was reinforced with. Silver was the only way to go when one wanted to keep a vampire under control.