Gypsy Freak (All The Pretty Monsters #2)(16)

“She will hear you,” he says in a chastising tone.

“For fuck’s sake, she stole my car ages ago.”

He glances out the window, his lips twitching as he looks down.

“Well, that means she’s racing home to lock her windows and doors, possibly nail the things shut,” he quips.

I hesitate, wondering if I should end this maddening argument when I’m so close to winning, or if I should hurry over there before it’s too late to save myself a window or two.

I point a finger at him. “This isn’t over,” I warn as I start walking out. “I’m right. You’re the one who fucked up this time, and I’m not the one in the wrong. For once in our fucking lives, I’m right and you’re positively wrong, and there’s no real argument to the contrary.”

He narrows his eyes. “If you think she’s deliberately fucking with us, why are you in a hurry to get over there?”

I grin. “Because I positively love that in a woman.”

I turn and hurry out, and I decide to steal one of his cars—but the damn horns start blaring, and alarms start wailing, so I end up cursing and flipping him off when I see his silhouette above.

“Get the fuck out of my house before I get back, or you’ll be in breach of contract,” I call up to him.

Then I drape myself in illusion and sprint to Violet’s. My run turns into a slow jog, as I eye the work truck in her driveway with the Louisiana plate.

My brow furrows when I glance over at my vehicle, and I groan when I see all the streaks of paint missing down the sides of it. She keyed my fucking car?

I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t anticipate that.

Scrubbing a hand over my jaw, I turn and walk toward one window, and pause when I see a short, stocky, slightly balding, middle-aged man with a salt-and-pepper beard to match the color of what very little hair he has left.

Violet is sitting across from him, still—for whatever reason—wearing Vance’s sheet, and drinking what appears to be tea.

Sure.

It…makes no sense at all.

Sighing, I turn and start climbing up the side of her house, wondering if she’s thought about the attic’s non-working bathroom window, but find an easier-to-access unlocked window on the second floor.

However, when I reach my hand in, it feels like a jolt of electricity shocks me. Wrenching my hand back, I barely bloody stop myself from falling, and I stare in disbelief at the perplexing enigma. Nothing seems to be the cause of whatever that was.

Deciding it was a fluke, I shove my hand into the window again, only to be zapped even harder.

Pain is usually easy to tolerate, but the jolt of this has me reflexively leaping back, and I…fall. Flat on my damn back.

A burst of air is forced out of my lungs, and I groan for a second as the back door opens in front of where I’ve landed.

Toga Violet just stares down at me like she’s not even surprised to find me wallowing on the cold snow outside her door.

“Now is really, really not a good—”

“Violet, who’s here?” the man asks from somewhere behind her.

“Someone picking up a vehicle I borrowed, Dad,” she says with a straight face, arching an eyebrow as if to challenge me.

“Your dad is here? I always wondered what kind of man bedded a fireball, bitter little thing like Marta. Can I meet him?” I ask with a grin. “Invite me in. Introduce—”

She slams the door in my face, and my smile falls. That was rude. Maybe the comment about her mom was a bit too much.

I knock on the door, and she immediately opens it, stepping out and pushing me back, while shutting the door behind her.

“What will it take to make you go away right now?” she hisses, shivering in the cold with nothing on but her toga and some ugly shoes.

Pulling off my jacket, I answer her. “We never had our lunch,” I remind her with a smile, while also putting my jacket over her shoulders.

She may hate me a little, but she’s smart enough to take warmth in all forms.

“You watched me have sex. Consider that your damn lunch, because that’s far more than you’ll ever see again unless you want to get stabbed.”

“I already explained that I thought—”

“What will it take to get you to go away?” she asks again, feigning patience.

“Right now there’s a vampire I really don’t trust, who is already entirely too fascinated and enthralled by you. Remember how wise it would be to have powerful monsters as allies right now, Violet.”

“Now you’re threatening me?” she asks incredulously.

“Hell no,” I say on an exasperated groan. “I’m extending friendship. It seems you keep an open mind with friends, and I really, really enjoy an open mind.”

“So you want friendship after watching me have sex, because you think that will somehow lead to sex with us as well, and you’re extorting me while my father is inside?” she hisses.

She makes this sound like a bad thing…which forces me to pause…for half a second.

“Sex is…much different with me, given the conversation we had…that you forgot…that I made you remember earlier.”

She blinks, seeming confused for a second, and then narrows her eyes. “That’s not an answer to my question.”