Page 119 of The Thief

Once inside, I switched off the lights and strolled down the hall to set the alarm. Then I ventured to the main room and fished my keys out of a drawer behind the bar. The silence was a stark contrast to the day’s rowdy atmosphere. Calvin said he sometimes arrived at the bar before sunrise, so we’d decided not to bother unplugging the neon lights after-hours.

I lifted the bar gate and bent down to pick up a peanut that missed my thorough sweep. This was a night to remember, and I kept replaying all the wonderful moments in my head. Melody was especially in my thoughts, and I hoped she and Lakota would have a long talk tonight in the privacy of their bedroom.

When I stood upright, I jumped at someone standing by the door. It wasn’t Bear.

Argento didn’t have on a coat, but he still dressed out of style in a double-breasted black vest with a blue damask pattern. Wearing a long-sleeved shirt and gloves in the middle of a Texas summer wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.

Entering the opposite side of the bar area, Argento gazed at bottles shelved on the wall. He pulled out an expensive one and examined the label. “I noticed the business you drew in today. You must have made quite a fortune.”

Meanwhile, my brain was scrambling for a plan. Calvin had stunners but kept them in a drawer in his office, which he sometimes locked.

Bear was probably still out back, and I’d already locked the steel door.

Argento hurled the bottle across the bar, and it smashed on the hardwood floor. Then another. And another.

“Stop this,” I demanded, fed up with his failed attempt to scare me. “You’re acting like a toddler.”

“Does your boss take his money home or keep it in a safe? Where might that safe be?” He pitched another bottle across the room, glass breaking. “Are you in charge of his money? Of course you are. You cannot escape your true self. Deep down, you know this to be true.” He hurled a bottle at me, but it broke against the hard floor.

I glanced over my shoulder. The neck had broken off and could be used as a weapon, so I made a wild lunge.

Argento gripped the back of my shirt, slammed me against the bar, and shoved my face into the smooth wood. “Do not trifle with me, Shifter. You’re alive, so you still have a chance to make this right. Now pour me a drink of your most expensive alcohol. It is time we settle this.” He let go and casually dusted off his vest. “I am finished waiting. You were such a clever thief. If you hadn’t betrayed me, I would have made you so much more money. Perhaps even more power than you dreamed. But you are at fault.”

I knelt in front of the barred safe that held the Wild Rabbit. It wasn’t locked, but I put my finger over the scanner and pretended anyhow.

You want a drink? I’ll give you a drink.

This might be the best or worst decision of my life. I couldn’t predict how a Sensor-spiked drink might alter his behavior, but it might slow him down for a minute—long enough for me to grab the stunner.

With a steady hand, I poured him a glass.

“What is this green swill?” He removed a glove and tucked it in his pants pocket.

I slid the glass his way. “You wanted our most expensive drink. Why else do you think we keep it locked in a safe? It’s absinthe made by ancient Relics,” I said, fabricating a story to convince him. “There are only three bottles in existence, and this is one of them. My boss may not look like much, but he has a lot of interesting friends. If you want to take the bottle and call it even, I’d be fine with that. You could make a fortune selling this.”

He chuckled darkly, and the way the neon sign cast a red hue on his hair, he looked like Satan. Argento lifted the glass and sniffed. “I’d rather have what you stole from me.”

I backed up a few steps. “Don’t you think if I had something worth money, I’d be living a better life than slinging beer in some hick town? Does that make sense to you?”

“Nothing about you ever made sense,” he said as he brought the glass to his lips.

I rubbed my forehead, attempting to look more exhausted than I felt, what with a gallon of adrenaline shooting through my veins like a bullet train. “I want a simple life. Maybe that makes little sense to a man who drives a luxury car and dresses like a sixteenth-century baron, but money doesn’t matter to me.”

Argento laughed and lowered his glass. “If that is the case, why work at all? Why not let your alpha take care of you like a helpless infant? Isn’t that what they do in packs?”

I kicked broken glass out of the way, inching closer toward the swing doors. “Because I get bored sitting around the house. But do you really think I’m making a ton of cash in a small-town bar?”

“Show me his accounting books, and then I’ll give you my answer. You are always cooking up plans in that head of yours.”

“Is this how you want to spend your life?” I took another step back. “You don’t look like a man hurting for money. You could buy a nice house in Tuscany and make more progeny if you wanted to. Heck, buy your own island. I honestly don’t remember anything about our relationship and what you meant to me—if anything.” I watched him staring at his glass. “Maybe I wanted your approval because my parents were awful and I needed someone to believe in me. Don’t you ever wish you could do things over? What would you change about yourself or your life if you could?”

His expression grew stony, and he knocked the drink back and slammed the empty glass on the counter. “I would never have trusted a woman. I would have forced you to tell me what you found and then bashed your skull in.”

Argento’s eyes suddenly glazed over like one of Bear’s cinnamon rolls.

I spun around and made a break for it but not before a shard of glass sliced through my sneaker. Pushing through the swing doors, I limped down the hall, the glass still wedged in my shoe.

Before I could open Calvin’s office door, Argento flashed toward me. A blast of energy ripped through my body like electric fire and knocked me down.

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