Page 79 of Amber Gambler

“Armie? Yeah. It’s hard not to when he was a fixture in our lives for so long.”

“Be careful Ankou doesn’t wield your affection for him against you. Always remember, he’s not the man you thought you knew. He’s a threat to you and your family. No matter how much you might want to see the person he showed himself to be, you must reject his attempts to rekindle your bond.”

“He used Josie in the worst way a man can use a woman. I will never forgive him for hurting her.”

The hurt his charade caused gave me strength to cut ties with what this place had meant to me. I got out and waited on Kierce before we tried the front door. Locked. No surprise there. It was a test to check if a ward or other precaution repelled me. None did. “That’s weird.”

“There’s no ward.” Kierce set off down the wide porch, past the bench seating for customers waiting for free tables on busy nights, checking every window. “Is there another entrance?”

“There’s one on the side for patrons.” I indicated it was ahead. “There’s another in back for the staff.”

A phone call caused me to hesitate, but it wasn’t like we were being quiet. I checked the ID and wished I had let it go to voicemail until I made up my mind how to field the 514’s involvement. “Hey, Carter.”

“Harrow filed for bereavement leave. Why does this have your name written all over it?”

Closing my eyes, I hated that Harrow had taken such a drastic step, but I was relieved too.

“He followed me to drop off Little. I confronted him. He put his hands on me. I made him regret it.”

“Did he hurt you?” A swift promise of vengeance swept across the connection. “Are you okay?”

Oddly enough, her rage comforted me, and I accepted I had been afraid of losing her friendship to him.

“I’m fine,” I rasped, my throat tight. “It’s nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Tell me it wasn’t about Kierce.” She backed off her growl. “Tell me he didn’t throw down with him too.”

Ahead of me, Kierce failed to hide his pride in how well I had defended myself. I didn’t have the heart to tell him if you stomped a man’s nuts, he would crack quicker than an egg tapped on the edge of a mixing bowl. I hadn’t done anything any other woman burning with righteous fury couldn’t have managed.

“There was no physical altercation between the two of them, no, but Harrow made it plain he considers Kierce the proverbial devil responsible for damning my soul.” Dramatic? A bit. But I was still spitting mad at him. “I told him not to contact me and not to show up on my doorstep either.”

“I don’t blame you.”

His actions weren’t my fault. I knew that. But it helped hearing she wasn’t going to pin his rash actions on me. Her support, and his absence, made it an easy call to confide what we had learned in her.

“You’re there now?” She sounded thoughtful. “Call me if you find something or need bail money.”

“That’s it? You don’t want me to stand down? You’re not going to burn rubber getting out here?”

“I trust you.” She chuckled. “Plus, you’ve got Kierce.”

“You really could have stopped atI trust you.”

“Woman to woman, consider this a gentle reminder not to do anything stupid.”

“You definitely could have stopped atI trust you.”

“Pay attention to your surroundings, not to me.”

The call ended, feeling like a lesson, but I heeded her advice and pocketed my phone. “Any luck?”

“The windows are locked but unwarded.” He hovered his palm above the handle on the side entrance. “It appears this one is as well.” He examined the frame and latch before setting off again. “To the back?”

“To the back.”

The rev of an engine threatened to give me acid reflux, but the car pulling in wasn’t a vintage Chevelle. It was a gleaming Lexus LC 500 in Cloudburst Gray. One I recognized from Lure. “Wait here.”

The sporty car parked beside my wagon, and six feet of incubus stepped out with a smile. “Frankie.”

---