Page 30 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

“You’re odd,” Joe responded helpfully. He went back to his meal, though he kept half an eye on Molly as he ate. “I can’tbelieve they wouldn’t take fifty thousand for her. And I can’t believe you offered it.”

Percy shrugged. “We got a lot of money for stealing that Edvard Munch.”

“You think the buyer will be satisfied?”

“I do. You saw. My artist’s fake is just as good as the real one.”

Perhaps Joe shouldn’t have been surprised, by that time, that Percy had a regular professional forger on hand, but he still was. “You always have an artist for this sort of thing?”

Percy put his glass down excitedly. “Lakshmi. She’s absolutely gorgeous. She’s a proper criminal, and there isn’t a thing she can’t do. I’m in awe of her, truth be told. I could tell you of half a dozen paintings on display in prominent galleries right now that are hers. She’s never dropped the ball on me once. Absolutely trustworthy, and a complete gem.” He went back to his steak, a pleased gleam in his eyes.

“Hm.” Joe ate. Joe drank. Joe couldn’t bite his tongue. “And she’s just a professional associate? Nothing more?”

Percy looked up brightly. “She is.”

“A ‘gorgeous’ professional associate?”

“Well… I don’t mean…” Five fingers tapped across the table. “I meant it in a—a gorgeous personality sort of way.”

Joe studied him. Too carefully. “Butisshe gorgeous?”

“Gorgeous on the inside.” Percy smiled. He wasn’t giving an inch.

“And that woman tonight? Debbie, was it?”

The pleased gleam in Percy’s eyes morphed into tired patience. “That was a one time only thing. And she knew that before we got into anything, so she really has no right to be upset with me.”

Joe’s cheek ticked with irritation. “Must have been memorable.”

Percy let the comment go.

Joe did not let Percy’s silence go. “You did say we were done with secrets.”

“Are you sure you want that?” Percy sliced the meat slowly, and he kept his eyes on the glistening incision. “It’s irrelevant to what we have now, and you’re a very jealous person.”

“I’m not a jealous person!” No response from Percy again, so Joe, a little more softly, prodded, “Was she… special?”

Percy’s lips gave a little grimace. He let out a sigh, put down his cutlery, and said, “It wasn’t remotely memorable for me. Not until the next day when she told me I was her first. And how was I to know? The woman was twenty-seven years old. She’d been chasing me for weeks, in that dull, stand-offish way some people do. I noticed, but I wasn’t particularly interested. Then, my last night here, she threw herself at me. I told her before we hooked up that I had to leave the next day, and she still wanted to, so…” He twisted the stem of his wine glass. “It was something to do. Nothing more, nothing less. She played it off like it meant nothing, and I went with it. But in the morning she told me she loved me, begged me to stay, told me she’d given me her ‘gift’. I suppose she thought telling me that would make me change my mind, but in all honesty, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I did try to keep in touch and be chivalrous about the whole debacle, but she just kept crying every time she called, begging me to come back, as though we’d had anything to begin with. So I eventually stopped answering.”

Percy expected to be reprimanded for just about any part of the confession other than the bit that Joe actually latched onto. “She chased you forweeks? I didn’t know you’d stayed here for weeks.”

Recommencing dinner, “I was here for three solid months.”

Joe very nearly spat his wine. “Here? With Cleo?”

“Hrrrrrrr!” said the skull.

Percy scowled at the skull for the interruption. “NotwithCleo.”

“Hrrrr!”

A little louder to drown out the unearthly rasps the bony mouth made, Percy continued, “She came and went while I was here, but I needed a place to get away to, so she let me stay at the Hall. I spent a good deal of my time in Lerwick, or travelling around Shetland. Between both of our comings and goings, not that much of it was spent with Cleo.”

“Hrrrr!”

Joe turned the skull’s face to the fire, his stomach doing that thing it always did when he thought of Percy with anyone else. “Were you two much closer than you’ve told me?”

“No. Maybe.” The glass twisted a little faster and Percy’s knee began to tap beneath the table, but he pushed on with the truth, just as he’d promised Joe he would. “I told you she was my friend. I told you we had a history, and I told you I wouldn’t have thought her capable of the things she’s accused of had I not witnessed the change in her myself. I got to know her very well over the years. We were close, but she was never my girlfriend. She was married before I ever knew her, and yes, I was her affair partner when the opportunity presented itself. Her husband’s a bastard who will sleep with anyone in sight, so fair’s fair. The marriage was a farce from day one. And everything that happened between us happened before I met you.” Percy gave a little click of his tongue and glanced away with a small sigh. “I’m honestly still very fond of her. I miss her. And I still want proof of what she’s supposed to have done. It’s not that I don’t believe Althea, because of course I do, but Cleo?—”

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