Page 93 of Bitten By Desire
“Step away from her,” Zoey said. “Or else.”
I blinked and stared at Callum. His eyes were still golden. I must have just imagined it. But I wasn’t imagining the scowl.
I turned around. Zoey was holding a clove of garlic in one hand and a wooden spatula in the other. Did she really think I’d be sitting on the couch with Callum if he was a vampire? “Zoey, stop it.”
She ignored me. “I swear to God, Theo or Callum or whoever you are. Get off my couch. And out of my house. Or I’ll put this stake through your soulless heart.”
I didn’t think that the wooden spatula was sharp enough to cut through skin. And Callum’s heart wasn’t soulless. It belonged to me. “Zoey, he’s not a vampire.”
“Yes he is.”
Why did she always believe Bennett and not me?Oh… Right…Because of the stupid mind control pocket watch. “Bennett’s been controlling us with his pocket watch, Zoey. Everything he says is a lie. All of it. Of course Callum isn’t a vampire. And heisCallum. He explained everything.”
She didn’t move. “I won’t believe you until you eat this garlic.”
“Look, I’m happy to eat a lasagna or something,” Callum said. “But I’m not biting into a whole, unpeeled clove of garlic.”
Zoey looked down at it and then back at him. “Okay. Fair. Raw unpeeled garlic is obvs disgusting.”
“And look,” I said and pulled the golden pen out of my pocket. I gently put the tip of it against Callum’s jaw. Again nothing happened. I would have thought Bennett was just lying about all the artifacts having powers. But Callum believed the watch could control people. So the pen’s magic was probably real too. Bennett should have been the one getting burned. But maybe he’d manipulated it somehow. Or maybe being a dirty thief wasn’t bad enough to get burned. But it sure felt bad enough to me.
Zoey breathed a sigh of relief and lowered her vampire hunter weapons. “But wait, what about…” Her voice trailed off as she glared at Callum. “You owe my friend a huge apology for ghosting her for ten years, you asshole.”
“He already apologized,” I said. “For all of it. He was trying to protect me from this mess with Bennett.”
“What mess?”
“The pocket watch. And everything else. Bennett and his friends are bank robbers and thieves.” Honestly it all made sense. The way Titan had spoken about money was so shady. And the scar down his face? He’d been in fights. Maybe with bank tellers or something as he held them up at gunpoint. And they hadn’t had any security in their bank. They probably didn’t want anyone poking around in their vaults full of stolen treasures.
“What?” Zoey laughed. “That’s not…” her voice trailed off. “Shit. They quintupled my money in six months. Did they steal from someone in order to do that?”
“Definitely,” Callum said.
“Oh my God, I’m going to jail.” Zoey plopped down on the couch next to me. “I’m too beautiful for prison.”
“No one’s going to jail,” I said. “We’re going to take our money out of the bank. And we’re going to get that pocket watch back so they stop screwing with people’s minds.”
“And how exactly are we going to do that?”
We both turned to Callum.
“Well, the watch isn’t in one of the vaults. Bennett keeps it in his pocket. We just need to get him alone and overpower him.”
“Better idea,” Zoey said. “We just need to get in his pants. I’m pretty sure Emma can handle that.” She winked at me.
“You want me to seduce him to get it back?” I asked.
“No,” Callum said.
“Why not?” Zoey asked. “Right now Bennett doesn’t know that we know that he’s a lying thief. Anything else we do will tip him off.”
“Absolutely not,” Callum said.
“But Emma has a direct line right now. We have to use it. I can’t go to prison!”
I took a deep breath and stood up. “I can do it. Zoey’s right. This is our chance. You’ve been trying to get the watch back for ages. I have an in.”
Callum lowered his eyebrows. He did not look at all pleased by this idea.
