Page 11 of Forsaken Fate

“Oh.” Grayson slammed his hands against the top of his thighs. “There we go. You think I owe you. I knew we’d get there. I wondered how long my mother would get to be in the ground before you’d start trying to pick a fight over Lake Bliss. My lands.”

“Your lands.” There was a smile on Theo’s face, but it was deadly. “You know what, Grayson, your mom died. I’m trying to be respectful of that no matter how much shit I’ve had to put up with. You’re making it pretty hard, though.”

Theo was cool, coiled anger as he leaned back against the door jamb, sliding one hand into his pocket. Grayson was flailing, his face was beet red and even from here I could see the twitch in his eye. Theo was enjoying this. The more agitated Grayson got, the calmer Theo got and it was driving Grayson nuts. By the looks of it, this could go on for a while and I couldn’t help that it was entertaining me too. Then something occurred to me that made the blood in my veins turn to ice.

This could go on for a while.

Theo was blocking Grayson’s path to the hallway and looked like he had no intention of moving anytime soon. Grayson’s core guests were in the other room with full bellies, cigars and booze. There were two household staff members on duty tonight and they were both attending to what was left of the party. No one gave a rat’s ass where I was now.

I got my bearings across the courtyard. Diana’s study was also on the first floor but on the other end of the hallway to where Grayson and Theo were arguing. I had time ... maybe a lot. And no one paying any attention to me. I reached down and slid off my heels, holding them by the straps in one hand. I needed to move fast, and my four-inch heels wouldn’t help.

My blood roared in my ears as I slipped back into the house and ran soundlessly down the carpeted hallway. When I got to the double doors of her study, I held my breath as I put my free hand on the knob and turned. The door creaked, but opened, and I slipped inside. I didn’t dare turn on the overhead lights. Enough moonlight came in through the window and I crossed the room and switched on a Tiffany lamp near the door.

The room – like everything else in the house – was all Diana. Her books lined the walls. In the center of the room, she had a large wooden desk that rivaled the size of those I’d seen depicted in the oval office. There were feminine touches here and there. Fresh-cut flowers on a low table between two rose-colored couches, plush white carpeting.

Now that I was here, it occurred to me that I had no idea where to start. Surely anything of value would be locked. I slid her black leather chair away from the desk and lowered myself into it. I smoothed my hands over the large green felt desk pad. Diana was old fashioned, I knew. She hated smartphones and electronic filing. In the corner of the room, she had a smaller desk where she kept her Underwood Number 5 vintage typewriter. The thing was heavy and mammoth, and I couldn’t imagine anyone using it but I knew she did. Mostly to type personal notes. I had a collection of some of her most scathing work addressed to me.

Her laptop sat closed on the desk in front of me and I opened it. It booted quickly. She had the New York state flag as her wallpaper and hadn’t bothered to set up a password. Grayson had let it slip at my urging that Diana only used the thing to answer emails. Her assistant set everything else up for her. I didn’t expect to find anything on her hard drive. The things I needed would have to be handwritten. But I had to at least look. I might not get the chance again. For now, though, I didn’t want to do any more than see what files she had on her desktop. Opening anything, especially her browser, was too risky.

Her desktop had two things on it: a shortcut to her browser, and a file marked “tomorrow’s appointments.” It was about what I expected. I snapped her laptop shut and opened some of her desk drawers. I found keys, breath mints, rubber bands, an old-fashioned ink blotter ... nothing unusual. I had hoped to at least find file cabinets or a safe, but there was nothing. Whatever secrets Diana hid, they weren’t in here. I stood and came around her desk and headed for the massive bookshelves. Could she have been this careless? I scanned the bindings looking for something plain. Surely, she wouldn’t have been so obvious as to have titled her family grimoire.

There was nothing. Only legal treatises on everything from evidence to negligence, to search and seizure, etc. My hand came to rest on a thick, blue-bound volume with gold embossed lettering titled Model Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

“No wonder it looks so pretty on the shelf, Diana,” I said. “You’ve never opened it.”

I walked back to her desk; spreading my hands wide I leaned against it. I stared at the leather chair behind it, and it felt like Diana was still in the room. If I closed my eyes, I could imagine she was here. Still judging me. Her magic still lingered everywhere in this house. Her check ledger lay closed on one corner of the desk. On Christmas Day, she’d waved one of those checks in my face hoping I would take it and leave.

“No, Diana,” I said to her empty chair. “What I still want from you isn’t something you could ever buy.”

“Me either.” His voice behind me raised the hairs on the back of my neck. If my hands weren’t planted flat on the desk, I might have jumped at it. By some miracle I didn’t. Instead, I straightened my back and slowly turned.

Theo leaned in the doorway of Diana’s study, giving me the same cool smirk, and flash of wolfish eyes I’d seen him use on Grayson just a while ago. It raised my blood pressure too, but in a different way. I’d been so careless. My mind spun, trying to weave the lie that might satisfy Theo. With Grayson it was sometimes too easy. Theo, I suspected, was a different species altogether.

“You seem to have a habit of sneaking up on me,” I said. He was cool; I would be too.

“You seem to have a habit of sneaking off,” he said. He moved away from the door and came toward me.

“She didn’t like me very much,” I said. I would stick to as much of the truth as I dared. He doesn’t know anything, I reminded myself. Until five minutes ago, I’d been careful.

“Me either,” Theo said. He was no more than a foot away from me. He had his hands in the pockets of his dress pants, making his suit jacket lay open. His crisp white shirt stretched across his broad, strong chest. “Were you not good enough for Grayson?”

I sat back on the desk; crossing my arms in front of me I let my bare feet dangle. I had tossed my shoes in a heap by the door. Out there, I owned the dress Grayson made me wear. It served my purpose to act as his trophy. In here, though, it was just Theo. And he had a way of looking through me that made me feel naked. There was something else. That strange new pulse thrummed inside my head. It was as if…no…it couldn’t be. Only, I knew if I dared to lay a hand over his heart, I might feel it beating in time with my own.

“I didn’t know her very long,” I said. “She barely knew me. I didn’t take her opinions personally.”

When Theo smiled, his eyes flashed silver yet again. Oh God. I wanted to see his wolf. I wanted to draw out his fangs. A wicked desire popped into my mind. I wanted him to bite me. “You think you would have survived if she had?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean ... how long have you been involved with Grayson? Six months, seven? My guess is she was just starting to do her number on you.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But, like I said, I didn’t take it personally. I find a lot of people make assumptions about me at their peril.”

Theo nodded. “I think I can see that.”

“So, what were you hoping to find by sneaking off back here?” I said. The second I said it, I knew I’d found my hook. Theo’s eyes darkened.

“Just looking around,” he said. “You know, this wasn’t originally Diana’s house. My father bought it for my mother just a few months before she passed away. We never lived here, though. It needed renovations. And then…the war made things complicated. Diana ended up doing them. The renovations, I mean. What do you think of the place?”

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