Page 67 of A Barista's Guide to Love & Larceny
“You said it, not me,” the bartender said, winking. “Enjoy your smoke.”
“Well,” Dani said after he had gone, closing the curtains behind him, “I hope everyone else is safe.”
“They’re fine,” Wyatt said. “Silva made sure of that, even though it meant essentially abandoning us.” He let a long, fragrant curl drift out of his mouth. From the scent, Dani thought she’d made a lovely selection. “Wanna try?”
He offered her the hose, and after a moment’s hesitation she took it. She put the mouthpiece up to her lips and took a tentative pull. As soon as the smoke entered her lungs, she launched into a spectacular coughing fit. Wyatt laughed and pounded her amiably on the back.
“You’re good, you’re good,” he said.
“I’m good,” she agreed, passing the hose back to him. “Just not my cup of tea.”
He gave amore-for-mekind of shrug. Dani glanced down at herglass. “I’m sorry I said you were an asshole. But I’m not sorry I yelled at you earlier.”
“I’m a little bit of an asshole,” Wyatt admitted, “and I deserved it. But you know what,” he said, “tonight might have been a shitshow, but hey, at least we made it out alive. That’s something to celebrate, isn’t it?”
The carbonation in Dani’s stomach shimmered. Sure,they’dmade it out alive—but not everything had. Kass’s face materialized in the back of her mind, his sweet smile unburdened by the knowledge she now held. The knowledge she’d have to figure out what to do with. She raised her drink to Wyatt’s, but when their glasses clinked together, she didn’t hear the sound of celebration—she heard nothing but the ringing of alarm bells.
Twenty-Four
A murder of crows descended on Dani’s head in a knife-winged cloud the moment she stepped into the apartment. She flailed her arms frantically, dissipating most of the illusory birds and leaving the only real one treading air right in front of her, his otherworldly screeches more than enough for a whole power line packed with his brethren.
“Shoo, Gingerbread, leave off.” She ducked underneath him, his talons snagging in her hair.
“Where have youbeen?” McKenna squawked, matching the timbre of her familiar. “We were trying to reach you on the shell foreverand neither you nor Wyatt would answer. I thought you’d been caught or ripped into pieces by one of pretty boy’s portals. So? What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I’m sorry,” Dani began, knowing full well what was coming.
“You’resorry? That’s all you have to say? I thought you fucking died, Dani, I thought you—”
“Kenz, I…” Dani didn’t make it further than that before she burst into tears.
McKenna stopped pacing and rushed to her, wrapping her up in a hug. She guided Dani to the bed and held her while she cried. Everything Dani couldn’t let Wyatt see, she showed McKenna. The sky-high stress of the escapade, the energy and courage it had taken to express her rage at him like that, the grief of what she’d learned about Kass.
Because that’s what it was: grief. The relationship she’d thought she was going to have with Kass was dead.
“Shhh, babe, shhh. It’s all right. You’re all right.”
“Am I?” Dani asked as her tears subsided. “He’s the CEO’sson, McKenna. How the fuck am I supposed to handle this?”
McKenna bit her lip. “I don’t know,” she said with unusual uncertainty. “But what Idoknow is we’re going to figure it out.”
Right now, Dani couldn’t possibly see how, but she was too tired and sad to try. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”
An exhale shuddered out of McKenna. “Yes. Well. Next time, send a smoke signal or something so I don’t summon Gingerbread’s family to comb the city streets for your dead body.”
“Wait, what?”
“Oh, they’re fine,” McKenna said. “Ruby needs to get out more, anyway. Where did you and Wyatt go?”
“This random hookah bar.” Dani untangled herself from McKenna’s arms and started to unlace her boots. “Wyatt wanted a drink.”
“That’swhy you smell like a chimney sweep at a tropical resort.”
“Do tropical resorts have chimneys?”
“Don’t heckle me,” McKenna said. “It’s unbecoming.”
They went to bed after Dani shot a quick message to Silva and Oliver each, letting them know she’d made it home safely. Dani was beyond relieved to melt into her nest of blankets, much like Gingerbread curled up in his own. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out.
