Page 23 of A Cursed Heart
“It’s possible for me to make it smaller. Although not by much.”
“That’d help.” The lump in my pocket got lighter, the bulge it made had shrunken somewhat.
“Better?”
“Yeah. I’ve got a place.”
“You must keep it out of Salvatore’s hands. After today, you will be the first one he suspects.”
Mal was right. I knew it was a risk breaking in, especially since I wasn’t taking the files then, which would have been quicker, just building a door to make my thefts invisible. My plan needed a more stealthy approach than get in, steal, get out. I needed to eventually replace the files seamlessly without any trace of my being in them. Copying everything in one go would have taken too much time. I didn’t have the equipment for such a big stop.
This wasn’t supposed to be my life. I was rusty, which was why I wasn’t completely sure I got all the cameras. The alarm on the gem had surprised me, so it was possible he had other camerasin his office I’d missed. “Can’t I just give it to you, and if he comes looking you can just vanish somewhere?”
“Ryan, I think you forget we are bound.”
Ugh, I hated that. “I’m your owner, yeah, I got that part.”
“No,” he said patiently. “We cannot be all that far from each other.”
Well, damn, this was getting trickier. “Okay, so if he comes to look, then you hide in another apartment, or on the roof or something.”
“There is another problem.”
“What is it?”
“I cannot hold the gem.”
“Fuck.”
Mal grinned. “My brother did not want me to run and hide.”
“I really hate your brother, y’know.” He’d made Mal a slave! There was no way I was using him to fix the problems I’d created. Once I got out of my situation, I’d do something, anything, to help Mal.
His face sobered. “He did what he thought was best. He was an excellent king.”
“Maybe, but I don’t like what he did to you.”
“I—”
“You can defend him all you like, Mal. I’m not going to change my mind on it.” I looked up at my building. “It’s late. I think we better go inside. We can deal with the gem and everything tomorrow once Freya is at school.”
“Alright.”
Hell, my sister was going to lose her mind when I told her about Mal. None of us would get any sleep if she knew what he was.
“My sister is upstairs looking after my daughter. I don’t want to get into everything right now. Can we just pretend you’re a friend from college or something for tonight? I’m tired.” Mybrain was overloaded. There was no way I could cope with showing Lydia magic and still function in the morning.
“I agree. This is the best plan for tonight.”
“Cool. Lydia usually sleeps in Freya’s room, so you can take the couch.” I got out of the car and waited for him to join me.
“Ryan…?”
“Yeah.”
His expression was conflicted. “I wish to do as you ask, but I am concerned that the couch will be too far away for our bond.”
Shit. “Alright.” Under my breath, I muttered, “Fuck my life.” Louder, I said, “You can share with me. It’s no big deal.”
Guys could share a bed with no problem, right? I’d never done it. Never really had that many close guy friends to share a bed with. It was fine. Totally fine. Mal wasn’t just a guy though, he was a demon with the horns and the tail and stuff.
“Just stay in that form, okay?”
Mal smiled innocently, though there was an edge of wickedness to it. “Of course.”
