Ilona Andrews - Fate's Edge

“Don’t underestimate them,” Kaldar said. “George looks fragile, but he is well trained. Gaston put them through their paces, and George can hold his own. The kid is brilliant. He is truly, all jokes aside, brilliant. He’s an Edger, and the bluebloods never let him forget it. Things other children of his social status take for granted are out of his reach.”

“It’s not enough to be good,” Audrey said. “He has to be the best. But George doesn’t worry me. Jack does.”

Kaldar shrugged. “Jack is a teenager with a chip on his shoulder. I was one, you were one, I’m sure everyone has been there at one time or another. Once he snaps out of his ‘the world is against me’ rut, he’s a resourceful, smart kid. And unlike most changelings, he’s pretty sharp when it comes to figuring out what drives other people. He likes to pretend he understands less than he does.”

“Why?”

“He’s a cat,” Kaldar said. “It’s in his nature, I suppose. Don’t worry. He will hold his own.”

“You seem awfully sure of that. George said you barely know the two of them.”

“I know William,” Kaldar said. “He’s married to my cousin, Cerise, who is more like my baby sister. If her life and happiness were at stake, William would burn the world just to see her smile. Jack is a changeling like William. He would move the earth and the moon to protect his brother.

“So you’re using one child to manipulate another.” Audrey shook her head. “Do you have any conscience at all?”

“No. I didn’t ask them to come with me. They want this, and they’re old enough to understand the risks.”

Audrey looked away from him and through the window. He studied her profile out of the corner of his eye. Pouting? No, calculating.

“If you and I are the day, I’ll need to go shopping,” she said. “It won’t be cheap. Do we have to grift for the money?”

Their minds ran like two trains on parallel tracks. Kaldar had never come across anyone like her. He didn’t have to explain himself, or justify anything, or convince her that his scheme would work. She just snapped his ideas out of thin air and ran with them. Even when he worked a con with his family, he still had to sell them on it, taking them through the plan bit by bit, but then most of his family excelled at killing or magic, often both. He excelled at burglary, grift, and making money by any means necessary. It wasn’t that they didn’t love him or trust him, but none of them understood him. Audrey did. He wanted to sit her down and ask questions until he knew everything there was to know about her, down to the most minute detail. But the moment he did that, she would run like a deer. That was what he would do in her place.

And she was so damn pretty. He rifled through adjectives: “sexy,” “hot,” “desirable,” none of them was right enough. Delectable. Delicious. No, she was a woman, not a pastry. He ran out of words and gave up. He wanted her. He needed her like a man in a room full of smoke needed a breath of fresh air. He wanted to peel off her clothes and kiss those lovely breasts and . . .

“Earth to Kaldar?”

“Yes, love?”

“Do we have to grift for the money? And don’t call me ‘love.’”

“Why spend our own if we don’t have to?” He was dying to see her work. This was his chance. He looked at her and tested the waters. “Is that a problem, love ?”

Audrey turned to him, a sly little spark hiding in her eyes. “The only man who gets to call me ‘love’ would be waking up next to me after a very, very fun night.”

Fun night. Oh yes.

“Guess what?” She leaned closer. “You will never be that man.”

Kaldar laughed. “If I wanted to, you would be waking up next to me, lying with my arm around you every morning. You would wiggle closer to me in bed just so I could pet your butt.”

“My goodness, you think you’re God’s gift to women, don’t you? You poor, deluded man.”

He hit her with his best smile. Her eyes widened. She took a deep breath. “Oh no, not that seductive face. I’m overcome with the need to take off these awful clothes. What is happening? I do not understand. Oooh. Ahhh.” She touched her wrist to her forehead. “Somebody help me. I’m being drenched with my own fluids.”

Evil woman.

“See now, you shouldn’t have done that,” Kaldar said.

She gave him an innocent look.

“You’ve made yourself into a challenge. Now I’ll have to seduce you out of principle.”

“You can try. Not that you’ll get anywhere. If you were in love, that would be one thing, but we both know this is pride talking.” Audrey patted his forearm. “It’s all right. I won’t tell anybody about your shameful failure. I’ll keep it completely confidential.” She pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key.

“I’ll remind you of this when you’re collapsing on my sheets, all happy and out of breath.” He leaned closer. “I’m picturing it in my head. Mmm, you look lovely.”

“Whatever fantasies help you get through the day,” Audrey said.

“So kind of you.”

“I’m all about being charitable when it doesn’t cost me anything.”

Charity? For me ?

Before this was all over, either they would be lovers or they’d kill each other. Right now, he had no idea which it would be.

AUDREY stared out the window. The car suffered from a desperate lack of space, especially when it came to the front. Specifically, the front seats. Specifically, Kaldar in the front seat, who was sitting entirely too close.

And Kaldar was getting hotter by the minute. When they’d first met, he was handsome, then hot, and now he had moved into the irresistible category. When he’d leaned toward her and said her name in that bedroom voice, every nerve in her body came to attention. She actually got the shivers. If he’d leaned in and kissed her, she would’ve kissed him right back, then she would’ve slapped him again, just so he wouldn’t get any ideas. She liked looking at him. She liked the sound of his voice. She liked when he paid attention to her. They were in the Broken, which meant that Kaldar’s increasing hotness couldn’t be magic, and that left only one explanation: she was falling for him.

Audrey glanced at him. He turned to her right when she looked and gave her his evil grin. Wow. She was in so much trouble. Audrey rolled her eyes and looked back through her window.

If they were strapped for cash, they could just sit Kaldar on a street corner with an empty coffee can and a phone book to read. They’d make decent money until the cops chased them off because crowds of women were obstructing traffic. It wasn’t just his looks. Looks alone she could resist. It was the wicked glint in his eyes. He was a smart, sly bastard, quick on his feet and equipped with a silver tongue. He could run circles around the best professionals she knew.

Audrey hid a sigh. Before her grandmother died, she had given Audrey only one piece of advice: never fall in love with a conman. Conmen couldn’t stop grifting. It was like a drug, an addiction, like her lock picking. And born con artists like Kaldar grifted for the hell of it. Everything was a game to them, and pretty soon the game became not just “can I take this poor sucker’s money” but “can I fool my wife into thinking I’m where I’m supposed to be.” Eventually the game would turn into “can I keep my ball and chain from knowing about all of my women on the side,” and you would end up with your heart crushed into dust. She’d seen her father do it, she’d seen Alex do it when he was still sober, and she’d seen other conmen do it. They lied, oh how they lied.