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CHAPTER 1
“Maybe.” Clary turned this way and that as she stared at the bathroom mirror. There was no full-length mirror in the apartment, so she had to make do with this to check out one of the new outfits Seth had gotten her. “Just one.”
“Not maybe,” Seth said from her room. “You’re keeping all of them.”
After they gave their statements to Detective Murphy, Seth had insisted on taking Clary and Andrea out shopping—for their battle gear.
Seth took them to shops Clary never knew existed.
The shopping experience itself was beyond anything she’d ever imagined. They were the only ones in the store. The shop assistants knew beforehand that they were coming and had all the different outfits ready for them to try on.
The changing room was spacious and equipped with a long, luxurious sofa, where Seth sat while she and Andrea tried on all the clothes.
“They’re really expensive.” And she had resisted buying anything expensive because she’d been certain that she would only be in San Francisco for—at most—a couple of months.
Once she was done fixing the problems at the bank, she would be going back to New York. Back to her old job, and she didn’t need expensive suits for that.
But the thought that had sustained her amid the gossip and rumors about her being Mr. E’s mistress no longer seemed as … appealing.
“Clary, I can afford them.”
Pushing her black hair over her shoulder, she opened the door and leaned her shoulder against the door frame. “Aren’t you afraid I’m just milking you for your money?”
“I have enough to spare.”
She made a face. “How do you know where to shop for women’s clothes anyway?” She could barely imagine him shopping for clothes.
“I asked my tailor.”
“Must be expensive to buy a tailored suit.”
He shrugged, and she walked back into the bathroom to take another look in the mirror.
“You don’t seem like someone who would splurge on things like that,” she said.
“People get blinded by fancy stuff. When they look at my expensive suit, watch, car, and pen, they don’t see how messed up I am.”
She turned and almost bumped into Seth.
“Except for you,” he said, leaning against the doorframe while his pine-green eyes stared right into hers. “You saw that right from the start, didn’t you?” He reached over and brushed his knuckles down her cheek.
“Oh, I definitely noticed how good your suit looked on you first.” She gave him a head-to-toe scan. “And how good your jeans and plain black T-shirt look on you now. Are they expensive too?”
It was the first time Clary had seen him in something besides a suit. The jeans and T-shirt fitted him as perfectly as his suits did, and they went well with the slightly tousled hair his light brown hair was in right now.
Seth looked down at himself, as if he’d forgotten what he was wearing.
“And you’re not messed up.”
He laughed once, and his chest rose. “Oliver thinks we’re all in survival mode.”
“What does that mean?”
He shrugged. “You’d have to ask him.” He took his phone from his pocket and frowned, then turned the phone’s screen toward her. “Do you know this man?”
“Ron Woznick.” This can’t be good.
“The detective who called you?”
