Page 18 of His Eternal Temptation

Rowan’s room was too personal. The style was so glaringly different from the rest of the building that it had to hold significance. Being here twisted something deep inside Lane. He knew Rowan would never have invited him in unless forced to.

Not that he’d been forced to tuck Lane into bed. He could have slept on the couch.

Rowan’s promise to take care filled Lane’s mind.

“Let’s go,” Rowan agreed, apparently glad to escape his bedroom.

In the office, he retreated behind his desk, and Lane settled on the couch closest, sipping his coffee. The bagel was toasted with cream cheese and tasted better than anything he’d ever eaten.

Rowan’s fingers flew across his phone screen, typing message after message. Not wanting to rekindle Rowan’s suspicion that he was spying, Lane angled himself away and concentrated on breakfast.

“There’s video footage of you being dumped by the river,” Rowan said out of nowhere.

Lane coughed and swung around. “How do you know?”

“The coven looked into it. A security camera across the road caught a van pushing you out the back. It had stolen plates, so I can’t confirm who it belongs to.”

His coven discovered all that in less than twelve hours?

“I was wondering,” Rowan went on. “How well do you know the Hillman witches you followed here?”

“I can give you names, but I don’t know them well. They’d been in meetings with my father, not me.”

“Who’s the Hillman Coven leader?”

“I never met him, and my father never mentioned him by name.”

“Isn’t that strange?”

“Not really. I wasn’t happy my father was meeting with them after saying he’d given up alliances, and I wasn’t quiet about it.” Lane had also been living apart from his coven for years and hadn’t been back terribly long when he voiced his objections. He’d seen his father regularly, and wouldn’t have called his time away an estrangement—it was independence—but he hadn’t been involved in coven politics in a long time, so his father’s tight-lipped nature wasn’t surprising.

Rowan changed tack. “Is this a new alliance?”

“Yeah. It was proposed a few months ago.”

“Hmm. You’re being very forthcoming.”

“Would you rather I wasn’t? I’ve got nothing to hide.”

“It would seem not.” Rowan glanced at his phone, and it was impossible to tell if he believed Lane. “As far as my sources know, the Blackburns have stayed firmly in Oregon for years. Like you said.”

“Makes sense, since I was telling the truth.” Hopefully he didn’t sound too bitter.

There was a long pause, and Rowan returned to typing on his phone, so Lane finished his bagel.

Eventually, Rowan set his phone down with a click. “Why do you think the Hillmans tried to kill you to keep what you learned from your father? It doesn’t sound like the Blackburns are as involved in magic world politics as they used to be. Why would the Hillmans be so desperate to keep a new relationship with your coven from souring?”

Lane had no idea. He hadn’t expected a violent retaliation, which was part of the reason he’d been screwed so easily. None of the meetings between the covens had been tense, and from the Hillmans’ perspective, the plan Lane discovered was far from damning to the budding Hillman-Blackburn relationship.

If they were aware of the Blackburns’ history with the Valeros, they would have been more likely to see their plan as an asset than a dealbreaker.

“I don’t know. They could have made a conflicting promise to my father, or something like that.”

Rowan shook his head, dissatisfied. “But why is your coven so important to ally with?”

It could have sounded like an insult, but Lane didn’t think Rowan meant it as one. It was a good point. The Blackburns weren’t players in the larger magic world anymore. “I don’t know. There’s a lot my father hasn’t told me.”

Rowan cocked his head. “He doesn’t trust you?