Page 39 of Devil in Her Details

She tested a sip of whisky. “Are you happy now?”

“I’ll only be happy when you finish the glass.”

She harrumphed and took another small sip. “So, are you going to tell me or not? What is it you and your brothers do?”

Dagger watched her turn the glass in her hands. Even rattled, even in an empty tavern like this, she didn’t fidget, which damn well rattled him. He wanted to fidget. Snatching up his drink, he drained it in one go. “We own property.”

“And?” she pressed.

Smart lynx.

Dagger set the glass back on the table. “We purchase goods. We trade goods.”

“Merchants, then?”

More like smugglers. “You could say that.”

“And?”

“Is that not enough?” Dagger evaded her question, lips threatening to twitch up into a smile. Her probing eyes, however, he couldn’t escape.

“It’s not everything, is it?” she countered in a challenge.

Always cutting to the heart of the matter. Dagger decided to do the same. “We have businesses and we manage them. If you wish to know more, you’d have to carry our name.”

Her expression froze.

Even Knight reacted, arching a brow.

Curses flew around Dagger’s mind.

He watched her mind flash with various forms of disgruntlement. There was a war happening behind her eyes, a calculation of what she would push and what she would not. He recognized the battle. He’d fought his own fair share. The difference was that he had years of practice keeping his face a mask while he did. But for all her composure, she was a book wide open. He couldn’t read all her words, but from her face alone, he could follow her story.

He regretted the tactlessness of his answer.

However, he stood by the sentiment. Family business was for family. And she would never be his family. Her next words proved him right.

“I suppose I’m fated to never know, then.”

Matter closed. Let this be the death of whatever had begun brewing since the moment he’d laid eyes on her. There was no piece of her puzzle that fit in the shape of his world. And the blow to his gut didn’t make any bloody sense.

His mouth curved, though nothing about it felt like humor. “There are worse things than not knowing.”

She nodded, and some of the open chapters on her face closed. “I shall have to take your word for it.”

Knight’s gaze flicked between the two of them. “Where’s Reaper?”

Dagger appreciated the change of topic. “Dealing with some things.”

“Things?” His brother pressed.

“Clean up. He should be here soon with three new arrivals.”

Knight nodded. “Friends of your new lady friend.”

“I might as well be invisible,” Lilly muttered.

He needed another drink. She was so damn visible it was hard to look at her. “Trust me,” Dagger said, his tongue outrunning his mouth, “you’re everything but invisible.” He didn’t do poetic words. He could only be blunt. He also didn’t speak things that had no business being spoken. But around her, something kept slipping. Small things. Irrelevant things.