Page 60 of Devil in Her Details

Dagger clenched his fists.

Don’t you dare leave without completing my commission, little lynx.

He’d already paid her for his belt. She thought her pest persistent. If she dashed off . . .

Dagger cursed inwardly.

She could leave if she wanted to. He had no doubt she would send him his strap in the post. And she’d be entitled to. He’d let her go.

“I’m not leaving,” Lilly said, and Dagger exhaled a slow breath of release, the tension in his shoulders draining. Damn straight she wasn’t leaving.

There was a slight pause.

“There are two cups of tea,” the man said. “Did we interrupt something?”

Dagger stilled.

So, it seemed, did Lilly, for more silence followed that statement.

Had he been given tea? He didn’t remember. She might have poured a cup for him, and he’d set it aside on a side table.

Damn it.

A diabolical part of him wanted them to discover him. Wanted them to know he stood at her side. Bloody delusional. They’d drag her off if they found him here. Hiding. Like a damn thief. Or burglar.

“Right, yes, my client is one for tea.”

“So we just missed him,” the man said regretfully.

Why bloody regretfully?

“Yes,” Lilly murmured.

“I didn’t know you entertained clients at your home,” the woman said.

Dagger scowled at the couple through the curtain.

He heard Lilly snort. “You’re here, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but we’re friends,” the man said.

“Leo,” the woman chastised.

Yes, Leo. Mind your own damn business.

“You didn’t happen to stop by my shop first, did you?”

“Yes,” the woman said. “But, of course, it was closed. We even knocked just to make sure you weren’t in the back.”

“You even knocked?”

Dagger frowned at Lilly’s strained tone. Oh, that’s right. The shop had been wrecked. Reaper, on the other hand, would have handled everything. She wouldn’t know that, of course, and the matter had completely slipped his mind.

“Yes,” the man asked, his voice filled with renewed suspicion. “Is there something wrong with knocking? Something you’re perhaps hiding?”

Dagger, man-in-hiding, held his breath.

“Leo, leave Lilly in peace. She is allowed to have her secrets, just as we are allowed ours. You don’t want others prying into our business, so don’t pry into theirs.”