Chapter 16 · Blood on the Brick

"Say it again," Dominic muttered against my jaw. "What did he tell you?"

The balcony's stone rail dug cold through my dress. His hands were scorching through the thin silk at my waist. I couldn't tell which one made me tremble harder.

"Who?"

"Don't play dumb, Mara." His thumb pressed hard against the bone of my hip. A sharp warning. "The guy at my gate. Victor's runner. You stood there talking for ten minutes before I walked out."

I'd been there maybe three. He'd been timing every second.

"He told me to call the number," I lied, my voice tight. "That's it. I told him to choke on it."

"And the second voice?"

My gut dropped straight through the floor. He'd heard both of them.

"There wasn't one." My throat felt like sandpaper. "Just the wind, Dominic. The coast makes this whole place rattle."

He didn't buy it. I watched his gaze track right past my ear, lifting toward the second floor. Toward a bedroom window where the lace curtain had definitely just twitched.

I didn't think. I grabbed his lapels and yanked his mouth down to mine.

It was reckless.