Dark Seduction (Vampire Royals of New York #2) - Sarah Piper Page 0,34

had made everyone proud—had made her a bona fide member of the crew.

A phantom.

Ever since that moment, Charley’s “career” had been a series of cons and heists, lies and manipulations, all of them virtually interchangeable. The only thing that had made it bearable was her passion for the art itself, the bright and colorful place she traveled to in her mind when all of life’s other doorways had been shut.

“Everything I’ve told you about my love of art is true,” Charley said now. “It’s the one thing about my work I don’t regret.”

Dorian grunted into his glass. “Is that supposed to justify it, then?”

“Of course not. I just meant—”

“Because I love the art too, Charlotte. It’s why I pay millions of dollars to acquire it legally. It’s why people all over the world buy and make and trade it—because we love it, because it tells a story, because it makes us feel less alone. Not because we want people like you to steal it from us, and then sit back and talk about it like it’s a bloody thing of reverence.”

“I’ve kept things from you,” she said. “A lot of things—really important stuff. But what I shared with you… That was real. You’re the first man I’ve ever… No one else knows those things about me. Before you, no one else had even asked.”

The admission left her naked, but Dorian seemed unaffected.

“Is this the part where you tell me I’m different?” he asked, making air quotes around the word. “That what we had was special?”

His mockery burned to the core.

“It was special,” she said. “Say whatever you want—I deserve it. But my mistakes don’t change what we shared. It was real, Dorian, no matter how quickly it happened, no matter what circumstances brought us together. You can’t go back and undo it.”

Especially after the way you looked at me in the dining room…

“You undid it for me,” he snapped.

“But I—”

“I know. You didn’t have a choice. Right?”

“I grew up thinking this was normal. And by the time I figured out it wasn’t, it was too late.”

“Newsflash, love. It’s still a choice. One you make again every time you wake up and decide to stay in the business another day.”

Charley huffed, her defenses rising. “Like you wake up every day and decide to remain a vampire?”

“I don’t have a choice about what I am.”

“Rudy owns me,” she said. “Not only is he my sole source of income, but he’s also made it very clear that this is my job for life. If I try to leave him, if I make any more mistakes, if I don’t follow through on my end of the deal, he’ll kill me. He’ll kill Sasha. So fine, maybe I do have a choice about whether or not to commit a crime. But when it comes to staying alive? To protecting my sister? Sorry—that’s not a choice.”

Dorian’s eyes blazed again, but then softened, and he looked away, taking a slow sip of scotch. Charley suspected he was thinking about his own brothers—what he might be driven to do if their lives were at stake.

No matter how much he’d bickered with them—even with Gabriel—Charley knew he cared for them. She could see it in his eyes.

After a long pause, Dorian said, “So the money… How exactly does it work?”

Charley told him about the hierarchy, the payouts, how Rudy took over after her father’s death.

“He became the new boss, and he put himself in charge of everything—the books, the assets, the whole operation. We liquidated most of my father’s personal collection, but because I was so naive, a lot of that money went straight back into the operation. I live in my father’s penthouse, but I’m not paying for maintenance and upkeep—that’s all Rudy. I don’t manage my own credit cards. As pathetic and impossible as it may seem, I don’t even have a checking account.”

Charley’s face burned.

Thirty-two years old, and I’m as dependent as a child.

Dorian stared into the fireplace, his jaw clenching. “What transpired this morning? Why did your uncle attack you?”

Charley looked at him through glazed eyes, her breath catching. They were getting closer to the specifics—to her role in the planned heist of Dorian’s estate. Even after everything she’d shared, the idea of voicing those particular details left her burning with new shame.

“I screwed up my end of the deal,” she said. “Rudy wanted me to convince you to take me and your brothers out of town next weekend, leaving Ravenswood clear.” Dorian’s eyes widened,