Dark Seduction (Vampire Royals of New York #2) - Sarah Piper Page 0,58

seat beside her on the bench. “About your father’s death.”

Charlotte nodded.

“Why did your uncle immediately assume his brother had betrayed everyone? In my mind, it seems equally likely that your father himself was the victim of a double-cross. Even if Rudy thought your father’s betrayal was obvious, why not at least look into it? Put the word out, as it were?”

“I wondered the same thing.” Charlotte pulled her sleeves down over her hands, knotting them together in her lap.

Dorian stole a glance at her profile, her skin soft and luminous in the moonlight, her jaw set even in the midst of another day of setbacks. He knew she was a fierce woman, that she possessed a deep inner strength that had kept her alive in even the most dangerous circumstances. For all her softness, Charlotte was a fighter, strong-willed and determined, fueled by a deep inner fire he’d felt smoldering inside her many times—when they flirted, when they argued, when they played Midnight Marauder, when they fucked. She was fearless—no doubt about it. But now, sitting on the bench with her hands tucked into her sleeves, her hair in a messy bun, makeup erased by her tears and the stress of the day, Charlotte seemed young and lost and utterly defenseless.

The sight filled him with rage. He wanted so badly to sort it all out for her, but even if he could keep her safe from the supernaturals lurking in the shadows, he couldn’t change her past—including the part where she’d conspired to rob him.

“We all wondered about it,” she continued. “But Rudy kept telling us he wouldn’t waste resources on a traitor. To him, it was cut and dried—my father had vouched for the inside guy he’d used, and that guy had double-crossed them. Rudy grieved—in his own way, I guess—but after that, his top priority was planning the next score. He said he’d keep an ear to the ground, but unless he heard otherwise, we were all to assume the obvious—my father tried to screw us over, and it bit him in the ass.”

“But you said the crew was tight. Granted, my knowledge of professional thieves comes entirely from heist movies, but I’d always assumed a tight crew was like family.”

“A really messed up family, sure.” Charlotte went quiet, lost for a moment in thought. After a few beats, she said, “No one wanted to believe it about my father. But one by one, they all fell in line—Bones, Trick, Welshman. I was the only one who maintained his innocence. I still do. I know it sounds crazy, but he wasn’t a traitor, Dorian. He’d never do that to us. He really was an honest thief.”

“And the other man?” Dorian asked. “The insider your father brought on?”

“Vanished with the artwork. That’s the great mystery.”

Dorian shook his head. It was all so obvious to him, but Charlotte didn’t seem to get it. “Charlotte, Rudy was involved in this.”

“Of course. He was my father’s brother and second-in-command, right up until—”

“I’m talking about your father’s death. If he didn’t pull the trigger, he knows who did. He was calling the shots all along. It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”

Charlotte looked away, absently playing with her hair, untwisting and re-twisting her bun. She’d heard his words, but she neither agreed nor disagreed, offering nothing further. Dorian sensed this wasn’t the first time she’d considered the theory, but she’d obviously dismissed it back then, just as she was dismissing it now.

Denial and self-preservation were powerful forces.

“Think about it, love.” He reached for her hands to stop the fidgeting. Her hair tumbled down over her shoulders, wild and beautiful, filling the air with the citrus and vanilla scent he loved. Dorian had to resist threading his hands into those auburn locks, pulling her mouth close to his. Instead, he traced his thumbs over her palms in slow, gentle circles, focusing on the feel of her skin, on the familiar softness and warmth he kept on craving no matter how badly he tried to stop.

“Think about what?” she asked.

“Even if he’d found irrefutable evidence of your father’s betrayal, no thief on your uncle’s level would let that kind of score vanish without a trace.”

“What choice did he have? It was just… gone.”

“I don’t buy it. We both know what kind of man Rudy is. There’s no way he’d turn his back on a seventy-million-dollar score he’d spent months planning. No way he’d chalk it off to a double-cross. He’d have men on the street