nemesis who’d been through more than I could have imagined. “Can’t you?”
Her lips parted and she nodded once. “I’ll do it.”
I watched them head down the hill and toward the parking lot, a lump in my throat. Seeing Darcy and Ursula united was not anything I had ever imagined.
How had I affected both of their lives? I hoped for the better.
Robin put his hand on my shoulder and I turned to face him head-on. “What’s your price?”
His brilliant gaze dipped to my lips. “Tell me what’s happening?”
I swallowed and looked up at him. “That’s it? You want information? Not a kiss?” And why did that thought sting all of a sudden?
“I’ll take the kiss freely given. But the trade is insight. What did Ursula tell you?”
My eyes narrowed on him. “Why this sudden interest in Ursula?”
Robin put his hands in his pockets. Something he did only when he was feeling defensive. “Who says I have an interest?”
My lips parted. “Oh my stars, she’s next, isn’t she? After you call in my bargain, you’re going after her.”
He hadn’t come with me to the vet’s office. Because he had been working Ursula on his own?
He didn’t deny it. Which meant he couldn’t. The fae prince couldn’t lie, just like he’d said. It made sense. Ursula’s husband had abandoned her. She was also middle-aged and unhappy. She worked for her brother because no one else in town would hire her. She had no friends, had driven almost everyone away.
And now I knew why. Or at least why she had started distancing herself from people. “God, you are just as bad as Bill, you know that? Line us up and knock us down. So no, Robin, I won’t kiss you and I won’t tell you what Ursula told me in confidence.”
He lifted his chin. “What does it matter, lamb?”
I poked him in the chest. “Don’t call me that. And it matters because you are using us, toying with our emotions, our lives, for your own sick purpose. Clara wanted to save her child and you manipulated her to hold yourself in this world. You’ve traded women like me, sad, lonely middle-aged women, for favors from others of your ilk. Well, I’ll tell you what, Robin Goodfellow, it stops right here, right now. With me.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” His eyes flashed. “You can’t just stop our bargain whenever you feel like it. You owe me for this trip.”
“Maybe I do, but this trip isn’t done yet.” Tired of arguing with him, I jogged down the hill in the direction of my father’s office.
“Where are you going?” Robin called, but I ignored him.
I had learned my lesson about trusting a fae prince. It was time I leaned on the people I knew I could count on.
Dad’s black BMW was parked in the small lot behind his office. His keys would be in the little ceramic dish that held imprints from pinecones and acorns that I had made for him one year for Father’s Day. If only I could get to them without arousing suspicion….
Luck was on my side. Through the plate-glass window, I spied Edith picking up her purse and heading toward the small restroom just off the kitchen. No sign of dear old dad. After inhaling a deep breath, I yanked open the door, snagged the keys, and whirled around before the bell even finished jingling.
I raced through the lot and unlocked the driver’s side door. Inserted the key and cranked the engine to life. As I pulled out of the lot, I passed the startled face of my father as he carried a pizza back toward his office.
Not good. I wanted to call out that I would bring the car back but didn’t want to risk being stopped. Instead, I headed out toward the abandoned campground at the Piney Gap Creek Reservation, where Ursula said Bill had brought her. Seduced her with kisses then cajoled her into going further and further.
She’d been a freshman. He was a junior. She’d wanted him to like her. So she went along with it, even though she didn’t really want to.
It wasn’t until later she discovered he had filmed their encounter. His list wasn’t just a list of names, but of victims that he had filmed. Mortified, Ursula had agreed to keep quiet about the whole thing, terrified that Bill would reveal the sex tape to her uber-conservative parents. So he got to play his little seduction game again and again.