Page 74 of Ballad of Nightmares

“Yeah, boss?” Rolfe answered.

“You outside?” Sam asked as he walked to his window.

“Yeah.”

“Find out where she’s going today,” Sam said, turning to grab his jacket from the counter. “I’m heading to the studio for a few hours and then uptown to see Millie.”

“See you at the gallery opening tonight?” Rolfe asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll see you there.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

ANA STARED OUT the windows as she took the bus to the mental hospital east of midtown. St Orphs, it was called. She hadn’t asked Jay about it, only saying that she needed the rest of the day off to run a few errands. Jay didn’t mind. He’d been swiping on a dating app all morning and asking her her opinion on different prospects. She’d played along, though her mood had quickly deteriorated with every word.

At least Sam had been more himself that morning. She’d been concerned that perhaps she’d scared him off at the prison, but he’d taken his break at work to come to her apartment early and fucked her on her kitchen counter with deliberate tease while the coffee made in the pot behind them. She couldn’t lie… it had been a welcome wake-up call since he’d not been able to hang out with her since their last date.

She had almost begun to wonder if her slip of chaos inside the prison had made him wary, until she felt him in her bed. She’d thought him a dream. But his hands had been on her, trailing between her thighs, over her clit, and she’d opened her eyes to find him behind her, his lips on her throat.

“Sam… What are you—Fuck—“ She sank into the mattress at the tease of his fingers circling over her.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he admitted, teeth dragging over her neck.

“How… How did you get in?” she managed as a digit tickled her entrance.

His lips quirked, and he pushed that finger inside her, making her hips buck, a moan leave her. “You think a lock is going to keep me from you?”

That should have scared her. That he’d broken into her apartment and come into her bed without telling her. He reached up and pushed a curl from her face.

“Tell me you’d rather me leave,” he said softly.

Ana cursed her heart for the way it ached then. “No,” she said, her lips brushing his. He pushed another finger inside her, his thumb dragging over her clit, and she tried to keep herself from falling apart when his mouth latched onto her nipple. “Are you off work?”

“I have twenty-five minutes,” he replied, tongue swirling around that hardened peak.

She reached for his face and pulled him up to her. “Then you’ll let me start coffee so it’s ready for you when you leave.”

Sam’s eyes lit up, tongue darting out over his lips as he seemed to try and stifle a genuine smile. “How do you already know the key to my heart?”

She kissed him lightly. “Ass and coffee,” she teased. “You’re not as complicated as you think.”

Ana quickly broke herself out of those thoughts as the bus lurched with its stop, unsure of why she’d actually been concerned about scaring Sam off. He was just fun, after all. Her future lay in that castle across the way, not in her apartment with some random demon she’d thought was sexy.

Even though she was no closer to figuring out anything about the king other than how his demons operated.

She hoped the journalist could tell her something.Anything.

A blast of cold air hit her when she entered the renovated ward. She’d half expected the place to be some old manor out of a few of her favorite books, but it was just a tall, square building with little character and grey paint coating the brick outside.

She buzzed the intercom within the antechamber, and a pleasant voice greeted her on the other side.

“Saint Orphs ward. Who are you here to see?”

“My sister,” Ana said. “Rosie Brenn.”

Silence rang in her ears as the woman on the other side, behind a desk that Ana could see just fifteen feet away, debated the truth of Ana’s words.

“Sister?”