Page 29 of Thief of Night (The Charlatan Duology #2)

But she’d had what felt like thirty-seven bourbons, so instead she gave Topher an enormous, lascivious grin. “He still is with me.”

“You’re a nice girl, taking him in like that,” said Brooks. “He mustn’t have been in the best shape.”

Charlie put her hand on Red’s arm. She could feel the strain of muscles under his skin. “He kept a lot of secrets,” she said, feeling proud that even though her tongue felt numb, she wasn’t yet slurring her words. “From everyone, I guess. I’m glad it wasn’t just me.”

Adeline frowned.

“I’m trying to lie less,” Red said easily. “In my undeath.”

They laughed at that.

Topher was still focused on deviling Charlie. “Once Remy inherits his fortune, he can pay you back for whatever you did for him.”

Charlie felt her cheeks flush at the insult, not just that she’d want to be paid for her services, but that she was a problem for him to throw money at.

“He’s the best investment you’ll ever make,” said Madison, laughing as though she’d made a clever joke.

“He doesn’t owe me anything.” Instead of making her wild, the alcohol seemed to have made Charlie alarmingly sincere. That needed to be remedied. Putting her finger in the air, she signaled for yet one more double bourbon.

Adeline gave her a pitying look.

“On the contrary,” said Red. “I owe you a great deal. I may owe you my life.” He didn’t sound happy about it.

“Well,” said Brooks, “I wouldn’t mind you being in my debt, Carver, that’s all I’m saying.

Once you get your money, you will have to come to the city.

Get a pied-à-terre. We can make you forget the last few years in short order.

In fact, I’m heading out to Aspen in a week.

You should join us. Surely Addy can advance you the cash. ”

“No ID yet,” Red said. “Dead men don’t go through airport security.”

Madison laughed. “You know the security when you’re flying private is half-assed at best. I’ve definitely seen some walking corpses get through customs.”

They all laughed again.

Salt had a private plane. Red must have flown on one lots of times. Charlie wasn’t even sure why she cared, but it bothered her that she’d never even thought of it before. Never even imagined it. He’d never mentioned it either.

“I’ll talk to the lawyers,” Red said. “Try to move things along.”

Madison squinted at him. “I don’t know what I expected, but you sound different.”

Charlie bit the inside of her cheek. If he couldn’t convince them he was Remy, he was going to be in a very tricky position.

“I am different,” said Red. “In a way, Remy really is dead.”

A shudder went through Adeline’s shoulders.

Topher put his hand on her arm. She leaned away from him, but not enough to break contact.

Brooks gave a big sigh and raised his drink again. “Remy Carver is dead. Long live Remy Carver.”

They were all lit enough to raise their glasses to that. “Remy Carver is dead,” they chanted. “Long live Remy Carver.”

“Soon, it’ll go back to the way it used to be,” put in Adeline, eyes sparkling. “All of us, together again.”

“All of us, together again,” Topher toasted, but his attention was entirely on her.

“And me,” Charlie said. “Intruding.” Then she drank.

“To you, Charlie Hall,” Red said, holding up his glass. “For putting up with me and all my baggage.”

“I doubt she’ll have to do it much longer,” said Topher, then laughed at his own joke.

“What did you say?” Red asked mildly.

“Oh, she’s too drunk to remember anyway,” Topher reassured him.

“You are forgettable,” Charlie snapped, smiling, glad for an excuse to show her teeth.

Finally, she’d run out of patience. She was tired of being ignored.

Tired of them sneering at her. And most of all, she was tired of feeling as though Red might see her through their eyes and like her less because of it.

“That must be why Adeline doesn’t love you. ”

Madison gave a gasp. Brooks snorted.

“People like you,” Topher told Charlie, “always show their bad breeding eventually.”

Maybe she had gone too far, breaking the masquerade that he had any chance with Adeline, but leave it to him to make Charlie’s lack of discretion proof that she wasn’t one of their kind. Of course, there had never been a way to be good enough, only multiple paths to prove that she wasn’t.

“People like you,” she said, her smile widening, “are so used to the taste of spit in your food that you think it’s some exclusive seasoning. People like you are so used to getting what you want that if you were stranded on the side of the road, you’d refuse a ride from a car without heated seats.”

“Fuck you,” he said.

She stood, flushed with triumph. Then her heel caught on the rung of the barstool. Her drunken reflexes betrayed her. She fell sideways, kicking the table hard enough on her way down that Brooks’s drink was knocked to the floor, the glass shattering.

For a moment, lying there, she thought of being behind the bar of Rapture, surrounded by smashed bottles, when the gloamist’s shadow had smothered her.

Then Madison started to laugh. A moment later they were all laughing, looking down at her. Once again, Charlie had made a spectacular fool of herself. The heel on one of her shoes had entirely broken off so she couldn’t even stand with dignity. She could taste tears in the back of her throat.

“This is what you like, Carver?” Topher said, sneering.

Charlie pushed herself to her feet and kicked off her shoes. Then she punched him in the face.

Charlie Hall, glue trap for disaster. But come too close and you’ll get stuck too.

Topher staggered back, hitting the bar. His hand came up to his face. His nose was bleeding. “You’re a crazy bitch.”

“Glad you finally figured that out,” Charlie said.

A big guy with a beard pushed away from the wall and headed toward them. Security. Well fine, she didn’t want to be there anyway. She didn’t want any of this. Barefoot, she stomped out of the bar and into the icy-cold parking lot.

She didn’t have the keys to the Porsche and she was far too drunk to drive anyway. She definitely didn’t want to face Red. So she kept walking, her body hot with shame.

Charlie got about a block away before realizing that it was much too cold for her temper. And that if she went farther, she would come to the end of the tether that bound her to Red.

As she turned, bright lights swung her way. The Porsche drove up beside her. Adeline was in the passenger seat.

“Get in,” Red said.

“Leave me alone,” Charlie told him, as impossible as that demand was.

He sighed. “You know I can’t do that.”

No, neither of them could escape one another. Her head hurt and she felt stupid. And she was sure that in the morning, she was going to feel much, much worse.

“I’m sorry things went so badly tonight,” Adeline said, although Charlie didn’t think she was sorry at all. Of course, Charlie wasn’t in the most generous state of mind.

“It’s cold, Char,” Red said, his voice gentler. “Please get in.”

Vince used to call her that. “I could make you feel something,” Charlie said mulishly, opening the door. “I could fucking make you.”

“You make me feel plenty,” he told her.

She got into the tiny back seat. Her feet stung in the air blown from the heater, signaling just how cold they’d been. She rested her head against the window. Not looking at Red. Not looking at Adeline. Keeping her gaze focused on the blur of moving lights.