11. Damon
11
DAMON
I knew that Ari had said she was ready for this, but on the chance she wasn’t, I had to prepare. So I needed a few of my things just in case. When Jazz knocked on the door of the hotel suite, I tried to stop her from entering. “Thanks for dropping off my tools. We’re good.”
But she barged right past me. “While I’m here and have your undivided attention, there are some things that I?—”
Ari chose that moment to come out of her bedroom. “Oh, I didn’t know we had a visitor, darling.”
The word darling snaked around my spine, grasping me, pulling me into Ari’s orbit.
Just because she kissed you like you were the only man on the planet does not mean that shit is real. Get your shit together.
For fuck’s sake, I needed to. I wanted her. That was dangerous enough without taking her into the field.
“Thanks for dropping this stuff off, Jazz. You can go now.”
But Jazz was not having it. “Who is this gorgeous creature?”
Ari gave her an uncertain smile. “Um, hi. I’m Michelle.”
She was going with her cover. Good girl.
“It’s all right, Ari. Jazz works for me. You don’t have to pretend.”
Ari let out a relieved breath. “Oh, thank God. Hi, I’m Ari.”
Jazz grinned at her. “I like you.”
“Do you? I haven’t done anything yet.”
“Oh, the key word is yet . And you seem to already have my boss on his back foot, so that means I doubly like you.”
“Do I now?” Ari asked.
“Yes, he’s already tried to get rid of me,” Jazz said, giving me the side-eye. “Which means there’s something he doesn’t want me to see.” Suddenly, Jazz’s eyes went wide. “Oh my God, this is her?”
I shook my head. “Stand down, Jazz. Time to go.”
“Oh my God, this is her. You’re Ari Denton.”
Ari shifted on her feet. “Um, yes.”
Then Jazz turned to me, and I prayed: Shut your fucking trap, Jazz. Say nothing. Say nothing.
I tried to communicate those words telepathically to her as I glowered.
But Jazz was not having it. “Oh, my fucking God. You know, he talks about your father like the man walked on water.”
Ari gave her a wan smile. “Really? I think we had different experiences with my father.”
“That’s right, you two knew each other when you were young. He said you were a pain in the ass. Brave, but so curious and smart. I think he was a little in awe of how you were able to pick up stuff so quickly. Is it true that you can break into a Caston lock in five minutes and eleven seconds?”
Ari’s eyes went wide. “Uh, yeah, I’ve done it once. But it’s been some time.”
“Oh my God, he’s right, you Dentons do walk on water.”
I shifted uncomfortably. This was never going to end. Or it would end badly, with me humiliated. “That’s enough, Jazz. Ask your questions and get out of here.”
Jazz shook her head. “And is it true that you learned to break into the Jackson Double Spring on your own and in the dark?”
“Well, sort of. Dad wouldn’t let me work on anything with him, so I kind of had to teach myself.”
“Oh my God, but to learn by touch alone, that’s... Wow.”
“It’s been a while. I haven’t done that since I was a teenager.” Ari gave a nervous laugh. “I didn’t know I had a fan.”
“I just heard all these stories about you from Damon,” Jazz said, obviously completely starstruck. “So, naturally, I’m extremely curious about you.”
Ari turned her attention to me. “From Damon, huh?”
“Yeah. He was saying that your dad taught him everything but didn’t want to teach you, you know, to prevent you from becoming a criminal and all that. But you were determined to be just like him, so you learned all that stuff on your own with no help. Damon’s, like, your biggest fan. I’m surprised he hasn’t built a shrine to you.”
And there it was. I was praying for a hole to open up and swallow Jazz. Hell, I’d climb in with her just to shut her up. “Jazz, for fuck’s sake, that’s enough.”
She grinned at me. “How come she doesn’t know this already?”
“None of this is important. What do you need?”
She rolled her eyes. “Ugh, it’s such a waste not to tell the person you fangirl over how much you admire her when she’s right freaking here. Ari Denton.”
I wanted to die. “I’m a guy. I don’t fangirl.”
“Oh, don’t be a misogynist. Fanboy, whatever. The point is you’re a huge fan.”
I gritted my teeth. Ari had her arms folded, a hint of a smile playing across her lush lips.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I was quite proud of you and the fact I know you, okay? No big deal.”
“It’s funny. You never said a word.”
“There was no need to. Jazz, what do you need?”
“Okay, a couple of housekeeping things. I checked on the Burmans for you. The IRS came sniffing around with questions about their last tax return. For the meantime I convinced them to take cash, but you’ll want to find another way to funnel them money.”
“Shit. Okay, I’ll think of something.”
“What else?”
“The jewels from the Obsidian Crest. I’ve returned them to the family, per your request, along with the papers of authenticity.”
“Excellent.”
“I sure wanted to keep those,” she muttered.
“No ill-gotten gains, remember, Jazz? They belonged to the family, and they deserved to have them.”
“Yes, I know. We are the good guys. But, damn, they were gorgeous.”
I chuckled low. “Jazz, not in front of the guest.”
“Oh, come on, it’s Ari. She knows what you do. Hell, her father trained you.”
I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck as Ari grinned and said, “This is fascinating. By all means, do tell me his secrets.”
Jazz chuckled“God, I like her.” She turned to Ari. “I mean, you...know your dad’s rules. Damon has taken them to heart. Hell, he’s mostly legit now.”
“Is that so?”
Jazz was more than happy to spill. “As it turns out, Damon’s actually pretty good at the import-export business. But occasionally someone calls for a favor, or Damon runs into someone that maybe needs to be taught a lesson and be parted from their prized possessions.”
Ari slid me an assessing gaze. “Is that so?”
I ignored Ari’s question. Instead, I focused on Jazz and her loose lips, then said, “I don’t like assholes. Assholes with Picassos sometimes get robbed. I listened when your dad said to have something that makes me legitimate, a way out. Anything else, Jazz?”
“No, I’ve got everything else covered.”
“Then you can go now.”
“Okay.” She turned to Ari. “It was a delight meeting you. Maybe one day we can, I don’t know, sit down and chat. I have Damon stories for days. But I would love to know what young Damon was like. Was he as stupidly hot as he is now? He’s still completely useless with women.”
Ari blinked in surprise.
“Oh, he can get women,” Jazz clarified, “but he fucks up so quick.”
Ari laughed at that. “Wow, Jazz, I think I like you too.”
My blabbering assistant winked at Ari, turned, gave me a knuckle tap, and headed out.
I hung my head as I closed the door behind her. “For fuck’s sake.”
“A crush on me, huh?”
“I didn’t have a crush. I just thought your skill was unparalleled. I was so tired of your father training me all the time.”
She frowned at that. “You were?”
I shrugged. “You have the magic touch. All the stuff you learned by yourself so easily, I had to work really hard at. I wasn’t very good at first.”
She licked her bottom lip. “But he chose to train you.”
Does she really have no idea that he was protecting her and instead think that he didn’t love her?
“Your dad gave me training for a reason; I wasn’t good at much. Or he didn’t think I would be. I was a scruffy kid with no prospects. He gave me a chance to be something else. You, though, you had prospects from the beginning. He didn’t want to mire you down into this thing that he was. You might not know it, but he was ashamed that he stole for a living.”
She frowned. “I didn’t know. All this time, I thought he?—”
“What? You thought he loved me more? That I was the son he always wanted?”
“A little. He always said he wanted to protect me. But that felt like an excuse.”
I shook my head. “Give your dad a little more credit than that, Ari. I wasn’t stealing his love. He just saw a kid with nothing else going for him. He was proud of you. You should know that.”
I turned to go, but I heard her whisper, “Maybe you have a lot more to offer than I thought too.”