“Robin, can I ask you something?”
“Okay.”
“That amulet.” I gripped my phone more tightly. “Do you know what it does?”
A pause. “No … I’m trying to learn more about it.”
“If you find out anything, will you tell me?”
“Have you seen it, Tori?” Intensity sharpened her voice. “Do you know where the amulet is?”
Shit. I’d said too much. “I have to go.” I hesitated, then added, “I’ll talk to you when I get back, okay?”
Before she could say anything else, I ended the call. I had no choice anymore. If we didn’t find answers in Enright, then Robin and I would be having a chat. She knew something about the amulet, and I’d find out what.
How I’d force information out of the shrimpy contractor was a challenge I’d tackle when the time came. Robin wasn’t as timid as she seemed, and she had an unstoppable weapon in the shape of an abs-tastic demon to protect her.
I pushed to my feet and surveyed the disaster that my room had become. Enright and its mysteries first. Then Robin and her unknown knowledge of the amulet next.
One way or another, I would save Ezra.
Chapter Three
“Who wants pizza?” I singsonged as I waltzed through the front door of Aaron’s house, three large boxes held dramatically above my head.
Aaron appeared in the doorway that separated the hall from the living room. Hands tucked in his jeans pockets, he arched an eyebrow. “You mean the pizza I ordered?”
“Don’t let the boxes fool you,” I declared loftily, breezing past him. “I made these pizzas with my own two hands.”
He followed me into the dining room. “Tell me you at least paid the delivery guy.”
“What, you think I tackled him and stole the food? I’m not the Hamburglar.” I slid the boxes onto the table and flipped the top on the first one. “Ham and pineapple?”
“With extra pineapple.” Aaron flashed a grin. “Might as well get our fill before Kai is back to discriminate against our topping selections.”
I set the first pizza aside and opened the second box. “Deluxe pepperoni with …” I shot Aaron a disbelieving stare. “With pineapple?”
Aaron’s grin widened.
Pushing that box out of the way, I flipped up the third lid. “Chipotle chicken with—”
“Pineapple,” a smooth voice whispered in my ear.
I shrieked and my hand mashed down into the hot pizza. I yanked it back, my palm coated in sauce and cheese. “Ezra!”
He stepped around me, his fingers brushing my waist—a brief touch, there and gone. Matching Aaron’s grin, he held his phone above the table. The flash went off.
“Did you just take a picture of the pizzas?” I asked bemusedly.
“No,” he lied, straight-faced as his gaze turned to his phone, thumbs already whizzing across the screen. “And I’m not sending any photos of our extra pineapply pizzas to Kai, either.”
“Pineapply isn’t a word.”
Aaron picked up a slice of pineapple-pepperoni. “Make sure to tell him that the chicken one is messed up because Tori stuck her hand in it.”
“Hey! That wasn’t my fault.” I held my cheese-smeared hand out like it was contaminated with radioactive waste. “Ezra, don’t—”
“Oops. Already hit send.”
I stomped into the kitchen to wash my hands. When I returned, Ezra and Aaron were perched on chairs and already on their second slices. I grabbed a ham and pineapple slice before they ate it all. How could they pack away an entire pizza each and still look that freakin’ good?
Ezra had one bare foot propped on his chair, his messy curls damp from a recent shower. If I had to guess, he’d only just stepped out of the shower and pulled on a t-shirt and sweats before sneaking upstairs to scare the crap out of me.
Yeah, that was exactly what had happened.
Trying not to think about him in the shower—if only I’d arrived a few minutes earlier—I took a big bite of pizza. Delicious, but not as good as Ezra-in-the-shower would’ve been.
His phone chimed, and he slid it off the table without shifting his pizza slice too far from his mouth. Peering at the screen, he let out a whoop of laughter—and choked on his mouthful.
Coughing, he shoved his phone at me and grabbed for the can of soda Aaron was holding out to him. He took a long gulp.
I blinked down at the screen. Kai had replied with a photo of his own—a selfie of the dark-haired electramage himself, staring disapprovingly into the camera while taking a sultry bite of his pineapple-free pizza.
Laughing, I passed the phone to Aaron and stuffed more food into my mouth. He chortled over the image, amusement brightening his eyes for the first time in days.
“Wednesday night pizza triumphs!” His delight faltered as he studied the photo. “But shit, look at that place. Where is he?”
Ramming the last of my slice between my teeth, I snatched the phone back and looked again. I’d been so focused on Kai’s face—and pizza choice—that I hadn’t noticed the background of the photo. He was sitting on a white sofa with curvy lines, and behind him stretched a massive suite with two-story-high windows in place of walls, the glowing lights of Vancouver ending at the dark water of the ocean. Aside from the designer sofa, everything in the room seemed to be made of glass or white marble.
“Is that a glass staircase?” I muttered, peering at the spiraling structure descending from the ceiling. “That’s terrifying. Do you think it’s slippery?”
Ezra reclaimed his phone and typed a reply. When his eyes, sparkling with mirth, darted to me, I made a wild grab for the phone again. With his stupid demonic reflexes, he spun in his chair and I ended up lunging into his back.
“Sent!”
“What did you type?” I growled, leaning over his shoulder.
Aaron leaned in from the other side to read the screen.
Ezra’s reply glowed beneath Kai’s photo: Tori wants to know if you’ve fallen down those stairs yet.
The phone chimed and Kai’s response appeared: Yeah. I think I cracked my tailbone.
My forehead scrunched. “Is he serious?”
“Good question,” Ezra muttered. “Should I ask—”
Another chime. Kai had added to the message: Makiko spilled a glass of water. They were slippery.
I pulled my arms from around Ezra. “Wait. Are they staying in the same suite?”
“You mean,” Aaron corrected, “are they staying in the same bedroom?”
Dropping back into my seat, I clenched my hands. “He better not be sleeping with that woman.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“He’s slept with tons of women.”
“And none of them were part of his life, which was the whole point.” Aaron took another slice. “Well, that and the sex. Maybe the sex was more the point.”
I snorted. “Okay, but—”
“If he is banging her, then it’s all part of his escape plan.”
“Sleeping with the enemy, huh?” I muttered, avoiding thoughts of Izzah, who was head over heels in love with Kai and had no idea why he’d dropped her like a nasty river rock covered in algae slime.