Bianca had no response to that and subsided into a squirming silence.
She must have dropped off, because she woke to the changing sound beneath the tires. They’d turned off the main road and were driving down a tree-lined lane only wide enough for one car. Branches scraped the side of her car and made her wince. Twilight had fallen, and the looming trees surrounded the car in a creepy gloom. “We’re there?”
“Yes.” Lucifer stopped the car in the abandoned lane. “If he is here, I want you to wait in the car and let us handle this.”
Aaand Lucifer’s control freak was on the rampage again. “Yeah, no.”
“You are safe in the car.” Lucifer turned around and gave her a stern look.
He should know better than to think that would work on her. “I’ll be perfectly safe coming with you. This is Christen we’re talking about.” She gave him a smirk. “Unless you’re afraid of Weaz-adj?”
“I’m not arguing with you.” Lucifer jaw muscle ticked.
“No, you’re not.” Bianca raised her chin and scowled back. “And I’m not waiting in the car like some quivering damsel.”
Raphael hummed an agreement. “She doesn’t really seem like the quivering damsel type.”
Lucifer kept glaring at her.
Bianca kept glaring right back.
“Fine,” Lucifer snapped and put the car back in drive. “But if you get hurt, I’m adding it to the list of shit you need to atone for.”
That list was so long already. “No problem.”
Lucifer focused on the lone lighted window in the ramshackle cabin. Although cabin was too romantic a description for the rundown clapboard house at the edge of the lake. Someone had attempted to cheer it up by painting the exterior a jaunty blue. They should have saved the paint because it only made the dwelling look even more depressed.
“What’s the plan?” Raphael’s voice was low, his gaze fixed on the cabin.
“No plan.” Lucifer parked the car. “I find Christen. I ask him once nicely for the grimoire. If he refuses, I beat the crap out of him until he tells me.”
“Old school.” Raphael nodded his approval. “Simple and effective.”
Bianca made a soft noise of protest. Whether it was for Christen or the situation, he chose not to ask. He wished she would do as he asked for once and stay in the car. Things were about to get ugly, and he’d rather she not see that side of him.
What was he thinking? It shouldn’t matter to him what a witch thought of him. Increasingly, however, it seemed that it did. All day, he’d sensed her fretting over what had nearly happened between them. That he wanted to reassure her baffled him.
A silhouette crossed the lighted window. Weaz-adj was here and Lucifer’s hunting instinct stirred.
It was almost completely dark, and the lake was an inky smear in the distance.
He had to try to reason with Bianca one more time. “Are you sure you won’t stay in the car?”
She made a face at him.
Stubborn bloody woman.
Lucifer climbed out of the car and Raphael flanked him as they walked the overgrown path to the cabin. Loud music poured through the cabin’s thin walls and provided an explanation why the sound of a car approaching hadn’t drawn Christen out of the cabin.
Along with his myriad faults Weaz-adj also had horrible taste in music.
They climbed the two rickety steps to the front door. The porch protested loudly about their weight on its rotting boards.
“Let me knock,” Bianca whispered. “If he sees you two, he might panic and run.”
Panicking sounded about right to Lucifer, and even if Weaz-adj did run, he couldn’t go fast enough or far enough to escape the lesson heading his way.
Bianca’s gaze met his, imploring him. “I might be able to persuade him to give me the grimoire.”
He hated her looking at him like that, but most of all he hated that he caved like a faulty mineshaft. “All right, but you have two minutes before we take over.”
“I commend you for sticking to your guns,” Raphael murmured.
Bloody archangel could fuck right off.
Bianca knocked.
There was a pause, and then the music volume lowered. The door muffled Christen’s voice. “Who is it?”
Blood lust surged through Lucifer.
“Christen,” Bianca called. “It’s me. It’s Bianca.”
“Bianca?” The music snapped off. “What are you doing here?”
One and a half minutes down. Lucifer raised his brow at Bianca, letting her know time was ticking down.
“You know why I’m here,” Bianca spoke to the door. “Now open up and let me in.”
A floorboard creaked inside.
Raphael rolled his eyes.
“No,” Weaz-adj said. “You shouldn’t even be here. In fact, I don’t know how you found me.”
“That’s not important.” Annoyance laced Bianca’s tone. “Now please open the door.”
“Go away, Bianca.” Weaz-adj gave the wrong answer—for him.
Lucifer relished Weaz-adj’s reply, because it meant they would do things his way.
Bianca pounded on the door. “I’ve come for the grimoire, Christen, and I’m not leaving without it.”
“What grimoire?” Christen blustered.
“Time’s up,” Lucifer said and blew the door off its hinges. He stalked into a living room filled with shabby, mismatched furniture and one cowering asshole. “Surprise.”
