Wicked Harmony

Chapter 28 | Iri

Chapter 28

Iri

I may have miscalculated some things.

I knew there was a reason Sin called to me before we ever met. But I put it down to her being the right person for the job.

As soon as I heard what the ex-cult-lovers had to say and saw those videos of The Path, I thought she might do her thing and my brothers would fall in love with gigging and touring again.

That they’d find the old spark. The enjoyment and joy we’ve all lost working ourselves to exhaustion over the years.

Instead, I think they’ve all fallen for Sin.

Not that I blame them.

She’s made it so that Micah doesn’t need to escape anymore. And given Cal a place where he belongs, understanding him without even needing to try.

Dorian’s been closed off for years now. He’s the only one of us with a recent experience of heartbreak and of losing trust in the person who was supposed to know him best. And now he’s found his fated mate. The one woman who can look at him without him turning her into a living statue.

I know these things. I feel them. Understand them. They’re locked in.

What I don’t know is when my own feelings toward Sin began drifting south of being professional .

I spent weeks kitting out the cabin with her favorite things, but never quite twigged why I was doing those things. Midnight trips to the supermarket to fill the fridge with orange juice with pulpy bits when she mentioned those were her favorite. Avoiding any movies with sad endings because she hates them. Not allowing coconut in the house or in any of the hotels we’re staying at because she’s allergic.

It’s like one particular organ in my body forgot to tell the rest of me what was happening.

I like her.

She fits in with all of us. Our cabin hasn’t felt so cozy in a long time, like a proper home. This time around, it was somewhere that none of us were eager to leave.

And then the scent of her arousal filled the airplane on the flight here. It couldn’t have been more obvious that my feelings had shifted. I could live off the taste of her and her sexual energy alone, and that’s when it wasn’t even directed at me.

My aim for tonight was to show Sin something private I normally would keep to myself. But it didn’t exactly go like I thought it would.

It’s clear my mental calculations went wrong somewhere, and now I’m stumped.

She’s still uncertain around me, that much is clear. And I’m fairly sure if I took her out to dinner right now, she’d think it was a business meeting and my stupid mouth would convince her she was right.

When we return to the hotel, Sin seems exhausted, so I walk her to her room in our suite. She waves me off with a tired smile and as soon as her door shuts; I spin on my heel and head toward Dorian’s room.

“What are you doing here?” he grouches from the bed, peering behind me. “Where’s Sin? ”

I shrug, brushing past him so I can collapse onto the sofa in his room. “She headed back to her room. Or maybe to Cal’s room, I don’t know.”

Dorian cocks an eyebrow. “But I thought you were taking her on a secret squirrel mission to somewhere that was going to impress the hell out of her? Figured you’d be busy getting into her panties by this point.”

I give an exaggerated shudder. “Don’t say ‘panties’, man. Fuck.” I let out a sigh. “And I don’t know what happened. I thought it would be nice and quiet. Romantic, even. But she was tired and wanted to head back early. I think I just gave her anxiety about tomorrow.”

Fuck. She definitely felt anxious toward the end. What the hell was I thinking?

Dorian’s smirking like all of this is amusing him. I guess it would, since he’s got a godsdamn fated connection with her.

“Have you talked to her about anything at all beyond her gadgets and these fucking gigs?” he asks.

I try to think back over all our conversations, and other than the ridiculous little game I came up with to get to know her better, I’m coming up empty.

“Man, you’re fucked.” He laughs in my face with zero hesitation and I level him with a glare he takes no notice of.

“How’s the catfishing going?”

Ah, my latest time sink. I’ve spent an insane number of hours over the past few weeks trying to get more information on Cedar Orlog.

“My plan was to track him down and I figured I’d send the authorities after him—since there’s no way that guy’s paid taxes in his life. Either that, or I was going to slip the information to one of the demon gangs he owes money to, since I’m pretty sure my mother has a bunch of their numbers on speed dial.”

All part of her messy brand of chaos .

Too bad Cedar Orlog is proving more elusive than I expected.

“He’s a slippery fucker,” I continue. “I think I offered him too much money, and he got spooked. He stopped replying about a week ago.”

I haven’t been able to get a location on him either, since he’s still making videos but is clearly hiding out somewhere. I even got Elara involved in the search for him, along with my own guy who tracked Elara down in the first place, but they’ve both come up empty-handed.

“Are you going to tell Sin about what you’ve been doing to try to track him down?”

I shake my head before bashing it against the doorframe. “What? You think I should?”

Dorian shrugs. “Otherwise, what’s the plan? You just wait for him to get audited and arrested or have his eyeballs plucked out and then explain that you had a big role in it all going down?”

I shrug. “I don't know. You don’t think she’ll think it’s... a bit much?”

He lets out a full laugh, once again at my expense. “Oh, I know she will. At least it’ll give her an idea of how far gone you are. You’re a little intense and obsessive, dude. You can’t hide that side of you or keep it locked down forever, or you’ll only scare her away once she finds out.”

Pushing his hair away from his forehead, he lets out a long-suffering sigh. “It’s scary as shit, man. Putting yourself out there and hoping like hell she’ll accept you.”

I blink at him. That sounds... strangely terrifying.

But I’m up to the challenge. Hopefully.

I take a step back, fully intending to charge to her room and lay myself bare to her. But before I can move, Dorian puts his hand on my arm .

“It’s late, man. Unless you want to walk in on her getting eaten out by Cal, I’d leave it until the morning.”

I cock my head, not seeing a downside to that visual. “Is that why you're here alone? Can’t cope with seeing your mate with someone else?”

Dorian scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Not a problem, man.”

Since Dorian seems to know what he’s doing better than I do, I guess I’m going to take his advice.

I’ll hold off on talking to Sin until tomorrow, then.

And since I don’t sleep, I’m going to have a damn long night ahead of me.