“Quite right!” he said brightly, and I slipped my arm in his, dropping one foot behind the other to pose with him. God, Nick was easier to manipulate than my brother.

My heart pounded as I felt the line take us, and I had a moment of panic. This didn’t count. If Al took me out of here before I could finish the deal, it didn’t count!

“Wait!” Nick’s voice came thinly, and I heard Al swear, but we misted back into existence to see Nick standing there with his long, sensitive hand outstretched in doubt. A surge of adrenaline and sexual excitement pulsed in me. Shit, I’m not getting turned on over this?

Al must have sensed it, because he leaned closer, his hand curving around my side, then withdrawing lightly across my back to make me quiver. “Sweet mother of chaos,” he breathed. “Rachel, you are indeed one of us. Have your time in the sun. You’re worth the extra wait.”

Licking my lips, I stood, unable to move. The blood pounded low in my groin, and I clenched my teeth. Damn it, I was not getting turned on by besting Nick in a game of bluff!

Am I?

“What’s the take?” Nick asked warily, eying me so closely that I had to wonder if he knew what was going through my mind.

Swallowing, I pulled from Al. “I want to steal something from Trent.” Something more than his hoof pick this time.

Al dropped back, humming happily about this little witch of mine.

Nick looked me up and down. “Lab, office, or living quarters?”

Damn it, I think I’ve got him! There’d be the obligatory pissing contest, but he’d do it. “Thief’s choice, just not his living quarters.”

Nick grabbed a couple of twist ties from the trash and laced a boot closed. “Why not his rooms?”

I shrugged, shifting farther from both men. “I promised I wouldn’t.”

“Can I take a person?” Nick asked, and I recoiled.

“No. A thing. I don’t care what it is. I figured you’d know better than me what Trent has in his basement that he’s not sharing with the world. It has to be something embarrassing and sensational. Something he wants back, bad, but doesn’t want to admit having.”

Nick looked up from tying his second boot with a twist tie. “Blackmail? He gets the coven off your case or you go public with it?” His head shook. “He’ll just kill you.”

“Which is why I’m giving it back before he has the chance,” I said. I didn’t think Trent would kill me. If I died, even disgraced and shunned, his biolabs would hit the front page.

Nick looked at me in disbelief. “You want me to steal just so you can give it back?”