I couldn’t stop my sigh. Trent shifted, clearly wanting to end this so he could start looking for Nick, maybe.

“Oliver,” Trent said, and my eyebrows rose in surprise. “What do you hope to gain here? It’s not good business anymore.”

He turned to Trent, indignation thick on him. “Good business?” he blustered. “I’m trying to keep the world from knowing witches come from demons, and you’re worried about your career being ruined by a pornographic statue. Why do you even have that?”

“It’s an object of ancient art, and it was in my vault, not my bedroom,” Trent said dryly. “If you’re so concerned about your secret, perhaps you should give Ms. Morgan what she wants? Being in favor with someone who can go into the ever-after with impunity might be good.”

Do tell? I thought in amazement, using one of Pierce’s favorites. Maybe he’s more ticked at Nick than I thought.

“Blackmail!” Oliver stated, pushing back from the table and standing up.

Trent was searching his pockets. “Business. Morgan has a commodity. Silence.” Finding a pen, he looked up. “You’re going to have to buy it from her or kill her. Take it from someone who’s tried, even if she is dead, the truth will come out and she’ll bring you down from the grave.”

He’s helping me convince Oliver? Are frogs coming from the sun in spaceships, too?

Unable to sit still any longer, I said, “I’m not a bad person, Ollie. I have a cat and a fish, and I don’t kick stray dogs.” I do burn the wings from fairies, but damn it, they attacked me first. “I don’t want the world to know that I’m a stepping-stone to demons or that our beliefs are based on ancient elf propaganda. But I don’t want to live in Alcatraz or the ever-after either. I just want to make a living doing what I do best.”

The coven leader turned from the curtained one-way mirror, shaking his head. “Destroying society? I’ve seen what you’ve done to the Weres and the elves.”

Trent, who was clearly looking for something to write on, silently gestured at the little slip from the fortune cookie, and I pushed it to him. “I prefer calling it restructuring,” I said. “I don’t hear them complaining, but what I meant was, I want to operate my runner business and rescue familiars out of trees. It’s you guys coming at me that makes me do all this weird stuff that gets you in a tizzy.”

Clicking his pen closed, Trent tucked it away. “Oliver, she’s a little backward in her methods, but her heart is in the right place. You saw what she did at the square. She could have killed you, but she didn’t. Let this go. I’ll watch her until she gains some finesse.”