I pushed myself into the corner of the room away from the door. In theory, I no longer needed to spy on Byron and find out what he was doing. but it was possible he was with his Sidhe mate who had the Lia Saifire. That would be useful to know. When I peered through the open gap, it certainly wasn’t so I could catch another glimpse of the Moncrieffe heir. No sirree.

There was only one person with Byron and it wasn’t Mr Dimples. It was some massive guy who was blocking my view. I wrinkled my nose. Come on. Get out of the way. I could hear Byron chatting about something to do with keys, which made next to no sense to me. The big guy shifted his weight. Jeez. He was the size of a freaking Wild Man. A second after that that thought, I smelled the cloves. No. Sodding. Way.

My heart hammering against my chest, I pulled back from the door and pressed against the wall. Why would the Wild Man enforcer be here with Byron? It wouldn’t make sense unless he was working for him. Unless Byron himself was the moneylender who’d bought Taylor’s loan. Several pieces slotted into place. I was a complete and utter fool. I thought I’d been manipulating him when all along he’d been the one manipulating me.

I thought of the letter I’d received demanding my presence at the Sidhe court. The one that had made me ramp up my plans to leave Aberdeen. When I didn’t answer, Byron must have put his own plans into action.

He dangled the cherry of the Lia Saifire in front of our eyes then yanked it away, ensuring at the same time that the jewel’s whereabouts were well publicised. He found a weak spot with Taylor and bought his loan, then demanded immediate repayment – along with impossible interest – to force the issue. Who else but a Sidhe princeling could pull the police’s strings and get Brochan and Speck arrested on nonsensical charges? Byron pretended to be into me while I pretended ‒ sort of pretended ‒ to be into him. He made me promise to come back tonight. All this was part of some elaborate plot to make me do as he wished and go to the Sidhe court. I still had no idea why but I didn’t bloody care. The utter wanker. The total bastard. The…

‘You can come out now, Integrity.’

I swore bitterly and flung open the door, glaring at him. ‘You prick,’ I hissed. ‘You set me up.’

He linked his hands behind his head and grinned at me. ‘You set me up too.’

I jabbed my finger at his chest. He was bloody lucky I hated violence because right now I was tempted to poke his eyeballs out. ‘Why? Why go to all this trouble?’

‘If you’d answered the first missive…’