The truth was, I still wasn’t sure at times why I was with him. I couldn’t help but recall his comments about me keeping him as a bed warmer, but true or not, now wasn’t the time to bring that up. Plus, he’d been sweet lately—something I’d never expected when I’d turned to him in my post-Seth rage.

“Dante, I’m serious. Don’t worry about any of this. I’ll take care of it and talk to my friends.”

I saw from the look on his face that that wasn’t quite what he’d wanted to hear. Knowing I had other people to go to seemed to make him feel more inadequate.

“You shouldn’t be involved in this at all,” he said.

“What, in finding Jerome? Of course I have to be.”

“There are others, people who are more powerful. I don’t want you getting hurt again! Why can’t you just lie low and keep yourself safe?” he demanded.

“Because it’s not what I do! And no one else is going to do it anyway. They’re just letting this go. Letting Jerome go.”

“Why don’t you let it go?” he asked. “Would it be so bad to work under another demon? You’ve worked for others.”

I turned and gazed out the window. The sky was blue, but something told me it was cold out. It was a quirk of Seattle weather. We often had warmer temperatures when it was cloudy out, colder ones when it was sunny. Dragging my eyes back to Dante, I said, “Yeah, I have. But this is different. This isn’t right—it shouldn’t have happened. I have to find Jerome.”

“Yes. You do. It’s written all over you. Why do you have to make everything so difficult and create these problems?”

“If you’re unhappy, no one’s making you stick around,” I said quietly.

“Of course I’m sticking around. And if there’s nothing to be done for your impulsivity, I might as well help.” He snatched up the photo and glared at it. “Let me take this and ask some questions. I might not know what it is—yet—but there are resources I can tap.”

There was a hard set to his face. He was a man with a mission, which I preferred to him being down on himself or ranting at me. I was about to send him off with my blessings, but something held me back. I couldn’t let the picture go.

“I want to keep the photo,” I told him.

He stared. “You don’t think I’ll bring it back?”

“No, I’m not worried about that. But I did a lot to get it, and besides, I want to show it to some people too. We’ll make a copy of it. You can take that.”

“Yeah? You got a copy machine in the bathroom?”