My lips pressed together and I snatched it, counting the money. Pay me in cash? Out of the captain’s pocket? Someone had fallen deep into “cover your ass” mode. My stomach tightened as I realized it was far less than what we had agreed upon. I’d been almost a week on this. “And you’ll get me the rest later, right?” I asked as I shoved it into my bag.

“Management won’t pay for Dr. Anders’s canceled class,” he said, not looking at me.

Stiffed again. Not looking forward to telling Ivy I was short with my rent, I opened the door and got out. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the piano was coming from the church. “Tell you what, Edden.” I slammed the door shut. “Don’t call me again.”

“Grow up, Rachel,” he said, jerking me back around. His round face was tight as he leaned across the seat to talk to me through the window. “If it had been me, I would have arrested you and given you to the I.S. to play with. He told you to wait, and you stepped all over his authority.”

Fingers pulling the strap of my bag higher up my shoulder, my scowl faltered. I hadn’t thought about it like that.

“Look,” he said, seeing my sudden understanding. “I don’t want to break our working relationship. Maybe when things cool off, we can try this again. I’ll get the rest of the money to you somehow.”

“Yeah. Sure.” I straightened, my beliefs in the asinine, knee-jerk reactions of upper management reinforced, but maybe I owed Glenn an apology.

“Rachel?”

Yup. I owed Glenn an apology. I turned to Edden, a depressed, frustrated sigh shifting through me. “Tell Glenn I’m sorry,” I muttered. Before he could respond, I sent my heels clacking on the cracked sidewalk and up the wide stone steps. For a moment there was silence. Then the car’s fan belt whined as Edden backed up and drove away. The music was coming from inside. Still upset about my missing rent, I yanked open the heavy door and went in.

Ivy must be home. My frustration with Edden died with the chance to finally talk to her. I wanted to tell her that nothing had changed and she was still my friend—if she’d have me for one. Turning down the offer to be her scion might be an insurmountable insult in the vamp world. I didn’t think so, though. What little I had seen of her showed guilt, not anger.

Ivy?” I called cautiously.

The piano cut off in mid-chord. “Rachel?” Ivy responded from the sanctuary. There was a worrisome hint of alarm in her voice. Damn, she was going to run. Then my eyebrows rose. That wasn’t a recording. We had a piano?

Shrugging out of my coat, I hung it up and went into the sanctuary, blinking at the sudden light. We had a piano. We had a beautiful, black, baby grand piano sitting in an amber and green sunbeam coming in through the stain-glassed windows. Its top was propped up to show its insides, the wires gleaming and the stops all velvety smooth.