The only exception is a group of eight young men by the front windows who laugh loudly and take turns bouncing coins into shot glasses on their table. One of the men ducks out of the way of a rogue shot and slips from his stool onto the floor. His friends break out into loud hoots, and everyone in the bar turns to look at them.
I use the distraction to search for my target.
Even in the dim candlelight, my mark is so easy to identify, his bright red hair like a beacon the moment I step into the bar. I toss my cloak over a chair in the corner booth. As I cross the room, heads turn to take me in.
It’s the dress. It’s spectacular and obviously expensive, which draws the eye in this part of town. Many of the magical family guards spend time here, so it’s not exactly a bad neighborhood—more the part of town where they have just enough to covet expensive things.
There’s an opening at the bar a few seats down from my mark. I lean over to flag the bartender down, showing off my backside. The young man behind the bar is on me immediately, a flirtatious smile on his face.
“Big night, miss?”
I twist a lock of hair around my finger and nod. “Could I get a chilled bottle of sparkling wine?”
He hesitates for a moment, but I pull out a Mattingly family marker. The bartender’s eyes go wide when he sees it, and he nods. He disappears into the back room.
Interesting. When Aidia passed me this marker, I wasn’t sure it would come in handy for something, but that level of service makes me wonder if my twisted brother-in-law makes a habit of gifting his household markers to beautiful young women.
Most families give those markers out sparingly because they’re essentially a free pass to add your tab from anywhere in the city onto the corresponding Gatekeeper House’s bill.
The young bartender returns, opens the bottle, and stashes it in a bucket of ice. Batting my eyes, I snatch the bucket and two glasses and cross the room to a table in my mark’s line of sight.
His gaze is heavy on me as I cross the room and slip into my seat.
I meet his eyes as I pour myself a glass of wine. Leaning back in my chair, I take a sip, letting a few drops splash onto my chest as I draw the glass away. The chilled wine slides down between my breasts.
“Does that work?” a voice right next to my ear says.
I jump and whip my head around to see Henry’s smug smile.
He’s squatting behind me, his dark blue eyes filled with amusement as he studies my target.
I try to stuff down the panic that he might have followed me all night—that he might know Bea is involved in this.
“What are you doing here? This bar has a strict no-wild-animal policy,” I say, leveling him with a glare.
He settles into the seat beside me and helps himself to my wine. “Well, lovely, as you’ve seen, I’m excellent at walking on my hind legs. I’m sure no one will notice.”
Every eye in the room presses in on us now.
I arch a brow. “Oh?”
He purses his lips. “They’re all looking at that dress—or maybe the lack of dress.”
I smile brightly. “So you noticed.”
“Isn’t that the idea? For men to notice you?”
“Why are you here?” I ask.
He leans back and holds his drink up to the room. “It’s date night with my beautiful fiancée, of course.”
“Not until later.”
He winks at a man walking by. “But how could I wait when the heart wants what it wants?” His voice is overly loud, and people keep looking at us. This is not the attention I want to be getting.
“You’re ruining everything,” I whisper.
He cocks his head. “By wanting to get to know you?”
