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Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow tried one last angle xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

This baroness’s persistence was really starting to grate on Crow’s nerves. He narrowed his eyes at her slightly in annoyance. She continued to question the nuances of his words and bring in more information he wasn’t aware she’d already had. It made it difficult to lie to her when he didn’t know if she would spring more facts on him that made his explanations obsolete. He would have had a much easier time pushing a fake story on her if he’d known up front what sort of background knowledge she had on him and Penelope. With the way things were turning out now, he had to wrack his brain to come up with a believable way to answer every wrench she threw into his lies.

As Mia leaned closer to him, he shifted uncomfortably, disliking how fixated her dark eyes were on his face. It almost felt like she could read his mind, though he knew such a thing was impossible. He took a slow breath, forcing himself to keep calm. If he reacted visibly to her accusations, his body language alone would be enough to give away at least some of the truth. He clenched his jaw stubbornly. For Penelope’s sake, he couldn’t let this woman find out the real nature of their relationship.

“I find it insulting that you would give a knight credit for my work,” Crow curled his lip at her hostilely. “Yes, your lieutenant has treated me like an equal, but I’m perfectly capable of escaping from your incompetent guards on my own. I don’t need her or anyone else’s help to take care of myself—and that goes for my escape two years ago too.” He let out an irritable huff. “I did my part by stealing that godsforsaken staff, so I think I quite deserved to have my freedom returned to me, regardless of whether you nobles agree with that or not.”

He turned away from the baroness to look up at the canopy again, “You know what? If you really want to believe your lieutenant is consorting with a thief, go right ahead. She may have been respectful to me during our past encounters, but I have no ties to her strong enough to care what her fate becomes, so it makes no difference to me what you choose to do with her.” He toyed absently with the chain around his wrist, as if growing disinterested with the conversation. “Anyway, I gave you my explanation already, so take it or leave it as you will, because I’m not going to repeat myself.”

Match Up in Malibu [Bee & Summer]

Jett was just starting to think he’d found another nice, normal girl to talk to at this party, when Nina suddenly went off about her excitement to meet him. He wasn’t really all that surprised, since this was how most people treated him when he told them his name—unless they had already recognized his face to begin with—but he was a little disappointed to find out that she was just another eccentric fan. He had been hoping that the people on the show would have a little more self-control than this, even when she they did recognize him. Although, to be fair, Nina looked like she’d had a lot to drink that night. Maybe she was normally more contained than this, but the alcohol had taken away her filter? He wanted to believe it. After all, despite the crazy energy, she was an attractive woman, and she seemed like a fun person to be around. But, then again, maybe that was just the alcohol in his system talking.

When Nina tried to rope Anna into her wild fangirling, Jett was mildly entertained by the stark contrast between their reactions. It was interesting to see the two side by side: Anna with her unwavering apathy towards celebrities and Nina with her bubbly enthusiasm about meeting her idols. However, the moment quickly passed when Nina whirled on him again to talk about his music, leaving Anna out of the conversation completely. She spoke rapidly as she launched into a cascade of compliments about his work, making it hard for his half-drunk mind to keep up. Still, he tried his best to accommodate the excitable woman and answer as many of her questions as he could, because even though she was gushing over him, he wanted to give her a chance. Who knew? Maybe she was a lovely person when she was sober. He didn’t want to turn her away when he still knew so little about her.

Jett glanced up when he caught sight of Anna gesturing at him and gave her a nod of acknowledgement. Part of him wanted to keep talking to her, since he found her to be such an interesting person, but he had all summer to get to know her better. He could spend some time with other people for the rest of tonight. Turning back to Nina, he decided to try to shift the conversation away from himself, so he could find out a little more about who he was talking to. “I don’t think there’s anything left for you to learn about me,” he said with a laugh when there was a break in her endless speech. “Why don’t you tell me about yourself instead?”

Nina blushed and brought a hand to her face, “Ugh, sorry. I must have been rambling, huh? It’s hard not to when I’m standing in front of a music legend.”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say legend,” Jett shrugged. “I think that title’s reserved for people like Elvis or The Beatles.”

“You’re more famous than anyone else I’ve ever met,” Nina asserted with that bright smile of hers.

“Alright, touché,” Jett grinned. Now that the bubbly girl had calmed down a bit, he was starting to think he’d misjudged her, and he was glad he’d stuck around to give her another chance. He looked her over with new interest as he asked, “So, what brings you to this little show?”

“Oh, so many things,” Nina shook her head, swaying a bit on her feet as she took another sip at the drink in her hand. “Meeting celebrities, living in a millionaire’s house, getting that fat paycheck… I’m a barista from Hudson Valley, so this was like winning the freakin’ lottery.”

“You’re from New York?” Jett raised a brow in surprise and pointed at himself. “Long Island, but I’m living in Manhattan now.”

“No way,” Nina beamed. “We’re so close. To think I could have been visiting you all this time!”

“Oh, God. I’m glad you didn’t,” Jett laughed. “I don’t like it when strangers come to my place.”

“Well, then let’s make it so I’m not a stranger.”

“Damn,” Jett whistled. “That was smooth.” He had definitely underestimated this girl. It had been a long time since a woman had flirted with him so casually, and he hadn’t expected something like that to come from one who was so drunk, she could barely keep herself upright. “Alright, Nina,” he chuckled. “You have my attention. Tell me a little more about yourself.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow tried another approach cx

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Unfortunately for Crow, it seemed like Mia wasn’t as gullible as he’d been hoping she would be. Her face remained unreadable to him as she took in his rather obstinate answer to her question. He didn’t like the way she paused to think over everything he’d said, since he had been trying to bait her into finding his suggestion so absurd that she would decide he couldn’t have been involved with Penelope. Instead, she was just as calculating as he had originally suspected her to be, which made things a little trickier for him. Perhaps he needed to try a different approach with this baroness.

He listened carefully to her response as she confirmed that she wasn’t going to be so quick to believe his word. When she revealed that she knew a few things about his history with Penelope, he was slightly surprised. Although, he supposed he should have known that. Word of their mission in Younis two years ago had spread quite far around the kingdom, since it had been a big deal at the time. It honestly would have been more shocking if Mia hadn’t heard about it.

I can still work with this, he thought, formulating another direction to try.

“You’re right,” Crow shrugged. “We did know each other before, but that’s the only reason why I was willing to work with her again now. She’s proven to me that she can be trustworthy—unlike the rest of you coldhearted fools.” He narrowed his eyes slightly at the baroness as he went on, “You know, you should take a few notes from your lieutenant. I’m the only reason your knights were able to stop the thieves that attacked your camp, and I’m the reason you aren’t rotting in a Younisian dungeon right now. If she had treated me like the rest of you nobles so often do, I would have been content just sitting back and watching them run your battalion into the ground.”

He casted her a cheeky smirk. “As for this,” he gestured to the bandages around his middle. “I’m flattered that you think ‘a thief like me’ is honorable enough to take a sword for someone out of the goodness of my heart, but I’m not that noble. You see, I’ve had a personal vendetta against the leader of those thieves for quite a while now.” His gaze darkened slightly. “I disapprove of the way he would kill without discrimination. Men who murder without cause are the worst sort of criminals, and I got sick of seeing him get away with it time and time again. We may have both been thieves, but in my eyes, he was a danger to these villages that needed to be dealt with.

“So, when I saw him about to take yet another life, I just intervened without giving it much thought,” he looked down and gingerly touched the bandages over his wound. “Call it petty revenge if you will, but I just couldn’t let him have the satisfaction of doing it again when there was a way for me to stop him.” He turned to meet her gaze again with a thoughtful expression. “I would like to say it was a coincidence that your lieutenant was the one I happened to save, but who knows?” He smiled at her amusedly. “Perhaps subconsciously, I saw it as a way to repay her for the respect she’s continued to show to me whenever our paths have crossed.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow is using his stubbornness to throw Mia off their trail xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Now alone with Mia, Crow took a moment to assess just who he was dealing with. Right away, he got the impression that he was going to have to be careful about what he said to this baroness. She had a stern and calculating demeanor that made him feel like she would be able to see through him if he wasn’t cautious enough with his words. Luckily, he was usually good at lying under pressure, so it wasn’t an overly concerning issue. He was just going to have to focus on staying alert enough to keep from giving anything away. After all, this woman was Penelope’s direct superior. She was the last person the knight would want to learn about their unorthodox relationship.

As Mia sat down and began to speak to him, Crow studied her warily. He wasn’t sure he liked the way she used his name when she addressed him. Knights never did that. They always called him “thief” or “cur” or whatever other insults their tiny brains could come up with. For this woman to call him by anything even remotely more respectful than those names was strange, and he had a feeling she was only bothering to do so to make him lower his guard around her.

Too bad I don’t care about kind treatment from nobles, he thought with a faint upward turn of his lip. This baroness could be as friendly or as cruel to him as she wanted. It wouldn’t change the fact that he was determined not to give her any honest answers.

At Mia’s abrupt change in approach, Crow nearly snorted in amusement. It was clear to him what she was trying to do. She wanted to persuade him to give her answers under the threat of resorting to more extreme measures, while setting herself up to seem like a kind and trustworthy confidant at the same time. Not bad, but not good enough. If she wanted to get him to admit that he and Penelope had been working together for a long time, she had another thing coming.

“Really? That’s the question you’re going with?” the thief laughed and raised his bound hand. “You’ve got the most infamous thief in the kingdom chained to a bed, and your first thought is to question him about his dealings with some knight?” He met her gaze across the tent with a grin. “You have some interesting priorities, love.”

Letting his hand fall back down on the bed, he went on, “I suppose you’re expecting me to tell you that we’ve been secretly meeting behind your back for some time, right? Or maybe that we’ve even been doing a little more than simply working together.” He held the baroness’s gaze with a mischievous expression. “Well, as much as I’d love to string you along with some story about how your right hand is sleeping with a criminal, I do hate that other knight of yours… Layth, was it?” He shook his head. “So, to answer your question truthfully, we just happened to cross paths about two weeks ago. That’s all there is to it.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Go for it! I thin you know her character a lot better than I do cx
I can write for the other thieves and stuff when we get to that part too if you want. It's not like Crow has much to do during that time anyway xD

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow nodded gratefully when Penelope said she would try to slip out of camp as soon as possible. It had only been two days since the battle in Jaxon’s camp, so he doubted his companions would have moved yet. Chances were, they were still holed away in their hideout to mourn the loss of their leader. The thought made him feel a pang of sadness, and he was even more eager for Penelope to go to them, so they would know he wasn’t dead, and that he would be returning to them as soon as he could move on his own.

As Penelope went on to tell him about the knight who would be watching him that night, he frowned slightly, unsettled that there would be a stranger in the tent with him even though she vouched for his trustworthiness. He did believe that whoever this man was, he must have been a person of character to earn her approval, but he still disliked the idea of being guarded by someone he had never met before while he was going to be sleeping and vulnerable.

It will be fine, he thought, trying to reassure himself. Not all the knights here want me dead. I’m sure Penelope weeded out the dangerous ones already. Feeling a little better, he gave her hand an affectionate squeeze, appreciating the work she had already put in to keep him safe from her less accommodating comrades. If it wasn’t for her efforts, Layth probably would have stationed guards that would take advantage of the fact that he couldn’t defend himself.

Suddenly, Crow tensed slightly as he heard footsteps outside the tent. At first, he thought that Jane had come back again, but when he turned his head to see who was coming, he was surprised to see one of the decorated knights step inside. He studied her cautiously, unsure what to make of this unexpected visit. Apparently, this baroness—Mia, her name was—hadn’t come to retrieve her lieutenant, but to speak with him. Somehow, knowing that just made his guard raise higher. What could someone of this woman’s rank want with a thief like him? Whatever it was, he didn’t like it.

The thief glanced at Penelope disappointedly as she complied with Mia’s request to speak with him alone. He wished she would stay with him but, not wanting to give away anything about the true nature of their relationship, he bit his tongue to keep from fighting against the order. Instead, he watched silently as she exited the tent and then turned back to the baroness with a guarded expression, preparing himself for whatever it was she planned to say or do to him.

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

And Hartley will get more time xD