Boston Avant-Garde 6: Chiaroscuro by Kaitlin Maitland

goat-murdering art fiend. However, I don’t know how long it will take her to get over being mad that she and Owen had a one-night stand.”
    Selena’s mouth popped open in a wide O. “You didn’t!”
    “Don’t you play innocent, Selena Adriana whatever-the-hell-surname-you’re-using.” Lars gave her his most menacing glare. “You sent me out there knowing that Owen was with her. You knew what would happen. Had they met before yesterday, or did you just suspect they’d hit it off?”
    She didn’t look nearly as contrite as he wanted her to. “If you think about it logically, you and Mattie are a perfect match…and you and Owen are amazing together. So”—she had the audacity to look hopeful—“I was thinking the three of you might be even better.”
    He stepped around her slim form and headed inside, not even certain if he were angry or grateful for her arrogant decision to throw the three of them into the flames.
    “Wait, Lars!” She rushed after him. “You can’t leave me hanging like that. Did it work out?”
    He walked directly to the sweeping staircase leading to the east wing where he and his mother both had a suite of rooms. “Chemistry isn’t everything, Selena.”
    “So the three of you…” She wasn’t going to give up.
    He decided to be brutal. “Crashed and burned? Yeah, we did.”
    Selena stopped short in the hallway. “I don’t get it.”
    The handle of his bedroom door was cool to the touch. He wished it were possible to shut himself inside and forget everything. Unfortunately that wasn’t how his life worked. “I told you from the very beginning that I wasn’t the guy for Mattie. I’m not the marrying kind, the settling-down kind, or the long-term kind.” He pushed the door open, pausing to fling one last thought over his shoulder. “Apparently Owen isn’t either.”
    * * * *
    Owen parked Selena’s car beside Malachi’s motorcycle. Demon’s low-slung black car was missing. Hopefully that meant Selena was with him somewhere other than Triptych. Owen didn’t trust himself to be around her right now without giving in to the urge to wrap his hands around her neck and strangle her. Fortunately she was nowhere in sight when he entered the club. His footsteps echoed in the empty chamber as he crossed to the staircase. He needed to check in with his boss and apologize for being gone all night. Not that Malachi would need the update. Thanks to Selena’s nosiness, Owen couldn’t take a piss without the woman reporting on him.
    Malachi was in his office in the old choir loft. Owen soaked in the calming atmosphere created by the daylight cascading through the diamond-paned windows. A thick rug covered the floor, and bookcases lined the walls. Malachi was behind his desk, staring balefully at his computer. To Owen’s surprise, Demon was sitting in the worn leather chair at the opposite end of the room with a book in his hand.
    The Demon of Triptych had always made Owen uneasy. It wasn’t that Owen disliked the man who spent a good portion of his time observing the world through a curtain of black hair. It was that something in Demon’s character tweaked Owen’s radar. The guy was dangerous on every level. God help anyone who wound up on his bad side.
    “Did you get everything squared away?” Malachi didn’t look up from his laptop.
    “For now.” Owen thought about the menacing Mr. Hyde. The incident in Mattie’s booth on Artists’ Row seemed as though it had taken place an age ago. So much had happened since, but that didn’t change his initial thoughts about it. “Daniel Hyde wants something from her. I don’t know what, but I’m positive it’s not going to benefit her in any way.”
    Malachi glanced up, catching Demon’s eye before looking at Owen. “A guy named Jason came around last night looking for you.”
    Something heavy lodged in Owen’s gut. If good things happened in threes, bad things tended to happen in multiples of ten. “He leave a