They should have stayed in. Ezra said as much twice, standing at the penthouse door the following evening, both of them still faintly bruised from the day before in ways that had nothing to do with the parking garage. But Lucien had said, with a quiet, uncharacteristic stubbornness that surprised them both, that he was tired of being careful, and Ezra, who understood exactly how rare a sentence like that was coming from this particular man, hadn't argued a third time.

They made it four blocks before the sky opened without warning, the kind of sudden downpour the forecast hadn't bothered predicting, and Ezra laughed, ducking instinctively for the awning...