by McKenna Dean
“Why wouldn’t you be home when your favorite television show was on?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re out at a dance. Or a PTA meeting. Or hunting down renegade shifters.” I set my glass down. “Whatever it is, it will change our lives. It will be something useful to every household, which everyone will want to buy.”
“A telephone you can carry with you wherever you go.” Knight paused with a forkful of mashed potatoes halfway to his mouth, his eyes going glassy as he pictured the possibilities. “Car doors that unlock or start their engines with a press of a button.”
“Of course,” I said with deceptive casualness, as I speared several green beans with my fork, “it would diminish some of Stirling’s victory if we beat him to the punch with our own inventions.”
Knight straightened and stared at me. Underneath the table, a small foot pawed at my ankle. Surreptitiously, I palmed a green bean and slipped it under the edge of the tablecloth. The odds were good the dog would eat it and the beans were crisper than I liked. Captain took the vegetable from my hand with unexpected gentleness. So far, I had found nothing he’d refuse to eat.
“Do you think Ryker would go for that? Redclaw releasing technology under specific, controlled conditions, I mean?” Knight’s hopefulness encouraged me to hope as well.
“It would be a way to fund the organization while controlling the release of the technology to the public. Eventually we’ll want a bigger, more secure location. That’s going to cost. And it would have the advantage of taking some wind out of Stirling’s sails, which wouldn’t be a bad thing. You should ask Ryker tomorrow.” I waved my fork in his general direction before concentrating on my plate once more.
That the thought had only just occurred to me then was not something I needed to share.
“Huh.” Knight sipped his water. “I might just do that.”
I steeled myself with a deep breath, not wanting to push him too far, too fast. “Truth is, I could use you around Redclaw. We work well together, don’t you think?”
“I thought you preferred working alone. Being independent and all that.”
I was silent a moment. “I’ve said that, I know. But claiming independence is another way to avoid being hurt. If I’m not relying on anyone, they can’t disappoint me when they let me down. The truth of the matter is, I’m not as independent as I believe. There’s Em, for starters. I know I could call her and say I need some outrageous sum of money—like five thousand dollars—and she’d say, ‘Cash or check, darling?’”
“Not to mention, she’d want to help bury the body.” Knight smiled as he leaned back in his chair.
“Exactly. And Trixie downstairs has become a partner-in-crime over hiding Captain.”
“Captain?” Knight’s eyebrow lifted as his brow furrowed, then cleared. “Is that what you’re calling the dog? I guess that’s as good a name as any. Smart move, covering his name tag with sticking plaster. I take it you’re keeping him? You didn’t turn him in to Redclaw because...?”
I shrugged. “I can’t explain it. He deserves more than a life in in a cage, numbered and labeled like some exhibit in a museum.”
“Tell me about it.” Knight frowned, obviously recalling his confinement to Redclaw’s basement.
“Then there’s Redclaw itself. I activated the signal, and they came. Not only did they come, but they didn’t hesitate to put their lives on the line for us. Because we’re Redclaw, too. That’s...powerful. I’ve never experienced that kind of loyalty before.”
“Loyalty is important.” His eyes darkened for a moment, as his thoughts turned inward.
“And then there’s you,” I said lightly, toying with my mashed potatoes, refusing to meet his gaze. “We make a good team. With your brains and my planning, we’d be unstoppable.”
I looked up when his hand closed over mine. His eyes met mine, humor and excitement sparkling within.
“‘I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship’,” I quoted, lifting my glass up in a mock toast.
He lifted his glass in salute, but then set it down to raise my hand to his lips and brush it with a kiss. “Something like that,” he murmured.
Heat suffused my cheeks, so much so I wondered if I had a fever. I didn’t want to pull my hand away, and yet I didn’t know how long I should sit there blushing like an idiot. To my relief, he withdrew his hand first, after giving mine a little squeeze.
“I, uh, should let you know—” His cheeks bloomed red, and I wondered if my fever was catching. He coughed into his hand and tried again. “I don’t want to rush into things. With you, I mean. With us. The way everything ended with Margo—”
Having a wife who’d married you for the sole purpose of manipulating you into working for a corrupt, if not criminal organization, who faked her death and then was executed for real in your presence...Yes that would make anyone a little gun-shy.
“Completely understandable,” I said with my usual briskness. “I think that’s wise. It will give you time to come up with something suitable, as well. I think a side of beef will do.”
“Suitable?” He pulled back to narrow his eyes at me while he cocked his head. “Why on Earth would I need a side of beef?”
“As tribute.” I waited until he picked up his glass to continue, timing my next comment for when he’d taken a sip. “You’ll need to do something to persuade the dog to give up his spot on the bed.”
His resulting sputter was utterly perfect. As was the wicked gleam in his eye when he stopped choking. He raised his glass this time for a toast. “Here’s looking at you, kid.”
When I touched the rim of my glass to his, it chimed like a bell.
THE END
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All the stories in the Redclaw Security series can be read as standalones, and feature a different couple in each story. The Redclaw Origins and Better off Red series are sequential series stories, featuring a main couple and recurring characters in each novel.
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Also by McKenna Dean
Redclaw Origins
Bishop Takes Knight
Redclaw Security
Ghost of a Chance